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I don't know about you but in the difficult times, I'm reading more than ever. Grabbing my book and knowing I can escape what's going on in the real world for an hour or so has been sanity saving. The books I'm wanting to read right aren't suspenseful thrillers or dramas about dysfunctional families.

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What books have caused the most hand-wringing over the past decade? As part of Banned Book Week, the American Library Association (ALA) combed through censorship reports from the past ten years to determine the top 100 books requested to be banished from shelves in the United States.

At the top of the pile is Sherman Alexie's " The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," with titles by John Green, Toni Morrison, Harper Lee and Jeannette Walls ranking in the top 20.

Compiled from both public and confidential data gathered by the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, the list provides but a glimpse into the stacks of complaints against the written word, with a whopping 82-97% of challenges (as defined by the ALA as "an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group") going unreported.

Most of the books challenged do not get stripped from circulation, the nonprofit notes on its website, pointing to the "commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens" as a protective barrier.

"The list includes books challenged for a variety of reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, sexual references, religious viewpoints, content that addresses racism and police brutality, and profanity," the ALA explained. "Although the reasons differ, the censorship of literature in libraries share a common result: the violation of our First Amendment rights."

The ALA will also present a series of virtual events through Oct. 3 as part of Banned Book Week with the aim of rallying "readers to the cause of First Amendment protections and remind them to remain vigilant about continual threats to our freedom to read." This year's theme is "Censorship is a Dead End. Find Your Freedom to Read."

Here are the titles included in the American Library Association's "Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019":

1. "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

2. "Captain Underpants" (series) by Dav Pilkey

3. "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

4. "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

5. "George" by Alex Gino

6. "And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

7. "Drama" by Raina Telgemeier

8. "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E. L. James

9. "Internet Girls" (series) by Lauren Myracle

10. "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

11. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

12. "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

13. "I Am Jazz" by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel

14. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

15. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

16. "Bone" (series) by Jeff Smith

17. "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

18. "Two Boys Kissing" by David Levithan

19. "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" by Jill Twiss

20. "Sex is a Funny Word" by Cory Silverberg

21. "Alice McKinley" (series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

22. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie H. Harris

23. "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult

24. "Scary Stories" (series) by Alvin Schwartz

25. "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

26. "A Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

27. "Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out" by Susan Kuklin

28. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck

29. "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

30. "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

31. "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" by Alison Bechdel

32. "It's a Book" by Lane Smith

33. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

34. "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

35. "What My Mother Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones

36. "A Child Called 'It'" by Dave Pelzer

37. "Bad Kitty" (series) by Nick Bruel

38. "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins

39. "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich

40. "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi

41. "The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby" by Dav Pilkey

42. "This Day in June" by Gayle E. Pitman

43. "This One Summer" by Mariko Tamaki

44. "A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl" by Tanya Lee Stone

45. "Beloved" by Toni Morrison

46. "Goosebumps" (series) by R.L. Stine

47. "In Our Mothers' House" by Patricia Polacco

48. "Lush" by Natasha Friend

49. "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

50. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

51. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon

52. "The Holy Bible"

53. "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson

54. "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell

55. "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

56. "Gossip Girl" (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar

57. "House of Night" (series) by P.C. Cast

58. "My Mom's Having A Baby" by Dori Hillestad Butler

59. "Neonomicon" by Alan Moore

60. "The Dirty Cowboy" by Amy Timberlake

61. "The Giver" by Lois Lowry

62. "Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank

63. "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya

64. "Draw Me a Star" by Eric Carle

65. "Dreaming In Cuban" by Cristina Garcia

66. "Fade" by Lisa McMann

67. "The Family Book" by Todd Parr

68. "Feed" by M.T. Anderson

69. "Go the Fuck to Sleep" by Adam Mansbach

70. "Habibi" by Craig Thompson

71. "House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende

72. "Jacob's New Dress" by Sarah Hoffman

73. "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov

74. "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers

75. "Nasreen's Secret School" by Jeanette Winter

76. "Saga" by Brian K. Vaughan

77. "Stuck in the Middle" by Ariel Schrag

78. "The Kingdom of Little Wounds" by Susann Cokal

79. "1984" by George Orwell

80. "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess

81. "Almost Perfect" by Brian Katcher

82. "Awakening" by Kate Chopin

83. "Burned" by Ellen Hopkins

84. "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card

85. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers

86. "Glass" by Ellen Hopkins

87. "Heather Has Two Mommies" by Lesle´a Newman

88. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

89. "Madeline and the Gypsies" by Ludwig Bemelmans

90. "My Princess Boy" by Cheryl Kilodavis

91. "Prince and Knight" by Daniel Haack

92. "Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology" by Amy Sonnie

93. "Skippyjon Jones" (series) by Judith Schachner

94. "So Far from the Bamboo Grove" by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

95. "The Color of Earth" (series) by Tong-hwa Kim

96. "The Librarian of Basra" by Jeanette Winter

97. "The Walking Dead" (series) by Robert Kirkman

98. "Tricks" by Ellen Hopkins

99. "Uncle Bobby's Wedding" by Sarah S Brannen

100. "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks

By Britt Stigler in partnership with ALL ARTS. Stigler is the senior digital content editor at ALL ARTS. She can be reached at StiglerB@thirteen.org.

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Here are the 100 most banned and challenged books of the decade | Blog | American Masters | PBS

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What books have caused the most hand-wringing over the past decade? As part of Banned Book Week, the American Library Association (ALA) combed through censorship reports from the past ten years to determine the top 100 books requested to be banished from shelves in the United States.

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A Memoir in Books

Book - 2003

Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

Book - 2009

Stories From A South African Childhood

Book - 2016

Como Agua Para Chocolate

Book - 1992

Book - 2015

India, Australia India, Australia Show less

India, Australia India, Australia Show less

The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis

Book - 2012

Book - 2016

United Kingdom, West Africa United Kingdom, West Africa Show less

United Kingdom, West Africa United Kingdom, West Africa Show less

Memoirs of A Boy Soldier

Book - 2007

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Books Set in Another Country - Princeton Public Library

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Books Set in Another Country by PrincetonPL - a staff-created list : Travel the world through books set in countries other than the United States.

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I grew up watching the various Star Treks and Star Wars; I saw Apollo 13 in the theaters. Space, that final frontier, has always been one of my favorite frontiers to explore. And there are a ton of writers who apparently just want to make me happy, because there are many, many-seriously, so many!-excellent books set in space just waiting to be read! While there are many great nonfiction books about actual space, I've always leaned more towards fictional Spaaaaaaaaaace, if you will. What might be out there? (Aside from The Truth, obviously.) And so my criteria for putting together this list was simple: a work of science fiction or fantasy set at least partly in outer space, or on a planet other than Earth that required space travel to get to. Here are 50 speculative works that play with Spaaaaaaaaaace in all its mystifying, occasionally terrifying, really freaking huge glory, in alphabetical order.

Note: descriptions in quotations are taken from publisher materials.

After the Flare (Nigerians in Space #2) by Deji Olukotun

I know this is #2 in a series-just trust me!

"After a solar flare upended the world order, Kwesi Brackett's life disintegrated. His wife took up with a millionaire in the heavily armed Silicon territories and his daughter's university, Yale, relocated to the Caribbean. After being laid off by NASA, Brackett finds himself in Africa, as one of the head engineers for the newly formed Nigerian Space Program. Suddenly, the NSP's goal of getting astronauts into space is more important than ever. With most of Europe, Asia, and North America knocked off-line, thousands of satellites about to plummet to Earth, and the political minefield that is the rescue of an international group of astronauts trapped on the international station, time is of the essence.

"The deranged and violent militant group Boko Haram is steadily approaching, and the last surviving members of the Fulani tribe, an ancient matriarchal nomadic society, have found refuge in the abandoned caves of the Saon people. Accessible only by sonic vibrations, the sophisticated cave system contains messages from the past in a series of astrolabes, powerful amulets whose destructive force is harnessed by the Fulani tribeswomen.

"Nigeria's past and present are threatening to collide in a battle over its own future."

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

This series has Murderbot in its name but do not be fooled. This is cozy, character-driven sci-fi at its finest.

"In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

"But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern.

"On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid - a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

"But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth."

"On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren-a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance."

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Looking for a queer female lead who is also a woman of color, is a brilliant mechanic, and must deal with a chronic illness while helping save her sister and the crew of the spaceship she's stowed away on? Please look no further!

"Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he's a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego...and Alana can't keep her eyes off her. But there's little time for romance: Nova's in danger and someone will do anything-even destroying planets-to get their hands on her."

Binti (Binti #1) by Nnedi Okorafor

"Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

"Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

"If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself-but first she has to make it there, alive."

"Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible-until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

"Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war-and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

"The Flow is eternal-but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it's discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals-a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency-are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse."

If you've never read Iain Banks and enjoy Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and/or The Expanse, I cannot recommend highly enough that you start here.

"The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender.

"Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction."

Dark Mirror (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by Diane Duane

This was the first (and, if I'm honest, only) Star Trek franchise novel I've read, and Duane has convinced me that I need to read more.

"One hundred years ago, four crew members of the U.S.S. Enterprise crossed the dimensional barrier and found just such an empire. A mirror image of their own universe, populated by nightmare duplicates of their shipmates. Barely able to escape with their lives, they returned thankful that the accident that brought them there could not be duplicated. Or so they thought.

"But now the scientists of that empire have found a doorway into our universe. Thier plan: to destroy from within, to replace one of our starships with one of theirs. Their victims: the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D."

Dawn (Lilith's Brood #1) by Octavia Butler

"Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth-the last stage of the planet's final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali-who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before.

"The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations-whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet's untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly."

Do you love graphic novels AND getting your heart stomped on? Here's one for you.

"Young Robot boy TIM-21 and his companions struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. Written by award-winning creator, Jeff Lemire, Descender is a rip-roaring and heart-felt cosmic odyssey. Lemire pits humanity against machine, and world against world, to create a sprawling epic. "

Dune by Frank Herbert

There's no way I could skip listing a book that I reread multiple times as a teenager, and that one day I will finally get around to rereading as an adult.

"Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the 'spice' melange, the most important and valuable substance in the cosmos. The story explores the complex, multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis."

China Mieville's brain is one of the strangest on the planet, and in this one he's given us aliens that don't understand lies-and so much more.

"In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.

"Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.

"When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties-to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her."

I like to pitch this one as "space princess on the run from assassins," but if you need more here's the actual description.

"The only surviving heir to an ancient Kalusian dynasty, Rhee has spent her life training to destroy the people who killed her family. Now, on the eve of her coronation, the time has finally come for Rhee to claim her throne-and her revenge.

"Alyosha is a Wraetan who has risen above his war refugee origins to find fame as the dashing star of a DroneVision show. Despite his popularity, Aly struggles with anti-Wraetan prejudices and the pressure of being perfect in the public eye.

"Their paths collide with one brutal act of violence: Rhee is attacked, barely escaping with her life. Aly is blamed for her presumed murder.

"The princess and her accused killer are forced to go into hiding-even as a war between planets is waged in Rhee's name. But soon, Rhee and Aly discover that the assassination attempt is just one part of a sinister plot. Bound together by an evil that only they can stop, the two fugitives must join forces to save the galaxy."

Exo (Exo #1) by Fonda Lee

"It's been a century of peace since Earth became a colony of an alien race with far reaches into the galaxy. Some die-hard extremists still oppose alien rule on Earth, but Donovan Reyes isn't one of them. His dad holds the prestigious position of Prime Liaison in the collaborationist government, and Donovan's high social standing along with his exocel (a remarkable alien technology fused to his body) guarantee him a bright future in the security forces. That is, until a routine patrol goes awry and Donovan's abducted by the human revolutionary group Sapience, determined to end alien control.

"When Sapience realizes whose son Donovan is, they think they've found the ultimate bargaining chip . But the Prime Liaison doesn't negotiate with terrorists, not even for his own son. Left in the hands of terrorists who have more uses for him dead than alive, the fate of Earth rests on Donovan's survival. Because if Sapience kills him, it could spark another intergalactic war. And Earth didn't win the last one..."

"For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon-a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world-and a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now."

"Devi Morris isn't your average mercenary. She has plans. Big ones. And a ton of ambition. It's a combination that's going to get her killed one day-but not just yet.

"That is, until she just gets a job on a tiny trade ship with a nasty reputation for surprises. The Glorious Fool isn't misnamed: it likes to get into trouble, so much so that one year of security work under its captain is equal to five years everywhere else. With odds like that, Devi knows she's found the perfect way to get the jump on the next part of her Plan. But the Fool doesn't give up its secrets without a fight, and one year on this ship might be more than even Devi can handle."

Want a smorgasborg of stories exploring different variations on interstellar empires, written by SF/F luminaries such as Aliette de Bodard, Ann Leckie, Yoon Ha Lee, Naomi Novik, and more? You're welcome!

Particularly for folks looking for an inclusive Ender's Game -esque novel!

"For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father's unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch, but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to the planet Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. Punartam is also the centre for his favourite sport, wallrunning - and thanks to his best friend, he has found a way to train with the elite. But Rafi soon realises he's playing quite a different game, for the galaxy is changing; unrest is spreading and the Zhinuvian cartels are plotting, making the stars a far more dangerous place to aim. There may yet be one solution - involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game."

On a personal note, I celebrate Towel Day every year (May 25; mark your calendars!) and will rewatch the 2005 movie at the slightest prompting. In fact, perhaps I should go do that now...

"Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

"Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox-the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; and Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot."

Already torn through Becky Chambers's books and need something else with found family and space hijinks? Tada!

"The strange planet known as Tanegawa's World is owned by TransRifts Inc, the company with the absolute monopoly on interstellar travel. Hob landed there ten years ago, a penniless orphan left behind by a rift ship. She was taken in by Nick Ravani and quickly became a member of his mercenary biker troop, the Ghost Wolves.

"Ten years later, she discovers the body of Nick's brother out in the dunes. Worse, his daughter is missing, taken by shady beings called the Weathermen. But there are greater mysteries to be discovered - both about Hob and the strange planet she calls home."

"Everyone in the universe knows his name. Everyone in the universe fears him. But no one realizes that notorious outlaw Ia Cocha is a seventeen-year-old girl.

"A criminal mastermind and unrivaled pilot, Ia has spent her life terrorizing the Olympus Commonwealth, the imperialist nation that destroyed her home. When the Commonwealth captures her and her true identity is exposed, they see Ia's age and talent as an opportunity: by forcing her to serve them, they will prove that no one is beyond their control.

"Soon, Ia is trapped at the Commonwealth's military academy, desperately plotting her escape. But new acquaintances-including Brinn, a seemingly average student with a closely-held secret, and their charming Flight Master, Knives-cause Ia to question her own alliances. Can she find a way to escape the Commonwealth's clutches before these bonds deepen?"

"Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him-something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is."

Listen, there are A LOT of Star Wars books out there. Take it as read that you should read this one and many others!

"Then: It's one of the galaxy's most dangerous secrets: a mysterious transmitter with unknown power and a reward for its discovery that most could only dream of claiming. But those who fly the Millennium Falcon throughout its infamous history aren't your average scoundrels. Not once, but twice, the crew of the Falcon tries to claim the elusive prize - first, Lando Calrissian and the droid L3-37 at the dawn of an ambitious career, and later, a young and hungry Han Solo with the help of his copilot, Chewbacca. But the device's creator, the volatile criminal Fyzen Gor, isn't interested in sharing. And Gor knows how to hold a grudge...

"Now: It's been ten years since the rebel hero Han Solo last encountered Fyzen Gor. After mounting a successful rebellion against the Empire and starting a family with an Alderaanian princess, Han hasn't given much thought to the mad inventor. But when Lando turns up at Han's doorstep in the middle of the night, it's Fyzen's assassins that he's running from. And without Han's help, Lando - and all life on Cloud City - will be annihilated.

"With the assistance of a young hotshot pilot, an Ewok slicer prodigy, the woman who might be the love of Lando's life, and Han's best and furriest friend, the two most notorious scoundrels in the New Republic are working together once more. They'll have to journey across the stars - and into the past - before Gor uses the device's power to reshape the galaxy."

Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey

"Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

"Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why."

Lightless (Lightless #1) by C.A. Higgins

"Serving aboard the Ananke, an experimental military spacecraft launched by the ruthless organization that rules Earth and its solar system, computer scientist Althea has established an intense emotional bond-not with any of her crewmates, but with the ship's electronic systems, which speak more deeply to her analytical mind than human feelings do. But when a pair of fugitive terrorists gain access to the Ananke, Althea must draw upon her heart and soul for the strength to defend her beloved ship.

"While one of the saboteurs remains at large somewhere on board, his captured partner-the enigmatic Ivan-may prove to be more dangerous. The perversely fascinating criminal whose silver tongue is his most effective weapon has long evaded the authorities' most relentless surveillance-and kept the truth about his methods and motives well hidden.

"As the ship's systems begin to malfunction and the claustrophobic atmosphere is increasingly poisoned by distrust and suspicion, it falls to Althea to penetrate the prisoner's layers of intrigue and deception before all is lost. But when the true nature of Ivan's mission is exposed, it will change Althea forever-if it doesn't kill her first.

"Rosemary Harper doesn't expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she's never met anyone remotely like the ship's diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

"Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy-exactly what Rosemary wants. It's also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn't part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary's got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs-an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn't necessarily the worst thing in the universe."

"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

"Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

"After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive-and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

"Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

"But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills-and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit-he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?"

"The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity's repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

"But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them-and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame."

Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle #1) by Emily Devenport

"The Executives control Oichi's senses, her voice, her life. Until the day they kill her.

"An executive clan gives the order to shoot Oichi out of an airlock on suspicion of being an insurgent. A sentient AI, a Medusa unit, rescues Oichi and begins to teach her the truth-the Executives are not who they think they are. Oichi, officially dead and now bonded to the Medusa unit, sees a chance to make a better life for everyone on board.

"As she sets things right one assassination at a time, Oichi becomes the very insurgent the Executives feared, and in the process uncovers the shocking truth behind the generation starship that is their home."

This trilogy is not only mind-blowingly good, it's also complete! All three books are out right now; go forth.

"Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris's career isn't the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

"Cheris's best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.

"The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao-because she might be his next victim."

Old Man's War (Old Man's War #1) by John Scalzi

I know I already recommended a Scalzi series; you should consider both of them. They're very different!

"John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.

"The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

"Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

"John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger."

Don't have time for a epically long, long-running space opera? These novellas are SO GOOD!

"For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station's artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives.

"But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper's brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station's resources. As deprivations cause the station's ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe.

"What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance..."

Planetfall (Planetfall #1) by Emma Newman

"Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi's vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.

"More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony's 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

"The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart..."

While there are ties between Provenance and the Imperial Radch series, Provenance stands beautifully on its own-and is a great introduction to Leckie's work!

"A power-driven young woman has just one chance to secure the status she craves and regain priceless lost artifacts prized by her people. She must free their thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned.

"Ingray and her charge will return to her home world to find their planet in political turmoil, at the heart of an escalating interstellar conflict. Together, they must make a new plan to salvage Ingray's future, her family, and her world, before they are lost to her for good."

"A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented-something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.

"Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix-part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.

"This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny-they must sing.

"A one-hit-wonder band of human musicians, dancers and roadies from London-Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes-have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock."

Saga, Vol. 1 (Saga #1) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Do you need me to tell you to read Saga? You probably don't, but I will anyway!

"When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

"From bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan, Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults."

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

"Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean."

"It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood.

"At least, Maria Arena had never experienced it. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.

"Maria's vat was in the front of six vats, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it could awaken. And Maria wasn't the only one to die recently..."

"All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn't forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit...

"Now Jamie finds herself dreadfully alone, with all that's left of the dead. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive.

"Soon Jamie finds other survivors, and their ragtag group will travel through the vast reaches of space, drawn to the promise of a new beginning on Earth. But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. And Jamie's own journey home will help her close the distance between who she has become and who she is meant to be..."

"Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Procházka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he's dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions.

"Alone in Deep Space, Jakub discovers a possibly imaginary giant alien spider, who becomes his unlikely companion. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life and death, and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond. Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka?"

"In a universe of capricious gods, dark moons, and kingdoms built on the backs of spaceships, a cursed queen sends her infant daughter away, a jealous uncle steals the throne of Kali from his nephew, and an exiled prince vows to take his crown back.

"Raised alone and far away from her home on Kali, Esmae longs to return to her family. When the King of Wychstar offers to gift the unbeatable, sentient warship Titania to a warrior that can win his competition, she sees her way home: she'll enter the competition, reveal her true identity to the world, and help her famous brother win back the crown of Kali.

"It's a great plan. Until it falls apart."

The Sparrow (The Sparrow #1) by Mary Doria Russell

"In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be 'human'."

"Somewhere on the outer rim of the universe, a mass of decaying world-ships known as the Legion is traveling in the seams between the stars. For generations, a war for control of the Legion has been waged, with no clear resolution. As worlds continue to die, a desperate plan is put into motion.

"Zan wakes with no memory, prisoner of a people who say they are her family. She is told she is their salvation-the only person capable of boarding the Mokshi, a world-ship with the power to leave the Legion. But Zan's new family is not the only one desperate to gain control of the prized ship. Zan finds that she must choose sides in a genocidal campaign that will take her from the edges of the Legion's gravity well to the very belly of the world.

"Zan will soon learn that she carries the seeds of the Legion's destruction-and its possible salvation. But can she and her ragtag band of followers survive the horrors of the Legion and its people long enough to deliver it?"

"On a South Asian-settled university planet, tensions are rising, and as they reach the brink of interstellar war, life (and sex) continues. Humans, aliens, and modified humans gather at the University of All Worlds in search of knowledge...and self-knowledge...but the first bomb has fallen and the fate of this multicultural, multispecies mecca is in question. Some people will seek solace in physical contact, some will look for spiritual answers, while others will find their strength in community, family, and love. Some will rush home to make love to their wife. Or wives. Or husbands. Or indeterminate gender human and/or alien partners. Others will be forced to decide where they stand-what is worth fighting for, or maybe even worth dying for."

The Telling (The Hainish Cycle #9) by Ursula Le Guin

Listen. You could start The Hainish Cycle with The Dispossessed, which is #1, or even The Left Hand of Darkness, which is #6. But The Telling is my favorite, and it's going to be a movie soon, and this is my list, so there.

"Once a culturally rich world, the planet Aka has been utterly transformed by technology. Records of the past have been destroyed, and citizens are strictly monitored. But an official observer from Earth named Sutty has learned of a group of outcasts who live in the wilderness. They still believe in the ancient ways and still practice its lost religion-the Telling.

"Intrigued by their beliefs, Sutty joins them on a sacred pilgrimage into the mountains...and into the dangerous terrain of her own heart, mind, and soul."

Tracked (Tracked #1) by Jenny Martin

This series was pitched to me as a teen Fast and Furious set in space, and they were not lying.

"On corporately controlled Castra, rally racing is a high-stakes game that seventeen-year-old Phoebe Van Zant knows all too well. Phee's legendary racer father disappeared mysteriously, but that hasn't stopped her from speeding headlong into trouble. When she and her best friend, Bear, attract the attention of Charles Benroyal, they are blackmailed into racing for Benroyal Corp, a company that represents everything Phee detests. Worse, Phee risks losing Bear as she falls for Cash, her charming new teammate. But when she discovers that Benroyal is controlling more than a corporation, Phee realizes she has a much bigger role in Castra's future than she could ever have imagined. It's up to Phee to take Benroyal down. But even with the help of her team, can a street-rat destroy an empire?"

"Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

"Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.

"When the autopsy of Matilda's sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother's suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother's footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she's willing to fight for it."

Warchild (Warchild #1) by Karin Lowachee

"The merchant ship Mukudori encompasses the whole of eight-year-old Jos's world, until a notorious pirate destroys the ship, slaughters the adults, and enslaves the children. Thus begins a desperate odyssey of terror and escape that takes Jos beyond known space to the home of the strits, Earth's alien enemies.

"To survive, the boy must become a living weapon and a master spy. But no training will protect Jos in a war where every hope might be a deadly lie, and every friendship might hide a lethal betrayal. And all the while he will face the most grueling trial of his life...becoming his own man."

"Kangaroo isn't your typical spy. Sure, he has extensive agency training, access to bleeding-edge technology, and a ready supply of clever (to him) quips and retorts. But what sets him apart is 'the pocket.' It's a portal that opens into an empty, seemingly infinite, parallel universe, and Kangaroo is the only person in the world who can use it. But he's pretty sure the agency only keeps him around to exploit his superpower.

"After he bungles yet another mission, Kangaroo gets sent away on a mandatory 'vacation': an interplanetary cruise to Mars. While he tries to make the most of his exile, two passengers are found dead, and Kangaroo has to risk blowing his cover. It turns out he isn't the only spy on the ship-and he's just starting to unravel a massive conspiracy which threatens the entire Solar System.

"Now, Kangaroo has to stop a disaster which would shatter the delicate peace that's existed between Earth and Mars ever since the brutal Martian Independence War. A new interplanetary conflict would be devastating for both sides. Millions of lives are at stake.

"Weren't vacations supposed to be relaxing?"

"The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system. They discover the wreck of a centuries-old exploration vessel floating light years away from its intended destination and revive its sole occupant, who wakes with news of First Alien Contact. When the crew break it to her that humanity has alien allies already, she reveals that these are very different extra-terrestrials... and the gifts they bestowed on her could kill all humanity, or take it out to the most distant stars."

Whew! If you've made it this far, I need to know: what's your favorite space novel that didn't make my list? Explode my TBR, please and thank you!

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50 Must-Read Books Set In Space | Book Riot

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I grew up watching the various Star Treks and Star Wars; I saw Apollo 13 in the theaters. Space, that final frontier, has always been one of my favorite frontiers to explore. And there are a ton of writers who apparently just want to make me happy, because there are many, many-seriously, so many!-excellent books set in space just waiting to be read!

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The Best Celebrity Book Clubs: What to Read Now - Beyond the Bookends

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The best celebrity book clubs from Reese to Jenna to Oprah and more. The best books from each are picked for your enjoyment.

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Be sure to check out different takes on this week's freebie topic on her site!

* * *

We are currently bird sitting for one of my partner's coworkers. Gizmo is an adorable green-cheeked conure, but goodness birds are so much work! We've learned a lot about her though in the time we've spent together. She loves sunflower seeds and grapes, makes the cutest noise when she finds a tunnel, and is generally too smart for her own good. Although my partner was hoping he'd bond with the bird more, the bird has definitely glommed onto me. So needless to say, I haven't gotten all that much done except entertain this little lady and birds have been on my brain. Since this week is a freebie, I thought we could do 10 books with birds on the cover.

I went through my to-read list on Story Graph, and there were 36 books with birds featured prominently on the cover. So to make this list a little more interesting (and to narrow it down, quite frankly). Here's 10 books each featuring a different bird/s. Let me know if any of these covers intrigue you to read more-which is the greatest compliment you can give to a cover in my opinion.

genre: fiction

mood: dark and fairy tale-esque

genre: nonfiction, true crime

mood: adventurous, mysterious

Did any of these covers catch your eye? Have you read any of these books? Share about books or bird stories in the comments!

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Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Be sure to check out different takes on this week's freebie topic on her site! * * * "Gee, I wish I were outside." - Gizmo We are currently bird sitting for one of my partner's coworkers.

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The fundamental rule of all readers is to never judge a book by its cover, but whether we spot a gorgeous book in someone's hands or displayed in a bookstore, the cover piques our curiosity. We've rounded up some unique and breathtaking book covers that are sure to catch your eye and your heart.

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Crazy Beautiful Book Covers | Penguin Random House

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Skip to Main Content (Press Enter) The fundamental rule of all readers is to never judge a book by its cover, but whether we spot a gorgeous book in someone's hands or displayed in a bookstore, the cover piques our curiosity.

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List created for the 2020 reading challenge in the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group .
A book with a three word title.
Please use this list for all books you are considering reading, as well as books you would recommend for this prompt! If you use the "Search" feature to add books (instead of choosing from "My Books"), that will eliminate multiple versions of the same book being added to the list. When you add the book, you can add a comment (in the box provided next to "why you added this book") if you wish.

link to discussion post https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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List created for the 2020 reading challenge in the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group . A book with a three word title. Please use this list for all books you are considering reading, as well as books you would recommend for this prompt!

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45 New Screen Adaptations of Books to Add to Your 2023 Reading List

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Including a prestige version of a political memoir and a bloody reimagining of a childhood classic.

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Explore the best detective novels series for crime book enthusiasts, from classic whodunits to modern thrillers. Get ready for some edge-of-your-seat action!
Detective series has been a staple of the literary world for decades, providing readers with thrilling tales of mystery and suspense. The best detective characters know when to empathize and when to seek truth and justice. Novels involving these protagonists are evidence of the human ability to decipher clues and point out deception to crack various cases.

These stimulating reads let this genre offer something for everyone. Check out the best Mickey Spillane books for a crime-thriller fix!

Best Detective Novels Series For Crime Books Enthusiasts

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous consulting detective character, who debuted in Arthur Conan Doyle's first crime novel of the series, A Study in Scarlet. Holmes is a logical detective who can deduce a murder scene at first glance.

For instance, his first case in the installment is the murder of Enoch Drebber, where Holmes solves the crime by analyzing footprints, words in blood, and other evidence. The series has 16 books adapted into a TV show starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes.

"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done."Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

2. Harry Hole Crime Series

Harry Hole is a troubled police officer in Jo Nesbo's novel series, which first appeared in 1997 when was published. Hole is a smoker and an alcoholic who usually argues with his lover, Rakel.

Things changed when he connected with a local detective to work on the murder case of a young woman. Hole got too involved with the witnesses, unaware he was hunting a psychopathic serial killer. This series is a classic novel story highlighting the significance of ideology in search of the truth. You might also be interested in our list of essays about the death penalty.

3. The Dublin Murder Squad Series

Dublin Murder Squad has six books written by Tana French. The first novel, In the Woods, tells the story of Rob Ryan, the only one among three children who returned from the small town of Dublin in 1984. Ryan becomes a detective 20 years later and solves the murder case of a 12-year-old girl in the same woods.

4. The 12-Book Sequel of Miss Marple

Agatha Christie wrote 12 novels featuring the character Miss Jane Marple, a famous spinster sleuth in St. Mary Mead village. Miss Marple solved her first crime in The Murder at the Vicarage, where the local magistrate and land owner, Colonel Protheroe, was shot in the head.

The story circles a group of suspected murderers and Miss Marple, who's often underestimated because of her old age. She uses this supposed weakness to lure the murderers and crack the case before anyone knows it. You might also be interested in these essays about gun control.

5. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Louise Penny became a New York Times bestselling author for her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. The first book, , was cited by Deadly Pleasures Magazine in 2010 as one of the five Mystery Novels of the Decade.

The killings started when the villagers in south Montreal, a crime-free place, discovered the artist Jane Neal's murder during a Thanksgiving Weekend. This series shows how Chief Inspectors, like Armand Gamache, command their forces in the search for justice and truth.

6. Harry Bosch: A Novel Series

Michael Connelly wrote 23 crime books with his character Harry Bosch, an LAPD homicide detective who debuted in The Black Echo. He teamed up with the FBI to solve the crime at Mulholland Dam.

The victim was more than just a man; he fought with Bosch during an underground war. And now, it's Bosch's responsibility to follow the maze of blind alleys and bring light against the criminals in the city. Witness an extraordinary talent of detective instincts in this series and a shocking turn of events as Harry Bosch unfolds the killer's identity.

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7. The Inquiry of Kinsey Millhone

Kinsey Millhone is a detective in murder mystery novels written by Sue Grafton, a New York Times bestselling author. The series has 25 books, which started in 1982 when A is for Alibi was published. "A" is just the tip of the iceberg, as Detective Inspector Millhone brings her aces to investigate previous convictions and find the real killers. The series is not only about analyzing the murder scenes and pinning the murderers but also bringing justice for the wrongly accused individuals who went behind bars.

8. The Thrilling Stories of Cormoran Strike

The Cormoran Strike series is a collection of whodunit crime fiction books by Robert Galbraith. The first novel, The Cuckoo's Calling, relays the story of Strike, a private eye hired by John Bristow to investigate his sister's death. The police said it was a suicide, but the evidence says otherwise.

9. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series

Alexander McCall Smith is a recipient of two Booker Judges' Special Recommendations for her excellent works in The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency Series. It features Botswana's lady private investigator Precious Ramotswe and her different cases.

One of her crucial cases is a missing 11-year-old boy who was believed to be kidnapped by witch doctors. Interestingly, this series exposes the state of women in Africa and how race is a significant factor in violence and injustice.

10. Inspector Maigret Series

The Inspector Maigret series has 75 crime fiction books authored by George Simenon, one of the world's well-known crime writers. The first novel to feature Jules Maigret is Pietr the Latvian, where he traced multiple murders committed by a single man. Maigret knows the descriptions of the killer, but the thrill comes from chasing after a mysterious and careful killer.

11. Hercule Poirot: A 33-Novel Series

Hercule Poirot is one of Agatha Christie's most loved detective fiction, who appeared in 33 novels. One of this series's most notable standalone books is Murder on the Orient Express, where Detective Poirot tries to crack the death case of a millionaire who died in his compartment. Without evidence, he must track the killer among the passengers before they strike again.

12. The Mystery Encounters of Easy Rawlins

Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series embodies brave and realistic cold cases of police procedural and hardboiled crimes. The Devil in a Blue Dress was published in 1990, about a black world war veteran, Easy Rawlins. He was offered a job to locate a thief named Daphne Monet. The series is full of blackmail and plot twists making it a must-read novel.

13. Rizzoli and Isles Novel Series

The Surgeon is Rizzoli and Isles' first murder case book. Instead of saving lives, a supposed surgeon uses his skills to torture women and perform rituals before ending their lives. Detective Rizzoli works at the Boston Police Department, while Dr. Isles is a Chief Medical Examiner. Can they surpass the unfortunate events as they set foot in their investigation? An international bestselling author, Tess Gerritsen fascinates her readers with unending criminal cases involving a psychopath.

14. The Whodunit Detective Agency

The Diamond Mystery is a classic novel by Martin Widmark about finding the thief among the employees of a jewelry shop. The owner, Mohammed Carat, hired Jerry and Maya from a detective agency to investigate the case. As you go along the books in the series, you'll notice that more than stealing and committing crimes, analyzing the gap between the wealthy and the poor means understanding the nature of people and the consequences that follow.

15. The Detective Works of Stephanie Plum

Stephanie Plum is the protagonist of Janet Evanovich's mystery series. The first published novel, One for the Money, is a roller coaster ride for Plum, as she's broke, and the only way she can pay her rent is to go against big-time cases. Her most challenging decision is to investigate a former vice cop, Joe Morelli, who would rather kill than get caught.

"I make lots of mistakes. I try hard not to make the same mistake more than three or four times."Janet Evanovich, Three to Get Deadly

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24 Best Detective Novels Series For Fans Of Crime Books

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Explore the best detective novels series for crime book enthusiasts, from classic whodunits to modern thrillers. Get ready for some edge-of-your-seat action! Detective series has been a staple of the literary world for decades, providing readers with thrilling tales of mystery and suspense.

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About a month ago, we published a list of 50 of the best contemporary novels over 500 pages, for those of you who suddenly have a lot of extra time on your hands. But for those of us who suddenly have a lot less extra time on our hands, or who just can't really pay attention to anything anymore unless it's a) short or b) what were we talking about? For us, I present this list of 50 of the best contemporary novels under 200 pages.

For our purposes here, "contemporary" means published (in English) after 1970. NB that I'm not making a distinction between novellas and novels-I'm not sure there really is one-but I'm not including short story collections, or books that include a novella and stories. Finally, as ever, "best" is subjective, and this list is limited by time and space and the literary tastes of this editor. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments below.

Probably the best fragment novel on the block: the saga of Money Breton, errant script doctor, mother of two, obsessive obssesser, is funny, irreverent, and weirdly moving. Not for nothing, but this novel is my own personal ultimate coolness test, because yep, I am an adult who judges other people's coolness, and I do it based on the books they read.

My other candidate for the best recent fragment novel-not to mention one of the best novels of the decade, full stop-is of course Offill's luminous, eye-wormy (this is a term I have just now invented for the literary version of ear-wormy, you're welcome, and sorry), and consistently wise modern classic, which is ostensibly the story of a marriage but is more importantly the story of a mind.

Johnson's novella is a shibboleth among a certain kind of reader (and, typically, writer). In our list of the best novels of the decade, editor Dan Sheehan described it as "the incantatory story of a turn-of-the-century logger and railroad laborer, Robert Grainier, who loses his family to a wildfire and retreats deep into the woods of the Idaho panhandle as the country modernizes around him. Johnson's spare, strange, elegiac prose conjures a world that feels both ancient and ephemeral, full of beauty and menace and deep sorrow. . . . An American epic in miniature, Train Dreams is a visionary portrait of soul untethered from civilization, a man stoically persevering on his own hermetic terms in the face of unimaginable tragedy. A haunted and haunting reverie."

The Vegetarian has come under scrutiny for its translation, and the accuracy thereof, but since I can only read English, all I know is that whatever came out of the union of Kang and Smith is very, very good. In our list of the best debut novels of the decade, editor Molly Odintz wrote, "Han Kang's tale begins with a description of a dutiful wife, unusual only in her refusal to wear a bra, whose sudden decision to stop eating meat sends her partner and family into a spiral of confusion, where forcible consumption of meat quickly becomes a metaphor for violation. The vegetarian begins a slow transformation into vegetable itself-first, she stops eating meat; gradually, she stops eating everything. Her withdrawal from culinary delights is mirrored by her withdrawal from the world. She basks in sunlight, is painted all over with flowers by her sister's husband (a not-so-successful artist), and for all intents and purposes, attempts to become a plant. Is she onto something, or is she out of her mind? Is she denying the world, or is she fully embracing it? Han Kang leaves the answers to these questions deliberately vague, and the sign of a great work is its ability to be read by many people and interpreted differently by each one."

A metafictional meditation on modernity and memory-and on "the dancer," showing off for the abstracted "everyone," the concept of which gets more relevant every day.

Ishiguro's debut, first published in 1982, takes shape through the recollections of an aging Japanese woman, living in England, now alone after her husband's death. But as she reflects, the memories become less secure-or at least less restricted to the past. Like everything Ishiguro writes, it's beautiful, subtle, and not a little shadowy.

I register that this is something of a cheat, since Lispector's first novel was originally published in Brazil in 1943-but considering that it wasn't translated into English until 1990, I'm going to sneak it in here. After all, it is too glorious to ignore: evidence of a mind on fire. We follow Joana through her life in this short novel, but it's really the sentences you should read for: sometimes inscrutable, sometimes wild, sometimes transcendent.

Okay, I'm hereby warning you: this novel is not for the squeamish. My best friend recommended this book to me not too long ago and didn't tell me anything about it except that it was amazing, and it was totally a replay of that time she made me go see Hard Candy with her and told me it was going to be an indie comedy. And look, it is amazing, in the sense that you will have physical reactions reading this book, and in the sense that Moore perfectly captures a range of emotions and impulses rarely committed to paper. But like . . . you're not going to feel good at the end. So just know that.

This is a weird and terrifying, almost suffocating novel that kept me up for an entire night. In our list of the best debut novels of the decade, our editorial fellow Eleni Theodoropoulos wrote that in this novel, "detail is dramatized through dialogue, and Schweblin knows just what to pick and what to leave out so that characters and readers alike are obsessed with the story about the poison. Everyone is at the mercy of someone: David is at the mercy of Amanda, Amanda at the mercy of David, and the reader at the mercy of both of them. The only way to find out the truth in Fever Dream is by trusting someone else's narrative. Even in being swept away in the horrific progression of the novel, and simultaneously, the disease, the reader identifies with Amanda, a mother who realizes she cannot protect her child. In just under 200 pages, Schweblin has delivered a poignant, tragic tale of a fear come true."

If you've been reading Lit Hub for any amount of time, you know how much we love Garth Greenwell's debut (not to mention his latest, Cleanness), which is, after all, one of the best debut novels of the decade. It's an exquisite book, both on the sentence and the story level, a mesmerizing work of art.

I still love Lerner's debut, which is basically about a poet not writing poetry in Madrid, but is actually very good, despite that. In our list of the best debut novels of the decade, our editor Jessie Gaynor described it as one of the "most subtly hilarious novels around" and wrote that "Lerner invites the reader to laugh with his protagonist as well as with him. The novel feels propulsive rather than meandering, as if the reader is the one whose fellowship is quickly running short."

DeLillo's the rare writer who excels in both the long and the short form. This one, his fifteenth, is a destabilizing, compelling portrait of grief refracted through art. According to me, at least-it's also one of DeLillo's most polarizing novels, so you might as well read it, at least to have an opinion on the matter.

Possibly the best ill-tempered 190 page monologue in contemporary literature, if you're into that sort of thing.

This lucid gem is the first-person tale of Margaret Cavendish, a real-life 17th century Renaissance woman and writer whose story would be captivating enough on its own, even without Dutton's elegant, winking treatment. But the winks do not go unnoticed, of course (nor does that gorgeous cover). In our list of the best novels of the decade, editor in chief Jonny Diamond described the book as a "glinting dagger of novel" and wrote that Dutton "realizes the outsize ambitions of this remarkable book with virtuosic efficiency, braiding first- and third-person perspectives with passages from Cavendish's original writing. I will be recommending this book for the next decade."

Michaels' autobiographical novel is a matter-of-fact retelling of his marriage to his first wife, the "abnormally bright" but depressed and volatile Sylvia Bloch. Reading it feels like looking, through Michaels' clear eyes, at a moment in his life in his early 20s that has been hermetically sealed, so by the time he tells the story, it's become a sort of still-water legend. You can discern pretty much right away that this relationship is doomed, but it still feels essential to watch it unfold.

If you're a certain kind of woman living in a certain kind of city, this is a bible. If you're a certain kind of writer with a certain kind of sensibility, it's a bible too. Adler's wry, discursive novel is a brilliant portrait of New York and of a singular, elliptical mind-the kind of book that, if you're a certain kind of person, will have you looking at everything around you a little bit more carefully and taking notes like mad.

The winner of the 2001 Man Booker prize is a wonderful if melancholic novel about memory, aging, and what it is to live a good (or at least not a bad) life.

This is another book that I feel like I carp on about all the time on this website, but I don't actually feel too sorry about that. As I wrote in our list of the best translated novels of the decade, this is a book about a house on a lake outside of Berlin-a house that is as much the subject, as a place in time, as the people who move through it. "There are little human dramas within this grander and colder scheme, ones that secretly hook us in, however minor they seem, so that we are devastated when time passes, so that we mourn the ones we barely knew, for their fixations, their tragedies, their trying. Elegiac, often astoundingly gorgeous, sometimes strikingly brutal, this is one of the most wonderful novels of any sort that you could hope to read."

As I wrote in our list of the best translated novels of the decade, this book "is almost fable-like, both in length and tone: when you begin reading it, you're not sure (or at least I wasn't) whether you're in our world or another-it begins with a sinkhole, a curse, and a quest. Soon it becomes clear that this is our world, or almost, sliced by the border between Mexico and the United States. Borders in this novel-between worlds, between words, between people-are both dangerous and porous, messages meaningless and profound in equal measure. It is an intense, indelible book, an instant myth of love and violence."

I love this novel so much I once made a playlist for it. And I'm not the only one who is obsessed with this assured, severe book, which Duras originally planned as an annotated photo album of her youth. "Through the years, I have come to think of The Lover as a lake without a bottom, or perhaps more accurately with a bottom that is ever-shifting: each dive yields an altered and enriched understanding of the topography, and there is the sense that you could dive forever and never grasp that topography absolutely," wrote Laura van den Berg. "In every reading, I have been stunned still by language that is at once crystalline and enigmatic: 'The light fell from the sky in cataracts of pure transparency, in torrents of silence and immobility. The air was blue, you could hold it in your hand. Blue.'"

I think at this point, every single person on the Literary Hub staff has read Mrs. Caliban-the deceptively simple tale of a housewife who falls in love with a mysterious creature escaped and on the run from a government lab-after its reissue by New Directions during the Autumn of Sea Monsters, we just kept passing it around, one to the other. Our editor Dan Sheehan, who interviewed Ingalls before her death, described it as "an intoxicating mix of sensuality, sorrow, and supernatural horror, and a damn-near perfect novella."

The forever classic of a girl growing up in Chicago.

A dry, funny novel about, well, a woman who works in a convenience store. In our list of the best translated novels of the decade, editor Jessie Gaynor writes that "it reads, by turns, like a love story (woman meets store), an unusually charming employee handbook, and a psychological thriller-but somehow, it never feels disjointed. It was interesting to read this novel in the midst of a glut of English books about the dehumanizing nature of underemployment. Convenience Store Woman doesn't, in my reading, take a stance on the Value of Work. Instead, it presents Keiko in all her glorious strangeness, and invites the reader to delight in it."

A harrowing work of genius-and for the uninitiated, consider this the entry point for many, many hours of literary enjoyment.

Carson's novel in verse, a retelling of a classic Greek myth, is one of those books that retrains your mind, erasing all the rules about what novels should-or even can-be. Ocean Vuong lists it among the books he needed to write his celebrated debut On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, writing "perhaps what's most inspiring to me about this book is Carson's refusal to enact her protagonist's development via a false and forced inhabitation of heteronormative ideals. Geyron, a quiet, small, artistic mama's boy, does not become a masculinist hero in order to "solve" his outcast position. Instead, he bravely embodies his otherness, or "monstrosity," as Carson writes, through emotionally-informed aesthetic vision. It's a book that insists on the necessity of alterity as agency instead of succumbing to the readily assimilative."

Antrim's stucco-pink, subtropic suburban nightmare concerns a town gone mad and the schoolteacher determined to get everything back to normal-albeit with highly suspect methods. This surreal mini-masterpiece is one of my favorite novels of all time, and one of the funniest, in the darkest possible way.

An actually perfect novel, which elsewhere I ranked as the fourth best campus novel of all time (give me a book, I've ranked it somewhere). It's set in a boarding school in the Appenzell; when disdainful, mysterious new girl Frédérique, our narrator is enthralled-and determined "to conquer her." Everly line is ice cold in its deliberation, and yet the whole thing feels hot. Which is not even to mention the incredible new cover designed by Oliver Munday, who I daresay agrees with me about the merits of the book.

A truly insane novel about a young woman who decides to live her life by the principles of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, those principles being Boldness, Resolution, Independence, and, of course, Horn Blowing. One of the most fun reading experiences I can remember.

Many of Aira's books could be candidates for this list-Ghosts is a personal favorite: a builder's family squats in an unfinished apartment building, also populated, for those who can see them, by ghosts. That said, Mark Haber also makes a very good argument for Ema the Captive here. We can just call this the Aira spot.

Psst. This is the real Ferrante. I mean, look, I love the Neapolitan series as much as everybody (well probably not as much as everybody but I admit they're good), but in my opinion, this short novel about a woman unraveling is her true masterpiece.

Baker's hilarious, cerebral debut takes place over the length of a single escalator ride, but turns out that a single escalator ride can actually contain multitudes. It is about as packed as a book can be with witty observations, cultural criticism, and human behavior. And milk cartons. (Sorry, but this is one of those books you can't explain to people, you just have to trust me and give it a try.)

It is my solemn duty to proselytize this vicious little book-in which a girl is sent to an orphanage after her parents are killed in a car crash, and I can't tell you anymore-everywhere I go. My latest victim was our editor Katie Yee, who wrote in our list of the best translated novels of the decade that the book "reads like logic breaking, like a melon dropping on the ground. It is the unexpected word choice (the seatbelt had become severe!) that makes this work simultaneously sinister and a joy to read. . . . At only 94 pages, Such Small Hands is a cruelly quick read that makes you feel, in the best way, like the walls of language are closing in on you."

Steinberg is an undersung genius, and her elliptical novel about one tragic summer-a girl, a drowning-should be a modern classic in the vein of Jenny Offill and Maggie Nelson.

Otsuka elegantly employs the first person plural to tell the story of a group of Japanese "picture brides" who come to California to meet their husbands. In our list of the best novels of the decade, our editor Katie Yee writes that "the collective first person narration matches the subject matter beautifully; it mimics the immigrant experience, the way "others" are often seen as the same and the automatic camaraderie and safety we might find among those who share our stories. . . . I've re-read this novel many times, trying to understand how it can encompass such a wide scope of things. What Julie Otsuka has accomplished here is both an artful, intimate portrait of individual lives and a piercing indictment of history."

Scraping through with a 1970 pub date, one of my all-time favorite novels about a woman who may or may not have rabies.

Though he's better known for being the fiction editor of The New Yorker during its glory days, Maxwell also wrote short stories and several novels-the last of which, a slim autobiographical novel which won a National Book Award in 1982, was shortest and greatest.
Toni Morrison, Sula (192 pages)

Morrison's Sula features one of the most enduring (and convincing) female friendships/rivalries ever committed to literature: that of Sula and Nel, living in "the Bottom" in Ohio. As Mira Jacob put it, "what I particularly love about Sula is the full complexity of her female characters. It's like reading those characters when I was younger was seeing, for the first time, who centered dark women. Who centered, who whole-heartedly said this story is hers, and hers, and hers, and they-we are allowed to be as complex as we need to be, and hold the ground in the story. . . . This is the book that I keep by my bed because when things don't make sense, I will turn to a single paragraph and just meditate on it. Because I feel like everything is very deftly placed, but even within that, I feel a sense of wonder in here. A real curiosity about people and how they work and what they're willing to settle for and what they're not willing to settle for, and the real friction of what that looks like."

A sly little historical fairy tale, in which a web-footed Venetian pickpocket named Villanelle has lost her heart (literally) to a noblewoman, and a stumbling soldier named Henri will try to get it back.

In Welch's brutal, celebrated first novel, our unnamed narrator, a young man living on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, seeks both connection-to his tribe, his history, his culture, his fractured family-and independent self-actualization. As Reynolds Price wrote in The New York Times Book Review, "the story it tells, the knowledge it contains, has as much to say of the bone‐deep disaffection and bafflement, the famous and apparently incurable psychic paralysis of several million Americans of varied origins now in their twenties, early thirties, as of any smaller group. Permafrost in the blood and mind-why and how and what to do?"

A lovely, surrealist novel, and one of the most convincing stories about grief I have ever read.

Though she's published a lot of wonderful work since then, I'm still partial to Luiselli's debut novel, originally published in 2011 and translated into English in 2014, a fresh and compelling portrait of the artist as a young translator taken askance and doubled back on itself.

An unnamed senior, an unnamed boarding school, a literary world so close you could almost offend it. As Michael Knight put it last year, this is the perfect campus novel (I ranked it twelfth on my list of the best), both fulfilling and transcending the expectations of the genre. "Here we have the musty but beautiful buildings, the arcana of campus customs, the rivalries and ambitions of the students at his all-male academy, all rendered in Wolff's spare and lucid prose. We even have a plagiarism case, hardly exotic to the genre. The novel is rich in familiar ways throughout, but it's not until Wolff shifts point of view in the last section, away from first person and into third, away from student life to an English teacher burdened by a secret of his own, that the book lifts up and out of the boarding school tradition and into something altogether more devastating."

In Moore's indelibly observed, sneakily devastating second novel, a discontented woman on a trip to Paris with her husband looks back at the summer she was 15, dragged along by her luminous friend Sils, when everything was still possible and exciting-but soon, like all things, to end.

A perfect jewel of a novel about a woman who opens a bookstore in a small town in Suffolk, fights with a local bigwig, and ultimately (spoiler alert) gets evicted.

Jones is an extraordinarily prolific writer, and he's an expert at genre manipulation; no surprise then that Mapping the Interior is both a coming-of-age story and a horror story, a book about menace, memory, and hope.

Hansen's gorgeous, precise little novel is set in a Roman Catholic convent in upstate New York in 1906. In The Times, Patricia Hampl called it "a novel whose language is so exquisite that the book runs the danger of being praised only for its diamondlike prose, which is often as pleasing as the most crystalline poetry. And yet Mariette in Ecstasy is not solely a novel of sensibility, a mere esthete's exercise. For while its descriptions dazzle, they never preen or degenerate into overblown virtuoso riffs. The greatest beauty-and the fundamental success-of this gripping novel is that its author has managed to find a voice that is entirely at the service of its strange and elusive subject."

I remember reading this novel when it came out in 2010, and gasping audibly at the audacity of its rule-breaking: this was a novel unlike any I had read before, and boy was it fun, and weird, and gross, and punk. I never hear people talking about it these days, but they should be: it's a careening, side-elbowing nightmare of a book that you should definitely read if you liked Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream.

Another skinny novel that made our list of the best debuts of the decade -a barbaric yawp of a book that celebrates and sings boyhood in all its grimy glory.

Allow me to use this space to recommend not just Hôtel Splendid, a weird and charming novel about three sisters maintaining a hotel that seems determined to sink back into the earth, but the whole of the loose trilogy of which it is a part, the other two books being Forever Valley, in which a teenage girls digs holes looking for the dead, and Rose Mellie Rose, in which another young girl in a decaying landscape tries to outline her life.

Moshfegh's debut novella won the Fence Modern Prize in Prose and the Believer Book Award, but it still seems like no one has read it-a shame, but understandable. Rather than explain, I'll direct you to the opening of the review that made me want to pick it up, which goes like this: "Ottessa Moshfegh's first novel reads like the swashbuckled spray of a slit throat-immediate, visceral, frank, unforgiving, violent, and grotesquely beautiful. McGlue, a transient drunk with a crack in his head, beats (at times quite literally) against his own possibility with overconsumption, nihilism, self-destructiveness, and utter depravity." You're either into that kind of thing or you aren't.

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The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Under 200 Pages

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About a month ago, we published a list of 50 of the best contemporary novels over 500 pages, for those of you who suddenly have a lot of extra time on your hands. But for those of us who suddenly h...

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Best Books Under 200 Pages | TheReviewGeek Recommends

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There’s nothing quite like reading a good book; curling up on the sofa and getting lost in the words. Similarly, that wave of satisfaction you get when

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You and your college roommate have a standing phone date every other week despite living on opposite sides of the country and being busy with your respective spouses and kids. You and your first work wife still send each other Instagram memes on the regular despite having moved on to different jobs years ago. You and the first girl you befriended in kindergarten make it a point to plan a weekend trip every year. Friendship is a beautiful thing, so why not celebrate it by reading one of these 15 fabulous books about friendships of all kinds? (Bonus points if you turn it into a mini book club situation with pals near and far.)

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The 15 Best Books About Friendship to Read Alongside Your Bestie

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You and your college roommate have a standing phone date every other week despite living on opposite sides of the country and being busy with your respective spouses and kids. You and your first work wife still send each other Instagram memes on the regular despite having moved on to different jobs years ago.

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14 Books in Translation | Penguin Random House

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Skip to Main Content (Press Enter) The 14 highly acclaimed books on this list have been translated to English and are absolute must-reads! Get lost in stories that were originally written in French, Korean, German, and several other languages. Back to Top Start earning points for buying books!

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A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

It's not easy to look at the Sandell family's situation and say what you would do. They're average people facing the unthinkable - their 18-year-old daughter is accused of a horrible crime, for which there are far more questions than answers. At every turn, they have to make life-changing decisions about how far they can go to protect her before destroying themselves. Edvardsson's gripping psychological family drama is his U.S. debut.
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Must-Read Books That Have Been Translated to English | Celadon Books

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A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles It's not easy to look at the Sandell family's situation and say what you would do. They're average people facing the unthinkable - their 18-year-old daughter is accused of a horrible crime, for which there are far more questions than answers.

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In celebration of World Book Day, Goodreads recently announced 40 of the most popular translated books on the site, writing that "the joy of reading is universal-that's why we're shining a spotlight on some of the most popular translated books on Goodreads!" So what made the list?

It's a mixture of classics like Anna Karenina and The Odyssey, current bestsellers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and A Man Called Ove (two of the four Swedish books on the list), and some others that I initially couldn't figure out why they had made the list but then realized that many of them had movie/TV adaptations. You might recognize John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In by its movie title, Let the Right One In.

I was pleasantly surprised by two newer titles that made the list: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell, and Human Acts by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith. Both are dark, unsettling, and very interesting new titles that have captured the attention of readers. Their presence on the list is wonderful.

None of this, however, makes up for one glaring failing. One that can't be overlooked. There is not a single African novel on this list! Not one! If nothing else, So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ and translated by Modupé Bodé-Thomas deserves to be on this list. It's a classic. I'd also recommend recent favorites of mine like by Fiston Mwanza Mujila and translated by Roland Glasser, La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono and translated by Lawrence Schimel, Congo Inc.: Bismarck's Testament by In Koli Jean Bofane and translated by Marjolijn de Jager, and Transparent City by Ondjaki and translated by Stephen Henighan.

I do realize that if Goodreads narrowed its search by ratings and reviews that there might not have been a translated novel from Africa that ranked as highly as the 40 that made the list. But it's still unacceptable. One should have been chosen anyway, with a note like, "Hey, we saw that no translated novels from Africa made this list so here's our recommendation." Because that's what it looks like to really celebrate the universality of the joy of reading.

In honor of #WorldBookDay, here are 40 of the Most Popular Translated Books on Goodreads: https://t.co/pTooqJA3vQ pic.twitter.com/2Ggwmwi4Tb

- goodreads (@goodreads) April 23, 2019

40 of the Most Popular Translated Books on Goodreads

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, translated from the German by A.W. Wheen

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, translated from Swedish by Henning Koch

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, translated from Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa, translated from Japanese by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown

Battle Royale by by Koushun Takami, translated from Japanese by Yuji Oniki

by José Saramago, translated from Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero

by Voltaire, translated from French by Robert M. Adams

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated from Russian by David McDuff

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, translated from Spanish by Edith Grossman

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch, translated from German by Lee Chadeayne

by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith

by Dante Alighieri, translated from Italian by Anthony M. Esolen

by Cornelia Funke, translated from German by Anthea Bell

by Victor Hugo, translated from French by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee

by John Ajvide Lindqvist, translated from Swedish by Ebba Sergerberg

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated from French by Geoffrey Wall

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, translated from Russian by Andrew Bromfield

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, translated from Japanese by Jay Rubin

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, translated from German by John E. Woods

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, translated from French by the author

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, translated from German by Hilda Rosner

Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue, translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, translated from Portuguese by Alan R. Clarke and Özdemir İnce

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, translated from French by Robin Buss

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, translated from Dutch by B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, translated from French by Alison Anderson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, translated from Swedish by Reg Keeland

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated from Spanish by Magda Bogin

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, translated from Japanese by Cathy Hirano

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, translated from French by Richard Howard

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, translated from German by Michael Hofmann

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, translated from Italian by William Weaver

The Odyssey by Homer, translated from Ancient Greek by Robert Fagles

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø, translated from Swedish by Don Bartlett

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated from Chinese by Ken Liu

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, translated from Czech by Michael Henry Heim

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40 of the Most Popular Translated Books on Goodreads | Book Riot

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In celebration of World Book Day, Goodreads recently announced 40 of the most popular translated books on the site, writing that "the joy of reading is universal-that's why we're shining a spotlight on some of the most popular translated books on Goodreads!" So what made the list?

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Asotin County Library Webinars and Online Events

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Enjoy a range of talks from bestselling authors and thought leaders. Brought to you in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium. The Fun Habit: An Author Talk with Mike Rucker, Ph.D. How the Disciplined Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life: Lessons from Organizational Psychologist Mike Rucker, Ph.D.

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Turn on the lights and lock the doors before you settle in with one of these terrifying true crime books. These real-life stories are as scary as it gets.

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The best true crime books of all time

Are you one of those people who get the ultimate thrill from immersing themselves in spooky, thought-provoking, real-life investigations? Do you binge true crime documentaries the day they release on Netflix? Then these true crime books are for you.

Our roundup of the best true crime books of all time will take you from the Victorian era to contemporary times. The list includes works from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, books that have been adapted into TV series and hit films, and books that garnered top reviews from thousands of fans. You'll come across best sellers, insider takes, and classics from the genre. You'll also find these true crime books have something else to offer: great writing that keeps you hooked from page one.

If you get too scared, take a break with one of best books of all time or the best biographies, best nonfiction books, and best thriller books. You may also prefer fantastic historical fiction to keep you entertained. But if you really want to be scared senseless and creeped out beyond reason, look to the best true crime books. After all, the only thing more disturbing than fictional horror is real life.
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Robert Kolker's acclaimed true crime mystery follows the investigation of a serial killer on Long Island who preyed on young women between 2007 and 2010. Kolker's account of the crimes and the desperate circumstances of the young girls will leave you obsessed long after you've finished reading. Based on exhaustive research and published in 2013, the book aims to make sense of unthinkable crimes. What happened to these young girls? Kolker takes you into their lives and choices, leaving readers utterly haunted by the loss recounted in this sad book.

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25 True Crime Books You Won't Be Able to Put Down

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Turn on the lights and lock the doors before you settle in with one of these terrifying true crime books. These real-life stories are as scary as it gets. Our editors and experts handpick every product we feature. We may earn a commission from your purchases.

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The CrimeReads editors make their selections for the year's best true crime books. (For more nonfiction, check out our list of the year's best in criticism/biography.)
Rachel Rear grew up often thinking about her stepsister Stephanie Kupchynsky. How could she not? Rear's mother got together with Kupchynsky's father after Stephanie's disappearance from her home Rochester in an age of serial killers. Stephanie had moved from Martha's Vineyard to leave an abusive partner, but fell victim to a mysterious assailant while on the cusp of a new life. Rachel Rear's beautiful, heartbreaking memoir is also a fierce interrogation of violence against women in American culture, and essential reading to understand the experience of the families left behind.- MO

Jarrett Kobek, author of the 2016 novel, I Hate the Internet, has taken on a fascinating project in his latest book, at once an ingenious piece of sleuthing and an epistemological endeavor alternating between meditative and exuberant registers, all centered around a mystery that grips the cold case community like no other: the search for the Zodiac killer. In short, Kobek believes (knowing full well how bizarre that very belief is) that he may have discovered the Zodiac's identity. He then sets out to prove himself wrong...but can he manage to do it? Linguistic clues and quotations lead him to believe the Zodiac was a comic book collector at a time when the practice was rare. From there he hones in on one suspect and explores the case against him from every angle. The book brings a fresh and aware perspective to a mystery that has permeated the culture. - DM

Katherine Corcoran, In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Coverup, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press
(Bloomsbury)

A powerful chronicle of the life, work, and murder of Regina Martínez, a trailblazing journalist whose stories in Proceso exposed major corruption in the ranks of Mexican politics, and who was brutally killed in 2012. Corcoran, AP bureau chief in Mexico at the time of the killing, trains a sharp investigative eye on the events leading up to the murder and the desperate coverup that ensued. - DM

T.J. English's newest slice of American noir culture is a sweeping history of the long, entangled tradition of jazz and organized crime, from the early days of Storyville, with Black performers and Sicilian club owners operating a complicated network of protection, endorsement, exploitation, and wild, creative invention. In cities across America, jazz musicians often found their homes in connected clubs and performing venues. Some believed it was to their benefit, but as the century rolled on, divisions within the arts community began to spread, as some musicians no longer wanted to play along for the mobsters who had a taste of their careers and profits. So in the end, the story becomes a distinctly American one, of course: of racial inequality, economic injustice, and the immortal art form that sprang from this hotbed of corruption and striving. -DM

Kathleen Hale initially wrote about the Slenderman case for Hazlitt, an article that still stands out from the general sensationalist coverage of the case for its enormous empathy for all involved. When two middle schoolers stabbed another middle schooler in the woods in 2012, they claimed to do it on behalf of a mysterious figure known as Slenderman. Hysterical parenting sites spread a moral panic about CreepyPasta, the website where stories of Slenderman originated and then became memes, but undiagnosed schizophrenia, midwestern stoicism, and intense friendship dynamics are much more to blame for the attack, as Kathleen Hale illustrates in both the original article and now a full-length title. -MO

The story of the "Bloody Benders"-the homesteading family in 1870s Kansas believed to have perpetrated one of the most grisly slaughters of the 19th century-is well known, or at least we think we know it. That's where Jonusas' illuminating new study comes in. The family itself remains something of an enigma, as they escaped the mobs descending on them looking for justice, but Jonusas finds, in their escape, a bigger story that depicts the country at an auspicious moment, as the frontier was beginning to close and new industries and attitudes were pushing their way across the nation. Jonusas' dogged archival work reveals new truths that cut through the legend-in particular, she traces the Benders' fugitive journey and appears to have solved a great portion of the mystery surrounding their escape. She also brings to life the marshals and other detectives on their trail, as well as the families left behind to grieve the victims. In all, it's a masterful portrait of a nation revealing itself through one of its most atrocious crimes. -DM

In Beverly Lowry's hometown, when she was a small child just beginning to learn the horrific history of the American South, an elderly white woman known for being hateful was murdered with great violence. Her daughter tried to blame the crime on a Black man, but was instead put on trial herself-he attack was too brutal and lengthy for the townsfolk to ascribe such violence to the vulnerable Black community; what's more, the daughter was suspected of a too-close relationship with a schoolteacher and this, combined with her mannish courtroom outfits, signaled her to be a gender rebel and thus a probable murderess. The daughter found herself convicted, but unending support from her loving husband (the contra-indicator for her suspected lesbianism) and the class differences between this upper-class wife and mother and her lower-class prisonmates eventually convinced the governor to secure her release back into the community that had so rejected her during the trial. - MO

Before the Disneyfication of Times Square, before luxury high-rises took over the meatpacking district, before the sex trade vanished from the corners and went indoors to secret semi-public spaces, before porn migrated from the theater to the internet, New School ethnography professor Terry Williams and his students roamed the streets of New York City doing fieldwork and having encounters with the denizens of the so-called "Soft City"-a place defined by activities and encounters, not marked or mapped geography, "an invisible part of the city by day and a lively, excitingly risqué section by night." In this idiosyncratic exploration of the city and its sexual underground, Terry Williams alternates between academic inquiry and the fieldwork of himself and his students for a fascinating and thought-provoking new work. - MO

For over a century, a prison stood at the heart of Greenwich Village; in the 20th century, now a women's prison, the Women's House of Detention incarcerated, educated and radicalized queer women from every walk of life and provided a space to challenge sexual binaries and gender norms, even as conditions inside the prison continuously deteriorated. Women and transmasc/gender-non-conforming people rioted in solidarity with the Stonewall Uprisings, which they could see from their windows. Queer denizens of the village waited in the dime store across the street from the prison to witness the comings and goings of their friends, allies, and neighbors. Wealthy bohemians went slumming at the women's night court, desperate for the drama of human passions to interrupt their lives. And political prisoners were forced to examine their own prejudices towards queer women upon witnessing the many forms of family defining life behind bars. -MO

How could this have happened? That's the question at the heart of Weinman's latest incisive study of crime and culture. This time she's looking at the long, strange, post-conviction life and crimes of Edgar Smith, who was on death row following a conviction for the murder of Victoria Zielinski, and from there managed to strike up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, of all people. The relationship grew to much more than a correspondence, as Smith ultimately convinced Buckley and others to become his champion. Soon enough, he had his freedom and the appearances and book deals came rolling in, until he attempted another murder, upending the lives of those who had supported him and countless others along the way. It's one of the more bizarre sequences in modern American history, and brutally revealing of Buckley's neoconservative narcissism and weakness to flattery. But he was just one along the way: Weinman's book is a study in how person after person can be brought under a killer's influence, and just how much damage a true psychopath can due with all that credulity. -DM

Javier Sinay, The Murders of Moisés Ville: The Rise and Fall of the Jerusalem of South America
Translated by Robert Croll
(Restless Books)

The Argentine investigative journalist Javier Sinay, in his new book, The Murders of Moisés Ville, brings his professional craft to bear on an intensely personal story: of the Jewish settlement of Argentina's agricultural lands, and of the atrocities the new immigrants suffered there. For Sinay, the story begins with the discovery of a 1947 article written by his great-grandfather, addressing the murder of twenty-two settlers. The reader is then taken along for the investigation as Sinay discovers his great-grandfather's central place in the era's Yiddish-speaking community of Argentina. Sinay is soon learning Yiddish himself to better relay the stories of people who fled czarist Russia in search of a new life in the "Jerusalem of South America," only to find new dangers and oppressors waiting for them. Starvation, land inequality, and bands of violent gauchos were just some of what the community faced, and their stories were passed down through family lore and through the country's Yiddish press. Sinay's new book is at once a compelling piece of journalism born of archival research and interviewing, and also a meditation on cultural legacies and inter-generational trauma. -DM

This book is intense, moving, and highly necessary. Erin Kimmerle, a forensic archeologist, tells the story of the Dozier School for Boys (chronicled in telling prose by Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys) and the survivors' quest to inter and rebury with dignity the many victims of the school's brutality. -MO

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Notable Selections

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Erika Krause, Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation (Flatiron) · Shahan Mufti, American Caliph: The True Story of a Muslim Mystic, a Hollywood Epic, and the 1977 Siege of Washington, DC (FSG) · Barbie Latza Nadeau, The Godmother: Murder, Vengeance, and the Bloody Struggle of Mafia Women (Penguin) · Greg King, Penny Wilson, Nothing but the Night (St. Martin's) · Andy Kroll, A Death on W Street (PublicAffairs) · Kate Winkler Dawson, All That Is Wicked (Putnam) · Deborah Holt Larkin, A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California's Most Notorious Killers (Pegasus) · Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden, The Ransomware Hunting Team: A Band of Misfits' Improbable Crusade to Save the World from Cybercrime (FSG) · Martin Edwards, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators (HarperCollins) · Patrick Strickland, The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands (Melville House) · Rachel Rear, Catch The Sparrow: A Search for a Sister and the Truth of Her Murder (Bloomsbury) · Neal Bradbury, A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them (St. Martin's) · Paul Fischer, The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Story of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies (Simon & Schuster) · Patrick Radden Keefe, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks (Doubleday) · Fabián Escalante, 634 To Kill Fidel (Seven Stories Press) · John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America (Henry Holt) · Kathryn Miles, Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders (Algonquin Books) · Chas Smith, Blessed are the Bank Robbers: The True Adventures of an Evangelical Outlaw (Abrams) · Carla Valentine, The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie (Sourcebooks) · Martin Sixsmith, The War of Nerves: Inside the Cold War Mind (Pegasus Books) · Jefferson Morley, Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate (St. Martin's) · Huw Lemmy and Ben Miller, Bad Gays: A Homosexual History (Verso) · Jim Cosgrove, Ripple: A Long Strange Search for a Killer (Steerforth Press) · John Gleeson, The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster (Scribner) · Eden Collinsworth, What the Ermine Saw: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo Da Vinci's Most Mysterious Portrait (Doubleday) · James T. Bartlett, The Alaskan Blonde (Territory Books) · Nancy Dougherty, The Hangman and His Wife: The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich (Knopf) · Howard Blum, The Spy Who Knew Too Much: An Ex-CIA Officer's Quest Through a Legacy of Betrayal (Harper) · Leslie McFarlane, Ghost of the Hardy Boys (David R. Godine) · Keith Thompson, Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune (Little Brown) · Benjamin Gilmer, The Other Dr. Gilmer: Two Men, a Murder, and an Unlikely Fight for Justice (Ballantine) · Brian Hochman, The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States (Harvard) · Mark Arsenault, The Impostor's War: The Press, Propaganda, and the Newsman Who Battled for the Minds of America (Pegasus)

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The CrimeReads editors make their selections for the year's best true crime books. (For more nonfiction, check out our list of the year's best in criticism/biography.) Rachel Rear grew up often thinking about her stepsister Stephanie Kupchynsky. How could she not?

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One is never supposed to buy a book for its cover, but I'll come clean and admit that I've purchased many a novel because of the animal gracing its face. I own an inordinate number of books that have "wolf" in the title and no actual wolves in them. I can't help myself, I've always been crackers about the creatures of the natural world, seeking out their company in life and in literature. Close encounters of the animal kind leave me wondering about what they're thinking, enjoying their individual idiosyncrasies, and pondering our place in the natural world.

Buy the book

My debut novel, Hollow Kingdom, is narrated by a snarky domesticated crow named S.T. The time I've spend with the two wild crows I've befriended helped inspire some of my crowtagonist's behavior and antics. As I wrote from the perspective of a crow, I read voraciously about the natural world, but felt I had to avoid animal-narrated books because I didn't want to be influenced as I developed the unique voices of various animals.

Now that Hollow Kingdom is about to take its flight into the world, here are a few favorite animal-narrated books I love, and one that is winking at me from my TBR list and that I'm chomping at the bit to get to.

I was first introduced to the beautiful mind and powerful words of Brian Doyle through his stunning essay, "Joyas Voladoras." His novel Mink River is equally as beautiful -an experimental and literary masterpiece with a riparian and lyrical musicality. Oregon is a character, the river is conscious and everything is braided together as in the gossamer web of life. Of course, my favorite character is Moses, the benevolent crow.

Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile is a gorgeous and whimsically quiet novel. It's filled with juicy lettuce leaves of wisdom shared through the sage, philosophical musings of a tortoise named Timothy (based on a real tortoise who lived in the garden of the 18th Century naturalist Gilbert White, and who was in fact a female tortoise but named Timothy because we humans hadn't figured out how to properly sex a tortoise at that time in history). A favorite few lines: "My voice would shatter his human solitude. The happiness of his breed depends upon it. The world is theirs to arrange. So they tell themselves."

I loved the worldview from the philosophic Timothy and found the tortoise-approved pace of this book so radically refreshing. It serves as a beautiful reminder for us to slow down and reconnect to the natural world. I liken it to another book (a human-narrated memoir) that maneuvers at a beautiful and contemplative pace on sentences to be savored- The Sound of A Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Bailey.

An indisputable childhood classic, Watership Down was my first experience of a "first person rabbit point of view" and I adored it. As a child, I appreciated that it delved into dark places and didn't leave me feeling patronized. I recently read that many readers have long suspected that Watership Down is an allegorical tale-religious, political and otherwise. According to his daughters, Adams' hilarious response to this was "Rubbish! It's just a story about rabbits." Quite right.

This novel is a little heavier than the other animal-narrated novels on this list. An incredibly creative novel told from the perspective of a family of African elephants, The White Bone takes a deep dive into elephant society, exploring their memory, culture, rituals, mythology and the way they communicate. It openly tackles the infuriating devastation caused by ivory hunters and a parched landscape; the elephants must travel far and face terrible odds to survive. The White Bone is at once hopeful, heartbreaking, wondrous and wise.

Described as " The Handmaid's Tale but with bees", this novel follows the trials, trails, and tribulations of Flora, a humble sanitation bee, as she moves on up the sticky social ladder of the hive. Her differences (she is a larger, darker bee than most) put her at great risk amongst the hive, as "deformity is evil, deformity is not permitted." Flora's differences might be the very thing that saves her as she moves on up in the world, from sanitation, to the nursery, and finally into the inner circle of the supreme ruler, the Queen bee. A note: crows are villains in this novel, but I have to forgive it-they're not incredibly benevolent to bees. I have witnessed this firsthand.

I would be remiss in not giving a deep cart-horse nod to Orwell's political satire. I studied this book in school and penned many an essay about the allegorical foibles of human society and Orwell's commentary on communism in Russian and the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule. I undoubtedly also wrote about how I wished I lived in a society ruled by animals and I'm quite sure that it was Animal Farm that sparked my love of satire. "Four legs good! Two legs bad!" is still something I intermittently chant at my long-suffering husband.

I defy you not to fall in love with canine narrator, Enzo, who believes that he will be reincarnated as a human, but believes in his human above all else. Enzo tells the story of his relationship with Denny, a Seattle car dealer and aspiring race car driver as they navigate the ups and downs of Denny's anthropocentric existence. Enzo's narration exudes heart, love, loyalty, a little mischief, and a beautiful story of true friendship as only man's best friend can tell it. It's well worth a read or a reread just in time for its movie release. The Art of Racing In The Rain is beautiful and a shimmering reminder that sometimes it's our four-legged companions who teach us how to be our best selves.

I love this satirical take on the Hollywood autobiography as told by Cheeta, the infamous chimp from the Tarzan movies. Cheeta's wit and commentary is scythe-sharp as he recounts his Hollywood adventures now at the ripe old age of 76, while retired and living in Palm Springs. I laughed, I cried, and I trusted this silver screen veteran to give me the truth about the golden stars and bright lights of Tinsel Town, including some stark truths about substance and animal abuse. This is my favorite Hollywood memoir and without question, the greatest chimpanzee autobiography of all time.

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8 Grown-Up Novels with Animal Narrators - Electric Literature

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One is never supposed to buy a book for its cover, but I'll come clean and admit that I've purchased many a novel because of the animal gracing its face. I own an inordinate number of books that have "wolf" in the title and no actual wolves in them.

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Today is the anniversary of the publication of Robert Frost's iconic poem " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," a fact that spurred the Literary Hub office into a long conversation about their favorite poems, the most iconic poems written in English, and which poems we should all have already read (or at least be reading next). Turns out, despite frequent (false) claims that poetry is dead and/or irrelevant and/or boring, there are plenty of poems that have sunk deep into our collective consciousness as cultural icons. (What makes a poem iconic? For our purposes here, it's primarily a matter of cultural ubiquity, though unimpeachable excellence helps any case.) So for those of you who were not present for our epic office argument, I have listed some of them here.

NB that I limited myself to one poem per poet-which means that the impetus for this list actually gets bumped for the widely quoted (and misunderstood) "The Road Not Taken," but so it goes. I also excluded book-length poems, because they're really a different form. Finally, despite the headline, I'm sure there are many, many iconic poems out there that I've missed-so feel free to extend this list in the comments. But for now, happy reading (and re-reading):
William Carlos Williams, "The Red Wheelbarrow"
The most anthologized poem of the last 25 years for a reason. See also: " This is Just to Say," which, among other things, has spawned a host of memes and parodies.
T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"
Without a doubt one of the most important poems of the 20th century. "It has never lost its glamour," Paul Muldoon observed. "It has never failed to be equal to both the fracture of its own era and what, alas, turned out to be the even greater fracture of the ongoing 20th century and now, it seems, the 21st century." See also: " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"
Otherwise known as " the most misread poem in America." See also: " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." And " Birches." All begin in delight and end in wisdom, as Frost taught us great poems should.
Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool"
This blew my mind in high school, and I wasn't the only one.
Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art"
Bishop's much loved and much discussed ode to loss, which Claudia Roth Pierpont called "a triumph of control, understatement, wit. Even of self-mockery, in the poetically pushed rhyme word "vaster," and the ladylike, pinkies-up "shan't." An exceedingly rare mention of her mother-as a woman who once owned a watch. A continent standing in for losses larger than itself."
Emily Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death -"
The truth is, there are lots of equally iconic Dickinson poems, so consider this a stand-in for them all. Though, as Jay Parini has noted, this poem is perfect, "one of Dickinson's most compressed and chilling attempts to come to terms with mortality."
Langston Hughes, "Harlem"
One of the defining works of the Harlem Renaissance, by its greatest poet. It also, of course, gave inspiration and lent a title to another literary classic: Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.
Sylvia Plath, "Daddy"
To be quite honest, my favorite Plath poem is " The Applicant." But "Daddy" is still the most iconic, especially if you've ever heard her read it aloud.
Robert Hayden, "Middle Passage"
The most famous poem, and a terribly beautiful one, by our country's first African-American Poet Laureate (though the position was then called Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress). See also: " Those Winter Sundays, which despite what I wrote above may be equally as famous."
Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
This one takes the cake for the sheer number of "thirteen ways of looking at x" knockoffs that I've seen. But please see also: " The Emperor of Ice-Cream."
Allen Ginsberg, "Howl"
With On the Road, the most enduring piece of literature from the mythologized Beat Generation, and of the two, the better one. Even the least literate of your friends would probably recognize the line "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness . . ."
Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise"
So iconic, it was a Google Doodle.
Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
I mean, have you seen Interstellar? (Or Dangerous Minds or Independence Day?)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan"
Or Citizen Kane? (See also: " The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.")
Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias"
. . . or Breaking Bad?
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven"
We had some votes for " Annabel Lee," on account of its earworminess, but among the many appearances and references of Poe in pop culture, "The Raven" is certainly the most common.
Louise Glück, "Mock Orange"
One of those poems passed hand to hand between undergraduates who will grow up to become writers.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, "We Wear the Mask"
Dunbar's most famous poem, and arguably his best, which biographer Paul Revell described as "a moving cry from the heart of suffering. The poem anticipates, and presents in terms of passionate personal regret, the psychological analysis of the fact of blackness in Frantz Fanon's Peau Noire, Masques Blancs, with a penetrating insight into the reality of the black man's plight in America."
e.e. cummings, "i carry your heart with me"
As quoted at many, many weddings.
Marianne Moore, "Poetry"
All else aside, the fact that it starts with hating poetry has made it a favorite among schoolchildren of all ages. See also: " The Fish."
Rudyard Kipling, "If"
According to someone in the Literary Hub office who would know, this poem is all over sports stadiums and locker rooms. Serena Williams is into it, which is proof enough for me.
Gertrude Stein, "Sacred Emily"
Because a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
William Blake, "The Tyger"
Tyger, tyger, burning bright . . . Blake famously wrote music to go along with his poems-the originals have been lost, but this verse has been widely interpreted by musicians as well as repeated to many sleepy children.
Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"
As (further) immortalized by John Steinbeck.
Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"
The most famous poem from Whitman's celebrated Leaves of Grass, and selected by Jay Parini as the best American poem of all time. "Whitman reinvents American poetry in this peerless self-performance," Parini writes, "finding cadences that seem utterly his own yet somehow keyed to the energy and rhythms of a young nation waking to its own voice and vision. He calls to every poet after him, such as Ezra Pound, who notes in "A Pact" that Whitman "broke the new wood.""
Philip Larkin, "This Be The Verse"
We know, we know, it's all your parents' fault.
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 18" ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?")
Like Dickinson, we could have put several of Shakespeare's sonnets in this slot. Most people only recognize the first couplets anyway.
Audre Lorde, "Power"
A uniquely American poem, written in 1978, that should be outdated by now, but still is not.
Frank O'Hara, "Meditations in an Emergency"
Courtesy Don Draper, circa season 2.
John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields"
Probably the most iconic-and most quoted-poem from WWI. Particularly popular in Canada, where McCrae is from.
Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky"
Still the most iconic nonsense poem ever written.
W. B. Yeats, "The Second Coming"
Otherwise known as " the most thoroughly pillaged piece of literature in English." Just ask our hero Joan Didion. Joan knows what's up.

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One more thing. The above list is too white and male and old, because our literary iconography is still too white and male and old. So, here are some other poems that we here at the Literary Hub office also consider iconic, though they are perhaps not as widely anthologized/quoted/referenced/used to amp up the corny drama in films as some of the above (yet).
Adrienne Rich, "Diving into the Wreck"
One of my very favorites from Rich's rich (sorry) oeuvre. I read it in college and have been quoting it ever since.
Patricia Lockwood, "Rape Joke"
The poem that officially broke the internet in 2013.
Lucille Clifton, "Homage to My Hips"
She's just . . . so . . . damn . . . sexy. See also: " To a Dark Moses" and " won't you celebrate with me," because Clifton is the greatest.
Lucie Brock-Broido, "Am Moor"
This happens to be my own personal favorite Brock-Broido poem, though almost any would do here.
Sappho, "The Anactoria Poem" (tr. Jim Powell)
I'm breaking my rule about the poems being written in English to include Sappho, whose work is uniquely appealing for being almost lost to us. The Anactoria poem is her most famous, though I have to say I also have a major soft spot for this fragment, translated by Anne Carson:

And when I say "soft spot" I mean it sends me into ecstatic fits.
Kevin Young, "Errata"
The greatest wedding poem that no one ever reads at their wedding.
Mark Leidner, "Romantic Comedies"
For those who enjoy snorting their coffee while reading poetry.
Muriel Rukeyser, "The Book of the Dead"
A long, legendary poem, written in 1938, about the illness of a group of miners in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. "Coming hot on the heels of modernist long poem masterpieces like Eliot's "The Wasteland" or Stein's "Tender Buttons," the poem's deliberate lucidity isn't just an aesthetic choice-it's a political one," Colleen Abel wrote in Ploughshares. "Rukeyser, from the beginning of "Book of the Dead," seeks the reader's participation in the journey to Gauley Bridge. The reader is implicated from the first section, "The Road," in which Rukeyser calls outward to her audience: "These are roads you take when you think of your country." The disaster Rukeyser is about to explore is a part of "our country" and the reader will have no choice but to confront it."
Carolyn Forché, "The Colonel"
What you have heard is true. This poem is unforgettable.
Rita Dove, "After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed"
Again, a thousand poems by Rita Dove would do; this is the one that sticks in my brain.
Nikki Giovanni, "Ego Tripping"
I mean, "I am so hip even my errors are correct" should probably be your mantra. Watch Giovanni perform her poem here.
Terrance Hayes, "The Golden Shovel"
Hayes's homage to Gwendolyn Brooks is a masterpiece in its own right.

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The 32 Most Iconic Poems in the English Language

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Today is the anniversary of the publication of Robert Frost's iconic poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," a fact that spurred the Literary Hub office into a long conversat...

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"What are the best Essay Collections of all-time?" We looked at 681 of the top Essay Collections, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
With nearly enough books to read one a day for two years, there is bound to be something here to pique your interest! The top 25 essay collects, all appearing on 3 or more of the lists we aggregated from, appear below with images, links, and descriptions. The remaining 600 plus titles, as well as the articles we used, are alphabetically listed at the bottom of the page.

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Top 25 Essay Collections

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"In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better."

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In this exuberantly praised book - a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary theory to the supposed fun of traveling aboard a Caribbean luxury cruiseliner

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"Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan.

Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice. "

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"Anne Fadiman is-by her own admission-the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over her roommate's 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in the apartment that she had not read at least twice.

This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For Fadiman, as for many passionate readers, the books she loves have become chapters in her own life story. Writing with remarkable grace, she revives the tradition of the well-crafted personal essay, moving easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family. As someone who played at blocks with her father's 22-volume set of Trollope (""My Ancestral Castles"") and who only really considered herself married when she and her husband had merged collections (""Marrying Libraries""), she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions, the perverse pleasures of compulsive proof-reading, the allure of long words, and the satisfactions of reading out loud. There is even a foray into pure literary gluttony-Charles Lamb liked buttered muffin crumbs between the leaves, and Fadiman knows of more than one reader who literally consumes page corners. Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists."

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"With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age. Utterly courageous, uproariously funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a scrumptious, irresistible treat of a book, full of truths, laugh out loud moments that will appeal to readers of all ages."

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"Nora Ephron returns with her first book since the astounding success of I Feel Bad About My Neck, taking a hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn't (yet) forgotten.

Filled with insights and observations that instantly ring true-and could have come only from Nora Ephron-I Remember Nothing is pure joy."

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A recent transplant to Paris, humorist David Sedaris, bestselling author of "Naked", presents a collection of his strongest work yet, including the title story about his hilarious attempt to learn French. A number one national bestseller now in paperback.

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Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked, Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview-a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken (of course!) with a quadriplegic companion; a family gathers for a wedding in the face of imminent death. Through it all is Sedaris's unmistakable voice, without doubt one of the freshest in American writing.

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"Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays begins with a series of lynchings and ends with a series of apologies. Eula Biss explores race in America and her response to the topic is informed by the experiences chronicled in these essays - teaching in a Harlem school on the morning of 9/11, reporting for an African American newspaper in San Diego, watching the aftermath of Katrina from a college town in Iowa, and settling in Chicago's most diverse neighborhood.

As Biss moves across the country from New York to California to the Midwest, her essays move across time from biblical Babylon to the freedman's schools of Reconstruction to a Jim Crow mining town to post-war white flight. She brings an eclectic education to the page, drawing variously on the Eagles, Laura Ingalls Wilder, James Baldwin, Alexander Graham Bell, Joan Didion, religious pamphlets, and reality television shows."

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Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, SISTER OUTSIDER celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope. This commemorative edition includes a new foreword by Lorde scholar and poet Cheryl Clarke, who celebrates the ways in which Lorde's philosophies resonate more than twenty years after they were first published.

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A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.

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"The Geek Feminist Revolution is a collection of essays by double Hugo Award-winning essayist and fantasy novelist Kameron Hurley.

The book collects dozens of Hurley's essays on feminism, geek culture, and her experiences and insights as a genre writer, including ""We Have Always Fought,"" which won the 2013 Hugo for Best Related Work. The Geek Feminist Revolution will also feature several entirely new essays written specifically for this volume."

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"Marina Keegan's star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at The New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash.

Marina left behind a rich, deeply expansive trove of writing that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation. Her short story "Cold Pastoral" was published on NewYorker.com. Her essay "Even Artichokes Have Doubts" was excerpted in the Financial Times, and her book was the focus of a Nicholas Kristof column in The New York Times. Millions of her contemporaries have responded to her work on social media.
"

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One of the most thought-provoking and vivid essayists of the twentieth century, George Orwell fought the injustices of his time with singular vigor through pen and paper. In this selection of essays, he ranges from reflections on his boyhood schooling and the profession of writing to his views on the Spanish Civil War and British imperialism. The pieces collected here include the relatively unfamiliar and the more celebrated, making it an ideal compilation for both new and dedicated readers of Orwell's work.

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Against Interpretation was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. It includes the famous essays "Notes on Camp" and "Against Interpretation," as well as her impassioned discussions of Sartre, Camus, Simone Weil, Godard, Beckett, Levi-Strauss, sceince-fiction movies, psychoanalysis, and contemporary religious thought.

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Split into five sections-Reading, Being, Seeing, Feeling, and Remembering-Changing My Mind finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material both personal and cultural. This engaging collection of essays, some published here for the first time, reveals Smith as a passionate and precise essayist, equally at home in the world of great books and bad movies, family and philosophy, British comedians and Italian divas. Whether writing on Katherine Hepburn, Kafka, Anna Magnani, or Zora Neale Hurston, she brings deft care to the art of criticism with a style both sympathetic and insightful. Changing My Mind is journalism at its most expansive, intelligent, and funny-a gift to readers and writers both.

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"In Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan takes us on an exhilarating tour of our popular, unpopular, and at times completely forgotten culture. Simultaneously channeling the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson and the wit and insight of Joan Didion, Sullivan shows us―with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that's all his own―how we really (no, really) live now.

In his native Kentucky, Sullivan introduces us to Constantine Rafinesque, a nineteenth-century polymath genius who concocted a dense, fantastical prehistory of the New World. Back in modern times, Sullivan takes us to the Ozarks for a Christian rock festival; to Florida to meet the alumni and straggling refugees of MTV's Real World, who've generated their own self-perpetuating economy of minor celebrity; and all across the South on the trail of the blues. He takes us to Indiana to investigate the formative years of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose and then to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina―and back again as its residents confront the BP oil spill."

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Woolf's first and most popular volume of essays. This collection has more than twenty-five selections, including such important statements as "Modern Fiction" and "The Modern Essay."

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From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions - or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character who aims for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There'd Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.

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"In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. With documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro bringing renewed interest to Baldwin's life and work, Notes of a Native Son serves as a valuable introduction.

Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in "The Harlem Ghetto" to a sobering "Journey to Atlanta." "

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George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is comprised of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker.

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First published in 1979, The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era―including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall―through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central text of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.

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Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.

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The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America―particularly California―in the sixties. It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

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The Best Essay Collections Of All-Time - Book Scrolling

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"What are the best Essay Collections of all-time?" We looked at 681 of the top Essay Collections, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question! With nearly enough books to read one a day for two years, there is bound to be something here to pique your interest!