The Greatest Books Since 1990
How is this list generated?
This list is generated from 130 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th. If you're interested in the details about how the rankings are generated and which lists are the most important(in my eyes) please check out the list details page.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections please feel free to e-mail me.
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401
. A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
This is the remarkable story of one endearing dog’s search for his purpose over the course of several lives. More than just another charming dog story, A Dog’s Purpose touches on the universal ques...
- Google
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-
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402
. Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems by Ingeborg Bachmann
Greatly expanded bilingual edition of the 1994 Marsilio edition, Songs in Flight.
- Google
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-
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403
. The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
It is 1937 and Amabelle Désir, a young Haitian woman living in the Dominican Republic, has built herself a life as the servant and companion of the wife of a wealthy colonel. She and Sebastien, a c...
- Google
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-
-
-
405
. LaRose by Louise Erdrich
LaRose is a novel by the author Louise Erdrich, published in 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers. The book was reviewed by multiple publications, including The New York Times, The Kansas City Star, Wi...
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-
-
406
. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.
- Google
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-
-
407
. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
A Lesson Before Dying is Ernest J. Gaines' eighth novel, published in 1993.
"A Lesson Before Dying" is a story of two African-American men scrabbling to attain their manhood in a deeply prejudic...
-
-
-
408
. Let the Great World Spin: A Novel by Colum McCann
In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is runnin...
- Google
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-
-
409
. The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel by Adam Johnson
The son of an influential father who runs an orphan work camp, Pak Jun Do rises to prominence using instinctive talents and eventually becomes a professional kidnapper and romantic rival to Kim Jon...
- Google
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-
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410
. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. His older sister, Karin, his only near kin, returns reluctantly to their h...
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-
-
411
. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
A small, fictional mill town in Maine called Empire Falls, though once booming in industry, is quickly deteriorating. Owned by the powerful Whiting family, the town can no longer sustain itself. Se...
-
-
-
412
. Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg
A collection of short works includes the tales of a group of friends whose efforts to acquire a luxurious Manhattan sublet are halted by the September 11 attacks, a teacher's Roman holiday in the w...
- Google
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-
-
-
414
. The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang
The Vegetarian is a South Korean three-part drama novella written by Han Kang and first published in 2007. Based on Kang's 1997 short story "The Fruit of My Woman", The Vegetarian is set in modern-...
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-
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415
. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Ready Player One is a 2011 LitRPG science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopian 2040s, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for a...
-
-
-
416
. Looking for Alaska by John Green
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal ...
- Google
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-
-
417
. Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school's track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father.
- Google
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-
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418
. Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction “[These stories] vibrate with originality, queerness, sensuality and the strange.”—Roxane Gay “In these formally brilliant and emotionally charged t...
- Google
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419
. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
From the author of Fun Home -- the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others For twenty-five years Bechdel’s path-breaking Dyk...
- Google
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420
. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
The Notebook is a 1996 romantic novel by American novelist Nicholas Sparks, The novel was later adapted into a popular film of the same name, in 2004. The Indian Bollywood film, Zindagi Tere Naam, ...
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421
. The Shack by William P Young
Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation. Evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon ...
- Google
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422
. Left Behind by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling religious novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: the pretribulation, premillennial, Christian esch...
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-
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423
. I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
You can't run Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and so...
- Google
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424
. The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
Renowned hip-hop artist, writer, and activist Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable first novel. I came busting into the world during one of ...
- Google
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-
-
425
. Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh’s dark, confident, prickling stories are mostly about youngish men and women who have taken a wrong turn somewhere and find themselves hunkering down in nowhere towns, dismal cabin...
- NY Times
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-
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426
. American Innovations by Rivka Galchen
A brilliant new collection of short stories from "the conspicuously talented" (Time) Rivka Galchen In one of the intensely imaginative stories in Rivka's Galchen's American Innovations, a young wom...
- Google
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-
-
427
. The Indian Lawyer by James Welch
Author weaves metaphor with reality in this poignant novel about Native Americans and the penal system.
- Google
-
-
-
428
. The Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
A tour de force examination of the historical conflict between Native and Anglo Americans by critically acclaimed author Leslie Marmon Silko, under the hot desert sun of the American Southwest. In ...
- Google
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-
-
429
. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
A debut collection of extraordinary stories from an award-winning author.
- Google
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-
-
430
. A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Set during the French Revolution, this "riveting historical novel" ("The New Yorker") is the story of three young provincials who together helped destroy a way of life and, in the process, destroye...
- Google
-
-
-
431
. Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latte...
- Google
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-
-
432
. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for t...
- Google
-
-
-
433
. Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
In the tradition of Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" and James Jones's "The Thin Red Line," Marlantes tells the powerful and compelling story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and...
- Google
-
-
-
434
. The House Of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'Brien
Josie, the ailing, elderly inhabitant of an Irish country mansion, dwells in the shadowy world of remembered pain and loneliness. McGreevy, the terrorist, reintroduces the possibility of compassion...
- Google
-
-
-
435
. Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to America to work as an au pair for a wealthy couple. She begins to notice cracks in their beautiful façade at the same time that the mysteries of ...
- Google
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-
-
-
437
. Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy, CBE, FRSL (born 23 December 1955 in Glasgow) is a British poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed ...
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-
-
439
. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990) is a World Fantasy Award nominated novel written in collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
The book is ...
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440
. You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
In his first novel, Dave Eggers has written a moving and hilarious tale of two friends who fly around the world trying to give away a lot of money and free themselves from a profound loss. It remin...
- Google
-
-
-
441
. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
In a novel set in a small-town "Heaven," the rural Kentucky farmer-philosopher returns to his fictional Port William to explore themes of love, suffering, and joy. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.
- Google
-
-
-
442
. Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
Easy Rawlins, a tough World War II veteran and detective is hired by a financier and gangster to locate Daphne Monet, a search that leads him from elegant board meetings to the raucous jazz joints ...
- Google
-
-
-
443
. Drown by Junot Diaz
Originally published in 1997, Drown instantly garnered terrific acclaim. Moving from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, these heartbreaking, co...
- Google
-
-
-
444
. March by Geraldine Brooks
Mr. March, an abolitionist and chaplain, is driven by his conscience to leave his home and family in Concord, Massachusetts in order to participate in the war. During this time, March writes letter...
-
-
-
445
. Redeployment by Phil Klay
Redeployment is a collection of short stories by American writer Phil Klay. His first published book, it won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle's 2014 Joh...
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-
-
446
. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Behold the Dreamers is the 2016 debut novel by Imbolo Mbue. The novel details the experiences of two New York City families during the 2008 financial crisis: an immigrant family from Cameroon, the ...
-
-
-
447
. Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis
Winner of the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, this intoxicating story of a teenage girl who trades her a middle–class upbringing for a quest for meaning in 1980s Mexico is “a surreal, captivat...
- Google
-
-
-
448
. Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Less is a satirical comedy novel by American author Andrew Sean Greer, following gay author Arthur Less as he travels the world on a literary tour.
The book covers themes such as romantic love, ...
-
-
-
449
. The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
In this wordless retelling of an Aesop fable, an adventuresome mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds when he rescues the King of the Jungle.
- Google
-
-
-
450
. Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
Tenderly, observantly, incisively, Edith Pearlman captures life on the page like few other writers. She is a master of the short story, and this is a spectacular collection.
- Google
-
-
This list is generated from 130 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th. If you're interested in the details about how the rankings are generated and which lists are the most important(in my eyes) please check out the list details page.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections please feel free to e-mail me.
-
401 . A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
This is the remarkable story of one endearing dog’s search for his purpose over the course of several lives. More than just another charming dog story, A Dog’s Purpose touches on the universal ques...
- Google -
402 . Darkness Spoken: The Collected Poems by Ingeborg Bachmann
Greatly expanded bilingual edition of the 1994 Marsilio edition, Songs in Flight.
- Google -
403 . The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
It is 1937 and Amabelle Désir, a young Haitian woman living in the Dominican Republic, has built herself a life as the servant and companion of the wife of a wealthy colonel. She and Sebastien, a c...
- Google -
-
405 . LaRose by Louise Erdrich
LaRose is a novel by the author Louise Erdrich, published in 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers. The book was reviewed by multiple publications, including The New York Times, The Kansas City Star, Wi...
-
406 . All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.
- Google -
407 . A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
A Lesson Before Dying is Ernest J. Gaines' eighth novel, published in 1993. "A Lesson Before Dying" is a story of two African-American men scrabbling to attain their manhood in a deeply prejudic...
-
408 . Let the Great World Spin: A Novel by Colum McCann
In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is runnin...
- Google -
409 . The Orphan Master's Son: A Novel by Adam Johnson
The son of an influential father who runs an orphan work camp, Pak Jun Do rises to prominence using instinctive talents and eventually becomes a professional kidnapper and romantic rival to Kim Jon...
- Google -
410 . The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. His older sister, Karin, his only near kin, returns reluctantly to their h...
-
411 . Empire Falls by Richard Russo
A small, fictional mill town in Maine called Empire Falls, though once booming in industry, is quickly deteriorating. Owned by the powerful Whiting family, the town can no longer sustain itself. Se...
-
412 . Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg
A collection of short works includes the tales of a group of friends whose efforts to acquire a luxurious Manhattan sublet are halted by the September 11 attacks, a teacher's Roman holiday in the w...
- Google -
414 . The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang
The Vegetarian is a South Korean three-part drama novella written by Han Kang and first published in 2007. Based on Kang's 1997 short story "The Fruit of My Woman", The Vegetarian is set in modern-...
-
415 . Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Ready Player One is a 2011 LitRPG science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopian 2040s, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for a...
-
416 . Looking for Alaska by John Green
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal ...
- Google -
417 . Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Aspiring to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school's track team, gifted runner Ghost finds his goal challenged by a tragic past with a violent father.
- Google -
418 . Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado
Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction “[These stories] vibrate with originality, queerness, sensuality and the strange.”—Roxane Gay “In these formally brilliant and emotionally charged t...
- Google -
419 . The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
From the author of Fun Home -- the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others For twenty-five years Bechdel’s path-breaking Dyk...
- Google -
420 . The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
The Notebook is a 1996 romantic novel by American novelist Nicholas Sparks, The novel was later adapted into a popular film of the same name, in 2004. The Indian Bollywood film, Zindagi Tere Naam, ...
-
421 . The Shack by William P Young
Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation. Evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon ...
- Google -
422 . Left Behind by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
Left Behind is a series of 16 best-selling religious novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: the pretribulation, premillennial, Christian esch...
-
423 . I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
You can't run Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and so...
- Google -
424 . The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
Renowned hip-hop artist, writer, and activist Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable first novel. I came busting into the world during one of ...
- Google -
425 . Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh’s dark, confident, prickling stories are mostly about youngish men and women who have taken a wrong turn somewhere and find themselves hunkering down in nowhere towns, dismal cabin...
- NY Times -
426 . American Innovations by Rivka Galchen
A brilliant new collection of short stories from "the conspicuously talented" (Time) Rivka Galchen In one of the intensely imaginative stories in Rivka's Galchen's American Innovations, a young wom...
- Google -
427 . The Indian Lawyer by James Welch
Author weaves metaphor with reality in this poignant novel about Native Americans and the penal system.
- Google -
428 . The Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
A tour de force examination of the historical conflict between Native and Anglo Americans by critically acclaimed author Leslie Marmon Silko, under the hot desert sun of the American Southwest. In ...
- Google -
429 . Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
A debut collection of extraordinary stories from an award-winning author.
- Google -
430 . A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Set during the French Revolution, this "riveting historical novel" ("The New Yorker") is the story of three young provincials who together helped destroy a way of life and, in the process, destroye...
- Google -
431 . Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latte...
- Google -
432 . Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for t...
- Google -
433 . Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
In the tradition of Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" and James Jones's "The Thin Red Line," Marlantes tells the powerful and compelling story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and...
- Google -
434 . The House Of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'Brien
Josie, the ailing, elderly inhabitant of an Irish country mansion, dwells in the shadowy world of remembered pain and loneliness. McGreevy, the terrorist, reintroduces the possibility of compassion...
- Google -
435 . Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to America to work as an au pair for a wealthy couple. She begins to notice cracks in their beautiful façade at the same time that the mysteries of ...
- Google -
-
437 . Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy, CBE, FRSL (born 23 December 1955 in Glasgow) is a British poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed ...
-
-
439 . Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990) is a World Fantasy Award nominated novel written in collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The book is ...
-
440 . You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
In his first novel, Dave Eggers has written a moving and hilarious tale of two friends who fly around the world trying to give away a lot of money and free themselves from a profound loss. It remin...
- Google -
441 . Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
In a novel set in a small-town "Heaven," the rural Kentucky farmer-philosopher returns to his fictional Port William to explore themes of love, suffering, and joy. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.
- Google -
442 . Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
Easy Rawlins, a tough World War II veteran and detective is hired by a financier and gangster to locate Daphne Monet, a search that leads him from elegant board meetings to the raucous jazz joints ...
- Google -
443 . Drown by Junot Diaz
Originally published in 1997, Drown instantly garnered terrific acclaim. Moving from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, these heartbreaking, co...
- Google -
444 . March by Geraldine Brooks
Mr. March, an abolitionist and chaplain, is driven by his conscience to leave his home and family in Concord, Massachusetts in order to participate in the war. During this time, March writes letter...
-
445 . Redeployment by Phil Klay
Redeployment is a collection of short stories by American writer Phil Klay. His first published book, it won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle's 2014 Joh...
-
446 . Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Behold the Dreamers is the 2016 debut novel by Imbolo Mbue. The novel details the experiences of two New York City families during the 2008 financial crisis: an immigrant family from Cameroon, the ...
-
447 . Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis
Winner of the 2020 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, this intoxicating story of a teenage girl who trades her a middle–class upbringing for a quest for meaning in 1980s Mexico is “a surreal, captivat...
- Google -
448 . Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Less is a satirical comedy novel by American author Andrew Sean Greer, following gay author Arthur Less as he travels the world on a literary tour. The book covers themes such as romantic love, ...
-
449 . The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
In this wordless retelling of an Aesop fable, an adventuresome mouse proves that even small creatures are capable of great deeds when he rescues the King of the Jungle.
- Google -
450 . Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
Tenderly, observantly, incisively, Edith Pearlman captures life on the page like few other writers. She is a master of the short story, and this is a spectacular collection.
- Google