But there are an awful lot of holes. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and prejudice. Years later, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. The four March sisters couldn't be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school.
Years later, Kathy is a young woman and Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her.
Through an art project, she faces her bullies and fights back. Ponyboy is pretty sure that he's got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers and his friends. But one night someone takes things too far, and Ponyboy's world is turned upside down Jess is 15 years old and waiting for the world to end.
Her evangelical father has packed up the family to drive west to California. When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister's young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: The introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him to the real world.
Peter and Wendy tells the classic story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland. The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: Esther breaks down with such intensity that her insanity becomes completely real and even rational. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual.
Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus.
- Un garibaldino di nome Chiara (Italian Edition);
- Wild Parsnips.
- Hombre.
- The Mile-Long Spaceship.
- A Discovery of Witches!
- Dramas of the Past on the Twentieth-Century Stage: In History’s Wings (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies).
- CARR (Growing Pains, #1) by Trisha Nikole!
Tristran thorn promised to bring back a fallen star. So he sets out on a journey to fulfill the request of his beloved, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester—and stumbles into the enchanted realm that lies beyond the wall of his English country town. From the day Stargirl arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of her name. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship.
As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus -- three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Shy, awkward Bastian is amazed to discover that he has become a character in the mysterious book he is reading and that he has an important mission to fulfill.
William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. Macy soon discovers that the things you expect least are sometimes the things you need most. He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young.
A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse Set over the course of one school year in , this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. We're using cookies to improve your experience. Click Here to find out more. Culture Like Follow Follow. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Mary, an orphaned girl, is sent to live with her uncle at a Yorkshire mansion of at the edge of a vast lonely moor.
The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time by Mark Haddon This improbable story of a year-old autistic boy, Christopher, follows him on a quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood poodle. Hatchet by Gary Paulson year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the plane he is flying crashes. The Giver by Lois Lowry A haunting story that centers on year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal world of conformity and contentment.
My biggest problem with this story isn't the love interest, though he's pretty difficult to stomach; it's the conflict development around the protagonist. Diana, our heroine, suddenly gets what amounts to unlimited power about halfway into the book, power which she sometimes uses and some times does not. This is not clear. The weak explanation for this is that she is panicked on some occasions and uncertain on others.
This contrasts jarringly with the fact that Superman continually tells her how brave and decisive she is, and she does occasionally act bravely and decisively. She seems to have sudden attacks of damsel-in-distress, an affliction which does not follow from her other behaviors or her internal monologue.
It's understandable why the author has to do this; she's made her protagonist omnipotent. Without these character anomalies, the text has no conflict and the plot is broken. However, with these anomalies, the main character is broken. This book is fundamentally flawed. What I did love about this book were the descriptions of the texts and the settings.
The author does a lovely job bringing to life the various settings and props of her story. The text suggest that quite a substantial amount of research provides the foundation for this story, and I hope that's true. Not being a scholar of medieval manuscripts, I don't know. Nothing stood out as a glaring error to me, and what little bit I did recognize meshed with what I knew. The book is clearly set up for a sequel, probably a trilogy. In future installments I hope the author puts some limits and rules on the protagonist's power, especially if they explain some of her erratic choices in the first novel.
It's too late to fix the saccharine plasticity of the protagonist and her man, but perhaps this is targeting just romance readers who are used to slapping Edward Cullen's romantic perfection onto Fabio's physique and sliding a couple of PhD's and a stock portfolio into his back pocket. It could have been so much more than that.
I would certainly consider reading a Harkness book again. It's obvious from this book that the woman knows how to write. I'd just prefer a little less perfection in the central characters. View all 21 comments. Rabid Reads This book. Have you ever liked something almost against your will? Something that encompasses roughly half of the things you hate in reference to said thing? Welcome to my life. What can be construed as insta-love. Get a room, already. But none of those things are an issue here. By the time it becomes obvious that, yes, these two feel more for each other than trepidation and annoyance, enough time has elapsed to almost warrant the depth of emotion, and the rest can be chalked up to fate, animal instinct, mating imperative, etc.
A super, special snowflake who denies her super, special snowflakeness. Not only is Diana the last in a powerful line of matriarchal witches, her father was a powerful warlock in his own right. So powerful that a union between her mother and father was strongly discouraged by the powers that be. But when her parents were killed when Diana was seven, she assumes their deaths were the result of their abilities and refuses to have anything to do with magic.
Super, secret information withholding. And this is perhaps the one I have the hardest time with. I cannot stand it when someone in a position of authority, older, more experienced, etc. I now know why I like this book despite the major book peeves lurking around every corner.
And besides those peeves getting passes, A Discovery of Witches is just entertaining. It might have taken me awhile to like Diana, but I instantly respected her, and I was as gone for Matthew as she was the moment he showed up. Lots of bookish fun in this book. The second that Matthew and Diana show up at her childhood home, I could not put the book down. The house is sentient and highly opinionated. A couple of new secondaries show up, one of which is absolutely darling. This book is awesome, just read it.
View all 59 comments. Feb 16, Amanda rated it did not like it Recommends it for: Recommended to Amanda by: In A Discovery of Witches , we clueless humans have no idea that we share our world with witches, vampires and daemons creatures whose manic bursts of creativity result in some of the world's greatest artistic works.
One would certainly think so. So, what kind of shenanigans does this preternatural lot get up to while we live our ordinary lives? Behold the books that shall be read! Thrill to the revelation that trips to the library will be made time and time again In A Discovery of Witches , we clueless humans have no idea that we share our world with witches, vampires and daemons creatures whose manic bursts of creativity result in some of the world's greatest artistic works. Thrill to the revelation that trips to the library will be made time and time again!
Gasp as cups of warm tea are made and consumed! Swoon as vampires are repeatedly described as smelling of baked goods! And grip the edge of your seat for the most bizarre yoga-scene in the history of the written word! Vampires, witches, and daemons aren't like you and me--in fact, our lives are infinitely more interesting than theirs. Seriously, what the hell is this? The best I can tell is that it's Twilight for grown-ups. And I can't believe I'm going to say this, but here it goes: Suddenly vampires playing baseball during thunderstorms seems down right genius compared to vampires attending a supernatural yoga class.
You want to drain all the sex appeal right out of your vampiric leading man? Just mention him doing some peculiar yoga move where he seems to be holding himself up vertically from the floor by nothing but his ear. And then prattle on about how he's cold. And always has his hands stuffed in his charcoal trousers. And gets ridiculously enraged every time someone mentions blood because.
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And how he maintains control of himself by always grasping the talisman he wears beneath his some-shade-of-grey sweater. And then have him ply the witch he is inexplicably drawn to with hundreds of bottles of wine and query her as to what every single one tastes like. Now there's a live wire! Diana Bishop spends her days running, rowing, yoga-ing?
Oh, and never using her magic because she wants to be just like us. Well, actually, she does use her magic every now and then, but only when it's really important. Like fixing her washing machine or getting a book off of a really high shelf. But other than that, it's all ixnay on the magic-ay.
At pages in, I decided I couldn't stomach it any more. After all, up to that point, I had already been treated to a baker's dozen of the same basic scene: It's like freaking Groundhog Day without Bill Murray. And Groundhog Day ain't shit without Bill Murray. And neither is A Discovery of Witches. When I decided I had a life to live, Matthew was fervently explaining how daemons, witches, and vampires might be going extinct!
To which I can only ask, so what's the problem? Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder View all 58 comments. Nov 06, seak rated it did not like it Recommends it for: I tried really hard, but wow this book was boring. I think it's because I've done way too much academic research in my 20 years of schooling to ever find it remotely entertaining. I think the part where the witches, vampires, demons, etc. Okay, it's probably more of a calm indifference, but had I wasted any more time this would be more fitt I tried really hard, but wow this book was boring.
Okay, it's probably more of a calm indifference, but had I wasted any more time this would be more fitting. View all 44 comments. Dec 05, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: Beyond what I said in my original review, I really enjoyed all the interwoven devices that carry all the way through all three books.
I knew I'd enjoy a re-read even as I finished the third book since there are so many great historical details as well as more developed characters, later on, but I think I may have enjoyed this novel more this time around purely for its own sake. Just knowing what happens at the end and where Diana winds up is good enough to chortle over, all by itself. The next is pure historical fiction, of course. What a surprising find. Sure, I expected a decent urban fantasy, but I hadn't expected a tome redolent of history, alchemy, and even Templar conspiracies.
In retrospect, I wish that all urban fantasy novels had more history and alchemy and Templar conspiracies. The past is rich and full of just as much intrigue as anything we've got today, after all, and denying the fact won't make so many modern novels better. It's true that I expected a novel with a scholarly feel, and it's equally true that I expected a witch with equal parts frailty and overpowered magic, but unlike a number of completely unfair reviews, I didn't have a problem with characters that displayed actual human complexities.
The overpowered magic was nothing of the sort. I saw a novel-long setup and decent foreshadowing. The time in the novel is ripe for a big change, and I love the story's fearlessness. I'm fully invested in each and every character that has shown up and feel how alive they are. The novel deserves high praise much thought.
At this point, I'm pretty sure we're seeing the re birth of a goddess, and the ride is as important as the destination. The writing is so finely honed that I have no problems at all with the introduction of new power and new twists because even at the very beginning there were finely woven threads that reinforced all revelations. I can't wait to read the next two. View all 42 comments. Nov 06, mark monday rated it did not like it Shelves: Harkness, were you being paid by the word or something?
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View all 29 comments. Though it doesn't beat the Harry Potter series and nothing ever will , it sure is up there in the running with my favorites. Have I found a new series after Potter? Well, I won't get too carried away, but this book is one of my favorites. I have only two complaints about this book. The more the book went on, the better it got, and the more I couldn't stop reading. I felt like I was in a rut during the middle, but that one thing happened and I kept on trucking, thankfully. The second is the fact that Diana Bishop, having a P. D, seemed immature and naive during a couple parts of the book.
But, I'm sure she will grow as a person throughout the next two books. I have read many reviews regarding this book and at some point they irritate me: Yes, there are some points in the book where the romance seems a bit "Twilight-y. If you've read Twilight, you may or may not compare the romance to it, but I feel that Diana and Matthew's relationship was far less awkward, more natural, and sweet.
Meyer would have taken some advice from our dear old Deborah. Moving on from my soap-box, the book was fascinating. The author included so much historic detail that I, a fellow historian, also love and strive to learn about. Her explanations and enormous amounts of detail provided awesome imagery that really helped me read and cherish the book. I loved it, the characters, and the complete storyline; and until the next book, I will be hanging on by a thin thread.
View all 15 comments. Upon reflection, some of my initial comments were a little too fangirl in style and my initial reference to Twilight was being misconstrued or used to make a point.. After many years and quite a few rereadings of this book, my enthusiasm for it has not waned, but I can appreciate why it troubles some readers. I believe one can be a thinking, modern and independent woman and yet still appreciate a male character who pos [In the interests of full disclosure, I edited this review in September I believe one can be a thinking, modern and independent woman and yet still appreciate a male character who possesses the chivalry and courtliness and, at times, chauvinism of another time.
I love many different genres of books, but books like this really get me excited; they take me out of myself, to a world that my rational brain tells me doesn't exist, but which my heart whispers could be right under my nose. I stayed up until after 1am two nights in a row to read more of this book and was even almost late back to work at lunchtime, because I was so completely absorbed in it.
I even forwent an evening meal to finish it. A Discovery of Witches is one of the most enjoyable books that I have read in a very long time and I loved the feeling of being completely submerged in a different life and a different world. I really liked Diana and admired her verve and athleticism, so different from my own book-worm, sedentary nature.
I am also fascinated by the idea of being a historian of science and feel like I was cheated out of the belief that I could be anything as a teenager! Reading this book was so satisfying and I felt that I was getting just the right mix of romance, adventure, history, character development and magic. I don't know how I will contain myself until the release of the next book, as I am quite apprehensive about the "trip" Matthew and Diana embarked upon at the end of the book.
If you have a taste for the supernatural tempered by real life choices and adult dilemmas, then you are in for a treat of the best kind in reading this book. View all 24 comments. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches. The world is huge and the author not only takes us around the world but also tells us about its history through the Book of Life.
The protagonist of the story has distanced herself from her magic and any other supernatural concept in the world after she lost her parents as a child. The protagonist, Diana Bishop, is one of the Bishop witches, a very well known family of witches. But ever since she was a child Diana could never cast a proper spell and her powers never seemed to have truly manifested. She is a history professor, a scholar, who has won quite a few awards, and is now dabbling in alchemy. One day, Diana Bishop calls a magic book, Ashmole , from the Bodleian library, not knowing its significance.
The book, Ashmole , also known as the Book of Origins is coveted by all 3 magical and supernatural species. Witches, vampires, and daemons have all lived lives separate from each other unbeknownst to humans who live in blissful ignorance. Whenever two or more of their kind are around humans they tend to draw attention but human disbelief covers it up. Once the book of life was called witches, vampires, and daemons are following Diana to figure out how she called on a book no one has seen for centuries and each of them want to make it their own with a desperate need to make it to the top of the food chain.
And as always we have the cliche paranormal forbidden romance, but I enjoyed it all the same. I feel like at this point there is so much literature out in the world that no matter what you write it will end up being at least slightly cliche in reference to something else. Anyways, in this book Diana meets Matthew de Clairmont one of the most powerful vampires alive or should I say dead after she finds Ashmole Matthew, like the others, wants to know the contents of the book of life, but not to destroy another species but to find out how to protect them all from extinction as they seem to be getting weaker by every generation.
Even the humans introduced in this books and later play a great role in the overall plot.
I loved that even though it is a paranormal series the author ignore the human, and technological, aspect of the world and incorporated it in the perfect way. The de Clermont family hierarchy s fascinating and just gets more interesting and complex through the series. The characteristics of vampire and their habits is explained well and slightly hilarious as the protagonist knows about as much as we do. There is one sentence in the third book that really cracked me up.
When I sleep, which is not often, I prefer a bed to a coffin. If you try to stake me, the wood will likely splinter before it enters my skin. And one last thing: I do not, nor have I ever, sparkled. The first book acts a great introduction to a huge plot behind the scenes and is concluded fabulously in the third book. The characters each have unique personalities and draw out different sides in each other. The story is put down very well and I had a great time making my way through it despite all the new releases vying for my attention.
View all 13 comments. Let me preface this review with me saying that this is my personal opinion. Nothing makes me happier than books making people happy, and if A Discovery of Witches is your favorite book, than I am truly happy for you. Nothing offended me or anything like that, this book was just ungodly boring. I mean, there is a very alpha vampire in here that marks his territory and claims what h Let me preface this review with me saying that this is my personal opinion.
A Discovery of Witches is sort of like an adult Twilight. And the book starts when Diana touches a book unlike any other she has ever touched before. And together, they try to unlock the clues that will tell them about the book that Diana touched that was unlike any other. At first, I loved the atmosphere. Oxford, libraries, foggy autumn mornings.
I mean, who could resist that? And this was just a chore to read. Every time Diana rowed, or rode a horse, or made tea, or made toast, my eyes just rolled farther back in my head. All of these actions are fine, but once you read about them over times your body just wants to self combust. In conclusion, the atmosphere was nice and I like how the time frame synced with Halloween, since I was reading this right before Halloween. And it is so damn accurate to the plot of this novel.
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View all 36 comments. Mar 19, carol. Redeemed only through a nice use of language. Harlequin romance meets Twilight. Most irritating similarity to Twilight: Yes, that's how strong her moral determination is--looking Redeemed only through a nice use of language. Yes, that's how strong her moral determination is--looking for a ladder trumps principle. Stereotypes annoy me, and A Discovery of Witches is full of romantic stereotypes. If it starts to feel like you've read it before, it's because you have.
Bookish orphaned heroine meets dark, brooding man. Initially annoyed by his arrogance, she segues quickly into accommodation, and then lust. Brooding man finds his thoughts preoccupied with her quiet beauty, with something noticeably sparkly about her, and briefly runs away from their building relationship to come to terms with his past. Heroine and hero reunite, enjoy brief interlude, attend the most snort-worthy yoga class ever described in literature, then unite to defend their love against others. We are supposed to rave because it's a vampire and witch, and somehow that makes it all different.
Except more than being vampire and witch, they are really doctor-geneticist and historian. I ended up skimming last half of the book just because my book OCD can't stand not knowing the end to a plot. My favorite review on this was done by Amanda: View all 46 comments. Aug 05, Bookdragon Sean rated it liked it Shelves: This could have been a great book.
The series has a lot going for it. The author has achieved a perfect level of magic combined with mystery and academia. But this is very much in a similar vein to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The characters explore libraries yay libraries! The protagonist comes across a very unusual book, a book of magic.
The tension is here very early on, the narrative drive is here very on, though it all goe This could have been a great book. The tension is here very early on, the narrative drive is here very on, though it all goes downhill as the story progresses. She drew me with the enchanting mysteries of magic and books: But I knew there was something odd about it from the moment I collected it. The protagonist Diana Bishop is a witch coming out of the magic closet; she also likes to go rowing, which the author tells us at every opportunity.
She happens to be a Dr in science history. She quickly falls in love with a mystery man she meets at the library; he is shrouded in darkness and secrecy. She becomes enamoured with him. Matthew de Clairmont is an ancient vampire who is also a genetic researcher amongst other things. We hear lots about his prowess as a vampire, but never actually see it.
When there was a chance for him to use his abilities, and demonstrate the strength of vampires in this world, he stands back and does nothing. He becomes a piece of furniture and just watches the action. We later learn that he practices yoga, which just ruins the entire vampire image. How can this guy ever be considered threatening after that? He loses all of the seductive powers of vampirism and enters the realms of weird. There are some good things about this book.
The idea of magic behind a world of fact and academic is great. The protagonist goes on to discover what she is capable of in a tale of magic oozing with possibilities. But, these possibilities are never really fulfilled. She follows him like a little lost dog, for some reason.
I wanted to read about a woman who learns about herself and the world through her own willpower not because of the help of an apparently powerful vampire nerd. The state religion is worship of the goddess Ydgrun ie "Mrs Grundy" - bourgeois morality. Does it sound familiar? Higgs escapes by balloon, with the sweetheart he has found there. He ends up keeping his promise, witnessing the French revolution and its Napoleonic aftermath from the perspective of the Italian treetops.
Drafted soon after Calvino's break with communism over the invasion of Hungary, the novel can be read as a fable about intellectual commitments.
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At the same time, it's a perfectly turned fantasy, densely imagined but lightly written in a style modelled on Voltaire and Robert Louis Stevenson. Chris Tayler Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Campbell has long been one of the masters of psychological horror, proving again and again that what's in our heads is far scarier than any monster lurking in the shadows. In this novel, the domineering old spinster Queenie dies - a relief to those around her. Her niece Alison inherits the house, but soon starts to suspect that the old woman is taking over her eight-year-old daughter Rowan.
A paranoid, disturbing masterpiece. The intellectuals' favourite children's story began as an improvised tale told by an Oxford mathematics don to a colleague's daughters; later readers have found absurdism, political satire and linguistic philosophy in a work that, years on, remains fertile and fresh, crisp yet mysterious, and endlessly open to intepretation.
Alice, while reading in a meadow, sees a white rabbit rush by, feverishly consulting a watch. She follows him down a hole Freudian analysis, as elsewhere in the story, is all too easy , where she grows and shrinks in size and encounters creatures mythological, extinct and invented. Morbid jokes and gleeful subversion abound. The trippier sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and, like its predecessor, illustrated by John Tenniel. More donnish in tone, this fantasy follows Alice into a mirror world in which everything is reversed.
Her journey is based on chess moves, during the course of which she meets such figures as Humpty Dumpty and the riddling twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee. More challenging intellectually than the first instalment, it explores loneliness, language and the logic of dreams. The year is - and other times. Fevvers, aerialiste, circus performer and a virgin, claims she was not born, but hatched out of an egg.
She has two large and wonderful wings. In fact, she is large and wonderful in every way, from her false eyelashes to her ebullient and astonishing adventures. The journalist Jack Walser comes to interview her and stays to love and wonder, as will every reader of this entirely original extravaganza, which deftly and wittily questions every assumption we make about the lives of men and women on this planet. Carmen Callil Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop.
The golden age of the American comic book coincided with the outbreak of the second world war and was spearheaded by first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants who installed square-jawed supermen as bulwarks against the forces of evil. Chabon's Pulitzer prize-winning picaresque charts the rise of two young cartoonists, Klayman and Kavalier. It celebrates the transformative power of pop culture, and reveals the harsh truths behind the hyperreal fantasies.
XB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop.
CARR (Growing Pains, #1)
Clarke's third novel fuses science and mysticism in an optimistic treatise describing the transcendence of humankind from petty, warring beings to the guardians of utopia, and beyond. One of the first major works to present alien arrival as beneficent, it describes the slow process of social transformation when the Overlords come to Earth and guide us to the light.
Humanity ultimately transcends the physical and joins a cosmic overmind, so ushering in the childhood's end of the title EB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Chesterton's "nightmare", as he subtitled it, combines Edwardian delicacy with wonderfully melodramatic tub-thumping - beautiful sunsets and Armageddon - to create an Earth as strange as any far-distant planet.
Secret policemen infiltrate an anarchist cabal bent on destruction, whose members are known only by the days of the week; but behind each one's disguise, they discover only another policeman. At the centre of all is the terrifying Sunday, a superhuman force of mischief and pandemonium. Chesterton's distorting mirror combines spinetingling terror with round farce to give a fascinating perspective on Edwardian fears of and flirtations with anarchism, nihilism and a world without god.
Clarke's first novel is a vast, hugely satisfying alternative history, a decade in the writing, about the revival of magic - which had fallen into dusty, theoretical scholarship - in the early 19th century. Two rival magicians flex their new powers, pursuing military glory and power at court, striking a dangerous alliance with the Faerie King, and falling into passionate enmity over the use and meaning of the supernatural. The book is studded with footnotes both scholarly and comical, layered with literary pastiche, and invents a whole new strain of folklore: This classic by an unjustly neglected writer tells the story of Drove and Pallahaxi-Browneyes on a far-flung alien world which undergoes long periods of summer and gruelling winters lasting some 40 years.
It's both a love story and a war story, and a deeply felt essay, ahead of its time, about how all living things are mutually dependant. This is just the kind of jargon-free, humane, character-driven novel to convert sceptical readers to science fiction. Coupland began Girlfriend in a Coma in "probably the darkest period of my life", and it shows. Listening to the Smiths - whose single gave the book its title - can't have helped. This is a story about the end of the world, and the general falling-off that precedes it, as year-old Karen loses first her virginity, then consciousness.
When she reawakens more than a decade later, the young people she knew and loved have died, become junkies or or simply lost that new-teenager smell. Wondering what the future holds? It's wrinkles, disillusionment and the big sleep. It's not often you get to read a book vertically as well as horizontally, but there is much that is uncommon about House of Leaves. It's ostensibly a horror story, but the multiple narrations and typographical tricks - including one chapter that cuts down through the middle of the book - make it as much a comment on metatextuality as a novel.
That said, the creepiness stays with you, especially the house that keeps stealthily remodelling itself: Carrie O'Grady Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. It wasn't a problem at first: But the changes don't stop there: A curly tail, trotters and a snout are not far off. Darrieussecq's modern philosophical tale is witty, telling and hearteningly feminist. Joanna Biggs Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. The setting is a post-apocalyptic future, long past the age of humans.
Aliens have taken on the forms of human archetypes, in an attempt to come to some understanding of human civilisation and play out the myths of the planet's far past. The novel follows Lobey, who as Orpheus embarks on a quest to bring his lover back from the dead. With lush, poetic imagery and the innovative use of mythic archetypes, Delaney brilliantly delineates the human condition. Dick's novel became the basis for the film Blade Runner, which prompted a resurgence of interest in the man and his works, but similarities film and novel are slight.
Here California is under-populated and most animals are extinct; citizens keep electric pets instead. In order to afford a real sheep and so affirm his empathy as a human being, Deckard hunts rogue androids, who lack empathy. As ever with Dick, pathos abounds and with it the inquiry into what is human and what is fake. Much imitated "alternative universe" novel by the wayward genius of the genre.
The Axis has won the second world war. Imperial Japan occupies the west coast of America; more tyrannically, Nazi Germany under Martin Bormann, Hitler having died of syphilis takes over the east coast. The Californian lifestyle adapts well to its oriental master. Germany, although on the brink of space travel and the possessor of vast tracts of Russia, is teetering on collapse. The novel is multi-plotted, its random progression determined, Dick tells us, by consultation with the Chinese I Ching.
Foucault's Pendulum followed the massive success of Eco's The Name of the Rose, and in complexity, intrigue, labyrinthine plotting and historical scope it is every bit as extravagant. Eco's tale of three Milanese publishers, who feed occult and mystic knowledge into a computer to see what invented connections are created, tapped into the worldwide love of conspiracy theories, particularly those steeped in historical confusion. As "The Plan" takes over their lives and becomes reality, the novel turns into a brilliant historical thriller of its own that inspired a similar level of obsession among fans.
Nicola Barr Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. A woman drives around the Scottish highlands, all cleavage and lipstick, picking up well-built male hitchhikers - but there's something odd behind her thick pebble glasses Faber's first novel refreshes the elements of horror and SF in luminous, unearthly prose, building with masterly control into a page-turning existential thriller that can also be read as an allegory of animal rights. And in the character of Isserley - her curiosity, resignation, wonderment and pain - he paints an immensely affecting portrait of how it feels to be irreparably damaged and immeasurably far from home.
Determined to extricate himself from an increasingly serious relationship, graduate Nicholas Urfe takes a job as an English teacher on a small Greek island.