Fiction Recommendations

Far and away one of my favorite novels of all time, this book feels like a mystery where instead of figuring out whodunit, you are unraveling the past to put the present into context. I loved the narrative style, which might remind you of Joesph Boyden's Three Day Road, and the powerful role that the natural setting played. It's an import, so it's expensive, but it's worth it. 

This is unlike any other Werewolf novel I've ever read and wonderfully so. It's like a cross between Nick Cave and Kelly Armstrong, with a bit of existentialism mixed in. I has happily blown away by the ending. It's visceral and intellectual, full of sex and violence and all the things werewolves should be surrounded by.

This masterful work of epic historical fiction will entertain and educate . I knew nothing about the Philippine–American War and thanks to Sayles, I feel like I understand what drove people on both sides of the conflict. He dips you into one characters point of view, and then pulls you out only to do the same thing with another character. It's a beautiful novel and a powerfully constructed story. 

After falling in love with A Visit from the Goon Squad, I was compelled to read Egan’s other books, which cemented her status as my new favorite author. After a horrific accident, Charlotte is left to come to terms with her still beautiful, but changed, face. This is a sharp, edgy, and incisive look at identity, image, and our culture.

As their alligator wrestling theme park falls into decline, the Bigtree clan falls apart. Chief, the patriarch, disappears, elder brother Kiwi runs off to the mainland, oldest sister Ossie falls in love with a ghost, and young Ava is left to try and save them. This is an incredibly weird book, with dark undertones, a surprisingly light voice, and wildly eclectic characters. 

After a horrific crime shocked a small town, the hunt for the guilty was on. After the arrests, Capote spent time in the town, at the trial, and with the criminals involved, hearing the stories, and observing the proceedings. The result of his efforts is this chilling, unique, and thorough examination of a horrific crime, its aftermath, and the people involved.  

In a post 9/11 New York Oskar Schell tries to cope with the loss of his father through an unusual quest. Having found a mysterious key, Oskar searches the city for its matching lock.  Funny, heartwarming, and a little bit bizarre,  Foer’s unique style is a must read.  

Family secrets, teenage turmoil, love, sex, death…no ones writes a page turner like Jodi Picoult! Interestingly spliced with a graphic  novel mirroring the character’s emotional journey through a personal hell—this book will keep you on the edge of your seat.  

Junior cartographer T. S. Spivet maps what he sees: translating the world as he knows into diagrams and detailed drawings. His (fully annotated) journey from Montana to the Smithsonian combines, as Stephen King puts it, “Mark Twain, Thomas Pynchon, and Little Miss Sunshine.” Like nothing else I’ve read before.  

If you’re the kind of grown-up who obsesses over fairy tales, you should be reading this series. Welcome to Fabletown, a secret city-within-a-city where Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, Goldilocks and others reluctantly cohabitate after being exiled from their homeland by an evil empire. The art is stunning and sexy, and the stories told will seriously mess with your Disney memories.