The First Stop for Literature Lovers
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Many have perhaps forgotten the story of the Knoteks (or never heard of it, since it happened in the early 2000s), but Gregg Olsen is certainly here to rectify that with his true crime hit book, If You Tell. In it, he follows the lives of Nikki, Sami and Tori Knotek, who have the misfortune of being daughters to an insanely evil and psychotic mother, Michelle, whose crimes made all the national headlines back in 2004.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Ray Bradbury has contributed more than he could have probably every hoped for to the realm of science-fiction, shaping it with his groundbreaking and unique stories containing profound meditations on modern society. Fahrenheit 451 is probably his best-known novel, telling the story of Guy Montag, a “fireman” whose job consists of burning books en masse, one day after the next, until a chance encounter challenges him to consider all he has ever known and believed.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Stephanie Wrobel is definitely making a nice little niche for herself in the realm of psychological thrillers, slowly building her resume upwards, as she did most recently with The Hitchcock Hotel. The novel follows a group of college friends attending a reunion organized by one of them, now the owner of a Hitchcock-themed hotel. However, it doesn’t take long for strange occurrences to begin taking place, leading to the revelation of some dark secrets, and for one of them, perhaps even murder.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Alex Michaelides entered the world of literature more or less out of nowhere with a real bang, titled The Silent Patient, earning him recognition as an international bestselling author. The story following a criminal psychotherapist who tries to extract the truth from an artist who never spoke a word after deciding to shoot her husband five times in the face without offering any sort of explanation to anyone.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Neal Stephenson looks like he’ll never tire from painting portraits of the future, something he’s being doing quite successfully for a while, though I think some would argue one of his best efforts in that regard was all the way back in 1995 when he wrote The Diamond Age. Taking us decades into the future, it tells the story of a young girl whose life was nothing but hopeless ruin, until she finds “The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” perhaps the most consequential and advanced piece of nanotechnology in her time. In one fell swoop, the little girl’s fate changed forever.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Thomas Pynchon has been responsible for some of the more original works of writing in the last few decades, some of them even earning the accolade of bestsellers. In The Crying of Lot 49, he takes a relatively innocuous-looking Californian housewife, Oedipa Maas, and thrusts her deep into a truly mad, complex and winding conspiracy involving anything from a mad scientist to stamp collecting.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Elizabeth Moon is no stranger to writing memorable and original pieces of literature (for which she has been recognized time and time again), and with Remnant Population she certainly keeps up her stride, to say the least. It tells the story of Ofelia, a woman who chooses to stay behind in her space colony after all the others get shipped off elsewhere, with the fantasy of living her days out in blissful solitude… however, such lofty dreams are hardly meant to be.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Kurt Vonnegut has given us no shortage of piercing and poignant stories getting right to the heart of what’s wrong in modern American society, but among them, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater flew a little under the radar (in relative terms). It follow the life of Elliot Rosewater, a disillusioned millionaire whose conscience leads him to move the headquarters of his Rosewater Foundation to his former family home, Rosewater, Indiana, where he does all he can for the poor people living there.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Mark Z. Danielewski may have written a few highly-acclaimed novels (with more to come, hopefully), but it seems none have managed to capture the public’s imagination like his debut, House of Leaves. In short, it follows a family who, shortly after moving into a new house, see a doorway appear in their living room, leading to an impossible labyrinth… which of course, some are only too keen to explore.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Alistair MacLean has written so many bestsellers later on in his career, it is easy to forget he had some earlier novels too which are well worth a read despite being flying under the radar, a prime example being Fear is the Key. Turned into a movie approximately ten years after its publication, the novel tells the story of multiple parties chasing after a mysteriously-sunken treasure, but not without their own nefarious hidden agendas.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Amy Tintera has, until now, been largely known for writing superb young adult novels, many of which have become bestsellers and earned her prizes. With her latest novel, Listen for the Lie, she decided to leave her comfort zone and go into adult territory by penning a murder mystery. It follows a young woman, Lucy, who is forced to uncover the truth behind her best friend’s murder. The catch is that everyone, including Lucy herself, believe she’s the one responsible for it.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
William Goldman is responsible for a few movies and novels considered classics today, and to many people, Marathon Man remains his greatest achievement as an author. It tells the story of Thomas “Babe” Levy, a post-graduate history student at Columbia University, and how he unwittingly gets sucked into a long-standing Nazi conspiracy, at the centre of which stands Dr. Christian Szell, infamously known as the “White Angel of Auschwitz”.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Andy Weir has definitely set himself apart in the world of hard science-fiction, using physics, astronomy and mathematics to their fullest extent in developing some rather imaginative themes. In Project Hail Mary we follow Ryland Grace, the sole survivor on a space craft who just awoke from a coma. Bit by bit his memory returns to him, and he remembers the nature of his mission: Earth’s last-ditch effort to stay alive in the face of a cosmic extinction event.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Carlos Ruiz Zafon has presented Barcelona unlike any before him with The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, and the third one, titled Prisoner of Heaven, takes a bit of a detour from the previous stories. This one focuses on Fermin Romero de Torres, previously a side character, and his miraculous return from the dead, along with all the trouble it brings him.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Kurt Vonnegut‘s extensive bibliography isn’t short on bestsellers, but I see many people overlooking his first novel, Player Piano, which seems a little strange considering how well it resonates with modern times. It tells the story of an engineer, Paul Prodeus, living in a totally automated American society in the future, increasingly desperate to find some true meaning to his life.