“Player Piano” by Kurt Vonnegut – The Automated Future

“Player Piano” by Kurt Vonnegut (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

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.

Read more …

“The Great Train Robbery” by Michael Crichton – The Thieving Mastermind

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Michael Crichton, unlike most authors, has managed to pen multiple classics over the course of his lifetime, many of which were turned into equally-celebrated motion pictures. The Great Train Robbery is one of his better-known works, taking us to London 1855 to embark on an adventure alongside Edward Pierce as he orchestrates the crime of the century.

Read more …

“Mindhunter” by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker – Plunge into the Psychological Abyss

“Mindhunter” by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

John E. Douglas is perhaps one of the more important figures in modern criminal psychology, being not only one of the first profilers, but more importantly, one of the only ones willing and able to consistently share his knowledge with the public. He has published many books alongside Mark Olshaker, and in Mindhunter, Douglas delves into some of the more surprising and shocking cases throughout his storied twenty-five-year career.

Read more …

“The Guns of Navarone” by Alistair MacLean – Men of Iron

“The Guns of Navarone” by Alistair MacLean (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Alistair MacLean is perhaps one of the more cinematic authors out there, with his novels always being evocative and, as has been proven on numerous occasions, great for movie adaptations. The Guns of Navarone is arguably one of his better-known works across both literature and cinema, and it tells the story of a small group of saboteurs tasked with the seemingly pointless and impossible mission of destroying an artillery installation preventing the evacuation of 1200 British soldiers.

Read more …

“The Angel’s Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Cutting a Deal with the Devil

“The Angel's Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Carlos Ruiz Zafon has single-handedly put his beloved city of Barcelona on the map as the perfect setting for mysteries basking in the eternal lights of art, history, and literature. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is, without a doubt, the series which best exemplifies the author’s adoration of his hometown as well as his literary prowess. In the second novel, titled The Angel’s Game, he takes us back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to meet a young pulp fiction writer whose life is about to change for both the worst, and the best.

Read more …

“Steppenwolf” by Herman Hesse – The Inherent Beauty of Meaninglessness

“Steppenwolf” by Herman Hesse (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Herman Hesse is an author whose literature can be best-described, in my opinion, as profoundly introspective, affording each and every person it touches the tools to peer further within themselves. Steppenwolf is one of his most popular and influential novels, telling the story of Harry Haller, a profoundly sad and lonely individual struggling to reconcile the civil and primeval halves of his own identity.

Read more …

“The Girl in the Sand” by L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain – The Broken Saviour

“The Girl in the Sand” by L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain have created their own standout series in the mystery genre, following FBI profiler Violet Darger on one deadly manhunt after the next. In the third book of the series, titled The Girl in the Sand, she sees herself summoned to Las Vegas following a grizzly discovery, one which puts her in the crosshairs of a legendary serial killer bearing a personal grudge against her.

Read more …

“Jaws” by Peter Benchley – Man Versus Nature

“Jaws” by Peter Benchley (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Peter Benchley has left his mark on the worlds of literature, cinema, and ocean activism, but few of his works have withstood the test of time in the way Jaws has. The novel takes place on a seaside resort on the south shore of Long Island, where a giant killer shark begins to make minced meat of the swimmers. Despite political and personal conflicts swirling around them, three men decide to undertake the perilous journey to send the shark back to the depths it came from.

Read more …

“The Half Moon” by Mary Beth Keane – The Surprises of Midlife

“The Half Moon” by Mary Beth Keane (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Mary Beth Keane writes the sort of fiction which digs a little deeper than your typical thrillers and mysteries, often exploring some of the greyer areas in our lives. In The Half Moon, she tells us the story of Malcolm and Jess Gephardt, a couple faced with a rather uncertain future, one where their dreams and life aspirations might be extinguished for good.

Read more …

“The Good Samaritan” by John Marrs – Words of Despair

“The Good Samaritan” by John Marrs (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

John Marrs is a name most thriller fans are familiar with, having penned numerous bestsellers which still stand tall to this very day. In The Good Samaritan, one of his better-known works, he tells the story of Laura, a woman who abuses her position as a suicide hotline operator to push people over the edge. However, one man has seen beyond the veil, and is closing in on her sinister nature, unaware that she’ll do just about anything to stay in the shadows.

Read more …

“The Librarian of Saint-Malo” by Mario Escobar – A Literary Resistance

“The Librarian of Saint-Malo” by Mario Escobar (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Mario Escobar has, on many occasions, managed to profoundly penetrate some of the more difficult and gut-wrenching topics in recent history, a feat he repeats once again with The Librarian of Saint-Malo. The story takes place in France, 1939, and follows Jocelyn, the titular librarian, as she tries to save the books and people of her beloved coastal village as it falls prey to Nazi occupation.

Read more …

“Germinal” by Emile Zola – Seeding the Revolution

“Germinal” by Emile Zola (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Emile Zola is a name most people are familiar with, even those who haven’t read his works. Objectively one of the greatest authors in our short history, his novels always had the ability to move people, and have been consistently doing so for over a hundred and fifty years. In Germinal, one of his more famous works, he tells the story of Etienne Lantier, a clever and unemployed machinist who eventually stirs a mining community to a strike unlike any other, threatening to open the first cracks in a rotten and unjust world order.

Read more …

“King: A life” by Jonathan Eig – A National Martyr’s Path

“King: A life” by Jonathan Eig (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Jonathan Eig is primarily known for writing about sports figures, but in his most recent book, titled King: A Life, he veers off the familiar path to explore the life of Martin Luther King Jr. The first major biography of the man written in decades, it explores his personal, political and religious life, the many demons he had to wrestle with, and even includes new information from recently-declassified FBI documents.

Read more …

“The Bat” by Jo Nesbo – Beginning of the Dark Spiral

“The Bat” by Jo Nesbo (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Jo Nesbo made his name overseas with the Harry Hole series, more specifically the ones which take place in Norway, the main character’s home country. It took publishers a fairly long time to translate the first novel of the series, The Bat, which uncharacteristically takes us to Australia, where Harry Hole finds himself working as an observer for the police following the murder of a young Norwegian woman.

Read more …

“A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan – Excess of Wrath

“A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Timothy Egan has long-ago immersed himself in the racial history of the United States of America, having authored numerous articles and books on the subject over the course of his life. In 2023 he published another important work in his long line of investigations, titled A Fever in the Heartland. In it, he investigates the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920 under the leadership of D.C. Stephenson, its growth as an organization, and downfall at the hands of a deathbed confession.

Read more …