Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Borges: Collected Fictions

by Jorge L. Borges, Andrew Hurley

The New York Times bestseller, "a marvelous new collection of stories by . . . one of the most remarkable writers of our century" --Richard Bernstein, The New York Times Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges' dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, brilliantly translated by Andrew Hurley. From his 1935... (more)

Heart of Darkness and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics)

Heart of Darkness and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics)

by Joseph Conrad, Cedric Thomas Watts

The finest of all Conrad's tales, Heart of Darkness is set in an atmosphere of mystery and menace, and tells of Marlow's perilous journey up the Congo River to relieve his employer's agent, the renowned and formidable Mr. Kurtz. What he sees on his journey, and his eventual encounter with Kurtz, horrify and perplex him, and call into question the very bases of civilization and human nature. Endlessly reinterpreted... (more)

Shriek: An Afterword

by Jeff VanderMeer

An epic yet personal look at several decades of life, love, and death in the imaginary city of Ambergris—previously chronicled in Jeff VanderMeer's acclaimed City of Saints & Madmen — Shriek: An Afterword relates the scandalous, heartbreaking, and horrifying secret history of two squabbling siblings and their confidantes, protectors, and enemies. Narrated with flamboyant intensity and under increasingly... (more)

Paradise (Oprah's Book Club)Toni Morrison

Paradise (Oprah's Book Club)

by Toni Morrison

Make it easy on yourself, read #1 bestselling author Toni Morrison in Large Print * About Large Print All Random House Large Print editions are published in a 16-point typeface "Rumors had been whispered for more than a year. Outrages that had been accumulating all along took shape as evidence. A mother was knocked down the stairs by her cold-eyed daughter. Four damaged infants were born in one family.... (more)

Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

by J. M. Coetzee

These deluxe editions are packaged with French flaps, acid-free paper, and rough front. "A real literary event."-- The New York Times Book Review "A story of profound beauty, clarity and eloquence, which even at its most melodramatic holds to a biblical nobility."-- Chicago Tribune Book World Other Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Heart of Darkness by Joseph... (more)

The Left Hand of Darkness

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning, groundbreaking science fiction classic takes us to the world of Winter, and introduces us to its inhabitants, the Gethenians-whose society is not based on gender roles.

Looking for Jake: Stories

by China Mieville

What William Gibson did for science fiction, China Miéville has done for fantasy, shattering old paradigms with fiercely imaginative works of startling, often shocking, intensity. Now from this brilliant young writer comes a groundbreaking collection of stories, many of them previously unavailable in the United States, and including four never-before-published tales–one set in Miéville’s signature fantasy world of... (more)

City of Saints and Madmen

by Jeff VanderMeer

In City of Saints and Madmen , Jeff VanderMeer has reinvented the literature of the fantastic. You hold in your hands an invitation to a place unlike any you’ve ever visited–an invitation delivered by one of our most audacious and astonishing literary magicians. City of elegance and squalor. Of religious fervor and wanton lusts. And everywhere, on the walls of courtyards and churches, an incandescent fungus of... (more)

The Wizard Knight: Book 2

The Wizard

by Gene Wolfe

Sir Able returns to Mythgathr on his steed Cloud, a great mare the color of her name. Able is filled with new knowledge of the ways of the seven-fold world and possessed of great magical secrets. His knighthood now beyond question, Able works to fulfill his vows to his king, his lover, his friends, his gods, and even his enemies. Able must set his world right, restoring the proper order among the denizens of all... (more)

The Wizard Knight: Book 1

The Knight

by Gene Wolfe

A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm that contains seven levels of reality. Very quickly transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Abel and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, a sword he will get from a dragon, the one very special blade that will help him fulfill his life ambition to become a knight and a... (more)

Island: The Complete Stories (Vintage International)

Island: The Complete Stories (Vintage International)

by Alistair MacLeod

The sixteen exquisitely crafted stories in Island prove Alistair MacLeod to be a master. Quietly, precisely, He has created a body of work that is among the greatest to appear in English in the last fifty years. A book-besotted patriarch releases his only son from the obligations of the sea. A father provokes his young son to violence when he reluctantly sells the family horse. A passionate girl who grows up... (more)

The Fencer Trilogy: Book 1

Colours in the Steel

by K. J. Parker

Perimadeia: the famed Triple City and the mercantile capital of the known world. Behind its allegedly impregnable walls, everything is available—including information that will allow its enemies to plan one of the most devastating sieges of all time. The man called upon to defend Perimadeia is Bardas Loredan, a fencer–at–law, weary of his work and the world. For Loredan is one of the surviving members of Maxen’s... (more)

The Fencer Trilogy: Book 2

The Belly of the Bow

by K. J. Parker

The city of Perimadeia has fallen. Bardas Loredan, the man who was chosen to save it, is now on the Island—a recluse living in the mountains, away from his family, with only a young apprentice for company. His life as a fencer–at–law is over. Instead, Loredan spends his days perfecting the art of bow making. But his isolation will not last forever, and when the Island comes under attack, his skills as a soldier... (more)

Secret Life

by Jeff VanderMeer

Secret Life is the definitive collection by a young writer widely regarded as one of the best fantasists in the world. Jeff VanderMeer has handpicked these 23 stories (three written exclusively for this collection), which reflect a diversity of approaches to key questions about the human condition: mortality, love, obsession and creativity - all shot through with dark humor and irony. Secret Life represents the... (more)

Veniss Underground

by Jeff VanderMeer

In his debut novel, literary alchemist Jeff VanderMeer takes us on an unforgettable journey, a triumph of the imagination that reveals the magical and mysterious city of Veniss through three intertwined voices. First, Nicholas, a would-be Living Artist, seeks to escape his demons in the shadowy underground–but in doing so makes a deal with the devil himself. In her fevered search for him, his twin sister, Nicola,... (more)

Foe: A Novel (King Penguin)

by J. M. Coetzee

'A small miracle of a book ...of marvellous intricacy and overwhelming power' - "The Washington Post", Book World. Coetzee reinvents the story of "Robinson Crusoe", directing our attention to the seduction and tyranny of storytelling itself.

The Troika

by Stepan Chapman

Under the glare of three suns, three beings travel across an endless desert. They argue, whine, wheedle and needle each other. Sometimes they switch identities when the sandstorms roar in. As The Troika rolls on, we learn more about Alex, who started out as a man, then became cyborg, then jeep. About Naomi, a veteran soldier who woke up from her cryogenic storage tank to a new life, now a dinosaur. About... (more)

The Magic Toyshop

by Angela Carter

In this brilliantly imagined novel, Angela Carter explores the tormented world of adolescence and the heart's ability to withstand even the deepest sorrows. "A tour de force . . . put out shoots of all Carter's fascinations, which turns up in her later books: illusion and stage magic, myths and folktales, sorcery, the allure of suffering, incest, revenge, escape."--Voice Literary Supplement.

THEY FLY AT CIRON

by Samuel R. Delany

As this novel begins, the peaceful village of Çiron faces conquest and domination by the army of Myetra, as led by a cruel prince. The Myetrans subdue Çiron, killing many and enslaving the rest. But Rahm escapes—and then befriends one of the fearsome Winged Ones, humanoids with batlike wings. Meanwhile, led by the young village garbage collector and an itinerant singer, the Çironians resist where they can, as the... (more)

WINTER BIRDS: A Novel

by Jim Grimsley

In Jim Grimsley's remarkable first novel, Winter Birds , Danny Crell tells himself his own story, and in doing so illuminates the heartbreaking story of his father's violent tyranny over his mother, his sister, and his three younger brothers. The novel begins on Thanksgiving in rural North Carolina in a broken-down cottage the Crell children have nicknamed "The Circle House." Ellen Crell's attempts at... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: brain workout

by Jorge L. Borges, Andrew Hurley

by Joseph Conrad, Cedric Thomas Watts

by Jeff VanderMeer

by Toni Morrison

by J. M. Coetzee

by Ursula K. Le Guin

by China Mieville

by Jeff VanderMeer

by Gene Wolfe

by Gene Wolfe

by Alistair MacLeod

by K. J. Parker

by K. J. Parker

by Jeff VanderMeer

by Jeff VanderMeer

by J. M. Coetzee

by Stepan Chapman

by Angela Carter

by Samuel R. Delany

by Jim Grimsley