Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Written when Cathy Coote was nineteen, Innocents is a taut, wickedly clever descent into the anatomy of an obsession, the debut of a precociously assured and provocative young literary voice. Forcing someone vulnerable and naive into a sexual relationship to satisfy a twisted desire is perverted, even evil. But when the perpetrator is a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, is she culpable? And if the victim is her... (more)

The Ticking

by Rene?e French

The Ticking is the story of Edison Steelhead, a boy who at birth takes his mother's life and his father's deformed face. Secreted away by his father to be raised in a remote island lighthouse, Edison relates to his surroundings in the only way he knows how--by capturing them in his sketchbook. Able to find beauty in even the most grotesque of things, Edison embraces his own unsettling appearance and sets out to... (more)

Ingratitude: A Novel

by Ying Chen

"I was dying to see Mother suffer at the sight of my corpse," announces the young woman at the heart of this powerful and disquieting novel, which has won acclaim in France and in Canada upon original publication in French. In Ingratitude,Ying Chen tells the story of Yan-Zi, who decides to commit suicide in order to escape the yoke of her dominating mother. The narrator's account of her final days... (more)

La virevolte

by Nancy Huston

Staying Alive

Real Poems for Unreal Times

by Neil Astley

Assembling a diverse mix of contemporary poets-Mary Oliver, W.H. Auden, Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, Louise Gluck, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Rita Dove, and hundreds more-Staying Alive is a unique anthology that illuminates the vital force of our humanity, the passion of our aspirations, the power of our spirituality. From the enigma of death to the sweetness of friendship, these poems speak to life's mysteries and... (more)

33 Snowfish

by Adam Rapp

On the run in a stolen car with a kidnapped baby in tow, three kids with deeply troubled pasts and bleak futures struggle to find a place for themselves. They will never be able to leave the past behind. Yet for one, redemption is waiting in the unlikeliest of places. With the raw language of the street and lyrical, stream-of-consciousness prose, Adam Rapp hurtles the reader into a world of lost children, a... (more)

Tideline

by Wajdi Mouawad

The Arrival

by Shaun Tan

"A shockingly imaginative graphic novel that captures the sense of adventure and wonder that surrounds a new arrival on the shores of a shining new city. Wordless, but with perfect narrative flow, Tan gives us a story filled with cityscapes worthy of Winsor McCay." -- Jeff Smith, author of Bone "A magical river of strangers and their stories!" -- Craig Thompson, author of Blankets "Magnificent." -- David... (more)

Privacy: A Manifesto

by Wolfgang Sofsky

What ever happened to privacy? The simple right to be left alone? Surveillance cameras track our movements. Governments monitor our phone calls, e-mails, and Internet habits. Insurance companies know what drugs we take. Banks and credit agencies keep tabs on our smallest purchases. And new technologies--which gather, store, and share information as never before--have made all of this possible. But, as the... (more)

The Unit

by Ninni Holmqvist

One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty–single, childless,... (more)

Roberto Zucco

by Bernard-Marie Koltes

The last play by legendary French writer Bernard-Marie Koltes was "a pioneer of a wholly new style of dramatic writing" (The Times) Who is Roberto Zucco?A prisoner or a secret agent? A lover or a rapist? A chameleon or a rhino? A peace-loving student or a killer on the run? In a series of poetic, fast-moving scenes, Koltes takes his hero on a mythical journey through a landscape of strange and violent beauty.

American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis

The controversial novel about a handsome serial killer who moves among the young and trendy in 1980s New York.

Penny Dreadful

by Will Christopher Baer

When Phineas Poe is enlisted by his old ally, Detective Moon, to find a missing cop named Jimmy Sky, he is drawn into the Game of Tongues, a violent fantasy game played by the disaffected and delusional in the punk clubs, rooftops, and sewers of Denver. With everyone he meets possessing multiple personalities and his own identity slipping away, Poe realizes if he can hang on to his sanity long enough to find Jimmy... (more)

The Hanged Man

by Francesca Lia Block

After the death of her father, Laurel is haunted by a legacy of family secrets, hidden shame, and shattered glass. Immersing herself in the heady rhythms of a city that is like something wild, caged, and pacing, Laurel tries to lose herself. But when she runs away from the past, she discovers a passion so powerful, it brings her roundabout and face-to-face with the demons she wants to avoid. In a stunning... (more)

Fall on Your Knees

by Ann-Marie MacDonald

The Piper family is steeped in secrets, lies, and unspoken truths. At the eye of the storm is one secret that threatens to shake their lives -- even destroy them. Set on stormy Cape Breton Island off Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is an internationally acclaimed multigenerational saga that chronicles the lives of four unforgettable sisters. Theirs is a world filled with driving ambition, inescapable family... (more)

Monster

by Walter Dean Myers

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER. FADE IN: INTERIOR COURT. A guard sits at a desk behind Steve. Kathy O'Brien, Steve's lawyer, is all business as she talks to Steve. O'BRIEN Let me make sure you understand... (more)

Youth in Revolt

by C. D. Payne

The adventures of angst-ridden teen protagonist Nick Twisp--who starts out an honor student and ends up a fugitive--are chronicled inthis uproariously funn y epic. Here are the journals of this most precocious diarist, whose ongoing struggles to make sense out of high school, deal with his divorced parents, and lose his virginity result in his transformationfrom unassuming 14-year-old to modern youth in open... (more)

The Adventuress

by Audrey Niffenegger

The author of the New York Times bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife returns with another evocative “novel in pictures,” the much-anticipated follow-up to 2005’s The Three Incestuous Sisters. The Adventuress follows the dreamlike journey of an alchemist’s daughter. After she is kidnapped by a lascivious baron, she turns herself into a moth and flees to the garden of a charming butterfly collector named... (more)

The Lost Thing

by Shaun Tan

A boy scavenges the beach for his bottle top collection when he discovers a lost "thing"; a large, freakish creature that looks like a cross between a crab and a pot-bellied stove. Thus begins a witty and strange narrative set in a creepy, futuristic environment. Shaun Tan’s artwork, collages comprised of such unusual elements as old textbook pages, oil paint, gears, and tubes, inspires young readers to figure out... (more)

Watch Your Mouth: A Novel

by Daniel Handler

Tolstoy wrote that happy families are alike and that each unhappy family is unhappy in a different way. In Watch Your Mouth , Daniel Handler takes "different" to a whole new level....

Shelfari Book Activity

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by Cathy Coote

by Rene?e French

by Ying Chen

by Nancy Huston

Real Poems for Unreal Times

by Neil Astley

by Adam Rapp

by Wajdi Mouawad

by Shaun Tan

by Wolfgang Sofsky

by Ninni Holmqvist

by Bernard-Marie Koltes

by Bret Easton Ellis

by Will Christopher Baer

by Francesca Lia Block

by Ann-Marie MacDonald

by Walter Dean Myers

by C. D. Payne

by Audrey Niffenegger

by Shaun Tan

by Daniel Handler