Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Having removed the overly dramatic makeup of her solitary high school days, Ellie looks forward to recreating herself and her art. Arriving alone for winter session at the New England College of Art and Design, Ellie finds the ideal opportunity. In her first days she begins dirty dancing with the Devil. Then she makes out with him. A story about independence, trust, and boys.

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

by Elizabeth Smart

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept , Elizabeth Smart's passionate fictional account of her intense love-affair with the poet George Barker, is widely recognised to be a classic.

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

Simple Passion

by Annie Ernaux

In the spare, elegant style that has won her international acclaim, Annie Ernaux writes of losing oneself in love then losing love itself in this, her standout work. Blurring the line between fact and fiction, an unnamed narrator plots the emotional and physical course of her all-consuming affair with a married man, providing a glimpse of the true meaning of passion. Featured in this impressive work from one of... (more)

The Lover

by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray

Back in print in paperback, "an exquisite jewel of a novel, as multifaceted as a diamond, as seamless and polished as a pearl" ("Boston Herald"). This edition includes an Introduction by Maxine Hong Kingston that looks back at Duras's world from an intriguing new perspective--that of a visitor to Vietnam today.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world... (more)

I Lock My Door Upon Myself: A Novella

by Joyce Carol Oates

Back in print, Joyce Carol Oates's widely acclaimed tale of doomed love.

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)

The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos

The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos

by Anne Carson

The Beauty Of The Husband is an essay on Keats's idea that beauty is truth, and is also the story of a marriage. It is told in 29 tangos. A tango (like a marriage) is something you have to dance to the end. This clear-eyed, brutal, moving, darkly funny book tells a single story in an immediate, accessible voice–29 “tangos” of narrative verse that take us vividly through erotic, painful, 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

Am I Disturbing You?

by Anne He?bert

When Edouard and Stéphane offer Dephpine shelter for the night, they become caught in the maelstorm of her swirling tales, her gusts of rage, and her engulfing loneliness.

Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle, and the English Lieutenant

Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle, and the English Lieutenant

by Anne He?bert

A shimmering fable that captivates and dazzles with its simple beauty.

The Essential Marcus Aurelius (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions)

The Essential Marcus Aurelius (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions)

by Marcus Aurelius, Jacob Needleman

This inaugural-and all new-Tarcher Cornerstone Edition presents a stunningly relevant and reliable translation of the thoughts and aphorisms of the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, properly placing the philosopher-king's writings within the vein of the world's great religious and ethical traditions. The late antique world possessed no voice like that of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius... (more)

L'Evénement

by Annie Ernaux

La Vie extérieure

by Annie Ernaux

Text: French

Hiroshima Mon Amour

by M. Duras

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.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: stark and poetic

by Hillary Frank

by Elizabeth Smart

by Ying Chen

by Nancy Huston

by Annie Ernaux

by Marguerite Duras, Barbara Bray

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

by Joyce Carol Oates

by Ann-Marie MacDonald

by Walter Dean Myers

by Anne Carson

by Adam Rapp

by Wajdi Mouawad

by Anne He?bert

by Anne He?bert

by Marcus Aurelius, Jacob Needleman

by Annie Ernaux

by Annie Ernaux

by M. Duras

by Bernard-Marie Koltes