The Best of "Best Book" Lists

The Best of "Best Book" Lists Collection gathers together a selection of popular bestsellers and fan favorites that frequently appear on "Best of" lists. This diverse Collection includes picks to suit a range of age groups and genre preferences, from otherworldly fantasy to gripping crime thrillers.

The Glass Hotel

by Emily St. John Mandel

Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Power & Greed, Economics, Justice

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Business & Economics, Arts & Culture, Social Class, Gender & Feminism, American Literature, Horror & Suspense, Modern Classic Fiction

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The Golden Gate

by Amy Chua

Publication year 2023

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Race, Power & Greed, Justice, Immigration, Equality, Femininity, Mental Health, Truth & Lies, Social Class

Tags Historical Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Race & Racism, Love & Sexuality, Social Class

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The Golden Notebook

by Doris Lessing

Publication year 1962

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Gender Identity, Mental Health, Sexual Identity, Self Discovery, Nostalgia, Literature

Tags Gender & Feminism, Classic Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Postmodernism, British Literature, Depression & Suicide, Love & Sexuality, Mental Illness, Relationships, Cold War, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Women`s Studies, World History

Considered the most influential of Doris Lessing’s many novels, The Golden Notebook explores the development of a young writer. Anna Wulf has published one novel, Frontiers of War, to great acclaim, but she now finds herself uncomfortable with what she sees as its sentimentality and romanticization of war. Thus, she remains mired in a kind of writer’s block. She still writes in her notebooks, but she cannot bring herself to return to writing novels—especially in... Read The Golden Notebook Summary

The Good Sister

by Sally Hepworth

Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Siblings, Truth & Lies, Mental Health, Femininity, Childhood & Youth, Family, Mothers, Self Discovery, Beauty, Good & Evil, Loyalty & Betrayal

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Diversity, Grief & Death, Mental Illness, Parenting, Relationships, Trauma & Abuse, Modern Classic Fiction

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The Hacienda

by Isabel Cañas

Publication year 2022

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Colonialism, Indigenous Identity, Race, Religion & Spirituality

Tags Historical Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Gothic Literature, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Fantasy

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The Hare With Amber Eyes

by Edmund de Waal

Publication year 2010

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Themes Art, Family, Perseverance, Fear, Memory, Race, The Past, Self Discovery, Social Class, Community, Education, Politics & Government, War, Beauty, Equality, Fate, Good & Evil, Justice, Order & Chaos, Power & Greed, Religion & Spirituality, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies

Tags Jewish Literature, World History

Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010) is a family memoir that traces the fate of a collection of Japanese netsuke across generations of the Ephrussi family. Blending personal narrative with cultural history, the author reconstructs the rise and fall of his Jewish ancestors against the backdrop of Western Europe’s turbulent modern history. The book is a meditation on the Jewish diaspora and the fragility of cultural assimilation, exploring how objects, particularly works... Read The Hare With Amber Eyes Summary

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers

Publication year 1940

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Marriage, Community, Social Class

Tags Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Victorian Period, British Literature, American Literature, Southern Literature, Southern Gothic

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is a Southern Gothic novel written by Carson McCullers, one of the most prominent American literary voices of the 20th century. Set in a small unnamed town, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter captures the spiritual isolation and loneliness of five ordinary people in the deep American South in the 1930s. McCullers is known for her contributions to the development of the Southern Gothic subgenre, and her novels... Read The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter Summary

The Heart's Invisible Furies

by John Boyne

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Race, Family, Friendship

Tags Historical Fiction, LGBTQ+, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Irish Literature

The Heart’s Invisible Furies is a novel written by John Boyne, author of 14 novels and a short story collection. Originally published in 2017, this historical fiction chronicles of the life of a gay man living in Ireland in the 20th and 21st centuries. It won the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award in 2018.Other works by this author include The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, All the Broken Places, and A Ladder to the Sky.This... Read The Heart's Invisible Furies Summary

The Heiress

by Rachel Hawkins

Publication year 2024

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Revenge, Nature Versus Nurture, Family, Social Class

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Gothic Literature, Modern Classic Fiction

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