Stoner
John Williams
A farm boy becomes a university prof., becomes estranged from his wife, encounters office politics, etc.
Hong Kong Book Club
Archive by Year
A brief background of the HKBC
Shadow Ticket
Thomas Pynchon
Prohibition time. Facsism is on the rise globally. And the heiress of a cheese empire has gone missing. Can Hicks McTaggart solve this ticket?
The Swimmer
John Cheever
Ned Merrill is at a party and suddenly envisions himself as a great man about to embark on a swim across the county by way of backyard pools in a tony suburban NY community.
Cuba Libre
Elmore Leonard
A cowboy suddenly finds himself running horses for someone, he's not sure who, and the cash is mucho over the market rate.
The River Between
Ngugi wa Thiong'O
Set in colonial Kenya and centered on the conflict between traditional Kikuyu culture and the influences of British colonialism and Christianity, The River Between is one of Ngugi wa Thiong'O's first novels.
Speedboat
Renata Adler
There is a vibrant quality running through the narrator's life that I would equate to a good noir detective novel that keeps the page-turning pace up, with the occasional weirdo wandering into the story (more than a few times)
The Kreutzer Sonata
Leo Tolstoy
A novella that is the confession of Pozdnyshev, a man who recounts the tragic unraveling of his life and marriage. Very Russian fare.
Josephine the Singer
Franz Kafka
Narrated by fellow mouse, who reflects on Josephine's (a mouse) significance within their society.
The Map and the Territory
Michel Houellebecq
The contemporary art world comes face to face with one Michel Houellebecq.
The Festival of Insignificance
Milan Kundera
The trivial moments in life often hold greater meaning than grand events? Find out here.
Hunter of Stories
Eduardo Galeano
Why not write the big story of the past by telling the little ones?
Trust
Hernan Diaz
A tale that revolves around a wealthy financier, Benjamin Rask, and his enigmatic wife, Helen.
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
William H. Gass
A new and compelling discovery for me. The work is difficult to summarize or put into a genre, oddly.
Ms Ice Sandwich
Mieko Kawakami
A brief but oddly engaging novel narrated by a grammar school student.
Pastoralia
George Saunders
My favorite collection of Saunders' short stories until Tenth of December came out.
Passing
Nella Larsen
Two light-skinned Black women from the same neighborhood follow very different trajectories in life and one day reconnect.
The Captive Mind
Czesław Miłosz
Essays out of central Europe during the First Cold War by one of Poland's leading intellectuals.
Effi Briest
Theodore Fontane
Set in 19th-century Germany, the story follows the life of Effi Briest, a young woman who enters into a socially advantageous but ultimately troubled marriage.
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead
A chilling novel based on a true story, which begins with hope and ends in tragedy.
The Bear
William Faulkner
The Bear follows a young boy named Isaac McCaslin, who goes on numerous hunting trips into the wilderness with his uncle and other men.
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies
The novel begins with the childhood incident that shapes Ramsay's life.
To Have and Have Not
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's _To Have and Have Not_ is a commentary on the time of The Great Depression told from multiple viewpoints.
Sula
Toni Morrison
Set in the fictional town of Medallion, Ohio, the story spans several decades and explores the complex relationship between two Black-American women, Sula Peace and Nel Wright.
Collected Stories by Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
His scrambled visions of history yield unexpected insights. And his genius for dialogue, parody, and collage, was for him a guiding light. Delight in his frequently subversive ideas, the pleasures of a consummate stylist whose sentences are worth marveling at and savoring like a well-marbled ribeye.
Entropy
Thomas Pynchon
explores the concept of disorder through a chaotic New Year's Eve party; other stories included in the volume
Oranges
John McPhee
… a comprehensive exploration of the orange farming and processing business. The book offers a detailed and informative look at the history, science, and economics behind the cultivation, harvesting, and distribution of oranges.