Novels to entertain and think
Discover captivating novels that entertain and provoke thought. Explore our curated list of must-read books for both enjoyment and deep reflection.
Book
Perfume
by Patrick Suskind
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Set in eighteenth-century France, the classic novel that provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity. Translated from the German by John E. Woods.
Book
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky." Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams." Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come. The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.
Item Not Found
ID: 0062511408
(Type: books)
Book
Zen in the Art of Archery
by Eugen Herrigel
A classic work on Eastern philosophy, and a charming, deeply illuminating story of one man’s experience with Zen. Eugen Herrigel, a German professor of Philosophy in Tokyo, took up the study of archery as a step toward an understanding of Zen Buddhism. This book is the account of the six years he spent as a student of one of Japan’s great kyudo (archery) masters, and of how he gradually overcame his initial inhibitions and began to feel his way toward new truths and ways of seeing.
Item Not Found
ID: 0060527986
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0061122092
(Type: books)
Book
War and Peace
by graf Leo Tolstoy
Presents the classical epic of the Napoleonic Wars and their effects on four Russian families
Item Not Found
ID: B000JQQQDK
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: B0008746JG
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: B0006AML4M
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: B000KNINBA
(Type: books)
Book
The Firm
by John Grisham
A young lawyer works undercover for the F.B.I. to reveal his firm's Mafia connection.
Book
The Chamber
by John Grisham
While the executioners prepare the gas chamber, while the protesters gather and the TV cameras wait. Adam has only days, hours, minutes to save his client.
Item Not Found
ID: 0440213525
(Type: books)
Book
The Pelican Brief
by John Grisham
A law student in New Orleans writes a legal brief that ends up making her enemies in high places. Movie tie-in. Reprint.
Book
The Bonfire of the Vanities
by Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe’s modern American satire tells the story of Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street “Master of the Universe” who has it all — a Park Avenue apartment, a job that brings wealth, power and prestige, a beautiful wife, an even more beautiful mistress. Suddenly, one wrong turn makes it all go wrong, and Sherman spirals downward in a sudden fall from grace that sucks him into the ravenous heart of a New York City gone mad during the go-go, racially turbulent, socially hilarious 1980s. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Book
The Right Stuff
by Tom Wolfe
The first Americans in space--Yeager, Conrad, Grissom, and Glenn--battle the Russians for control of the heavens and put their lives on the line to demonstrate a quality beyond courage, in this classic by Wolfe.
Item Not Found
ID: B00061XNNO
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0553380621
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0752842099
(Type: books)