VPL Books Just For You - Eclectic FictionLike this list

15 items

• Eucalyptus

  a Novel

  Bail, Murray, 1941-

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  In Bail’s lyrical, award-winning novel he uses the natural world as a metaphor for the tales rooted in his native Australia. He likens breaking of the vast acreage into a system of paddocks as a metaphor for the writer’s building blocks used for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World

  Cantor, Rachel

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  Here’s a quirky, debut novel that combines world-building, time-travelling, philosophy, politics, and humorous satire set in a future world seemingly run by pizza and other fast-food firms. For readers of mash-up fiction, Will Self, Christopher…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Wolf in White Van

  Darnielle, John,

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  Disfigured teenager Sean Phillips lives an isolated life in his small apartment. Sean is the creator of a text-based role-playing game called Trace Italian. The game is set in an imagined, dystopian America. Disaster strikes when two of the players…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Sworn Virgin

  Dones, Elvira, 1960-

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  When an Albanian girl named Hana Doda refuses an arranged marriage, she must (according to tradition) live the rest of her life in chastity as a man. She becomes a shepherd known as Mark Doda. Many years later, Mark has the opportunity to leave…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Carmen Dog

  Emshwiller, Carol

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  In this darkly comic and imaginative feminist satire, all the women are transformed into animals that match their human personalities and a Golden Retriever named Pooch is gradually transformed into a beautiful woman. Emshwiller has great fun with…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Clever Girl

  Hadley, Tessa

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  Intimate, reserved, and funny, Hadley’s wonderful book follows the life of a young girl named Stella into middle-age. Along the way the reader is presented with snapshots of Stella’s world: the repressed, middle-class values of the late 1950’s, the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Seraphina

  a Novel

  Hartman, Rachel, 1972-

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  This wonderful fantasy novel is about a young girl with a closely guarded secret - her father was human, but her mother was a dragon. Intrigue, romance and clever world-building make this a great book for readers of all ages.

• At the Mouth of the River of the Bees

  Stories

  Johnson, Kij

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  This short story collection by Johnson has been compiled from her magazine publications. The writing is clear and very beautiful. Some stories are set in Japan and almost all feature animals as both pets and as archetypes. The title story is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Burial Rites

  a Novel

  Kent, Hannah, 1985-

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  This shortlisted IMPAC Dublin nominee centers on the last public execution that took place in Iceland. The year is 1829 and the condemned Agnes Magnusdottir is awaiting her fate. Because there are no prisons, she is being held at a farm she knows…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Woman Upstairs

  a Novel

  Messud, Claire, 1966-

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  The novel begins with Nora, our narrator asking “how angry am I, you don't want to know”. She says on her tombstone it was supposed to say “Great Artist” but what she'd like on the grave are the words “Fuck you all”. So why is so angry? Nora is a 37…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Signal to Noise

  Moreno-Garcia, Silvia,

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  An engaging novel set in Mexico City. A group of outcast teens experiment with magic. As adults, they look back on the complications of their lives and consider how they can make amends. Charming.

• The Bees

  Paull, Laline

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  Life within a bee hive follows strict class laws presided over by an elite, religious class known as the Sage. To be born with physical appearances outside the norm or to hold beliefs beyond those allowed by station and class means death. Paull’s…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Curiosity

  a Love Story

  Thomas, Joan (Sandra Joan)

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  In the early 1800’s, fossil remains are unearthed along the cliffs of Lyme Regis, Dorset. Early palaeontologists, or “Undergroundologists” as they were known, scramble to understand these finds and explain them in terms of Biblical theories of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Lolly Willowes

  Or, The Loving Huntsman

  Warner, Sylvia Townsend, 1893-1978

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  Like Jane Austen before her, Warner knows that there are few worse things in life than being a widow beholding to your late husband's family. Despite the outrage her decision causes, Lolly Willowes decides to leave London and settle in the obscure,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Amy Falls Down

  a Novel

  Willett, Jincy

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  Anyone interested in the art of writing owes it to themselves to read through the novels of Jincy Willett. In Amy Falls Down, we are reunited with many of the characters from The Writing Class. Amy, a has-been writer, suffers an accidental fall and…Read moreRead more of this annotation