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Hot Pick
1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
In a world where every thought is monitored and every truth is manufactured, one man dares to remember what it means to be free. 1984 is a harrowing descent into a society ruled by fear, where language is weaponized, love is treason, and the past is endlessly rewritten. As the walls close in, the quiet rebellion of a solitary mind becomes a question with no easy answer: can the human spirit survive when even reality is no longer its own? Stark, prophetic, and unrelenting, this is a story of resistance in the age of absolute control.
- Originally Published: June 8, 1949
- Publisher: Penguin Books, 2008
- Genre: Science fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Social science fiction, Political fiction
- Pages: 1231
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0241969694
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Animal Farm
On a quiet farm, where the animals rise in revolt against their human masters, an ideal of freedom is born—only to curdle into tyranny beneath the hoofprints of power. Animal Farm is a fable sharpened into a political blade, where noble dreams decay into slogans, and those who promise equality learn to walk upright over the backs of others. How does liberation become a new form of control, and why do the oppressed so often trade one master for another? With deceptively simple prose and chilling clarity, this tale reveals that the most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. A story for every age, it asks: who truly governs when all are supposed to be free?
- Originally Published: August 1945
- Genre: Novella, Political Satire
- Pages: 101
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9780451526342
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Anna Karenina
Beneath the glittering ballrooms and snowbound estates of imperial Russia, Anna Karenina unfolds as a sweeping tale of passion, betrayal, and the fragile architecture of human happiness. Caught between the demands of a rigid society and the call of her own heart, Anna dares to pursue love at any cost—only to find that desire can both liberate and destroy. Around her, lives intersect in a delicate ballet of hope and despair, raising a timeless question: can true fulfillment ever exist within the confines of duty, marriage, and convention? Lyrical and unflinching, Tolstoy’s masterpiece captures the full spectrum of the human soul, from ecstasy to ruin.
- Originally Published: 1873
- Publisher: Penguin Books, 2002
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 880
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0140449174
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Atlas Shrugged
What happens when the world’s thinkers, builders, and dreamers vanish, one by one, into silence? Atlas Shrugged is a thunderous epic set in a collapsing civilization, where the engines of progress are halted by a society that punishes excellence and rewards mediocrity. Amid the smoke of industry and the ruins of broken ideals, a defiant few must decide: is it moral to serve a world that drains your soul—or to walk away and let it crumble? With sweeping prose and unflinching vision, this novel challenges the very foundations of duty, ambition, and what it means to live with purpose. It is a story of resistance, of love forged in fire, and of the relentless power of the human mind.
- Originally Published: 1957
- Publisher: Signet, 2004
- Genre: Fiction
- Pages: 1088
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9780451191144
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Brave New World
In a world engineered for comfort, pleasure, and perfect order, what becomes of the soul that aches for meaning? Brave New World unfolds in a gleaming dystopia where humanity has traded truth for tranquility and freedom for engineered bliss. Yet beneath the narcotic hum of conformity, a quiet rebellion stirs—one that questions whether a life without pain is worth living at all. With eerie grace and razor-edged irony, this is a tale of longing in a society that has forgotten how to long.
- Originally Published: 1932
- Publisher: Vintage Classics, 2004
- Genre: Novel, Science fiction, Dystopian Fiction
- Pages: 229
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0099477464
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Crime and Punishment
In the stifling alleys of St. Petersburg, a young man commits a murder—not out of greed, but out of a fevered belief in his own moral exception. Crime and Punishment plunges into the shattered psyche of Raskolnikov, whose act of violence births a torment more relentless than justice itself. As guilt and redemption collide, the novel becomes a harrowing descent into the abyss of conscience, a crucible where reason and madness blur. Can one transcend morality to reshape the world—or does the soul exact its own terrible price? This is not merely a crime story, but a haunting meditation on what it means to be human in a world of suffering and consequence.
- Originally Published: 1866
- Publisher: Dover Publications, 2001
- Genre: Fiction, Psychological
- Pages: 448
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0486415871
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Beneath the fog-choked streets of Victorian London, a brilliant doctor dares to divide the good from the evil within himself—only to unleash a darkness he cannot contain. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a chilling psychological thriller that probes the monstrous duality of human nature with unnerving precision. As civility gives way to savagery, can one ever truly separate virtue from vice, or are both bound in the soul’s unbreakable mirror? This haunting tale whispers a question still echoing through the ages: what lurks within us when no one is watching?
- Originally Published: 1886
- Publisher: Vintage Classics Library, 2016
- Genre: Gothic, Horror
- Pages: 240
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9781784871604
- Access: Members
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Fathers and Sons
In Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev captures the eternal tension between generations through the story of Arkady Kirsanov, who returns from university with his radical friend Bazarov, a self-proclaimed “nihilist” who believes in nothing but science and rejects all traditional values. What begins as a clash between old aristocratic ideals and new revolutionary thinking evolves into something far more nuanced—a meditation on how love, family bonds, and human nature itself resist the neat categories we try to impose on them. Turgenev’s genius lies in his refusal to take sides, instead showing us how both the romantic idealism of the older generation and the harsh materialism of the young contain their own truths and blindnesses. Can any philosophy, no matter how logically constructed, truly account for the messy complexities of the human heart? This masterpiece of Russian literature offers no easy answers, but it provides something more valuable: a deeply compassionate understanding of why each generation believes it has discovered the key to life, and why each is both right and profoundly wrong.
- Originally Published: 1862
- Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 215
- BookType: Hardcopy (paperback)
- ISBN: 9780192833921
- Access: Members
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Frankenstein
In a quest to conquer death itself, a brilliant but tormented scientist breathes life into a being stitched from forgotten fragments, unleashing a profound struggle between creation and creator. Frankenstein weaves a haunting tapestry of ambition, isolation, and the desperate yearning for connection in a world quick to shun the unfamiliar. As the creature grapples with its own existence and the shadows of rejection, the story probes the boundaries of human responsibility and the price of playing god. What defines true monstrosity—the malformed flesh or the heart that beats within? This timeless tale challenges us to confront the ethical depths of invention and the fragile nature of humanity.
- Originally Published: 1818
- Publisher: Wordsworth Classics, 1992
- Genre: Fiction
- Pages: 174
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9781853260230
- Access: Members
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Hamlet
In the shadowed halls of Elsinore, a prince wrestles with grief, betrayal, and the maddening question of justice—whether to act swiftly or be paralyzed by doubt. Hamlet unfolds as a profound exploration of conscience and revenge, where the line between appearance and reality blurs into a haunting dance of suspicion and despair. What price does one pay when the soul is torn between duty and doubt, action and reflection? This timeless tragedy probes the depths of human frailty and the elusive nature of truth, inviting readers to confront the paradox of inaction amid urgent turmoil.
- Originally Published: 1623
- Publisher: Wordsworth Classics, 1992
- Genre: Tragedy, Shakespearean tragedy
- Pages: 200
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9781853260094
- Access: Members
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Heart of Darkness
A steamer drifts up the Congo River, deeper into a wilderness that mirrors the shadows within the human soul. Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, a sailor haunted by his quest to find the elusive Kurtz—a man revered and corrupted in equal measure. As civilization fades into jungle and reason gives way to something more primal, the line between savagery and enlightenment begins to blur. What is revealed when we journey not outward, but inward, into the darkest chambers of power, greed, and conscience? Stark, hypnotic, and unsettling, this is a tale where the true horror lies not in the wild, but in the hearts of men.
- Originally Published: April, 1899
- Publisher: Collins Classics, 2016
- Genre: Fiction, Novella
- Pages: 130
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9780007368624
- Access: Members
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Jude the Obscure
In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy traces the aching path of a man whose dreams of learning, love, and belonging crumble beneath the grinding weight of class, convention, and fate. Jude Fawley, a stonemason with the soul of a scholar, reaches toward the promise of knowledge and connection, only to find himself punished for daring to hope beyond his station. At once tender and merciless, the novel asks: what becomes of a heart that dares to defy the world’s design, only to be shattered by it? Hardy delivers a bleak, unflinching meditation on aspiration and despair, where love is both salvation and ruin, and idealism can be the most tragic burden of all. This is not merely the story of a man—but of humanity caught between what it is and what it longs to be.
- Originally Published: 1895
- Publisher : Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 1993
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 376
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN-13: 978-1853262616
- Access: Members
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Little Women
Little Women is a tender, richly woven portrait of four spirited sisters growing up amid the quiet trials and radiant joys of family life during a time of war and want. Through laughter, loss, and the slow unfolding of dreams, the March girls wrestle with the meaning of womanhood, ambition, sacrifice, and love. What does it mean to grow into oneself while remaining bound by the invisible threads of home? With warmth and wisdom, the story invites readers into a world where the everyday becomes epic—and where the greatest adventures begin at the hearth. It is a novel that speaks softly yet lingers like a beloved memory.
- Originally Published: 1868
- Publisher: Aladdin, 2019
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 530
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-1534462205
- Access: Members
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Hot Pick
Lolita
In Lolita, desire dresses itself in the language of poetry, seduction veils cruelty, and obsession charts a cross-country odyssey through the haunted corridors of memory and guilt. With a voice as dazzling as it is disturbing, the unreliable narrator invites readers into a dark reverie where beauty becomes a battleground and innocence is never what it seems. Is it possible to separate the elegance of expression from the moral abyss it describes? Nabokov’s masterpiece dares us to confront the disquieting allure of language and the treacherous edges of love, power, and delusion. A lyrical descent into one man’s self-deception, Lolita leaves the reader spellbound—and unsettled.
- Originally Published: 1955
- Publisher: Penguin, 2011
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 368
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0241953242
- Access: Members
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Macbeth
In the shadowed halls of power, ambition festers like a poison, twisting noble hearts into instruments of betrayal and despair. Macbeth is a dark, relentless exploration of the corrosive hunger for control and the tragic cost of unchecked desire. As prophecy stirs a restless mind, the line between fate and free will blurs, forcing a king to confront the demons within—and the blood that stains the path to his throne. What becomes of a soul when the quest for greatness demands the sacrifice of conscience? This timeless tragedy invites readers to peer into the abyss where ambition and morality collide.
- Originally Published: 1606
- Publisher: Wordsworth Classics, 1992
- Genre: Tragedy
- Pages: 128
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 9781853260353
- Access: Members
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Madame Bovary
Emma Bovary is dying of boredom in her small French town, married to a kind but dull doctor who can’t ignite the passion she craves. She loses herself in novels, dreaming of grand love affairs and glittering society balls, until fantasy begins to bleed into reality through reckless affairs and ruinous spending. As her desperate hunt for beauty and meaning spirals beyond control, Emma discovers that some hungers can never be satisfied—and that the price of living entirely for desire might be everything she holds dear. What happens when a woman refuses to accept the life she’s been given and reaches for something that may not exist at all?
- Originally Published: 1857
- Publisher: VIVI Books, 2018
- Genre: Literary Realism
- Pages: 372
- BookType: Hardcopy/Hardcover
- ISBN: 9789386869289
- Access: Members
