The Bibliophile's Compass

  1901  Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov - RUS The play focuses on the lives of three sisters, Olga, Masha, and Irina, young women of the Russian gentry who try to fill their days in order to construct a life that feels meaningful while surrounded by an array of military men, servants, husbands, suitors, and lovers, all of whom constitute a distraction from the passage of time and from the sisters’ desire to return to their beloved Moscow. 1948  A Perfect Day for Banana Fish by J. D. Salinger - US Nine exceptional stories from one of the great literary voices of the twentieth century. Witty, urbane, and frequently affecting, Nine Stories sits alongside Salinger's very best work--a treasure that will passed down for many generations to come.  1963 The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin - US The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960s—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. • "The finest ...

  1818  When I Have Fears by John Keats - UK 1873  Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne - FR In "Around the World in Eighty Days", Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions GBP20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days - and he is determined not to lose. 1928  Strange Interlude by Eugene O'Neill - US Shattered when the love of her life is killed in the war and haunted by their unconsummated passion, Nina escapes her jealous Ivy League father and embarks on a series of tawdry sexual escapades until, cajoled by her appalled, long-suffering suitor Charles, she marries the amiable young Sam. But while pregnant, Nina learns a horrifying secret that precipitates a desperate, life-changing decision and propels her fatally into the arms of another.Following a family from the aftermath of World War One until the late 1940s, Eugene O'Neill's audacious epic is one of the great masterpieces of American theatre. This edition - ...

1595  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare - UK The greatest love story in English, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a play of starcrossed lovers who take a valiant stand against social convention, with tragic consequences. 1728  The Beggar's Opera by John Gays - UK The tale of Peachum, thief-taker and informer, conspiring to send the dashing and promiscuous highwayman Macheath to the gallows, became the theatrical sensation of the eighteenth century. In The Beggar’s Opera, John Gay turned conventions of Italian opera riotously upside-down, instead using traditional popular ballads and street tunes, while also indulging in political satire at the expense of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Gay’s highly original depiction of the thieves, informers, prostitutes and highwaymen thronging the slums and prisons of the corrupt London underworld proved brilliantly successful in exposing the dark side of a corrupt and jaded society. 1845  The Raven by Edg...

1813  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - UK 2014 Red Rising  by Pierce Brown - US A 2014 dystopian science fiction novel by American author Pierce Brown. It is the first book and eponym of the series. The novel, set in the future on Mars, follows lowborn miner Darrow as he infiltrates the ranks of the elite Golds. 2020 A Beautiful Crime  by Christopher Bollen - US A Beautiful Crime is a twisty grifter novel with a thriller running through its veins. But it is also a meditation on love, class, race, sexuality, and the legacy of bohemian culture. Tacking between Venice’s soaring aesthetic beauty and its imminent tourist-riddled collapse, Bollen delivers a "brilliantly conceived international crime story" (Good Morning America). 2020 Obsidian  by Thomas King - US/CAN When relics of the mysterious Obsidian murders resurface in Chinook, Thumps DreadfulWater is determined to close this case once and for all. 2020 Interior Chinatown by Cha...

  2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith - UK At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. The 2000 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction The 2000 Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel The Guardian First Book Award The Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize The Betty Trask Award. 2026 A Field Guide to Murder...

  1891  Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde - Ireland The Duchess of Padua is a play by Oscar Wilde. It is a five-act melodramatic tragedy set in Padua and written in blank verse. 1900  When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen - Norway The first act takes place outside a spa overlooking a fjord. Sculptor Arnold Rubek and his wife Maia have just had breakfast and are reading newspapers and drinking champagne, the spa is quiet and calm. Their conversation is casual, but Arnold hints at being unhappy with his life. Maia also hints at having a general sense of disappointment. Any profits made from the sale of this book will go towards supporting the Freeriver Community project, a project that aims to support community and encourage well-being. 1927  Saturday's Children by Maxwell Anderson - US In "Saturday's Children: A Comedy in Three Acts" by Maxwell Anderson, we follow the captivating story of Florrie and Bobby. Florrie has always believed in settling down and conformi...

  1904  Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge - Ireland Set on the rugged Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland, Riders to the Sea tells the haunting story of a mother’s unrelenting grief and enduring strength in the face of relentless tragedy. 2002 Any Human Heart by William Boyd - UK Any Human Heart is William's Boyd's classic, bestselling novel Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary, but Logan Mountstuart's - lived from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century - contains more than its fair share of both. As a writer who finds inspiration with Hemingway in Paris and Virginia Woolf in London, as a spy recruited by Ian Fleming and betrayed in the war and as an art-dealer in '60s New York, Logan mixes with the movers and shakers of his times. But as a son, friend, lover and husband, he makes the same mistakes we all do in our search for happiness. Here, then, is the story of a life lived to the full - and a journey deep into a very human heart. ...

  1961  American Dream by Edward Albee - US A modern drama that criticizes the complacency and values of the American middle class. 2017 Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson - US Written with the same compassion and charm that won over legions of readers with The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson shows us with grace and humor that the best families are the ones we make for ourselves. 2023 The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen - US An epic love story in the vein of Cold Mountain and The Great Circle, about a young reindeer herder and a minister’s daughter in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2023 The Faraway World: Stories by Patricia Engel - US From the author of Infinite Country—a New York Times bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick—comes a “rich and compelling” (The Washington Post) collection of ten exquisite, award-winning short stories set across the Americas and linked by themes of migration, sacrifice, and moral com...

  1926  Great God Brown by Eugene O'Neill - US The Great God Brown by Eugene O'Neill is a thought-provoking play that delves into the complexities of identity, ambition, and the masks people wear to conceal their true selves. Set in the early 20th century, the play centers around the lives of two childhood friends, Dion Anthony and Billy Brown, whose paths diverge as they navigate the challenges of adulthood. While Dion pursues success and social acceptance, Billy retreats into a world of artistic expression and self-discovery. As their lives intersect and intertwine, they grapple with the masks they wear to conceal their innermost desires and fears. Through a series of flashbacks and surrealistic scenes, O'Neill explores the themes of authenticity and alienation, probing the depths of the human psyche and the elusive nature of truth. The Great God Brown is a powerful exploration of the masks we wear in our daily lives and the struggle to reconcile our public personas wit...

Title : Never Let Me Go Author : Kazuo Ishiguro Publication Year : 2005 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐💫 Pages : 288 Source : book Genre : Science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopia, literary fiction Awards : shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award, shortlisted for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award; received an ALA Alex Award in 2006 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro left me with mixed feelings. I was completely drawn in at first, then disappointed through the middle, but by the end, I felt the story delivered exactly what I was hoping for. The novel’s biggest strength is its suspense, created by Kathy’s unreliable narration and Ishiguro’s careful withholding of information. From the start, you’re left guessing, piecing together clues with the characters themselves, which keeps the narrative gripping. Unfortunately, the momentum stalls in the middle as the story becomes bogged down in teenage drama—rivalries, misund...

  1816 " Parisina " and " Siege of Corinth " by Lord Byron - UK 1938 " Our Town " by Thornton Wilder - US Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the mythical village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire—an allegorical representation of all life—is an American classic. It is the simple story of a love affair that asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life, and death. Pulitzer PrizeWinner, 1938 1953  The Crucible by Arthur Miller - US From Arthur Miller, America’s most celebrated playwright, a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria, inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist “witch-hunts” in the 1950s “I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history,” Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. In the rigid the...

  1818 On a Lock of Milton's Hair by Keats - UK 1879  A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen - Norway The play is significant for the way it deals with the fate of a married woman, who at the time in Norway lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world, despite the fact that Ibsen denies it was his intent to write a feminist play. It aroused a great sensation at the time, and caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world newspapers and society. 1901  The Climbers by Clyde Fitch - US The Climbers: A Play in Four Acts by Clyde Fitch is a dramatic work that explores the themes of social climbing, greed, and ambition in the late 19th century American society. The play revolves around the lives of two families, the Hunters and the Climbers, who are both striving to climb the social ladder and gain acceptance into the elite circles of New York City. 1921  The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christ...

  2025 A New Lease of Life by Celia Anderson - AUS A warm, laugh-out-loud story of fun and friendship for women of a certain age. She's getting rid of old baggage and looking forward to a new lease of life! 2025 The Train That Took You Away by Catherine Hokin - UK An absolutely devastating, heartbreaking page-turning story of a family torn apart by war – and the hope that can sustain us in the darkest of places. Perfect for fans of The Book of Lost Names and The Nightingale. 2025 How Do I Tell You? by Nicola May - UK Thirty-five-year-old Victoria Sharpe has a decent job as an illustrator, a perfectly good if predictable relationship, and great friends. So why can’t she shake the feeling that something is missing? 2026 The Poet Empress by Shen Tao - US The Poet Empress is an epic fantasy that explores darker themes, subjects, and scenes that may not be suitable for all readers. Please see the author's content note at the beginning of the book. 2026 How to Commit a P...

Title : Identity Crisis Author : Nicola Gill Publication Year : 2025 Rating : ⭐⭐⭐💫 Pages : 362 Source : audiobook @storytel.tr Genre : Humor Identity Crisis by Nicola Gill is a humorously heartbreaking exploration of what happens when you try to escape your own life by stepping into someone else’s shoes, especially when that someone else is a famous celebrity you just happen to resemble. The story follows Clare Palmer, who feels she’s failed at everything from marriage and motherhood to her career and friendships. In a desperate attempt to find meaning, Clare becomes a professional lookalike, but soon blurs the line between performance and reality. Her misadventures and increasingly tangled web of lies force her to confront her own identity, and she eventually learns that living authentically, even with all its messiness, is far more rewarding than pretending to be someone else. The book is equal parts funny and heart-wrenching, with Clare’s journey full of relatable stumbles a...

  1714 Crisis by Richard Steele - UK 1829  Faust, Part 1 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Germany This new translation, in rhymed verse, of Goethe's  Faust --one of the greatest dramatic and poetic masterpieces of European literature--preserves the essence of Goethe's meaning without resorting either to an overly literal, archaic translation or to an overly modern idiom. It remains the nearest "equivalent" rendering of the German ever achieved. 1893  The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen - Norway First performed in 1892, this psychological drama is one of the great Norwegian playwright's most symbolic and lyrical works. The drama explores the insecurities of an aging architect, Halvard Solness, who suspects that his creative powers have diminished with age. Solness finds strength of purpose in his involvement with Hilda — his muse, inspiration, and ardent believer in his greatness — but their association leads to a conflict between heroic myth and complic...

  1934  Days Without End by Eugene O'Neill - US Days Without End is a novel written by Eugene O'Neill, an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. The book is a historical fiction set in the mid-19th century during the Indian Wars and the American Civil War. The story follows the life of Thomas McNulty, an Irish immigrant who flees the Great Famine and ends up in America, where he meets and falls in love with John Cole, a fellow soldier. 1987 The Child in Time by Ian McEwan - UK With extraordinary tenderness and insight, the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. 2018 Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan - UK Hannah Sullivan’s debut collection is a revelation – three long poems of fresh ambition, intensity, and substance. WINNER of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2018 2022 Tides by Sara Freeman - CAN An intoxicating, compact debut novel by the winner of Columbia’s Henfi...