The Bibliophile's Compass

  1905  Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw It tells the story of Mrs. Kitty Warren and her daughter Vivie, as they struggle to come to terms with the truth of Mrs. Warren's occupation. Vivie, a successful graduate of Cambridge University, is shocked to discover that her mother is a wealthy madam, and is forced to reassess her own choices in life and the values she holds dear. In the end, the two are able to reconcile their differences and come to an understanding that Mrs. Warren's profession is not something to be ashamed of. 1996 Home Again by Kristin Hannah A moving, powerful novel about the fragile threads that bind together our lives and the astonishing potential of second chances 2025 Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World by Anne Enright From one of our most distinguished literary voices, a defining essay collection blending personal reflection with urgent political writing and wide–ranging cultural criticism.

1837  Ralph Waldo Emerson gives his famous "The American Scholar" speech to Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, declares American literary independence from Europe 2020 Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi The novel follows 28-year-old Gifty, a PhD candidate in neuroscience in her fifth year at Stanford University, and her Ghanaian-American mother, who is suffering from a deep depression. Longlisted for the 2020 Prix Médicis Longlisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Longlisted for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction 2021 My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones published Two Dutch tourists are murdered while skinny-dipping in Indian Lake near the small town of Proofrock, Idaho. Winner of the 2021 Bram Stoker Award Winner of the 2021 Shirley Jackson Award Finalist for the 2022 British Fantasy Award Nominated for the...

   Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh ℹ️  Played out against the snowy landscape of coastal New England in the days leading up to Christmas, young Eileen’s story is told from the gimlet-eyed perspective of the now much older narrator. Creepy, mesmerizing, and sublimely funny, in the tradition of Shirley Jackson and early Vladimir Nabokov, this powerful debut novel enthralls and shocks, and introduces one of the most original new voices in contemporary literature. (Goodreads) 🏆 Awards 2015 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize (longlisted) 2015 National Book Critics Circle Awards (finalist) 2015 Shirley Jackson Award (finalist) 2016 Man Booker Prize (shortlisted) 2016 Crime Writers' Association Awards (shortlisted) 2016 Gordon Burn Prize (shortlisted) 2016 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel (won) 2017 Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize (longlisted) The Green Road by Anne Enright ℹ️ The novel concerns the lives of the Madigan family - four children and their moth...