Specially for busy folks, these books are short, intruiging and easy to finish- perfect for train and bus rides to work and back. Bonus: these titles add almost no bulk to your already-heavy bag.
The Library of Unrequited Love
Author: Sophie Divry
Publisher: London: MacLehose Press, 2013
Call No.: English DIV
A librarian whose boyfriend has left her for another woman, discovers one morning that a reader has been locked in over night. As she laments to the patron about the Dewey Decimal System, love and loss, and frustration with her colleagues, the reader can expect to discover the highs and lows of the life of a bookworm.
The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Thorndike, Me.: Center Point Pub., 2012
Call No.: English BAR
Tony Webster is a middle-aged man who receives a letter one day to claim the old diary of his friend, Adrian, who had died while they were in university. The story takes the reader through a mystery pertaining to lost love, friendship, loss and ageing.
The Years, Months, Days; translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas
Author: Lianke Yan
Publisher: London: Vintage, 2018
Call No.: English YAN
An old man and his blind dog continue to live in a small mountain village, even after everyone else has fled the bleakness that came with a drought, evaluating the tenacity of human strength in the face of brutality.
Cul De Sac: A Novella from the War With No Name
Author: Robert Repino
Publisher: New York, NY: Soho, 2016
Call No.: English REP - [SF]
The war with no name rages on, setting the world on fire. Humanity faces extinction at the hands of the Colony, a race of intelligent ants seeking to overthrow the humans and establish a new order.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly: A Novel
Author: Hwang Sun-Mi
Publisher: New York: Penguin Books, 2013
Call No.: English HWA
A hen named Sprout is tired of having to lay eggs at the demand of others only for them to be sold at the market. She hatches a plan: to have an egg of her own.
Normal
Author: Warren Ellis
Publisher: New York: FSG Originals, 2016
Call No.: ELL - [TH]
Normal is an intriguing, disturbing and alarming insight into future technologies and emerging philosophies, and humans' over reliance on technology.
Love, or Something Like Love
Author: O Thiam Chin
Publisher: Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2014
Call No.: English O
O Thiam Chin writes about the hope and helplessnesss of people confronted by their past and the loss of love in ten short stories.
The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman
Author: Denis Theriault
Publisher: London: Oneworld, 2017
Call No.: English THE
Bilodo is a lonely postman who breaks the cycle of his life by reading the letters he has been tasked to deliver. One day, he comes across Ségolène's haiku in her letter to Gaston, a master poet. In a strange twist of fate, Gaston is hit by a car just as he is about to mail his reply and dies on the road. Things change when Bilodo impersonates Gaston and writes to Ségolène.
Sea Prayer
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: New York: Riverhead Books, Penguin Random House, 2018
Call No.: English HOS
Sea Prayer is composed in the form of a letter, from a father to his son, on the eve of their journey. Watching over his sleeping son, the father reflects on the dangerous sea-crossing that lies before them.
Nine Cuts
Author: Audrey Chin
Publisher: Singapore: Math Paper Press, 2014
Call No.: English CHI
Tender, observant and imtimate,the short stories in this book explore intimacies outside of the norms and expectations of society and conventions.
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