A Children's Bible


Lydia Millet - 2020
    Contemptuous of their parents, the children decide to run away when a destructive storm descends on the summer estate, embarking on a dangerous foray into the apocalyptic chaos outside. Lydia Millet’s prophetic and heartbreaking story of generational divide offers a haunting vision of what awaits us on the far side of Revelation.

A Planet for the President


Alistair Beaton - 2004
    He wants Americans to be adored by freedom-loving people everywhere. Instead, half the planet seems to be in permanent insurrection against US power. What's more, there's a growing environmental crisis that even he can't ignore. At a secret meeting in the Oval Office, the President is persuaded of one simple fact—there are too many people in the world. Only radical action, his advisers say, can deal with the problem. The solution they propose is frighteningly audacious and breathtakingly ruthless. Soon, the President has embarked upon a plan that will guarantee American supremacy for generations to come—or so he believes.

Aberrant


Ruth Silver - 2013
    There is food, shelter and jobs for everyone. The one requirement is to follow the rules without question, including the government's match in marriage and "The Day of the Chosen", a lottery that randomly selects families to conceive children as natural means hasn't existed in generations. Following her eighteenth birthday, Olivia Parker accepts her requirement to marry her childhood best friend, Joshua Warren, and is eager to start her work assignment and new life when it all comes abruptly to an end as she's arrested and thrown in prison. The only crime committed, her existence. Olivia is unlike the rest of the world born not from "The Day of the Chosen." The truth haunts the government and puts her life in grave danger as one simple fact would destroy the perfect system. With Joshua's help, Olivia breaks free of prison and is forced on the run. Together they set out to find the promised rebel town in search of a new home and new life together. Their situation seems less than promising as they reach the town of Haven. New rules and customs must be adhered to in order to stay. Leaving would mean most certain death in the large expanse of the Gravelands. Time is running out as the government mounts an attack to destroy Olivia and bury her secret with her. Thrown into a world unlike their own, they must quickly adapt to survive.

Wittgenstein's Mistress


David Markson - 1988
    It is the story of a woman who is convinced, and, astonishingly, will ultimately convince the reader as well, that she is the only person left on earth. Presumably she is mad. And yet so appealing is her character, and so witty and seductive her narrative voice, that we will follow her hypnotically as she unloads the intellectual baggage of a lifetime in a series of irreverent meditations on everything and everybody from Brahms to sex to Heidegger to Helen of Troy. And as she contemplates aspects of the troubled past which have brought her to her present state, so too will her drama become one of the few certifiably original fictions of our time.

The Probability Broach


L. Neil Smith - 1979
    He accidentally stumbles upon the probability broach, a portal to a myriad of worlds--some wildly different from, others disconcertingly similar to our own. Win finds himself transported to an alternate Earth where Congress is in Colorado, everyone carries a gun, there are gorillas in the Senate, and public services are controlled by private businesses.

Far North


Marcel Theroux - 2009
    He'd say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace—sheriff and perhaps last citizen—patrols a city's ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey—rife with danger—also leads to an unexpected redemption.Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world's fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.

Infinite Jest


David Foster Wallace - 1996
    Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human—and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.

American Apocalypse


Nova - 2009
    One casualty of the fallout finds himself homeless in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and faces new challenges at every turn just trying to survive. As he changes and adapts he learns hard lessons, makes new friends and ultimately becomes a formidable force of harsh justice in a lawless land. An unrelenting coming of age story set in the backdrop of a once proud America spiraling downward into third world squalor and violence.

77 Days in September


Ray Gorham - 2011
    Kyle Tait is settling in for his flight home to Montana when a single nuclear bomb is detonated 300 miles above the heart of America. The blast, an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP), destroys every electrical device in the country, and results in the crippling of the power grid, the shutting down of modern communications, and bringing to a halt most forms of transportation.Kyle narrowly escapes when his airplane crashes on take-off, only to find himself stranded 2,000 miles from home in a country that has been forced, from a technological standpoint, back to the 19th Century. Confused, hurt, scared, and alone, Kyle must make his way across a hostile continent to a family he’s not even sure has survived the effects of the attack. As Kyle forges his way home, his frightened family faces their own struggles for survival in a community trying to halt its slow spiral into chaos and anarchy. 77 Days in September follows Kyle and his wife, Jennifer, as they are stretched past their breaking point, but find in their devotion to each other the strength to persevere.

One Second After


William R. Forstchen - 2009
    Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real ... a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages ... A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe, and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future ... and our end.

It Can't Happen Here


Sinclair Lewis - 1935
    Written during the Great Depression when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to "save the nation." Now finally back in print, It Can't Happen Here remains uniquely important, a shockingly prescient novel that's as fresh and contemporary as today's news.

The Ranch: Jack Sterlings Legacy


Sean Liscom - 2019
    He had worked the same job his entire adult life, he had never married and he had no children. He was used to doing things on his own. His comfortable life was shaken to the core the day he learned of his fathers death. It was a mysterious meeting that set life altering events in motion and the allure of a new life was too great to walk away from. When an Electromagnetic Pulse brings the modern world to its knees, Jason's choice proves to be the right one. Excerpt I have been told by many people that I have lived an extraordinary life. While the past few years have been a wild ride, I don’t think that I would go that far. I would be more inclined to say that I have been very blessed. The people who I’ll introduce you to, they were the extraordinary ones. I was just lucky enough to call them my friends. In order to keep the memories alive of the ones that we lost along the way; I have decided to put pen to paper. It is in their memory that I tell you this story. My name is Jason Sterling and my incredible journey began on July 9th, 2015. That was the day I learned that my father had passed away. I was 38 years old and had been working at the same warehouse job for 20 years in Reno, Nevada. I had started there the summer I graduated from high school and the place just kind of stuck with me. Over the years I had risen through the ranks, from picker packer to shift lead. Then from shift lead to warehouse supervisor, then to supply chain manager. That was the position I had been in for the last five years. Retirement wasn't even a thought yet. Hell, I was only 38, who the hell retires at 38? So, every day I went to work. I was there at 5am and left after the second shift came on at 2:30pm. I liked to have contact with all my people. Maybe that’s why I was a successful manager. It's not that I really liked the job, I was just good at it and to be honest, I was comfortable. I had bigger plans for when I did decide to retire. Having never been married and having no kids, I had a lot of options open to me. The one option I was looking at was a huge log cabin in northern Montana. I loved the log cabin look and the idea of retiring and telling civilization to piss off was a feeling I felt more and more every day. At 6'-2" tall, I maintained an average weight of 195 with a pretty chiseled physique. I tried to do my hour every morning in the gym. After that, I was in the shower by 4:20 and on my way to work by 4:45. It was only a five-minute drive to work. That was the normal routine and had been every workday for years. I was always the first person at work, so I was a little surprised when I pulled in to find the Plant Manager’s car and a black limo in the parking lot. From outside I could see that the office lights were already on, my office light included. "Hmm, must be a surprise visit from corporate," I muttered to myself as I grabbed my briefcase and headed for the front door. I had been through these surprise inspections before, so I wasn't about to let it change my routine. In the front door, past the forklift charging stations and into the employee break room. It was a habit of mine to always start the coffee pots. I knew my people liked coming into work with hot coffee waiting for them. That done, I headed to my office. Let’s see who we had to impress today. Daryl, the plant manager, was in his office but the door was closed, so I proceeded to my office which was two doors down. My door was also closed, and I could see light spilling from under it. I stood there for a second or two trying to figure exactly what to do. Do I knock on my own office door? Do I just barge in like I own the place? This was a first.

This Perfect Day


Ira Levin - 1970
    Uniformity is the defining feature; there is only one language and all ethnic groups have been eugenically merged into one race called “The Family.” The world is ruled by a central computer called UniComp that has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the earth in check. People are continually drugged by means of regular injections so that they will remain satisfied and cooperative. They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce. Even the basic facts of nature are subject to the UniComp’s will—men do not grow facial hair, women do not develop breasts, and it only rains at night.

Deception Point


Dan Brown - 2001
    A conspiracy of staggering brilliance. A thriller unlike any you've ever read....When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory—a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.

The Hunger Games


Suzanne Collins - 2008
    The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weight survival against humanity and life against love.