Book picks similar to
White City by Seb Doubinsky


first-reads
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novels

Young Donald


Michael Bennett - 2020
    Now, limbs terminally akimbo, Teddy’s body lies in a pool of blood in Jessup Quadrangle. And at the center of the investigation at the prestigious New Jersey Military Academy is young Donald.Surely blame for Teddy’s accidental death should not rest with him, Donald reasons. But how? Can people be convinced that Teddy took his own life? Can suspicion be cast on Stanley Wong, the Academy’s only Asian cadet? And with Teddy gone, who can Donald enlist to help him avoid blame?From New York real-estate moguls to Hong Kong triad bosses, Donald’s web of lies soon spins further than he could have ever imagined.

Anthem


Noah Hawley - 2022
     At the Float Anxiety Abatement Center, in a suburb of Chicago, Simon Oliver is trying to recover from his sister’s tragic passing. He breaks out to join a woman named Louise and a man called The Prophet on a quest as urgent as it is enigmatic. Who lies at the end of the road? A man known as The Wizard, whose past encounter with Louise sparked her own collapse. Their quest becomes a rescue mission when they join up with a man whose sister is being held captive by the Wizard, impregnated and imprisoned in a tower.  Noah Hawley’s new novel is an adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners.  Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm’s fairy tale.  It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers.

F250


Bud Smith - 2014
    For now, he’s squatting in a collapsing house, working as a stone mason, driving a jacked up pickup truck that he crashes into everything. As a close friend Ods in his sleep, Lee falls into a three-way relationship with two college girls, June Doom and K Neon. F250 is a novel equal parts about growing up, and being torn apart."Bud Smith is Nick Hornby if you strapped him to a Tesla coil and launched him into a Sun made of Poetry." --Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and some for the Day

On A Journey Of Life


Kajal Rai - 2021
    The only thing getting her through the guilt of taking the trip against her father's wishes is the beautiful sunset in the hills and the echoes of her heartfelt conversations with Arjun. As she uncovers some secrets of her mother's life from the diary throughout the trip, she struggles against the fate decided for her and dares to hope for something more out of her life and with Arjun.But when her father's constant demands to come back home threaten to cut her trip short, Saanchi must make a choice. Will she go back to her restrictive life or take a chance at living life on her terms?***That Summer - Nivedita KarmaranAfter being forced to spend that summer at Bungalow No. 64, a thirteen-year-old recluse yet free-spirited Rashi Anand, who is bored of her parents’ monotonous lives forms an unexpected friendship with the maintenance man of her guarded society, Lalit. She should have nothing to do with him, yet they find themselves comforting and confiding in each other. But is such friendship considered forbidden? Would Rashi rebel to rescue her friendship and will their friendship stand the test of time?

Dr. Identity


D. Harlan Wilson - 2007
    But how does it reflect on your teaching skills when your doppleganger murders the whole class? Follow the Dystopian Duo (Dr. Blah Blah Blah and his robot Dr. Identity) on a killing spree of epic proportions through the irreal postapocalyptic city of Bliptown where time ticks sideways, artificial Bug-Eyed Monsters punish citizens for consumer-capitalist lethargy, and ultraviolence is as essential as a daily multivitamin.

Sex Hell


Joe Canzano - 2016
    How is love related to sex, and how is sex related to love--and do love and sex need to be related at all?*This book contains profanity and adult situations

Eagle Woman: A Saga of Early California II


Marian Sepulveda - 2017
    A fateful one in the history of the indigenous tribes of America. Yuma warrior, Night Wolf, is investigating reports of sheep ravaging Indian land. When he rescues a young white woman being attacked by one of the herders, he takes her to the Kumeyaay medicine woman known as Eagle Woman to treat her injuries. Strangely, she is not afraid, is even drawn to this handsome warrior. The Saga continues as Abigail Cassidy Butterfield, now living on a ranch in the San Diego back country with her family. Though this book is a sequel to Where Eagles Dance, it also stands alone. As Abby continues her fight to help the local tribes retain their land, she becomes an Indian Agent to help survey and mark the reservations. She and her family personally deliver the survey records to President Ulysses S. Grant in Washington D.C. On the return to California with the granted reservations, danger stalks them all along the way. For Abby, it will take all her medicine powers to save her people and combat the threat to her family. Enjoy the drama, the romance and a few light hearted incidents along the way.

A Drive Through Time


Andrei Saygo - 2021
    Good thing his companion is a mysterious young woman with exceptional fighting skills. Too bad she has her own agenda.When Duncan decided to take a month off and travel around Europe, he never imagined where he would end up. Or when.He wakes up in a world utterly different than the one he knew—a world with no GPS signal and no internet connection. Struggling with the societal norms, injustice, and inequity of the time, Duncan reluctantly accepts the help of a beautiful young woman, Alana, and her father.With the threat of an attack looming over their heads, Duncan must use his knowledge of modern chemistry, physics, and cyber technology to stop an invading army and save an entire town along the way. Will he find a way to protect them and return home or die at the hands of the ruthless Celtic warriors?

Invasion


P.P. Corcoran - 2017
    A secret past. A past that the K’tai didn’t reckon on. Humanity, previously dependent on the K'Tai for its Redlazore, discovers vast resources of the most valuable mineral in the galaxy on Agate and are now free to expand across the stars: Redlazore is also the key component to faster-than-light travel. The planet Agate is, however, the human colony-world which lies perilously close to the K'Tai Imperium and the K'Tai resolve to put the upstart humans back in their place. The K'Tai Imperium invades Agate. On the ground, in the midst of the whirlwind conflict is the Carter family: Dave a mid-level exec is working in downtown Gemini City, Sue his wife, a high school teacher and their teenage twins, Jodee and Chris are on a school trip to a Redlazore mine. In space, the League Border Patrol face overwhelming odds as the K'Tai fleet advance. The K'Tai soldiers of the infamous Black Legion descend on Agate, opposed by the meagre, poorly-armed militia and a sprinkling of regular marines. The planet and those upon it are engulfed in the flames of war. The K'Tai, however, did not count on the Carters. For the Carters have a secret. A secret which will cost the K'Tai Imperium dearly. The Carters are Agate's human population's only hope.

Sky Saw


Blake Butler - 2012
    Would you even believe me if I did or didn't? Could this paper touch your face? I've spent enough years with my face arranged in books. I've read enough to crush my sternum. In each of the books are people talking, saying the same thing, their tongues thin and white and speckled.I don't want to be here. I want to get older. I want to see my skin go folding over.Someday I plan to die.Books that reappear when you destroy them, lampshades made of skin, people named with numbers and who can't recall each other, a Universal Ceiling constructed by an otherwise faceless authority, a stairwell stuffed with birds: the terrain and populace of Sky Saw is packed with stroboscopic memory mirage. In dynamic sentences and image, Blake Butler crafts a post-Lynchian nightmare where space and family have deformed, leaving the human persons left in the strange wake to struggle after the shapes of both what they loved and who they were.

The Inflatable Volunteer


Steve Aylett - 2000
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The Impossible Fortress


Jason Rekulak - 2017
    Then he met Mary Zelinsky.Do you remember your first love?The Impossible Fortress begins with a magazine…The year is 1987 and Playboy has just published scandalous photographs of Vanna White, from the popular TV game show Wheel of Fortune. For three teenage boys—Billy, Alf, and Clark—who are desperately uneducated in the ways of women, the magazine is somewhat of a Holy Grail: priceless beyond measure and impossible to attain. So, they hatch a plan to steal it.The heist will be fraught with peril: a locked building, intrepid police officers, rusty fire escapes, leaps across rooftops, electronic alarm systems, and a hyperactive Shih Tzu named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Failed attempt after failed attempt leads them to a genius master plan—they’ll swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. But what starts as a game to win Mary’s affection leaves Billy with a gut-wrenching choice: deceive the girl who may well be his first love or break a promise to his best friends.

Trompe l'Oeil


Nancy Reisman - 2015
    In the immediate aftermath, James, Nora, and their children find solace in their Massachusetts coast home, but as the years pass the weight of the loss disintegrates the increasingly fragile marriage and leaves its mark on each family member. Trompe l'Oeil seamlessly alternates among several characters' points of view, capturing the details of their daily lives as well as their longing for connection and fear of abandonment. Through the turbulence of marriage, the challenges of parenthood, job upheavals, and calamities large and small, Trompe l'Oeil examines family legacies, the ways those legacies persist, and the ways they might be transcended. Nancy Reisman is a master of psychological acuity, creating characters who are wholly unique and yet express our own longings and anxieties. Trompe l'Oeil haunts not only with its story but also with the beauty of its insight into hopes, desires, and fears.

The Skinning Tree


Srikumar Sen - 2012
    When Sabby is sent to a boarding school in northern India, he witnesses a strict regime in which the schoolboys are beaten and brutalized by the teachers.The boys themselves take on their abusers' cruel traits, mindlessly killing animals and hanging their skins on a cactus, before their thoughts turn to even more sinister schemes. Conspiratorial whisperings and plans of revenge spiral into a tragedy engulfing Sabby in a chilling exploration of human nature's darkest facets.

Welfare


Steve Anwyll - 2017
    A high school student leaves his parents' home to live on his own with friends and with the help of government aid. The narrator becomes your best friend on the first page.