Book picks similar to
White City by Seb Doubinsky


first-reads
xxi
bizarro
bizarro-pulp-press

Exponential Apocalypse


Eirik Gumeny - 2009
    There were now four distinct variations of humanity roaming the earth - six, if you counted the undead.It had been suggested that there really should have been a new word to describe "the end of everything forever," but most people had stopped noticing, much less caring, after the tally hit double digits. Not to mention the failure of "forever" in living up to its potential.The last apocalypse wasn't even considered a cataclysm by most major governments.It was just a Thursday.Exponential Apocalypse is the tender, heart-stirring tale of crappy jobs, a slacker cult, an alcoholic Aztec god, reconstituted world leaders, werewolves, robots, and the shenanigans of multiple persons living after the twentieth-aught end of the world. Fast-paced, frenetic, funny, and frequently fond of other f-words, Exponential Apocalypse is the only book that will have you looking forward to the end of the world.

Aa Maratheyum Marannu Marannu Njan: And Slowly Forgetting That Tree …


K.R. Meera - 2010
    Raped at age ten, raped again as a young collegiate, she is abandoned twice: first by her father and later by Christy who loved her, but takes her through a wedding ceremony only to leave her later the same day. When Christy returns sixteen years later, shattered and unstable, the burnt and withered roots of love bloom again. Trauma, betrayal, and loneliness are the colours that paint this picture of physical and emotional violence that Radhika endures.

The Land of Women


Regina McBride - 2003
     She tries to remember her mother's voice and the pitch and treble of it passes through her; the rhythm of it so clear that for a moment they are...connected by frail strings. So begins The Land of Women, and we are swept into Fiona O'Faolain's last summer in Ireland, the season of her burgeoning sexuality. It is a time, too, when mother and daughter step toward friendship among the voluminous gowns they make for local brides. Yet that giddy summer also delivers betrayal. Fiona's journey from the shame that ended her girlhood takes her to Santa Fe and to Carlos Aragon, a restorer of antiquities, whose ancestry is mysteriously linked to hers. As he explores their pasts with the precision of an artisan, Fiona must face her excruciating memory. In The Land of Women the past lives in the present, and physical and emotional geography touch.

Crossings


Alex Landragin - 2020
    It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations. With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing and empathy.

The Council of Animals


Nick McDonell - 2021
    But I will say, in case I can change yours: humans are more useful to us outside our bellies than in.’”Perhaps.After The Calamity, the animals thought the humans had managed to do themselves in. But, it turns out, a few are cowering in makeshift villages. So the animals—among them a cat, a dog, a crow, a baboon, a horse, and a bear—have convened to debate whether to help the last human stragglers . . . or to eat them.

Your Glass Head against the Brick Parade of Now Whats


Sam Pink - 2016
    The much-anticipated poetry chapbook by Sam Pink, author of the cult favorites Person and I Am Going to Clone Myself Then Kill the Clone and Eat It, who the Los Angeles Review of Books called, “Simply one of the best, darkest, funniest, wildest, and [most] touching writers we’ve got.”

The Southwest Corner


Mildred Walker - 1981
    So, with great resourcefulness, she advertised for a companion and eventually staked out a corner of her own—one with a view. Mildred Walker's skill as a storyteller never falters in this portrayal of an elderly woman who won't give up.

Freaks' Amour


Tom De Haven - 1978
    Grinner and his bride Reeni, members of a race of Freaks created by mutation and quarantined in Freaktown ghetto, plunge into pornography in order to save money for a Syntha-skin treatment, but although Grinner wants normality, Reeni does not.

A Hundred Thousand Worlds


Bob Proehl - 2016
    Now Val must reunite nine-year-old Alex with his estranged father, so they set out on a road trip from New York, Val making appearances at comic book conventions along the way.  As they travel west, encountering superheroes, monsters, time travelers, and robots, Val and Alex are drawn into the orbit of the comic-con regulars, from a hapless twentysomething illustrator to a lesbian comics writer to a group of cosplay women who provide a chorus of knowing commentary. For Alex, this world is a magical place where fiction becomes reality, but as they get closer to their destination, he begins to realize that the story his mother is telling him about their journey might have a very different ending than he imagined. A literary-meets-genre pleasure from an exciting new writer, A Hundred Thousand Worlds is a tribute to the fierce and complicated love between a mother and son—and to the way the stories we create come to shape us.

Our Tragic Universe


Scarlett Thomas - 2010
    But for Meg—locked in a dead-end relationship and with a deadline looming for a book that she can't write—this thought fills her with dread. Stuck in a labyrinth of her own devising, Meg knows that there must be a way out.

Vagabond


Tim Rangnow - 2020
    Luna is torn between two allegiances, with each superpower controlling a dome on the home world's moon. In the asteroid belt, six mining colonies govern themselves. In the midst of it all is the Transport Guild.Erik Frost is the captain of a guild freighter. He took command when his father died four years ago, left with large debts and a rattling old ship badly in need of an overhaul. When he is offered a mysterious job with few details and a high payout, he can't resist the opportunity it represents. He and his crew head deep into the system for the asteroid belt to deliver their cargo, unprepared for the dangers they would soon face.They say some things are too good to be true, and this job could be one of them.

The Moon and Beyond


John E. Siers - 2012
    So smart, in fact, that they've figured out how gravity works. More importantly, they've figured out how to make it work as a propulsion system. Of course, they are going to tell the world about it. Eventually. But first, they have a few things to do, like build a fleet of gravity-powered spacecraft and establish a permanent settlement on the Moon... assuming they can keep the U.S. government from figuring out what they are doing, shutting them down, and putting them all under arrest. Welcome to the Lunar Free State...

Playing to Win (The Complete Series Box Set)


Alix Nichols - 2018
    3 passionate women who fall under their spell. 3 hot and tender love stories.BOOK 1: PLAYING WITH FIREEmbroiderer Uma is all kinds of wrong for single dad Zach.She’s his son’s nanny, still chaste at 23... and falling for him, hard and fast. In short, she’s completely off-limits. And just as completely irresistible. BOOK 2: PLAYING FOR KEEPSEx-player Isabelle takes a job as a publicist for a Paris water-polo team.That means she must face amnesiac coach Lucas, the jerk who broke her heart six years ago. But Lucas is a brand-new man after his head trauma. He has no idea why Isabelle is avoiding him — or why he is so drawn to her. BOOK 3: PLAYING DIRTYIn his pimply teens, Julien was led on, played and publicly humiliated by Noemi.Now a heartthrob and a sports star, he craves revenge. Even as he still craves Noemi.If you like single dad romances, revenge plots filled with angst and passion, and heartwarming second chance novels, you’ll love the PLAYING TO WIN series!

The Elegance of the Hedgehog


Jesse Russell - 2012
    The book follows events in the life of a concierge, Ren e Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma Josse. Paloma is the daughter of an upper-class family living in the upscale Parisian apartment building where Ren e works.

The Damnation Game


David Brian - 2015
    Kate Stringer is a woman in mourning, her murdered husband the latest victim of the notorious Catholic Jack slayer. A nationwide manhunt remains underway, but the serial killer continues to remain elusive. Now, unknown to her, Kate too has been targeted by the maniac. However, other forces are in play. Things moving in the shadows, with an agenda of their own...From those broken places, where trauma and distress cloister, they watch with accusing eyes. And if they judge us, they may look to share their pain.