Audrey Niffenegger
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (Picador, $14). This 1994 novel is quirky (there is no other word) and beautiful. It concerns Fabian Vas, the bird artist of the title, and wonderful, odd Margaret, a woman who always asks questions most people wouldn’t. There’s a murder and a lighthouse, and it’s set in Newfoundland. Just read it, though; this description is too reductive to convey all the strangeness of the thing.
Nana, Diva, Luna, Lola, Vida, and Alba by Delacorta (out of print). The 1981 movie Diva was made from a book in this series about con artist Serge Gorodish and his teenage protégé Alba. These are tasty, trashy, exuberant books, with memorable characters who do the things we all want to do—and always get away with it.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
No Place on Earth by Christa Wolf (out of print). An imagined conversation between the poet Karoline von Günderrode and the writer Heinrich von Kleist. Set in 1804, it is a perfect evocation of alienation, expressed through the meeting of two like minds.
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey (Vintage, $14). Francis Orme, the narrator of this book, is one of the great characters of recent fiction. An original thinker with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Francis steals other people’s loved possessions to add to his own private museum. The list of the museum’s objects at the back of the book is a puzzle of the first order.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Easy Travel to Other Planets by Ted Mooney (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $21). A female marine biologist and a dolphin named Peter fall in love in a flooded house. There’s more to it than that, but isn’t that enough to make you want to read it?
Diaries of Franz Kafka 1914–1923
-
UK-India trade deal: how the social security arrangements will work
The Explainer A National Insurance exemption in the UK-India trade deal is causing concern but should British workers worry?
-
Man arrested after 'suspicious' fires at properties linked to Keir Starmer
Speed Read Prime minister thanks emergency services after fire at his former family home in north London
-
Elon Musk's SpaceX has created a new city in Texas
under the radar Starbase is home to SpaceX's rocket launch site
-
Laurence Leamer's 6 favorite books that took courage to write
Feature The author recommends works by George Orwell, Truman Capote and more
-
Amor Towles' 6 favorite books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, and more
-
Susan Page's 6 favorite books about historical figures who stood up to authority
Feature The USA Today's Washington bureau chief recommends works by Catherine Clinton, Alexei Navalny, and more
-
Ione Skye's 6 favorite books about love and loss
Feature The actress recommends works by James Baldwin, Nora Ephron, and more
-
Colum McCann's 6 favorite books that take place at sea
Feature The National Book Award-winning author recommends works by Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, and more
-
Max Allan Collins’ 6 favorite books that feature private detectives
Feature The mystery writer recommends works by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and more
-
John McWhorter’s 6 favorite books that are rooted in history
Feature The Columbia University professor recommends works by Lyla Sage, Sally Thorne, and more
-
Abdulrazak Gurnah's 6 favorite books about war and colonialism
Feature The Nobel Prize winner recommends works by Michael Ondaatje, Toni Morrison, and more