Achieve Your Reading Goal - Great Reads Under 250 Pages

Whether it was your goal to read 5 or 50 books this year, find some quick reads on this list to get you across the finish line.

Updated November 8, 2023
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Red at the bone
Woodson, Jacqueline
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR "A spectacular novel that only this legend can pull off." -Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of  HOW TO BE AN...
Fox 8
Saunders, George
Paper Book
'Very funny ... With Fox 8, Saunders does something one might, in isolation, think it almost impossible for a book to do, which is to resensitise the reader to violence' Guardian An enchanting and darkly comic fable of human greed and nature, from the Man...
Lie with me : a novel
Besson, Philippe
Paper Book
The Advocate's Best Gay Novel of 2019 A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice O, The Oprah Magazine's Best LGBTQ Books That'll Change the Literary Landscape in 2019 The Wall Street Journal's Ten Books You'll Want to Read this...
The deep
Solomon, Rivers
Paper Book
ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society--and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award...
Delphi
Pollard, Clare
Paper Book
'Inviting, stylish and candid ... Pollard's future, as a novelist, is very bright indeed' The i 'Clever, warm, and funny' Sarah Moss, The Guardian 'This isn't the first - and most certainly won't be the last - pandemic novel, but it might...
Chemistry : a novel
Wang, Weike
Paper Book
Named by The Washington Post as a Notable Work of Fiction in 2017 and by Entertainment Weekly as a Best Debut Novel of 2017 Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Ann Patchett on PBS NewsHour, Minnesota Public Radio, Maris Kreizman, and...
Eileen
Moshfegh, Ottessa
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture streaming on Hulu, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize "Eileen is a remarkable piece of writing, always dark and surprising, sometimes ugly and occasionally hilarious. Its first...
Piranesi
Clarke, Susanna
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction World Fantasy Awards Finalist From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a...
The employees : a workplace novel of the 22nd century
Ravn, Olga
Paper Book
"Is this a human problem? If so, Id like to keep it. The crew of the Six-Thousand Ship consists of those who were born, and those who were made. Those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find...
The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Vo, Nghi
Paper Book
Winner of the 2020 Crawford Award! Winner of the 2021 Hugo Award! A Hugo Award-Winning Series! A 2021 Locus Award Finalist A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist A Book Riot Best Debut Fantasy of All...
Ghost wall
Moss, Sarah
Paper Book
A masterclass in the art of the short, unnerving novel; a story of forbidden borders, haunted landscapes and bodies in danger.
The end we start from
Hunter, Megan
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JODIE COMER "Engrossing, compelling." -- Naomi Alderman, author of The Power "I was moved, terrified, uplifted - sometimes all three at once." -- Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl...
This is how you lose the time war
El-Mohtar, Amal
Paper Book
HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters--and fall in love...
Convenience store woman
Murata, Sayaka
Paper Book
The English-language debut of an exciting young voice in international fiction, selling 660,000 copies in Japan alone, Convenience Store Woman is a bewitching portrayal of contemporary Japan through the eyes of a single woman who fits in to the rigidity of its work culture only too well<...
Follow me to ground
Rainsford, Sue.
Ebook
The friend
Nunez, Sigrid
Paper Book
When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatised by the inexplicable disappearance of its master, and...
Even though I knew the end
Polk, C. L.
Paper Book
A USA Today Bestseller! Winner of the Nebula Award! Finalist for the Hugo Award! Finalist for the World Fantasy Award! A New York Times Best Romance of 2022! C. L. Polk turns their...
All systems red
Wells, Martha
Paper Book
A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Winner: 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella Winner: 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella Winner: 2018 Alex Award Winner: 2018 Locus Award One of the Verge's Best Books of 2017 A...
The incendiaries
Kwon, R. O.
Paper Book
Phoebe and Will meet in their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who blames herself for her mother's death. Will is a misfit who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables in secret to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe....
I who have never known men
Harpman, Jacqueline
Paper Book
Discover the haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tale of female friendship and intimacy set in a deserted world. Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus? ...
A psalm for the wild-built
Chambers, Becky
Paper Book
Winner of the Hugo Award! In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, bestselling Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk and Robot series, gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools;...
In an absent dream
McGuire, Seanan
Paper Book
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series A stand-alone fantasy tale from Seanan McGuire's Alex award-winning Wayward Children series, which began in the Alex, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning, World Fantasy Award finalist, Tiptree Honor List Every...
Infinite country : a novel
Engel, Patricia
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK AND INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2021 NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD, LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL, A 2022 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST, AND A NATIONAL...
A Christmas carol : in prose, being a ghost story of Christmas
Dickens, Charles
Paper Book
The classic novella of the Christmas transformation of Scrooge that has remained in the public imagination for well over a century, now available in an accessible format for all readers. Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, and he...
The lathe of heaven : a novel
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paper Book
The Locus Award-winning science fiction novel by legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin, set in a world where one man's dreams rewrite the future. During a time racked by war and environmental catastrophe, George Orr discovers his dreams alter reality. George is compelled to receive...
Luster
Leilani, Raven
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable Book of the Year WINNER of the NBCC John Leonard Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award...
Maurice
Forster, E. M.
Paper Book
Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and on into his father's firm, Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers. In a highly structured society,...
Mouth to mouth
Wilson, Antoine
Paper Book
With the intellectual clarity of Don DeLillo and the dark compelling energy of The Girl on the Train, Mouth to Mouth is a brilliant literary thriller about the irresistibility of money and power, and how a beachside rescue can become life-long entrapment...
Nightbitch
Yoder, Rachel
Paper Book
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING AMY ADAMS * In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. * "A must-read for anyone who can't get enough of the ever-blurring line between the psychological and supernatural that...
No one is talking about this
Lockwood, Patricia
Paper Book
'A masterpiece' Guardian'I really admire and love this book' Sally Rooney 'An intellectual and emotional rollercoaster' Daily Mail 'I can't remember the last time I laughed so much reading a book' David Sedaris'It moved me to tears' Elizabeth...
The ocean at the end of the lane
Gaiman, Neil
Paper Book
A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys. This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival,...
Of love and other demons
García Márquez, Gabriel
Paper Book
The passion
Winterson, Jeanette
Paper Book
Henri had a passion for Napoleon and Napoleon had a passion for chicken. From Boulogne to Moscow, Henri butchered for his Emperor and never killed a single man. Meanwhile, in Venice, the city of chance and disguises, Villanelle was born with the webbed feet of her boatman father - but in the casinos...
Pizza girl : a novel
Frazier, Jean Kyoung
Ebook
Great inventiveness, unfailing intelligence and empathy, and best of all a rare and shimmering wit' Richard Ford The must-read literary debut novel for fans of Normal People and Fleabag 'Riotously funny' Elle Eighteen years old, pregnant, and working as a pizza delivery...
Ring shout : or hunting Ku Kluxes in the end times
Clark, P. Djèlí
Paper Book
Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror "A fantastical, brutal and thrilling triumph of the imagination...Clark's combination of...
Sula
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
'Extravagantly beautiful... Enormously, achingly alive... A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter' New York Times As young girls, Nel and Sula shared each other's secrets and dreams in the poor black mid-West of their childhood. Then...
The swimmers
Otsuka, Julie
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE WINNER * From the award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine comes a novel that "starts as a catalogue of spoken and unspoken rules for swimmers at an aquatic center but unfolds into a powerful...
Tender is the flesh
Bazterrica, Agustina María
Ebook
Their eyes were watching God
Hurston, Zora Neale
Ebook
"A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don't know how to live properly." --Zadie Smith One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century,...
To be taught if fortunate
Chambers, Becky
Paper Book
In the future, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the galaxy transform themselves. *FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR* 'Extraordinary . . . A future masterwork' Joanne Harris ...
Weather : a novel
Offill, Jenny
Paper Book
From the author of Dept. of Speculation, a dazzling and deadpan new novel about hope and despair, fear and comfort as it plays out in these times of environmental and political turbulence.
Where reasons end : a novel
Li, Yiyun
Paper Book
A fearless writer confronts grief and transforms it into art, in a book of surprising beauty and love, "a masterpiece by a master" (Elizabeth McCracken, Vanity Fair). "Li has converted the messy and devastating stuff of life into a remarkable work of art."--...
Wide Sargasso Sea
Rhys, Jean
Paper Book
Jean Rhys's reputation was made upon the publication of this passionate and heartbreaking novel, in which she brings into the light one of fiction's most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Set in the Caribbean, its heroine is Antoinette Cosway, a...
The house on Mango Street
Cisneros, Sandra.
Paper Book
THE ESOL READER'S COMPANION SERIES provides intermediate-level students of English with study guides to help them better understand and enjoy the original novels, and , at the same time, enhance the language learning process. Each READER'S COMPANION includes a variety of reading strategies as well...
Every heart a doorway
McGuire, Seanan
Paper Book
Winner of the Hugo Award, Hugo Award for Best Series, Alex Award, Locus Award, and Nebula Award Nominated for the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and Tiptree Honor List "A mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy -- a jewel of...

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