Short Books for Tired Readers

Short novels and novellas for tired readers with short attention spans 😩

Updated October 25, 2023
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The penelopiad.
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939-
Paper Book
The story of Penelope — as told by herself. InThe Odyssey, Penelope — daughter of King Icarius of Sparta, and the cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy — is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife. Atwood’s dazzling retelling of the old myth is as haunting as it is...
Giovanni's Room : Introduction by Colm TŠdibŠUn.
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Paper Book
Set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, this groundbreaking novel about love and the fear of love is "a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction" (The Atlantic). * Presented here in stunning hardcover and with an Introduction by Colm Tóibín, New York Times...
Ragnarok : the end of the gods.
Byatt, A. S. 1936-
Paper Book
Ragnarok retells the finale of Norse mythology. A story of the destruction of life on this planet and the end of the gods themselves: what more relevant myth could any modern writer choose? Just as Wagner used this dramatic and catastrophic struggle for the climax of his Ring Cycle, so A.S....
Breakfast at Tiffany's and three stories
Capote, Truman
Paper Book
Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's. In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape--her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm....
The house on Mango Street
Cisneros, Sandra.
Paper Book
A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago * Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world--from the winner of the...
A master of Djinn. [online electronic book]
Clark, P. Djeli.
Ebook
Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel, A Master of Djinn. Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha'arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural...
Ring shout
Clark, P. Dj©·l©?
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...
Piranesi
Clarke, Susanna
Paper Book
The award-winning, New York Times bestselling fantasy sensation that Madeline Miller called, "a miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling," Piranesi is an intoxicating, hypnotic novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.<...
Once ghosted, twice shy
Cole, Alyssa
Paper Book
Alyssa Cole returns with a fun, sexy romance novella in the Reluctant Royals series! While her boss the prince was busy wooing his betrothed, Likotsi had her own love affair after swiping right on a dating app. But her romance had ended in heartbreak, and now, back in NYC again, she's...
How to Find a Princess
Cole, Alyssa.
Ebook
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Alyssa Cole's second Runaway Royals novel is a queer Anastasia retelling, featuring a long-lost princess who finds love with the female investigator tasked with tracking her down. Makeda Hicks has lost her job and her girlfriend in one fell...
Every day is for the thief.
Cole, Teju
Paper Book
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY DWIGHT GARNER, THE NEW YORK TIMES * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY San Francisco Chronicle | NPR | The Root | The Telegraph | The Globe and Mail NATIONAL...
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...
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,...
Our souls at night.
Haruf, Kent.
Paper Book
A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future. In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable...
Below Zero
Hazelwood, Ali.
Ebook
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new steamy, STEMinist novella... It will take the frosty terrain of the Arctic to show these rival scientists that their chemistry burns hot. Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are...
Stuck with You
Hazelwood, Ali.
Ebook
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new steamy, STEMinist novella... Nothing like a little rivalry between scientists to take love to the next level. Mara, Sadie, and Hannah are friends first, scientists always....
Under One Roof
Hazelwood, Ali.
Ebook
A USA Today Bestseller! From the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis comes a new steamy, STEMinist novella... A scientist should never cohabitate with her annoyingly hot nemesis--it leads to combustion. Mara,...
We have always lived in the castle.
Jackson, Shirley.
Paper Book
The turn of the screw.
Mackenzie, Fiona (Businesswoman)
Paper Book
With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting...
A house with good bones
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
A Barnes & Noble Best Horror Book of 2023 A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family. "Mom seems off."<...
Thornhedge
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novella! From New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways. *The very special...
What moves the dead
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" from Hugo, Locus, &...
Passing.
Larsen, Nella
Paper Book
Fair, elegant, and ambitious, Clare is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage and has severed all ties to her past. Clare's childhood friend, Irene, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that...
Across the green grass fields
McGuire, Seanan
Paper Book
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series A young girl discovers a portal to a land filled with centaurs and unicorns in Seanan McGuire's Across the Green Grass Fields, a standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series.
Beneath the sugar sky
McGuire, Seanan
Paper Book
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series A glorious 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...
Come tumbling down. [online electronic book]
McGuire, Seanan
Ebook
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series A 2021 Hugo Award Finalist! A 2021 Locus Award Finalist! Amazon's Best of 2020 So Far The fifth installment in New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire's...
Down among the sticks and bones
McGuire, Seanan
Paper Book
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series Winner: 2018 Alex Award Winner: 2018 ALA RUSA Fantasy Award Seanan McGuire returns to her popular Wayward Children series with Down Among the Sticks and Bones--a truly standalone story suitable...
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...
In an absent dream. [online electronic book]
McGuire, Seanan
Ebook
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...
Lost in the moment and found. [online electronic book]
McGuire, Seanan
Ebook
Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series A 2023 Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Inductee! A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in this standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children...
Where the drowned girls go. [online electronic book]
McGuire, Seanan
Ebook
Winner: 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novella Winner: 2022 Hugo Award for Best Series In Where the Drowned Girls Go, the next addition to Seanan McGuire's beloved Wayward Children series, students at an anti-magical school...
The strange library
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami--a fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library.   Opening the flaps on this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling...
Dept. of speculation
Offill, Jenny
Paper Book
Dept. of Speculation is a portrait of a marriage. It is also a beguiling rumination on the mysteries of intimacy, trust, faith, knowledge, and the condition of universal shipwreck that unites us all. Jenny Offill's heroine, referred to in these pages as simply "the wife," once exchanged...
Binti. [online electronic book]
Okorafor, Nnedi
Ebook
Nnedi Okorafor's Binti is the winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novella! Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to...
Wide Sargasso sea.
Rhys, Jean
Paper Book
A new edition of a novel in the TWENTIETH-CENTURY CLASSICS series which tells the story of the first Mrs Rochester, who is haunted by the death of her brother and the madness of her mother, and who is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who wants to take her from Jamaica to England. From the...
The slow regard of silent things
Rothfuss, Patrick
Paper Book
Discover #1 New York Times-bestselling Patrick Rothfuss' epic fantasy universe of The Kingkiller Chronicle, in this illustrated companion novella, The Slow Regard of Silent Things. "I just love the world of Patrick Rothfuss." --Lin-Manuel Miranda  ...
The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other tales of terror
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paper Book
Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with 'damnable young man' Edward Hyde, the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer, and the final...
My name is Lucy Barton : a novel
Strout, Elizabeth.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE * A simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the tender relationship between mother and daughter in this "spectacular" (The Washington Post) novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge and...
All Systems Red The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1
Wells, Martha.
Ebook
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award for Best Novella Winner of the Alex Award A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Now an Apple Original series from Academy Award nominees Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz and starring Emmy...
Ethan Frome and other stories.
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937
Paper Book
Another Brooklyn : a novel
Woodson, Jacqueline
Paper Book
A Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award New York Times Bestseller A SeattleTimes pick for Summer Reading Roundup 2017 The acclaimed New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming delivers her first adult novel in twenty years...

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