Books that are worth the time
Discover the books worth your time in this curated reading list. From Eliot Pattison's *Beautiful Ghosts* and Lian Hearn's *Across the Nightingale Floor* to Richard K. Morgan's *Altered Carbon* and Peter Straub's *Lost Boy, Lost Girl*, explore unforgettable fiction and thought-provoking tales—handpicked for readers who value every page.
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Lost Boy, Lost Girl
by Peter Straub
From the bestselling author of "Black House" and "Mr. X" springs a groundbreaking story of the persistence of evil, told with tantalizing ambiguity and structural audacity.
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Beautiful Ghosts
by Eliot Pattison
Having lived a year in exile since his release from a work camp, former Beijing inspector Shan Tao Yun is entreated by the officials who exiled him to help with a murder investigation involving missing art, his former gulag, and his son.
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Altered Carbon
by Richard K. Morgan
In the 25th century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself - a person's consciousness can be easily downloaded into a new body, making death nearly obsolete. Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly brutal. Resleeved into a new body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco), Kovacs is thrown into a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that buys and sells human existence. As a warrior-for-hire, he is called to help a far-flung planet's government put down a bloody revolution. But when a rogue pilot and a sleazy corporate fat cat offer him a lucrative role in a treacherous treasure hunt, he's only too happy to go AWOL with a band of resurrected soldiers of fortune. All that stands between them and the ancient alien spacecraft they mean to salvage are a massacred city bathed in deadly radiation, unleashed nanotechnology with a million ways to kill, and whatever surprises the highly advanced Martian race may have in store.
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Across the Nightingale Floor
by Lian Hearn
An international bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. Don't miss the related series, The Tale of Shikanoko. In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe. And, with this knowledge, he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the famed nightingale floor—and to his own unimaginable destiny...
