Books that matter to me

Discover the books that truly matter to me—a curated list of impactful reads that inspire, challenge, and transform. Explore my personal literary journey and find your next favorite book.

Kolyma Tales Cover
Book

Kolyma Tales

by Varlam Shalamov

It is estimated that some three million people died in the Soviet forced-labour camps of Kolyma, in the northeastern area of Siberia. Shalamov himself spent seventeen years there, and in these stories he vividly captures the lives of ordinary people caught up in terrible circumstances, whose hopes and plans extended to further than a few hours. This new enlarged edition combines two collections previously published in the United States as Kolyma Tales and Graphite. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Item Not Found
ID: 0520221524
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0156465094
(Type: books)
Cancer Ward Cover
Book

Cancer Ward

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

One of the great allegorical masterpieces of world literature, Cancer Ward is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant dissection of the "cancerous" Soviet police state. --Publisher
Item Not Found
ID: 0810115905
(Type: books)
The Long Walk Cover
Book

The Long Walk

by Slavomir Rawicz

Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag. "The Long Walk" is the harrowing true tale of how he and six comrades escaped and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India.
John Adams Cover
Book

John Adams

by David McCullough

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling biography of America’s founding father and second president that was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as “out of his senses”; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history. This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
Item Not Found
ID: 0674354370
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0786868767
(Type: books)