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Speed Reads Books Under 300 Pages
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Annihilation
by Jeff Vandermeer
Describes the 12th expedition to “Area X,” a region cut off from the continent for decades, by a group of intrepid women scientists who try to ignore the high mortality rates of those on the previous 11 missions.
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13 ways of looking at a fat girl : A Novel
by Mona Awad
Follows Lizzie, a young woman growing up in Mississauga, as she fights her way from fat to thin, but who still, even as a married adult woman, sees herself as a fat girl.
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A clockwork orange
by Anthony Burgess
Presents Burgess' satire of the present inhumanity of man to man through a futuristic culture where teenagers rule with violence.
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This dark road to mercy
by Wiley Cash
After their mother dies unexpectedly, 12-year-old Easter and her 6-year-old sister Ruby are kidnapped by their errant father Wade, an ex-minor league baseball player whom they haven't seen in years, while their court appointed guardian races against time to find them before a vengeful killer does.
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The spy
by Paulo Coelho
In a series of letters written from prison on the eve of her death, Mata Hari reflects on her childhood, her years as the wife of an alcoholic diplomat, her rise to celebrity, and the choices that led to her execution for espionage.
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Wolf in white van
by John Darnielle
Creating fantastical mail-order role-playing games from his apartment where he endures a life of solitude after a disfiguring injury, Sean is blamed for a disaster involving two high school student clients, an event that compels him to reevaluate his own past.
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The ocean at the end of the lane
by Neil Gaiman
When otherworldly beings are set loose on the world, threatening the life of a little boy, the extraordinary Hempstock women--Lettie, her mother and her grandmother--summon all of their courage and cleverness to keep him alive, but soon discover that his survival comes with a high--and deadly--price.
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Lord of the flies : a novel
by William Golding
The classical study of human nature depicts the degeneration of a group of schoolboys, aged 6 to 12, who are marooned on a tropical island after a plane crash.
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Exit west : a novel
by Mohsin Hamid
The internationally best-selling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist presents the story of two young lovers whose furtive affair is shaped by local unrest on the eve of a civil war that erupts in a cataclysmic bombing attack, forcing them to abandon their previous home and lives.
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News of the world : a novel
by Paulette Jiles
In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a widower and itinerant news reader, is offered fifty dollars to bring an orphan girl, who was kidnapped and raised by Kiowa raiders, from Wichita Falls back to her family in San Antonio.
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The lover's dictionary
by David Levithan
A modern love story told through a series of dictionary-style entries is a sequence of intimate windows into the large and small events that shape the course of a romantic relationship.
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Every heart a doorway
by Seanan McGuire
Sent away to a home for children who have tumbled into fantastical other worlds and are looking for ways to return, Nancy triggers dark changes among her fellow schoolmates and resolves to expose the truth when a child dies under suspicious magical circumstances. By the best-selling author of the InCryptid series.
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Slade house
by David Mitchell
Follows the narrative of five different people who disappear through a mysterious door in an unassuming alleyway that leads to Slade House, owned by a peculiar brother and sister, and vanish completely from the outside world.
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The yellow birds : [a novel]
by Kevin Powers
In the midst of a bloody battle in the Iraq War, two soldiers, bound together since basic training, do everything to protect each other from both outside enemies and the internal struggles that come from constant danger.
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My name is Lucy Barton : a novel
by Elizabeth Strout
After an appendix operation puts her in the hospital, New York writer Lucy Barton reconnects with her estranged mother as the pair reminisce about the past. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge.
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Vinegar girl : The taming of the shrew retold
by Anne Tyler
A modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew follows the experiences of a preschool teacher who alienates others by speaking her mind and who manages her family's home before she is expected by her eccentric father to marry his assistant to prevent the young man's deportation. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons.
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Loner
by Teddy Wayne
A painfully overlooked, academically gifted Harvard freshman resigns himself to anonymity before falling head-over-heels for a beautiful Manhattan glamour girl who compels him to compromise his moral standards and get in touch with his true identity. By the award-winning author of Kapitoil.
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La espía/ The Spy
by Paulo Coelho
En su nueva novela, Paulo Coelho da vida a una de las mujeres más enigmáticas de la historia: Mata Hari, quien fuera acusada de espionaje durante la Primera Guerra Mundial. Aunque hubo poca evidencia para incriminarla, ella no pudo escapar de la persecución y el enjuiciamiento por la inteligencia militar francesa.
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El océano al final del camino
by Neil Gaiman
Hace cuarenta años, cuando nuestro narrador contaba apenas siete, el hombre que alquilaba la habitación sobrante en la casa familiar se suicidó dentro del coche de su padre, un acontecimiento que provocó que antiguos poderes dormidos cobraran vida y que criaturas de más allá de este mundo se liberaran. El horror, la amenaza, se congregan a partir de entonces para destruir a la familia del protagonista.
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Between the world and me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The author presents a history of racial discrimination in the United States and a narrative of his own personal experiences of contemporary race relations, offering possible resolutions for the future.
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Astrophysics for people in a hurry
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
The notable host of StarTalk reveals just what people need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
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One day we'll all be dead and none of this will matter
by Scaachi Koul
A senior writer at BuzzFeed Canada presents a debut collection of whimsical essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants, exploring themes of sexism, cultural stereotypes and the universal sufferings of life.
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Is everyone hanging out without me? (and other concerns)
by Mindy Kaling
The Emmy-nominated writer and actress best known as Kelly Kapoor on The Office shares her observations on a wide range of topics from favorite male archetypes and her hatred of dieting to her loving relationship with her mother and the haphazard creative process in the Office writers' room.
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I'm judging you : the do-better manual
by Luvvie Ajayi
An award-winning writer, comedian, blogger, activist and pop-culture critic humorously breaks down cultural obsessions and challenges bad behavior in a series of essays that encourage people to act right in real life and online.
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Why be happy when you could be normal?
by Jeanette Winterson
The author of the best-selling Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit traces her life-long search for happiness as the adopted daughter of Pentecostal parents who raised her in a north England industrial town through practices of fierce control and paranoia, an experience that prompted her to search for her biological mother and turn for solace to the literary world.
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