Cosmopolis (2003) ?????
Written by:Don DeLillo
Genres: social commentary
Movie versions:none
Summary::It is an April day in the year 2000 and an era is about to end. The booming times of market optimism — when the culture boiled with money and corporations seemed more vital and influential than governments — are poised to crash. Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager at age twenty-eight, emerges from his penthouse triplex and settles into his lavishly customized white stretch limousine. Today he is a man with two missions: to pursue a cataclysmic bet against the yen and to get a haircut across town. Stalled in traffic by a presidential motorcade, a music idol’s funeral, and a violent political demonstration, Eric receives a string of visitors — experts on security, technology, currency, finance, and a few sexual partners — as the limo sputters toward an increasingly uncertain future.
Reader level:Very difficult
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The Historian (2005) ?????
Written by:Elizabeth Kostova
Genres: historic fiction
Movie versions:Cosmopolis(2012)
Summary:Late one night, exploring her father?s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to ?My dear and unfortunate successor?. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of ? a labyrinth where the secrets of her father?s past and her mother?s mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history.
Reader level:Medium
The Alchemist (2009) ?????
Written by:Paulo Coelho
Genres:travel,existential fiction
Movie versions:none
Summary:This is the magical story of Santiago, a shepherd boy who dreams of travelling the world to seek the most wonderful treasures known to man. From his home in Spain, he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and, from there, into the Egyptian desert, where a fateful encounter with the alchemist awaits him…
Reader level:Easy
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1987) ?????
Written by: Patrick S?skind
Genres:historical fiction
Movie versions:Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Summary:In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift?an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”?the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.
Reader level:Easy
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One Day(2009) ?????
Written by: David Nicholls
Genres:romantic fiction
Movie versions:One Day(2011)
Summary:It?s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day?July 15th?of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.
Reader level:Easy
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