There are less than two months left in the year, and if you’re like us, we still have a lot of books we’d like to read in 2024. Check out this list of “short” books (books less than 150 pages) that will help you cram as many stories into the rest of this year as possible.
What Does It Feel Like? by Sophia Kinsella (133 pages)
Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain. As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again-and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children-she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it. Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This short, extraordinary novel is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humor-it will both break your heart and put it back together again.
Frog and Toad Are Doing Their Best by Jennie Egerdie, Illustrated by Ellie Hajdu (88 pages)
Full of wry humor and deep compassion for our modern vulnerabilities, the stories in Frog and Toad Are Doing Their Best perfectly capture the heartwarming authenticity of Lobel’s famous amphibian friends while revealing razor-sharp truths about the world we live in today.
Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi (131 pages)
A fairy tale prince and princess get a second chance at getting what they truly desire in this dazzling tale as they embark on an enchanted road trip and encounter a delightful cast of magical characters. Imelda and Ambrose have forgotten why they got together in the first place. After a whirlwind courtship and a fairy-tale wedding, they embark on life together as royalty of Loves Keep. But when Imelda is in trouble, Ambrose sacrifices their love to save her life, little knowing that the loss of their love will jeopardize the entire kingdom…
Galatea by Madeline Miller (56 pages)
In this reimagining of the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece–the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen–the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence.
The Silence by Don DeLillo (117 pages)
It is Super Bowl Sunday in the year 2022. Five people, dinner, an apartment on the east side of Manhattan. The retired physics professor and her husband and her former student waiting for the couple who will join them from what becomes a dramatic flight from Paris. The conversation ranges from a survey telescope in North-central Chile to a favorite brand of bourbon to Einstein’s 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity. Then something happens and the digital connections that have transformed our lives are severed.
Elevation by Stephen King (146 pages)
Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis. In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade – but escalating – battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face – including his own – he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.
Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth (112 pages)
Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but Antigone’s parents were murdered, leaving her father’s throne vacant. As her militant uncle Kreon rises to claim it, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest. But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.