The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011

Gigi L. Leung

On a weekend morning, college roommates, Ah Li and Panda, wake up with very different reactions to the night before. They have been chased and tear-gassed in the streets of their city after joining tens of thousands of others to protest a national security law that would effectively spell the end of democracy in Hong Kong. Ah Li couldn't get out of bed, her heart heavy with the...

Lee Onhwa

For readers of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Dallergut Dream Department Store, and The Midnight Library, a sweetly magical and uplifting novel about a young woman who inherits an enchanted bakery that spirits visit on their last stop before the afterlife. Twenty-seven-year-old Yeon-hwa has inherited a neighborhood bakery from her grandmother. Curiously, her grandmother's wil...

Lisa Genova

**National Bestseller** A "riveting page-turner" (Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee) about a young woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who rejects the stability and approval found in a traditionally "normal" life for a career in stand-up comedy.Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, n...

Jewell, Lisa

Discover the debut novel of the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell in which the residents of an apartment building confront one another's attractions, distrust, secrets, and lies. Perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton and Jojo Moyes.Welcome to 31 Almanac Road where the walls don't talk, but the people sure do. First, we have Ralph and Smith. Roommates and life-long b...

Xiaolu Guo

"A propulsive powerhouse of a read."--Marie Claire (UK) "Ambitious, brave, and strange."--Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author, a feminist reimagining of Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick through the eyes of one inimitable woman and a diverse, swashbuckling crew I must work on a ship as a man . . . I must find freedom on...

Rebecca Armitage

An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family--or to her own heart It's New Year's Day in Tasmania and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she's in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack, and she's about to finally...

Dave Eggers

Una alucinante historia llena de ingenio, divertida y por momentos aterradora, apta para humanos de todas las épocas y todas las edades. Un perro libre. Un perro libre y veloz. Ése es Johannes. ¿Lo has visto? No, no lo has visto. Es tan rápido como la luz. Y no puedes ver cómo corre la luz. Johannes recorre todos los días el inmenso parque nacional donde vive. Tiene que mirarlo...

Dave Eggers

The literary sensation of the year, a book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious...

Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers

From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Circle comes an exciting new follow-up. When the world's largest search engine/social media company, The Circle, merges with the planet's dominant e-commerce site, it creates the richest and most dangerous—and, oddly enough, most beloved—monopoly ever known: The Every.Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire at The Every. A former ...

Dave Eggers