Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Suicide
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Hadley and Grace by Suzanne Redfearn

Hadley & Grace by Suzanne Redfearn

Needing to escape her abusive marriage, Hadley flees with her two kids, knowing it might be her only chance. A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family. Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic abuse
  • Experiences in the foster care system recounted
  • Spouse with a gambling addiction
  • Death of grandmother recounted

In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

In an Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

Life is over in an instant for sixteen-year-old Finn Miller when a devastating car accident tumbles her and ten others over the side of a mountain. Suspended between worlds, she watches helplessly as those she loves struggle to survive. Impossible choices are made, decisions that leave the survivors tormented with grief and regret. Unable to let go, Finn keeps vigil as they struggle to reclaim their shattered lives. Jack, her father, who seeks vengeance against the one person he can blame other than himself; her best friend, Mo, who bravely searches for the truth as the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Ableism
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Graphic car accident (theme)

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo,

Kim Ji-young is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s. Kim Ji-young is representative of her generation: At home, she is an unfavoured sister to her princeling little brother. In primary school, she is a girl who has to line up behind the boys at lunchtime. In high school, she is a daughter whose father blames her for being harassed late at night. In university, she is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships by her professor. In the office, she is an exemplary employee who is overlooked for promotion by her manager. At home, she is a wife who has given up her career to take care… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Alcoholism
  • Depression
  • Pregnancy & childbirth
  • Miscarriage mentioned
  • Abortion mentioned
  • Bullying
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Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: Alone. Unless you count his basset hound, Waylon. Knox doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride.

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Child abuse & neglect
  • Domestic abuse & violence recounted
  • Parent with a substance addiction
  • Death of a parent, off-page
  • Gun violence
  • Kidnapping
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Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a “creative writing” course at the community centre in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Misogyny
  • Homomisia
  • Murder
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The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there’s more at stake than merely winning and losing.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Substance addiction
  • Death of a parent
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A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

When seventeen-year-old Rune Kristiansen returns from his native Norway to the sleepy town of Blossom Grove, Georgia, where he befriended Poppy Litchfield as a child, he has just one thing on his mind. Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation? Rune’s heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent. When he discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Terminal cancer, on-page
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Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is go back home.

But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s un… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a mother
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Twisted Love by Ana Huang 

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape. Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart. But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest: A  crack. A melt. A fire that could end his world as he knew it. Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings

  • Death of a mother
  • Murder
  • Kidnapping
  • Near-drowning