24. The Stranger by Albert Camus

Meursault is a young Algerian who at the opening of this short novel has just lost his mother. Traveling to the old people’s home in Marengo, it soon becomes apparent that he is not affected by her death and in fact doesn’t even want to view her body. Once Meursault goes back to his home, he resumes his regular life of eating out at Celeste’s restaurant, trying to date a woman named Marie, and becoming mixed up with a local pimp who beats his girlfriends. It is during an outing with this man, Raymond, that Meursault gets into a fight with a group of Arabs and ends up shooting one of the Arab men five times and killing him. The second part of the novel takes part when Meursault is imprisoned for his actions and deals with his subsequent and increasingly absurd trial.

The Stranger was published in 1942 when Paris was occupied by German forces. Over the years, Camus’ character Meursault has become one of the most famous existential characters in literature. This deceptively short and seemingly simple work deals with what readers initially think of as mundane events of a not very likable man, yet forces readers to examine why Meursault killed the unnamed Arab on the beach that day. For readers who liked Franz Kafka’s The Trial.

23. The Children of Men by P.D. James

In 1995, the last child on Earth was born in Buenos Aires. On January 1, 2021, the boy, Joseph Ricardo, was killed in a pub brawl. It has been twenty-five years since human conception has occurred, and the world is slowing turning old and full of despair. Set in England, the country is under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt, the Warden of England. It is an increasingly different world, and readers receive glimpses of the terrifying state of affairs through Xan’s cousin, Oxford history professor Theo Faron, who records his thoughts in a private diary. What readers learn is not pleasant – the old and infirm are urged to take part in mass suicides (the Quietus), immigrants are used for slave labor, women push prams full of dolls around the streets of England to make up for not having babies, kittens are christened and cat births are attended by invitation, and the Isle of Man is now a prison ruled only by fellow prisoners.

All of this changes when Theo meets up with a radical group called the Five Fishes. Knowing that Theo is Xan’s cousin, they use him to help persuade the Warden to change some of his ways of ruling England. The group especially becomes powerful and dangerous when Julian, a female student in the group, becomes pregnant.

If you have seen the recent movie version of this novel, you will be in for a surprise. Much better than the movie, it is vastly different in almost every way except for the pregnancy factor. Although slow going in the beginning, this is a fast paced futuristic tale that will appeal to readers who liked The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

22. Morvern Callar by Alan Warner

Life is dreary and depressing in the small seaside Scottish town Morvern Callar lives in. A produce stock person at a large supermarket, Morvern’s boyfriend kills himself shortly before Christmas. Readers know they are in for the unexpected when instead of grieving, Morvern leaves his body and goes out raving and clubbing. When she comes home days later, she hides his body in the attic and opens the sky lights to hide the smell. Using her boyfriend’s money and passing off his unpublished novel as her own, she sends the novel to London to be published. An advance from the firm enables her to escapes to the Mediterranean where she hits the rave scene and drinks and drugs her newfound money away.

Written with lots of Scottish slang, it is sometimes difficult for people to follow, but readers get the general picture at all times about Morvern. Even though she does horrible things (like chopping up her boyfriend’s dead body and hiding it on weekend camping trips in the Scottish countryside), Warner portrays Morvern as a strong and very human character. Readers who liked this novel should check out fellow Scottish writers Irvine Welsh and Louise Welsh. Director Lynne Ramsay also created a film version of Warner’s book.

21. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

During a dinner party six years before this novel is set, someone put arsenic in the sugar bowl used to sweeten blackberries. The only survivors are sisters Mary Katherine (Merricat) and Constance, and their uncle Julian – Julian’s wife and the parents and brother of the girls died. Since Constance usually did the family cooking, she is originally targeted for the deaths, although she is acquitted at trial. After the sensational uproar in the town, the three remaining family members live in self-imposed exile in their family home. Only venturing into town twice a week for groceries, they lead a simple life until their cousin Charles arrives at the house and has no plans to leave. The end result of his visit is disastrous to everyone.

Madness and a slow unraveling of all of the family members make this a chilling read. The characters have a simple, child-like quality to them and are extremely eccentric. A very dark and gothic tale, this is a great read for people familiar with Jackson’s famous story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House.

20. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

In nineteen short minutes, the lives of Sterling, New Hampshire residents are changed forever. Peter Houghton, a victim of childhood bullying since his very first day of school, goes on a shooting spree in his area high school, killing ten people and wounding many more. Josie Cormier used to be Peter’s childhood friend, but as she grew older and more popular, she lost touch with Peter and his constant harassment. Why did Peter not shoot Josie, especially since he killed her boyfriend, Matt, and was near Josie in the locker room that fateful morning? When Peter’s attorney, Jordan McAfee, tries to show Peter has post traumatic stress disorder caused by the bullying, new revelations come out at the end of the trial.

This is Picoult’s 14th novel and like her previous works, there is a surprise ending. Regular readers of Picoult will also be pleased to see two of her previous characters from other books appear again – Patrick DuCharme, a detective from Perfect Match, and Jordan McAfee, a lawyer from The Pact. This is a novel that discusses hot topics in American society, school shootings and bullying, and Picoult does a fair job keeping the story moving by the use of flashbacks into the lives of Peter and Josie. This is a great selection for book discussion groups.

19. Mansions of the Dead by Sarah Stewart Taylor

This is Taylor’s second mystery starring Sweeney St. George, an art historian specializing in funereal art. This time around, one of Sweeney’s students, Brad Putnam, is found dead in his bed, with his body adorned with nineteenth-century mourning jewelry. Called in by detectives to help identify the objects, Sweeney soon becomes involved in the murder investigation. The only problem is that Brad belonged to the powerful Boston and Newport Putnam family, who are involved heavily in politics and Boston real estate. The family has a history of covering up information about their family, especially after an accident five years ago that killed Brad’s younger brother in a family car crash. Can Sweeney help solve the family’s mystery? Does the mourning jewelry filled with Putnam family hair have anything to do with the crime?

Taylor created a series that just keeps getting better. Although I liked the first mystery in this series, this one is much better written and Taylor seems more confident in her writing. Taylor clearly knows her information about graveyard art and mourning jewelry and the historical aspect of the novel is fascinating. I will definitely be reading the rest of this series.

18. In My Skin: a Memoir by Kate Holden

This extremely candid memoir by Australian Holden is about her years of heroin addiction and prostitution to support her growing habit. Born to an academic, comfortable middle-class family, Holden loved to read books and graduated college with honors. She always felt lonely and set apart from her circle of friends, and when a boyfriend tries heroin, she suddenly becomes hooked on the drug. After losing her beloved job at a bookstore (for leaving work to score heroin each lunch hour) she turns to the streets to support her habit, along with providing drugs for her boyfriend. She tries rehab a few times, has a boyfriend leave her when he decides to come clean, and slowly looses the support of her family when she constantly does drugs in their house and steals their money to buy more drugs. With no place to go and not making much money on the streets of Australia, she decides to work in a series of high-class brothels. It is during that time that she finally becomes clean and starts to put her life back together.

Drug addiction and prostitution receive a very honest look in this memoir. It tells readers of the dark realities of both worlds and how things go so wrong in people’s lives. It seems hard to believe that the author is only in her early thirties. For readers who liked James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces or Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption by William Cope Moyers.