Recommendations based on Station Elevenby Emily St. John Mandel

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Fifth Season

    by N.K. Jemisin
    A world where seismic and magical disasters ravage the land, and a woman's journey to save humanity.

    In a prologue, an extraordinarily powerful orogene discusses the sad state of the world and laments the oppression of his race. He then uses his enormous power to fracture the entire continent along ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Americanah

    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    An exploration of race, identity, and belonging as two Nigerian immigrants experience life in America and beyond.

    Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt
    A small group of misfit college students uncover a sinister secret and their lives become entangled with dangerous consequences.

    Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the ... (Goodreads)

  4. Homegoing

    by Yaa Gyasi
    Spanning centuries, the intertwining stories of two African sisters, their descendants, and the legacy of slavery.

    Effia is raised by her mother, Baaba, who is cruel to her. Nevertheless she works hard to please her mother. Known as a beauty, Effia is intended to be married to the future chief of her village, but ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Wolf Hall

    by Hilary Mantel
    A historical fiction about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

    England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry ... (Goodreads)

  6. A Little Life

    by Hanya Yanagihara
    A powerful tale of four friends navigating life's hardships and the devastating effects of trauma.

    The novel follows the lives of four friends in New York City from college through to middle-age. It focuses particularly on Jude, a lawyer with a mysterious past, ambiguous ethnicity, and unexplained ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Neverwhere

    by Neil Gaiman
    A mysterious journey through a hidden realm of London, filled with danger and unexpected allies.

    Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew and his trials and tribulations in London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, recently moved from Scotland and with a normal life ahead. ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Nimona

    by Noelle Stevenson
    A shapeshifting sidekick helps a villainous knight take on a powerful kingdom.

    The graphic novel debut from rising star ND Stevenson, based on his beloved and critically acclaimed web comic, which Slate awarded its Cartoonist Studio Prize, calling it "a deadpan epic." Nemeses! ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Three-Body Problem

    by Liu Cixin
    A science fiction novel exploring the consequences of first contact with an alien civilization.

    The story takes place in flash-forwards, flashbacks, and the present time. Below is a chronological plotline. During the Cultural Revolution , Ye Wenjie, an astrophysics graduate from Tsinghua ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Bring Up the Bodies

    by Hilary Mantel
    A gripping historical drama recounting the downfall of Anne Boleyn during the reign of Henry VIII.

    Bring Up the Bodies follows closely upon the events of Wolf Hall . The King and Cromwell —now Master Secretary to the King's Privy Council—are guests of the Seymour family at Wolf Hall. The King ... (Wikipedia)

  11. A Tale for the Time Being

    by Ruth Ozeki
    An exploration of the connections between two lives, bridging time, space and cultures.

    In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying, but before she ends it all, Nao plans to document the life of her ... (Goodreads)

  12. Dust

    by Hugh Howey
    A post-apocalyptic world struggles to survive against oppressive forces.

    The story of Wool takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. , Humanity clings to survival in the Silo, a subterranean city extending one hundred forty-four stories beneath the surface. The series ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Invention of Wings

    by Sue Monk Kidd
    A powerful story about a girl's journey to freedom, despite the limitations of slavery.

    Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Bone Clocks

    by David Mitchell
    A time-spanning saga of a war between two powerful supernatural forces.

    Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew ... (Goodreads)

  15. Annihilation

    by Jeff VanderMeer
    A team of four women venture into a mysterious, surreal landscape in search of answers.

    A team of four women cross the border into an uninhabited area known as "Area X", an unspecified coastal location that has been closed to the public for three decades. The group consists of a ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Euphoria

    by Lily King
    Three anthropologists in the 1930s study a tribe in New Guinea, leading to a complex love triangle and ethical dilemmas.

    A New York Times Bestseller,Winner of the 2014 Kirkus Prize,Winner of the 2014 New England Book Award for Fiction,A Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award,A Best Book of the Year for:,, ... (Barnes & Noble)

  17. A Monster Calls

    by Patrick Ness
    A young boy's journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with his mother's terminal illness.

    Thirteen-year-old Conor O'Malley awakens from the same nightmare he has been experiencing for the past few months, "the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming". At seven minutes after ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Silkworm

    by Robert Galbraith
    Detective investigates the murder of a novelist, uncovering shocking secrets.

    Several months after solving the Lula Landry case , Cormoran Strike is asked by Leonora Quine to locate her novelist husband Owen, a former literary genius whose attempts to recreate his past success ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Slade House

    by David Mitchell
    A supernatural thriller involving mysterious doorways that lead to a mysterious house with a sinister secret.

    In 1979, Nathan Bishop and his mother are invited to the house of the respected Lady Grayer. Nathan is quickly acquainted with her son Jonah, and the two spend the afternoon in the garden of Slade ... (Wikipedia)

  20. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

    by Claire North
    A man born again and again, living the same life with different outcomes.

    Some stories cannot be told in just one lifetime. Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a ... (Goodreads)

  21. The Paying Guests

    by Sarah Waters
    A forbidden affair between two women in 1920s London, amidst an era of social change.

    It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Underground Railroad

    by Colson Whitehead
    An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.

    The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)

  23. The Girl with All the Gifts

    by M.R. Carey
    A post-apocalyptic world where a young girl holds the key to humanity's survival.

    Twenty years ago humanity was infected by a variant of the fungus native to South America called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which led to the Breakdown - the end of civilization as it was before. ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Life After Life

    by Kate Atkinson
    A woman lives multiple lives, reflecting on choices and consequences and the power of love.

    The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February 1910 to an ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Cloud Atlas

    by David Mitchell
    A dynamic narrative spanning centuries, exploring the interconnectedness of humanity.

    The book consists of six nested stories; each is read or observed by a main character of the next, thus they progress in time through the central sixth story. The first five stories are each ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Shift

    by Hugh Howey
    A post-apocalyptic adventure, as a father searches for his missing daughter in a mysterious new world.

    In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct ... (Goodreads)

  27. Uprooted

    by Naomi Novik
    A young woman's battle to save her home from a magical force, while uncovering secrets of her past.

    “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human ... (Goodreads)

  28. The Enchanted

    by Rene Denfeld
    Adventure into a magical forest reveals secrets and a path to redemption.

    “ The Enchanted wrapped its beautiful and terrible fingers around me from the first page and refused to let go after the last. A wondrous book that finds transcendence in the most unlikely of places. ... (Barnes & Noble)

  29. The Language of Flowers

    by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
    A young woman's journey of healing and redemption through the power of flowers.

    The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in ... (Goodreads)

  30. The Left Hand of Darkness

    by Ursula K. Le Guin
    A diplomat's mission to a distant planet, exploring themes of gender and identity.

    The protagonist of the novel is Genly Ai, a male Terran native, who is sent to invite the planet Gethen to join the Ekumen, a coalition of humanoid worlds. , Ai travels to the Gethen planetary system ... (Wikipedia)