Recommendations based on Bloodletting & Miraculous Curesby Vincent Lam

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

  1. All My Puny Sorrows

    by Miriam Toews
    A heart-wrenching story of two sisters as one battles depression and the other struggles to keep her alive.

    The novel recounts the tumultuous relationship of the Von Riesen sisters, Elfrieda and Yolandi, the only children of an intellectual, free-spirited family from a conservative Mennonite community. ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Orenda

    by Joseph Boyden
    An exploration of the spiritual bonds between a small Huron tribe and their European invaders.

    In the remote winter landscape a brutal massacre and the kidnapping of a young Iroquois girl violently re-ignites a deep rift between two tribes. The girl’s captor, Bird, is one of the Huron Nation’s ... (Goodreads)

  3. Too Much Happiness: Stories

    by Alice Munro
    Exploration of the human condition through stories of everyday people and their complex relationships.

    In these ten stories, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Lonely Hearts Hotel

    by Heather O'Neill
    Two orphans with extraordinary talents fall in love and create a magical circus, but their pasts catch up with them.

    With echoes of The Night Circus , a spellbinding story about two gifted orphans in love with each other since they can remember whose childhood talents allow them to rewrite their future. The Lonely ... (Goodreads)

  5. Through Black Spruce

    by Joseph Boyden
    A journey of reconciliation, to uncover the truth and find peace.

    A haunting novel about identity, love, and loss by the author of, Three Day Road, Will Bird is a legendary Cree bush pilot, now lying in a coma in a hospital in his hometown of Moose Factory, ... (Goodreads)

  6. Three Day Road

    by Joseph Boyden
    Two Cree snipers fight in WWI, one returns home addicted to morphine, the other lost to the war.

    It is 1919, and Niska, the last Oji-Cree woman to live off the land, has received word that one of the two boys she saw off to the Great War has returned. Xavier Bird, her sole living relation, is ... (Goodreads)

  7. Fifteen Dogs

    by André Alexis
    A group of dogs gain human intelligence and experience the highs and lows of life.

    Over drinks at Toronto's Wheat Sheaf Tavern, Hermes and Apollo get into a debate about whether animals could live happily if they had the same cognitive and speech abilities as humans. , They decide ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Indian Horse

    by Richard Wagamese
    A story of survival, resilience, and redemption as an Indigenous Canadian boy finds his own path in life.

    In 1961, the Indian Horse family—an Ojibway family consisting of eight-year-old Saul, his grandmother Naomi, and his Christian parents John and Mary—live in the wilderness of Northern Ontario , ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Five Quarters of the Orange

    by Joanne Harris
    A gripping tale of a young woman's struggle to uncover the secrets of her past and confront her family's dark history.

    The novels of Joanne Harris are a literary feast for the senses. Five Quarters of the Orange represents Harris's most complex and sophisticated work yet - a novel in which darkness and fierce joy ... (Goodreads)

  10. 1Q84

    by Haruki Murakami
    A surreal journey of two people entangled in a mysterious dual-world conspiracy.

    The events of 1Q84 take place in Tokyo during a fictionalized year of 1984, with the first volume set between April and June, the second between July and September, and the third between October and ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Stones from the River

    by Ursula Hegi
    A dwarf girl navigates life in a small German town during WWII, facing discrimination and secrets.

    Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780684844770 From the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of Floating in My Mother's Palm comes a stunning novel about ordinary people living in extraordinary ... (Goodreads)

  12. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

    by Neil Gaiman
    Collection of short stories blending fantasy, horror and science fiction.

    This is an alternate cover edition for, ISBN 0060515236 (ISBN13: 9780060515232)., Fragile Things is Neil Gaiman's second collection of short fiction. A mysterious circus terrifies an audience for one ... (Goodreads)

  13. Fall on Your Knees

    by Ann-Marie MacDonald
    A multi-generational saga of secrets, tragedy, and resilience in a family of sisters.

    At the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets fire to his dead mother’s piano and heads out across Cape Breton Island to find a new place to live. Working as a piano tuner, he meets and ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Suite Française

    by Irène Némirovsky
    A story of love and loss set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied France.

    The first two stories of a masterwork once thought lost, written by a pre-WWII bestselling author who was deported to Auschwitz and died before her work could be completed. By the early l940s, when ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Book of Negroes

    by Lawrence Hill
    A gripping tale of resilience and courage, tracing the life of a woman kidnapped in Africa and sold into slavery in North America.

    The Book of Negroes (based on the novel Someone Knows My Name) will be BET's first miniseries. The star-studded production includes lead actress Aunjanue Ellis (Ray, The Help), Oscar winner Cuba ... (Goodreads)

  16. Undead and Unappreciated

    by MaryJanice Davidson
    Betsy, a newly turned vampire, struggles to adjust to her new life while dealing with supernatural politics and romantic entanglements.

    The novel has two prologues. The first prologue relates how the devil , out of boredom, possessed a "not very nice" woman and gave birth to a daughter; however, the devil soon returned to Hell , ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Shipping News

    by Annie Proulx
    A man's attempt to rebuild his life in a small Newfoundland town, discovering compassion and joy.

    The story centers around Quoyle, a newspaper reporter from upstate New York , whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland . Shortly after his parents' joint suicide, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive ... (Wikipedia)

  18. The Birth House

    by Ami McKay
    A young midwife in a small Nova Scotia village navigates the challenges of childbirth and women's rights in the early 20th century.

    Spanning the 20th century Ami McKay takes a primitive and superstitious rural community in Nova Scotia and creates a rich tableau of characters to tell the story of childbirth from its most secretive ... (Goodreads)

  19. Undead and Unpopular

    by MaryJanice Davidson
    Betsy, the vampire queen, struggles to balance her royal duties and her personal life while dealing with a new threat to her kingdom.

    Listening length: 5 hours, 35 minutes As Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor approaches the big 3-1 (in human years, that is), she has a lot on her plate. There are wedding plans to finalize, with no help ... (Goodreads)

  20. Chemistry

    by Weike Wang
    A Chinese-American Ph.D. candidate in chemistry struggles with the pressures of academia, family expectations, and her own identity crisis.

    At first glance, the quirky, overworked narrator of this novel seems to be on the cusp of a perfect life: she is studying for a prestigious PhD in chemistry that will make her Chinese parents proud ... (Goodreads)

  21. Midnight's Children

    by Salman Rushdie
    A magical tale of India's history told through the story of a boy born at the stroke of midnight.

    Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Matlock Paper

    by Robert Ludlum
    A young law student uncovers a conspiracy involving the CIA and a secret operation in Africa.

    James Barbour Matlock is a Vietnam veteran and college professor - but now the US government have an assignment for him. They want him to investigate what seems to be a large-scale dope and ... (Goodreads)

  23. A Fine Balance

    by Rohinton Mistry
    A gripping story of four unlikely lives intertwined in the tumult of India's caste system.

    The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Nine Stories

    by J.D. Salinger
    Nine short stories of insight into the human condition and its mysteries.

    Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for ... (Goodreads)

  25. ...And Ladies of the Club

    by Helen Hooven Santmyer
    A group of women form a club in a small Ohio town in 1868, and their lives intertwine over the next 60 years.

    A #1 New York Times bestseller–and an American classic--now in trade paperback... A groundbreaking bestseller with two and a half million copies in print, " ...And Ladies of the Club " centers on the ... (Goodreads)

  26. 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)

  27. The Corrections

    by Jonathan Franzen
    A family drama exploring the complexities of relationships, aging and life’s choices.

    The novel shifts back and forth through the late 20th century, intermittently following spouses Alfred and Enid Lambert as they raise their children Gary, Chip, and Denise in the traditional ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Oryx and Crake

    by Margaret Atwood
    An exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the power of human nature.

    The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers . Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named ... (Wikipedia)

  29. And the Mountains Echoed

    by Khaled Hosseini
    Interconnected stories of family and love, tracing the consequences of decisions made throughout life.

    The novel opens in the year 1952. Saboor, an impoverished farmer from the fictional village of Shadbagh, decides to sell his three-year-old daughter Pari to a wealthy, childless couple in Kabul. ... (Wikipedia)

  30. The Lost City of Faar

    by D.J. MacHale
    Bobby Pendragon travels to the underwater world of Cloral to stop Saint Dane from destroying the planet's ecosystem.

    After leaving for home after his first adventure on Denduron, Bobby finds out that his entire history and proof of existence had simply vanished, including his house. After seeing this, he decides to ... (Wikipedia)