Recommendations based on The World's Wifeby Carol Ann Duffy

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

  1. Ariel

    by Sylvia Plath
    A collection of raw and intense poems that explore themes of death, femininity, and personal struggle.

    Sylvia Plath's celebrated collection. When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel . Her husband, Ted Hughes, brought the ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Duchess of Malfi

    by John Webster
    A tragic play about a widowed duchess who secretly marries her steward, leading to a web of deceit, murder, and revenge.

    Webster's principal source was in William Painter 's The Palace of Pleasure (1567), which was a translation of François de Belleforest 's French adaptation of Matteo Bandello 's Novelle (1554). ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Crucible

    by Arthur Miller
    A group of teenage girls face accusations of witchcraft in a puritanical society.

    "I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Unconsoled

    by Kazuo Ishiguro
    A surreal and dreamlike exploration of a man's inner self and his search for purpose.

    Ryder, a renowned pianist, arrives in a Central European city he cannot identify for a concert he cannot remember agreeing to give. But then as he traverses a landscape by turns eerie and comical – ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Colossus and Other Poems

    by Sylvia Plath
    A collection of poems exploring the topics of death, despair, and identity.

    With this startling, exhilarating book of poems, which was first published in 1960, Sylvia Plath burst into literature with spectacular force. In such classics as "The Beekeeper's Daughter," "The ... (Goodreads)

  6. The War of the Worlds

    by H.G. Wells
    A Martian invasion of Earth, exploring the limits of human resilience.

    The narrative opens by stating that as humans on Earth busied themselves with their own endeavours during the mid-1890s, aliens on Mars began plotting an invasion of Earth because their own resources ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Brighton Rock

    by Graham Greene
    A young gang leader's struggle for power, morality, and redemption in the criminal underworld.

    Charles "Fred" Hale comes to Brighton on assignment to distribute cards anonymously for a newspaper competition (a variant of " Lobby Lud "; in this case, the name of the person to be spotted is ... (Wikipedia)

  8. An Inspector Calls

    by J.B. Priestley
    Inspector calls to investigate a wealthy family's involvement in a young woman's death.

    The action of the play occurs in an English industrial city, where a young girl commits suicide and an eminently respectable British family is subject to a routine inquiry in connection with the ... (Goodreads)

  9. Little Brother

    by Cory Doctorow
    A teen tech genius fights against a dystopian government by using his skills to create a revolution.

    Marcus Yallow is a 17-year-old hacker /techno whiz from San Francisco . One day Marcus and his best friend Darryl play truant from school to play an Alternate Reality Game . A terrorist attack is ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Things They Carried

    by Tim O'Brien
    A collection of stories about the Vietnam War, interweaving the past and present.

    In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato —a novel about the Vietnam War—won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again ... (Goodreads)

  11. Passing

    by Nella Larsen
    A story of a woman caught in a racial dilemma, struggling to define her own identity.

    The story is written as a third person narrative from the perspective of Irene Redfield, a black woman with a European or near-European appearance, who lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Mrs. Dalloway

    by Virginia Woolf
    A day in the life of a high-society woman, delving into her inner thoughts and feelings.

    Clarissa Dalloway goes around London in the morning, getting ready to host a party that evening. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside in Bourton and makes her wonder about ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Medea

    by Euripides
    Tragedy of a woman's vengeful wrath against her husband and his family.

    One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Sheltering Sky

    by Paul Bowles
    An exploration of the human condition, as a couple travel through the Sahara desert.

    The story centers on Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner. The journey, initially an ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

    by Jeanette Winterson
    A young girl's journey of self-discovery, navigating the boundaries between religion, sexuality and identity.

    Alternate cover edition for 9780802135162 This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a ... (Goodreads)

  16. As You Like It

    by William Shakespeare
    A romantic comedy about love, disguise, and mistaken identity in the Forest of Arden.

    Readers and audiences have long greeted As You Like It with delight. Its characters are brilliant conversationalists, including the princesses Rosalind and Celia and their Fool, Touchstone. Soon ... (Goodreads)

  17. Girl, Woman, Other

    by Bernardine Evaristo
    A novel-in-verse that follows the interconnected lives of twelve British women of color.

    Joint Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2019 Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve ... (Goodreads)

  18. Code Name Verity

    by Elizabeth Wein
    Two female spies' harrowing mission during WWII and the secrets they discover.

    In 1943 Nazi-occupied France, a British Lysander spy plane crashes in the fictional town of Ormaie. On board are two best friends, a pilot (Maddie, code name: Kittyhawk) and a spy (Julie, code name: ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Silence

    by Shūsaku Endō
    A Portuguese priest in Japan faces persecution in pursuit of his faith.

    The young Portuguese Jesuit priest Sebastião Rodrigues (based on the historical Italian figure Giuseppe Chiara ) travels to Japan to assist the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor, a ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

    by Olga Tokarczuk
    An elderly woman's journey of self-discovery, as she investigates a series of mysterious animal deaths.

    In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her ... (Goodreads)

  21. Silas Marner

    by George Eliot
    A tale of redemption and a search for a lost love, set in a rural English village.

    The novel is set in the early years of the 19th century. Silas Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small Calvinist congregation in Lantern Yard, a slum street in Northern England . He is falsely ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Light in August

    by William Faulkner
    A story of redemption and hope set in the Jim Crow South.

    The novel is set in the American South in the 1930s, during the time of Prohibition and Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation in the South. It begins with the journey of Lena Grove, a young ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Alias Grace

    by Margaret Atwood
    A psychological thriller that examines the true story of a 19th century Canadian murderess.

    Grace Marks, the convicted murderess, has been hired out from prison to serve as a domestic servant in the home of the Governor of the penitentiary. A Committee of gentlemen and ladies from the ... (Wikipedia)

  24. The End of the Affair

    by Graham Greene
    A man's obsession and journey of love, struggling with faith, hatred and forgiveness.

    "A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses a moment of experience from which to look ahead..." "This is a record of hate far more than of love," writes Maurice Bendrix in the opening ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Year of the Flood

    by Margaret Atwood
    A dystopian tale of survival as humanity faces a new plague, and two women fight against a powerful corporation.

    The Year of the Flood details the events of, Oryx and Crake, from the perspective of the lower classes in the pleeblands , specifically the God's Gardeners. God's Gardeners are a religious sect that ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Wide Sargasso Sea

    by Jean Rhys
    A woman's journey of self-discovery in the Caribbean, her story of emancipation from the shadows of colonialism.

    The novel, initially set in Jamaica, opens a short while after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834. , The protagonist Antoinette relates the story of ... (Wikipedia)

  27. Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal

    by Chris Colfer
    High school senior Carson Phillips blackmails his classmates into contributing to his literary journal before he dies.

    Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal follows the story of outcast high school senior Carson Phillips who blackmails the most popular students in his school into contributing to his ... (Barnes & Noble)

  28. The Truth About Stacey

    by Ann M. Martin
    Stacey's life changes when she is diagnosed with diabetes. She learns to cope with her illness and finds true friends who accept her for who she is.

    America's favorite series returns with a new look and a Netflix tv show. The truth about Stacey is that she has diabetes, a fact she keeps secret from everyone except her new friends in the ... (Barnes & Noble)

  29. Disgrace

    by J.M. Coetzee
    A professor's fall from grace in post-apartheid South Africa, reckoning with the consequences of his actions.

    David Lurie is a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his own ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Inferno

    by Dante Alighieri
    An epic journey through the nine circles of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil.

    Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to ... (Goodreads)