A list of books that are short reads – under 250 pages which are available on Amazon Kindle. //
This is the first list of many which be posted on the blog for future reference.
The Things We Never Say: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026 by Elizabeth Strout. This is a work of fiction about Donald Trump’s presidency. I tend to stay away from politically motivated books but it has received a lot of praise lately so it may be worth a read. 206 Pages.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck. “A life-changing, existential novella, Steven L. Peck’s modern classic explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.” 112 pages.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Translated from Japanese – a back alley coffee shop in Tokyo offers customers the chance to travel back in time. Travelling back in time comes with risks. Customers have to sit in a certain seat, must not leave the cafe and must return before the coffee gets cold. 224 pages.
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler. “Micah Mortimer measures out his days running errands for work, maintaining an impeccable cleaning regime and going for runs (7:15, every morning). He is in a long-term relationship with his woman friend Cassia, but they live apart. His carefully calibrated life is regular, steady, balanced. But then the order of things starts to tilt. Cassia is threatened with eviction, and when a teenager shows up at Micah’s door claiming to be his son, he is confronted with another surprise he seems poorly equipped to handle”. 180 pages.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid. Adapted into a Netflix movie. From the Amazon description “Iain Reid’s intense, suspenseful debut novel will have readers’ nerves jangling. A series of tiny clues sprinkled through the relentlessly paced narrative culminate in a haunting twist on the final page”. 205 pages.
Thin Air by Michelle Paver. The Himalayas, 1935. Kangchenjunga. The sacred mountain. Biggest killer of them all. Five Englishmen set out to conquer it. But courage can only take them so far. And the higher they climb, the darker it gets. 229 pages.
Come Closer by Sara Gran. Horror novel released in 2021. ‘What begins as a sly fable about frustrated desire evolves into a genuinely scary novel about possession and insanity. Hypnotic, disturbing, and written with such unerring confidence you believe every word.’ (Bret Easton Ellis). 196 pages.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. “Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece: the deliciously dark and funny story of Merricat, tomboy teenager, beloved sister – and possible lunatic”. 178 pages.
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch. From the Amazon description. “1982 Dawn is a young wife and mother hemmed in by village life. Then Hazel appears like a torch in the dark. Their attraction is instant and suddenly Dawn’s world is more joyful, and more complicated, than she ever expected. 2022 Maggie has always lived with an absence where her mother should be. Her father never speaks of her and it feels impossible to ask. Then an official letter arrives with news from the past, and Maggie must face a truth far bigger than just her family’s secret”. 195 pages.
Lifeboat No. 8: An Untold Tale of Love, Loss, and Surviving the Titanic by Elizabeth Kaye
As the Titanic was sinking, who would make it off alive? The two cousins who had been so eager to see their first iceberg? The maid who desperately tried to escape with the baby in her care? The young newlyweds who’d booked passage despite warnings?
Now, more than one hundred years after that disastrous and emblematic voyage, Elizabeth Kaye reveals the extraordinary, little-known story of the people who left the doomed ship on Lifeboat No. 8. 66 pages.