Elegantly Long and Quirky Titles You Can’t Resist

The mouthful of a title gives you a gist of the quirkiness that awaits you in this World War II epistolary novel. The residents of post-German occupation Guernsey bond through books — which is, of course, the best way to bond! A moving novel about the power of the written word.

Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is sensational — the rare book that takes a well-worn subject and adds an unforgettable spin. It follows the twin narratives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German orphan recruited to the military, at the height of WWII. The story is haunting, the imagery of war-torn France beautiful, and the characters so rich in depth that devouring every page feels inevitable.

A Japanese kanji pun leads to this beautiful, metaphorical Haruki Murakami title. Middle-aged Tsukuru Tazaki designs train stations and lives in bustling Tokyo. But he’s stuck in the past, wondering why, when he was a teenager, his friends suddenly cut him off. A pilgrimage seeking answers to lingering mysteries makes for a colorful story.