Plus Two Unputdownable Heist Novels
 | | Hello there! A master thief is only as good as her crew, and today we meet two crews with historical hijinks in mind. Plus, we’re padding our annual reading stats with quick-to-finish novellas! |  | The Bookends |
| | | Historical Heists | | | In The Bookends, we pick an exciting new release and pair it with an older title readers will also love. This week: Historical heist novels inspired by true events combine thrilling plots with memorable casts of characters. | | |
 | | A Million to One | | Four teenagers plan to steal a bejeweled book of Persian poetry that’s being transported across the Atlantic on the Titanic in this new release. | |
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| |  | | The Great Train Robbery | | Michael Crichton’s 1973 bestseller follows a master thief who plans to steal a shipment of gold from a train bound from London toward the Crimean War with the help of a lockpick, an actress, a thug, and a con man. | |
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|  | Ask a Librarian |
| | I’m so close to meeting my reading goal for the year! Can you help me find some short books (under 350 pages) in any genre so I can hit my target? - MK | Hi, MK! You’ve got two weeks left in the year, and I bet you’re not the only reader looking to knock off the last few books in an annual challenge. Novellas to the rescue!
Fine Print
Novellas—works somewhere between a story and a novel—are sometimes published as part of short story collections, but they’re also often published as standalone titles. In fact, sometimes the same piece gets dual treatment. Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is also included in the story collection Different Seasons.
Between the Lines
In recent years, novellas have gained steam as interstitial stories in long-running series. Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series, which has seven novels and four novellas, is a prime example. If you’re not up for starting a new series, here are three reads, all under 200 pages, that stand on their own. | | | | | |
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 | | The Grownup | | A con artist who “reads auras” for a living meets a rich older woman whose disconcerting house and unsettling stepson make the narrator reconsider her pretend belief in ghosts. | |
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|  | | Binti | | Binti is the first of her people to be offered a place at the galaxy’s most prestigious university, but traveling there will put her in the center of an intergalactic war. | |
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 | | Small Things Like These | | Set in 1985 Ireland, this quiet novel follows a delivery man as he makes pre-Christmas rounds and grapples with a crisis of conscience. | |
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| Meet the Librarian
Emily Calkins has worked at public libraries across the US. Tell her what you’re looking for! | | |
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|  | Guess The Writer |
| - This author was first published in The Mississippi Review at the age of 13.
- She has written only two novels since her first in 1992, but her third novel won the Pulitzer Prize.
- Her debut is the Read with Jenna book club pick this month.
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 | Bookmarks |
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| Critical Love
Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s psychological thriller appeared on Most Anticipated lists from Buzzfeed and PopSugar, among others. Publishers Weekly calls it a “surprising, exhilarating suspense-filled tale of revenge and redemption.” | |
 | | The Ingenue | | Former piano prodigy Saaskia returns home to find her mother has willed their ancestral home to a man who shares a dark connection to Saskia’s past. | |
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