Eitanli/goodreads huggingface dataset:
Appellate Judge (Jack Ludefance, #3)
by Behcet Kaya
Genres: Novels, Fiction, Contemporary, Drama, Epic
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.30

From the swamps of the Florida panhandle, once again emerges private investigator Jack Ludefance, in a murder/mystery/thriller novel by award winning author Behcet Kaya, titled “Appellate Judge.” A key element in this case, in which readers are orbited into with a very subtle path of reasoning, revolves around a violin. Not just any ordinary violin, but a Stradivarius, worth many millions of dollars. What’s more, it seems this particular Strad, which was gifted to the judge years back by a Swiss aristocrat, was actually at one time owned by the most famous violin virtuoso who ever lived, Niccolò Paganini; adding even more to its value. The uncovering of details about this violin makes for a very sophisticated history into the world of classical instruments.
The Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss
Genres: Classics, Fiction, Adventure, Childrens, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Literature
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.91

The Robinsons leave their home in Switzerland planning to settle half a world away. But things do not turn out as they had expected. The sole survivors of a terrible shipwreck, they wash ashore to learn that the danger has only begun. Their new world will test their courage, cleverness, endurance, and faith as they struggle to survive and create a civilization of their own in the wilderness.  Note: This Townsend Library classic has been carefully edited to be more accessible to today's students. It includes a brief author's biography and an afterword that provides important context about the work.
What Dreams May Come
by Richard Matheson
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Horror, Science Fiction, Death, Classics
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.95

The New York Times bestsellerA LOVE THAT TRANSCENDS HEAVEN AND HELLWhat happens to us after we die? Chris Nielsen had no idea, until an unexpected accident cut his life short, separating him from his beloved wife, Annie. Now Chris must discover the true nature of life after death.But even Heaven is not complete without Annie, and when tragedy threatens to divide them forever, Chris risks his very soul to save Annie from an eternity of despair.Richard Matheson's powerful tale of life---and love---after death was the basis for the Oscar-winning film starring Robin Williams.
Sons and Lovers
by D.H. Lawrence
Genres: Classics, Fiction, Literature, Novels, British Literature, Romance, 20th Century
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.64

"She was a brazen hussy.""She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?""I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.
Invisible
by Paul Auster
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, American, Literature, Novels, Literary Fiction, The United States Of America
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.73

“One of America’s greatest novelists” dazzlingly reinvents the coming-of-age story in his most passionate and surprising book to dateSinuously constructed in four interlocking parts, Paul Auster’s fifteenth novel opens in New York City in the spring of 1967, when twenty-year-old Adam Walker, an aspiring poet and student at Columbia University, meets the enigmatic Frenchman Rudolf Born and his silent and seductive girfriend, Margot. Before long, Walker finds himself caught in a perverse triangle that leads to a sudden, shocking act of violence that will alter the course of his life.Three different narrators tell the story of Invisible, a novel that travels in time from 1967 to 2007 and moves from Morningside Heights, to the Left Bank of Paris, to a remote island in the Caribbean. It is a book of youthful rage, unbridled sexual hunger, and a relentless quest for justice. With uncompromising insight, Auster takes us into the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, between authorship and identity, to produce a work of unforgettable power that confirms his reputation as “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.”
The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mythology, Romance, LGBT, Historical
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.36

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, France, Historical, Literature, Philosophy
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.23

Both an exploration of character and a reflection on the meaning of history, Memoirs of Hadrian has received international acclaim since its first publication in France in 1951. In it, Marguerite Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era.
The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)
by C.S. Lewis
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Classics, Young Adult, Childrens, Christian, Adventure
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.01

This edition of Lewis's classic fantasy fiction is packaged specifically for adults. Complementing the look of the author's non-fiction books, and anticipating the forthcoming Narnia feature films, this edition contains an exclusive P.S. section about the history of the book, plus a round-up of the first six titles.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
by Stephen King
Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Fantasy, Audiobook
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.62

On a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant bickering between her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself and then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror.As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace, she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio's reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her - protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods...
The Bachman Books
by Richard Bachman
Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Thriller, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Suspense
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.14

Four novels from the inimitable - and unmistakable - master of terror and suspense... RAGEA high school show-and-tell session explodes into a nightmare of evil. A story of stunning psychological horror about a group of nice, ordinary kids who learn savage secrets of lust and violence...THE LONG WALKOnly death can keep you from the finish line--in the ultimate competition of the all-too-near future. A chilling glimpse into a future America where a macabre marathon is a contest with death...ROADWORKWhat happens when one good-and-angry man fights back is murder--and then some. An eerie variation on the theme of "Home Sweet Home"...THE RUNNING MANIn the year 2025, the best men don't run for president, they run for their lives. A nightmare version of a ghoulish game show where you bet your life - literally
I'll Give You the Sun
by Jandy Nelson
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Queer
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.16

At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah, are inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them. Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways... but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world. This radiant, award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.Printz Award Winner Stonewall Honor Book.
My Life on the Road
by Gloria Steinem
Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Memoir, Biography, Audiobook, Womens, Biography Memoir
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.06

Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. This is the story at the heart of My Life on the Road.
The Accidental Tourist
by Anne Tyler
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Literature
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.90

Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.
The Dharma Bums
by Jack Kerouac
Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, Novels, Travel, American, Philosophy
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.93

Two ebullient young men search for Truth the Zen way: from marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, and "yabyum" in San Francisco's Bohemia, to solitude in the high Sierras and a vigil atop Desolation Peak in Washington State. Published just a year after On the Road put the Beat Generation on the map, The Dharma Bums is sparked by Kerouac's expansiveness, humor, and a contagious zest for life.
Jesus the Christ: A Study of the Messiah and His Mission According to Holy Scriptures, Both Ancient and Modern
by James E. Talmage
Genres: Religion, Lds, Nonfiction, Church, Spirituality, Biography, Inspirational
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.62

First published in 1915, Jesus the Christ is the classic Latter-day Saint presentation of the life and ministry of the Savior. Elder Marion G. Romney said, "One who gets the understanding, the vision, and the spirit of the resurrected Lord through a careful study of the text Jesus the Christ by Elder James E. Talmage will find that he has greatly increased his moving faith in our glorified Redeemer." This special edition has been completely retypeset for added readability, and for the first time the chapter endnotes have been included with the footnotes for ready reference.
The Lusiads
by Luís de Camões
Genres: Poetry, Classics, Portuguese Literature, Portugal, Fiction, Literature, Epic
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.00

Oxford World's Classics1998 is the quincentenary of Vasco da Gama's voyage via southern Africa to India, the voyage celebrated in this new translation of one of the greatest poems of the Renaissance. Portugal's supreme poet Camoes was the first major European artist to cross the equator. The freshness of that original encounter with Africa and India is the very essence of Camoes's vision. The first translation of The Lusiads for almost half a century, this new edition is complemented by an illuminating introduction and extensive notes.
The Woods
by Harlan Coben
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Audiobook
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.05

Twenty years ago, four teenagers disappeared in the woods at summer camp. Two decades later, everything changes...Paul Copeland's sister was one of the missing teenagers. Now raising a daughter alone after the death of his wife, he balances family life with a career as a prosecutor. But when a body is found, the well-buried secrets of the past threaten everything.Could the victim be one of the missing teenagers? Could his sister be alive? Copeland has to confront so much he left behind that summer twenty years ago: his first love, Lucy; his mother, who abandoned the family; and the secrets that his parents have been hiding ...
Africa's Child (Dancing Soul Trilogy, #1)
by Maria Nhambu
Genres: Fiction, Africa, Contemporary, Race, Epic, Historical Fiction, Drama
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.31

From the Foreword by Marian Wright EdelmanAfrica’s Child is an unforgettable and searingly personal book….In the face of repeated obstacles and injustices, Nhambu continued to analyze the world around her with wit and a sharp sense of humor. Above all, as a very young child she decided one day that even if there was no other person in the world who loved and wanted her, she was going to love and care for herself—and that decision changed the course of her life. Africa’s Child is the story of a mixed-race girl growing up in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. Raised in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins or family, she endured abandonment, hardships, severe illnesses, and bullying. Her experiences as a child and teenager included physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, social stigma, and racial discrimination.Yet Nhambu tells her inspiring story with warmth and humor. Her questioning mind probes the African tribal realities and multi-cultural complexities that impacted her life both at the orphanage and schools run by German nuns as well as at an African high school with American nuns. Nhambu not only survived her childhood but triumphed. Her faith and resilience, along with a belief in learning and her tenacious pursuit of an education, sustained her through many challenges. Dance, especially African tribal dance, became the way she healed and nourished her spirit. Through the love and commitment of an American teacher she met in Africa, Nhambu was able to pursue her dream of education and a new life for herself. The first book in her three-part memoir ends as she is leaving Africa for university studies in America on a full scholarship.Maria Nhambu is the creator of Aerobics With Soul®, a fitness workout based on African dance.
The Long Winter (Little House, #6)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Genres: Historical Fiction, Classics, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Middle Grade
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.16

On the empty winter prairie, gray clouds to the northwest meant only one thing: a blizzard was seconds away. The first blizzard came in October. It snowed almost without stopping until April. The temperature dropped to forty below. Snow reached the roof-tops. And no trains could get through with food and coal. The townspeople began to starve. The Ingalls family barely lived through that winter. And Almanzo Wilder knew he would have to risk his life to save the town.
The Forty Rules of Love
by Elif Shafak
Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels, Romance, Philosophy, Spirituality, Turkish Literature
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.13

Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams's search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, that offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mir­rors her own and that Zahara—like Shams—has come to set her free.In this lyrical, exuberant follow-up to her 2007 novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives—one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz—that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love.
The Casual Vacancy
by J.K. Rowling
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery, Adult, Adult Fiction, Drama, Unfinished
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.30

In the idyllic small town of Pagford, a councillor dies and leaves a "casual vacancy" - an empty seat on the Parish Council.In the election for his successor that follows, it is clear that behind the pretty surface this is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, wives at war with husbands, teachers at war with pupils... Pagford is not what it first seems.
Filth
by Irvine Welsh
Genres: Fiction, Crime, Contemporary, Mystery, Novels, Thriller, Scotland
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.80

With the Christmas season upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson of Edinburgh's finest is gearing up socially—kicking things off with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam.There are some sizable flies in the ointment, though: a missing wife and child, a nagging cocaine habit, some painful below-the-belt eczema, and a string of demanding extramarital affairs. The last thing Robertson needs is a messy, racially fraught murder, even if it means overtime—and the opportunity to clinch the promotion he craves. Then there's that nutritionally demanding (and psychologically acute) intestinal parasite in his gut. Yes, things are going badly for this utterly corrupt tribune of the law, but in an Irvine Welsh novel nothing is ever so bad that it can't get a whole lot worse. . .
Wives and Daughters
by Elizabeth Gaskell
Genres: Classics, Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, 19th Century, Victorian, Literature
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.12

Wives and Daughters is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the Cornhill Magazine as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866. It was partly written whilst Gaskell was staying with the salon hostess Mary Elizabeth Mohl at her home on the Rue de Bac in Paris. When Mrs Gaskell died suddenly in 1865, it was not quite complete, and the last section was written by Frederick Greenwood.
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, LGBT, Historical, Romance, Mystery, Queer
Average rating on Goodreads: 4.02

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
by Denise Kiernan
Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War II, Science, Historical, War, American History
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.71


The incredible story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history.
The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities, it didn’t appear on any maps until 1949, and yet at the height of World War II it was using more electricity than New York City and was home to more than 75,000 people, many of them young women recruited from small towns across the South. Their jobs were shrouded in mystery, but they were buoyed by a sense of shared purpose, close friendships—and a surplus of handsome scientists and Army men!But against this vibrant wartime backdrop, a darker story was unfolding. The penalty for talking about their work—even the most innocuous details—was job loss and eviction. One woman was recruited to spy on her coworkers. They all knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The shocking revelation: the residents of Oak Ridge were enriching uranium for the atomic bomb.Though the young women originally believed they would leave Oak Ridge after the war, many met husbands there, made lifelong friends, and still call the seventy-year-old town home. The reverberations from their work there—work they didn’t fully understand at the time—are still being felt today. In The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan traces the astonishing story of these unsung WWII workers through interviews with dozens of surviving women and other Oak Ridge residents. Like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this is history and science made fresh and vibrant—a beautifully told, deeply researched story that unfolds in a suspenseful and exciting way.