Discounted for October 2025: Captivating Literary Books You Don’t Want to Miss!

Middle-aged Shelley Marino is desperate for a child, and turns to one of the only options available to her: foreign adoption. But, unfortunately, her choice drives her husband away, who is a veteran of an Asian war that contradicts what Shelley believes. 

Soon, she welcomes Mai, who immigrated to America from Vietnam decades ago, after a tragedy. Once together, the women form a beautiful bond that helps them loosen their grip on the past, allowing them to look to the future. 

Yuan Zhao is a famed Chinese performance artist and political dissident who has moved to Los Angeles for a one-year artist’s residency. While teaching advanced art at St. Anselm's School for Girls, he is living with his host family, the affluent yet unconventional Traverses.

Luckily, the Traverses are too busy with their own problems to pay much attention to their guest, who has a radical past that would be best left buried. Soon, though, the family and Yuan will grow to see each other, in “[an] impressive novel […] lucid, unpretentious, and often witty […] Freudenberger is the real thing” (Boston Globe).

Tales of ghosts, curses, and entities abound in this collection from a famed British folklorist. Combining historical evidence and commentary, these folktales are legends and anecdotes that have been passed down through generations. 

Deescribed by the Journal of American Folklore as, “The most satisfactory general collection of folktales to come out of England since the advent of modern collection and classification techniques,” feast your eyes!

In 1944, the year Jack Kerouac wrote this novella, The Haunted Life, was incredibly tumultuous. While in prison as an accessory to murder, he wrote this manuscript under circumstances that have remained a mystery.

The story centers on Peter Martin, a sophomore in college who is home for the summer, as he struggles to reconcile the viewpoints of three other characters. Whether it be politics, history, or the larger world, Peter attempts to decipher what he believes and who he should be. 

In the spring of 1943, Jack Kerouac wrote what was supposed to be his first novel, The Sea Is My Brother. Now, almost seventy years later, its publication offers a clear precursor to his pioneering style that would be established in landmarks such as On the Road.

The story follows an academic who joins a grounded sailor and the rest of the Merchant Marines for a tour of duty. According to the Wall Street Journal, “[The Sea Is My Brother] offers plenty of disarming insights into who Kerouac was as a person and writer before he slipped behind the mask of Beat Generation Zen-master.”

When high school freshman Carina Jurgensen leaks insider information on her family business, she’s in for a rude awakening. Her billionaire father counters by cutting Carina off.

Luckily, she is resourceful and begins working as a party planner for New York's annual Silver Snowflake Ball. However, the party committee expects Carina to draw from her dad’s list of connections, and she must decide whether she wants to be open or continue pretending to be an heiress.

A forensic analyst, Sandra Vega, lost her husband all too soon when he plunged to his death only a few months ago. Although the police ruled his death an accident, she’s not so sure and decides to embark on an investigation of her own.

Soon, Sandra finds herself in the darkest corners of Rome, on the pursuit of a case she is sure is responsible for her husband’s death. If she can stay out of sight, she may be able to bring justice not only for him, but also for a series of interconnected disappearances.