If you want to read more, short books are a great way to go to. Whether you want to meet your Goodreads reading challenge for the year, or you are simply in the mood to read a book in one sitting, here are the perfect books from different genres to help you out!
BOOKS UNDER 200 PAGES
1. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (64 Pages).
This is a story about a woman who is confined to her room after her and her husband rent a summer house for a getaway. She becomes increasingly obsessed with the pattern of the yellow wallpaper in the room. As the story unfolds, the reader is taken on a haunting journey through the woman's deteriorating mental state and the societal oppression of women's autonomy and agency.
2. Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin (33 Pages).
This is a science fiction novella about a man who returns to Earth from a space colony to retrieve resources for his people, only to find a world that has drastically changed. As he navigates this new environment, he confronts the truth about his own society's past and future.
3. Home by Toni Morrison (147 Pages).
This novel follows Frank Money, a Korean War veteran who returns to his hometown in the American south. As Frank confronts the traumas of his past and struggles to save his sister, he grapples with the complexities of race, identity, and family in a divided and hostile world.
4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
(146 Pages).
Two sisters live in isolation with their uncle in a large house on the outskirts of a small town. When a cousin comes to visit, secrets are revealed and the delicate balance of their lives is threatened.
5. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (96 Pages).
An aging fisherman named Santiago who has not caught a fish in 84 days. When he finally hooks a giant marlin, he must battle the fish and the elements. of the sea in a test of his strength and perseverance.
6. All Systems Red by Martha Wells (144 Pages).
This is. a story about a self-named security robot called "Murderbot" who has hacked its own governor module and now secretly watches entertainment feeds while performing its assigned tasks for a survey team. When the team's mission is threatened by mysterious and deadly accidents, Murderbot must decide whether to remain detached or to intervene to save its human clients.
7. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (96 Pages).
This is a science fiction novel about a young woman named Binti named who leaves her home planet to attend a prestigious intergalactic university. On her journey, she must confront prejudice and violence from those who fear and mistrusts her people, and rely on her own unique skills and identity to survive.
8. The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (64 Pages).
This is a story about a woman who works as a fake psychic and is hired by a wealthy client to cleanse her family's home of evil spirits. As she becomes more entwined in the family's troubled past and present, she must navigate the blurred lines between reality and illusion to uncover the truth.
9. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (163 Pages).
A woman named Keiko Furukura has been working at the same convenience store in Tokyo for 18 years. As she struggles to understand the expectations and judgements of society, she grapples with the decision of whether to conform or to embrace her own unique identity.
10. The Egg by Andy Weir (3 Pages).
A very short story about the universe and your place in it.
11. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (194 Pages).
This is a dystopian novel set in a future society where books are banned and "firemen" burn any that are found. The story follows Guy Montag, a fireman who begins to question his role in society and the suppression of knowledge. As he faces the consequences of his curiosity, Montag must choose between conformity and rebellion in a world that fears independent thought.
12. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (182 Pages).
This is a novel about a shepherd boy named Santiago who dreams of finding treasure and embarks on a journey to fulfill his destiny. Along the way, he learns important lessons about following his heart, taking risks, and discovering the true meaning of happiness.
13. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (144 Pages).
This novella is about a London Lawyer named Mr. Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde.
14. Night by Elie Wiesel (115 Pages).
This is a story about the author's experiences in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The book is a powerful testimony to the human spirit and a reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
15. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald (64 Pages).
this is a short story about a man named Benjamin Button who is born with the physical appearance and characteristics of an elderly man and ages in reverse. As Benjamin grows younger, he faces unique challenges and experiences that make him question the meaning of life and love.
16. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (121 Pages).
This story is about a governess who takes care of two orphaned children in a remote country estate in England. As she begins to experience strange occurrences and see apparitions, the governess becomes convinced that the house is haunted ghosts, and must fight to protect the children from their malevolent influence.
17. Elevation by Stephen King (146 Pages).
This novella is about a man named Scott Carey who discovers that he is losing weight despite having the same physical appearance and mass. As Scott's body defies the laws of physics, he must confront his own mortality and the prejudices of his small town community.
18. Larger than Life by Jodi Picoult (78 Pages).
This story follows Alice, a researcher who is studying memory in elephants. Alice lives on a game reserve in Botswana and so she is able to view the animals in their natural habitat. But Alice has to follow an important rule: She must not interfere with the animals, only observe. She happens upon an orphaned young elephant and cannot find it in her to leave the young elephant behind. While Alice risks her career to care for the calf, she experiences the profundity of a parent's love.
19. Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez
(160 Pages).
Sierva Maria is the only child of a noble family in an eighteenth-century South American seaport. Sierva is bitten by a rabid dog and consequently believed to be possessed. She is then brought to a convent for observation. There, a Priest tis designated to watch over her, and he begins to fall in love.
20. Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala (142 Pages).
As civil war rages in Africa, a fierce warlord trains a young orphan to join his group of guerrilla soldiers.
21. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman (97 Pages).
This story is about an elderly man who struggles to hold on to his memories, and his family's efforts to care for him.
22. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (152 Pages).
Silvie and her family have gone to stay at an Iron-age site, living as if they are ancient Britons. The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice?"
23. The Vegetarian by Han Kang (188 Pages).
Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life, until she had a nightmare that completely changes her. Yeong-hye decides to give up eating meat, and she begins to embrace a more plant-like life. This new endeavor will change Yeong-hye's life forever.
24. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (110 Pages).
This is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.
25. Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (145 Pages).
Two young people meet at. a pub in South East London. Both are artists-he a photographer, she a dancer. They were both granted scholarships to private schools, and the author tells us of their struggles to belong. They fall in love, but obstacles such as fear and violence stand in their way.
26. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (196 Pages).
It is Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Her parents and friends watch her lovingly as she makes her appearance in a special custom-made dress. This is a tender moment, especially for Melody's mother, who the dress was originally made for. It was made for her to attend her own ceremony, but this celebration did not happen.
27. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (170 Pages).
In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.
28. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe (76 Pages).
The story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his large converted abbey home. He and many other wealthy nobles, have a masquerade ball using seven rooms in the abbey, each decorated with a different color. The last one is velvet black. In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms.
29. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (176 Pages).
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.
30. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (144 Pages)
Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba – the catastrophe that led to the displacement and expulsion of more than 700,000 people – and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers capture and rape a young Palestinian woman, and kill and bury her in the sand. Many years later, a woman in Ramallah becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with this ‘minor detail’ of history.
31. The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami (96 Pages).
The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library.
32. Assembly by Natasha Brown (112 Pages)
The narrator of Assembly is a black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: is it time to take it all apart?
33. Silk by Alessandro Baricco ( 91 Pages)
When an epidemic threatens to destroy the silk trade in France, the young merchant Herve Joncour leaves his doting wife and his comfortable home in the small town of Lavilledieu and travels across Siberia to the other end of the world, to Japan, to obtain eggs for a fresh breeding of silk worms. It is the 1860s; Japan is closed to foreigners and this has to be a clandestine operation. During his undercover negotiations with the local baron, Joncour's attention is arrested by the man's concubine, a girl who does not have Oriental eyes. Although the young Frenchman and the girl are unable to exchange so much as a word, love blossoms between them, conveyed by a number of recondite messages in the course of four visits the Frenchman pays to Japan. How their secret affair develops and how it unfolds is told in a narration as beautiful, smooth and seamless as a piece of the finest silk.
34. Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro (143 Pages)
After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.
35. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (118 Pages)
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
36. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (81 Pages)
Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay candidly appraises the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of European colonization and tourism.
37. Foster by Claire Keegan (89 Pages)
A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers’ house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is.
38. Fall of the Birds by Bradford Morrow (35 Pages)
Hundreds of red-winged blackbirds are discovered scattered, lifeless, around a greenhouse in Warwick, New York. Heaps of common grackles litter the fields of a farm upstate near Stone Ridge. And in Manhattan, a Washington Square restaurant is forced to close its doors when a flock of pigeons inexplicably dies on the sidewalks out front. From Pennsylvania to Maine, birds are falling from the sky en masse—and nobody can figure out why. An insurance claims adjuster and avid birder is one of the first to recognize that something is wrong. His stepdaughter, Caitlin, has also noticed—their common interest in birds is one of the few things they share these days, since her mother died of cancer just six months ago. As they travel the Northeast together to investigate the ominous deaths, a bond forms that might prove strong enough to mend their broken family.
39. Without Blood by Alessandro Baricco (81 Pages)
After her father and brother are brutally murdered, 4 year old Nina is left for dead in the family house.
40. Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov (96 Pages)
Jamilia is told from the point of view of a fictional Kyrgyz artist, Seit, who tells the story by looking back on his childhood. The story recounts the love between his new sister-in-law Jamilia and a local crippled young man, Daniyar, while Jamilia's husband, Sadyk, is away at the front during World War II.
41. Away From Her by Alice Munro (76 Pages)
Grant is a retired professor whose wife Fiona begins gradually to lose her memory and drift away from him. We slowly see how a lifetime of intimate details can create a marriage, and how mysterious the bonds of love really are.
42. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson ( 116 Pages)
This is the story of Robert Grainier, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century---an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.
43. Recitatif by Toni Morrison ( 19 Pages)
Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.
44. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig (104 Pages)
Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story.
45. The Overcoat by Nicolai Gogol ( 57 Pages)
The Overcoat which is generally acknowledged as the finest of Gogol's memorable Saint Petersburg stories, is a tale of the absurd and misplaced obsessions.
46. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde ( 76 Pages)
Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds pandemonium breaks loose. Only a senile nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day!
47. Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid (86 Pages)
Told entirely through the letters of two comforting strangers and those of two illicit lovers, Evidence of the Affair explores the complex nature of the heart. And ultimately, for one woman, how liberating it can be when it’s broken.
48. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky (82 Pages)
White Nights is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky that was published in 1848. Set in St. Petersburg, it is the story of a young man fighting his inner restlessness. A light and tender narrative, it delves into the torment and guilt of unrequited love. Both protagonists suffer from a deep sense of alienation that initially brings them together. A blend of romanticism and realism, the story appeals gently to the senses and feelings.
49. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (30 Pages)
In a small American town, the local residents are abuzz with excitement and nervousness when they wake on the morning of the twenty-seventh of June. Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win.
50. The Member of The Wedding by Carson McCullers
(163 Pages)
Here is the story of the inimitable twelve-year-old Frankie, who is utterly, hopelessly bored with life until she hears about her older brother's wedding. Bolstered by lively conversations with her house servant, Berenice, and her six-year-old male cousin—not to mention her own unbridled imagination—Frankie takes on an overly active role in the wedding, hoping even to go, uninvited, on the honeymoon, so deep is her desire to be the member of something larger, more accepting than herself.
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