Giraffe: A Novel by J M Ledgard

It was 1975. On the eve of May Day, secret police dressed in chemical warfare set of clothes sealed off a zoo in a small Czechoslovakian town. They ordered the destruction of the biggest captive herd of giraffes in the world. This apparently senseless massacre lies at the heart of J.M. Ledgard's remarkable first novel.

It is a story about those giraffes from the moment of their capture in Africa to their deaths far away behind the Iron Curtain. The main character, Emil, a haemodynamicist (he studies blood flow in vertical creatures) who is chosen to accompany them from Hamburg by barge into Czechoslovakia. There Amina, a sleepwalker, a factory girl, glimpses their arrival, is awakened by them, and goes each day to gaze up at them. She is with them at the end, blinding them with a torch, as Jiri, a sharpshooter, brings them down one by one.

Giraffe is a story about strangeness, about creatures that are alien, silent, finely mazed and impossibly stretched. It is also a story about captivity, about Czechoslovakia, a middling totalitarian state in the middle of Europe that is itself asleep, under a spell, a nation of sleepwalkers.

Giraffe is beautiful, outrageous, and memorable.

Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

It was 1922. Desdemona Stephanides and Lefty, her brother, were living alone in their nearly abandoned village. Their parents had been killed in the war with the Turks. These siblings, being to close to each other, then fell in love and became husband and wife.

And, the story continued to their grandchild, Calliope who had an anatomical issue. Until the age of 14 she was a girl. But, afterwards, instead of growing up into a beautiful young woman, she grew moustache.

This book shares Cal’s journey to adulthood.

Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003 and announced as the Oprah's Book Club 2007 Summer Selection, Middlesex is a must-read book.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

This is a novel with two important characters, Leo Gursky and Alma Singer.

Leo is an old man who once fell in love at the age of ten--60 years ago--with a girl named Alma. And, he wrote a book in honour of his love.

Alma is a young girl hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. She then stumbles accross a book, The History of love and finds out that she is named after the heroine of the story. She looks for the writer.

Then, these stories are beautifully connected by the writer. Krauss helps the readers of her novel to feel heartbreaking or joyful truths about life and love through these special characters.

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

Barefoot is a novel about three women (two sisters and a friend), escaping from their chaotic life in a tiny cottage.

Vicki, mother of two kids, has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. Her sister, Brenda, has just been fired for having an affair with one of her students. And, Melanie, Vicki's best friend, has a marriage issue for her husband is cheating while she is actually pregnant after seven in-vitro attempts.

Theare all saved by Josh, a young creative writing student home for the summer, who baby-sits Vicki's kids and brings normalcy and solace to the women.

Just like Hilderbrand's other books, the characters, their dilemmas and flaws are beyond interesting.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is a worldwide novel written by Khaled Hosseini. It is his first novel which has entered the US best seller list in 2005.

This novel teaches us about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is also about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of their lies.

Narrated by Amir, one of the novel’s main characters, the story brings us to childhood in Kabul in the 1970s. He tells readers about his friendship with Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, and some other things that he can never forget alhtough he has a new life now, in California.