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Going Postal is a 2004 fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 33rd book in his Discworld series. From Wikipedia: “Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some Victorian novels and, notably, to Jules Verne stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel and the idiom 'going postal'. The story takes place in Ankh-Morpork, a powerful city-state on Discworld. The protagonist of the story is Moist von Lipwig, a skilled con artist who was to be hanged for his crimes, but saved at the last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician Havelock Vetinari, who has Moist's death on the scaffold faked, being hanged "to within half an inch of your life".

A Tale for the Time Being is a 2013 metafictional novel by Ruth Ozeki. The novel is narrated by two characters: a sixteen-year-old Japanese American girl (Nao) living in Tokyo who keeps a diary, and a Japanese American writer (Ruth) living on an island off the coast of British Columbia, who finds Nao’s diary washed ashore some time after the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan. Ruth reads her diary and becomes heavily invested in her narrative, and in finding out Nao's fate. Ruth feels a strong connection to Nao and yearns to locate her in the real world to affirm her wellbeing. From The New York Times Sunday Book Review: “Many of the elements of Nao’s story — schoolgirl bullying, unemployed suicidal ‘salarymen,’ kamikaze pilots […] in Nao’s telling, refracted through Ruth’s musings, they become fresh and immediate, occasionally searingly painful. Ozeki takes on big themes in A Tale for the Time Being — not just the death of individuals but also the death of the planet. In doing so, she ranges widely, drawing in everything from quantum mechanics and the theory of infinite possibilities in an infinite number of universes to the teachings of the 13th-century Zen master Dogen Zenji. There’s even a crow with possibly magical powers. All are drawn into the stories of two ‘time beings,’ Ruth and Nao, whose own fates are inextricably bound.”

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The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. From Wikipedia: “Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. The work was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, For economic reasons, it was first published over the course of a year, from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955, in three volumes rather than one, under the titles The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King; The Silmarillion appeared only after Tolkien's death. The work is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with several appendices of chronologies, genealogies, and linguistic information. These three volumes were later published as a boxed set in 1957, and finally as a single volume in 1968, following Tolkien's original intent.

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Challenger Deep is a 2015 young adult novel by Neal Shusterman about a teenager's onset of schizophrenia. Publisher's Weekly gave the book a starred review, writing: "With lyricism and potent insight, Shusterman traces the schizophrenic descent and return of Caden Bosch, an intelligent 15-year-old and a gifted artist. His internal narratives are sometimes dreams, sometimes hallucinations, and sometimes undefinable, dominated by a galleon and its captain, sailing with an enormous, sullen crew to the deepest point of the Marianas Trench, Challenger Deep. The metaphor’s not exactly subtle, but Shusterman finds unexpected resonance in its details—the tarry seams in the wood, the human ballast. External reality still registers: people around Caden run the gamut of humor, scolding, threats, and avoidance to pressure him into changing behavior he no longer controls. Shusterman has mined personal experience of mental illness with his son Brendan, whose line drawings mirror Caden’s fragmentation in swirling lines eerily reminiscent of Van Gogh. It’s a powerful collaboration, and crucial to the novel’s credibility. As Caden says, “There is no such thing as a ‘correct’ diagnosis,” and though his story doesn’t necessarily represent a “typical” experience of mental illness, it turns symptoms into lived reality in ways readers won’t easily forget."

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The Bone Queen is a 2016 fantasy novel by Alison Croggon. From the book's official summary: "After being seduced into sorcery by an agent of the Dark, the promising Bard Cadvan of Lirigon recklessly unleashed the terrible Bone Queen, bringing destruction down upon Annar. Cast out of the Schools of Barding for his crime, Cadvan now lives in exile, burdened by memories of his dealings with the Dark. At his former home, Cadvan’s mentor, Nelac, and his rival, Dernhil, begin to suspect that the Bone Queen may yet lurk in Annar, and a young Bard named Selmana is plagued by an ominous presence and an unsettling new ability to step between worlds. With darkness gathering and Bards giving in to fear and paranoia, a guilt-ridden Cadvan must once again earn the Bards’ trust and Selmana must gain control of her newfound powers if they are to bring peace to the living and the dead. Fans of the Books of Pellinor will savor this glimpse into Cadvan’s past, and readers new to Alison Croggon’s intricately built world will relish The Bone Queen as a stand-alone epic of light, dark, magic, and redemption."

Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. From Wikipedia: “The narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker flees after learning that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunts and kills him.

The novel was mostly written in the 1890s, and Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes, drawing extensively from folklore and history. Scholars have suggested various figures as the inspiration for Dracula, including the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler and the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, but recent scholarship suggests otherwise. He probably found the name Dracula in Whitby’s public library while on holiday, selecting it because he thought it meant ‘devil’ in Romanian.

Following the novel’s publication in May 1897, some reviewers praised its terrifying atmosphere while others thought Stoker included too much horror. Many noted a structural similarity with Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White (1859) and a resemblance to the work of Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe. In the 20th century, Dracula became regarded as a seminal work of Gothic fiction. Scholars explore the novel within the historical context of the Victorian era and regularly discuss its portrayal of race, religion, gender and sexuality.

Dracula is one of the most famous works of English literature. The character of Count Dracula deeply shaped the popular conception of vampires and influenced future representations. With over 700 appearances across virtually all forms of media, the Guinness Book of World Records named Dracula the most portrayed literary character. The novel itself has been adapted many times, with new adaptations sometimes being produced as often as every week.”

If you’re interested in reading Dracula, you can do so for free through Dracula Daily. “Dracula Daily is a free subscription newsletter that sends Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula to subscribers via email. The epistolary novel takes place within a single calendar year, from May 3 to November 7. Accordingly, Dracula Daily sends the portion of the novel that occurs each day on the corresponding day. Some days have no email, as there is no corresponding content in the novel, though the entirety of the novel is ultimately transmitted. The newsletter first ran in 2021, and has repeated each year since. It began a fifth run in May 2025. Dracula Daily has been likened to a book club, since many subscribers read along in real time and can discuss the most recent updates. The 2022 run has become popular on Tumblr, with users following along and creating memes, such as expressing anxiety over the fate of their “dear friend Jonathan Harker”. It has increased interest in Dracula, its adaptations, and other vampire fiction, and inspired other forms of serialized classic literature.”

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Snake-Eater is a 2025 novel by T. Kingfisher. From the book’s official summary: “With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt's house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind. Because in Quartz Creek, there's a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena's ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena's house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn't ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can't begin to imagine. And when Selena's search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It's the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as "Snake-Eater," who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled. Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he's hell-bent on collecting everything he's owed.”

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The Dark Lord of Derkholm (Dark Lord of Derkholm in the United States) is a 1998 fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones. From Wikipedia: “The novel is a parody, for its setting is a mock high fantasy world, similar to that Jones covered in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, a humorous travel guide on the Rough Guides model.

The narrative is set in a fantasy world whose economy and society are controlled by an interdimensional tourism industry. An organization called "Mr. Chesney's Pilgrim Parties" coordinates annual tours for visitors from the real world to participate in various fantasy tropes, including interactions with wizard guides, attacks by winged predators, and confrontations with designated "Dark Lords". These events cause widespread environmental damage and casualties among the local population. In a meeting about the Pilgrim Parties, High Chancellor Querida takes a wizard, a high priest and a thief to see the Oracles, who determine that the next person the group sees will play the role of the Dark Lord, and the second person will be the Wizard Guide that they need. They meet Wizard Derk. Derk undertakes to "evil-fy" his home, Derkholm, for its role as the Dark Lord's capital. He summons a demon to bind there, but it escapes. An ancient dragon mistakes him for a ruling Dark Lord, then takes offense when it learns the commercial truth.