What are the most recommended books matching 'simple and direct'?

Strega Nona's meddling assistant Big Anthony is determined to prove to the townspeople his knowledge of the magic secrets contained in the pasta pot of Strega Nona. In so doing, he unleashes a torrent of pasta which threatens to engulf their little I... Read more about Strega Nona

"If you're one of the few who haven't experienced the genius of Agatha Christie, this novel is a stellar starting point." - DAVID BALDACCI, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invit... Read more about And Then There Were None

He went over in his mind all that had appeared in the papers about Soldier Island. There had been its original purchase by an American millionaire who was crazy about yachting—and an account of the lu...

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By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the most influential novelists in the world. He has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker P... Read more about The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

There is no pulse. 'The baby is dead,' Orito answers, in the same language, 'and the mother will die soon, if the child is not delivered.' She places her fingertips on Kawasemi's distended belly and p...

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BOOK ONE IN THE BROKEN EMPIRE TRILOGY

"Prince of Thorns deserves attention as the work of an iconoclast who seems determined to turn that familiar thing, Medievalesque Fantasy Trilogy, entirely on its head."-Locus

When he was nine, he watched as his... Read more about Prince of Thorns

I could see some of the lads exchanging coin on their bets. The Lich Road is as boring as a Sunday sermon. It runs straight and level. So straight it gets so as you’d kill for a left turn or a right t...

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American Journalist Jake Barnes is desperately in love with the beautiful Lady Brett Ashley. She moves seductively through the seemingly glamorous milieu of American and British expats, loving, living and partying in Paris in the 1920's. They're a he... Read more about The Sun Also Rises

Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact h...

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The award-winning bestseller that became one of the most talked about and memorable novels of the decade, Room is "utterly gripping…a heart-stopping novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her precociou... Read more about Room

I count one hundred cereal and waterfall the milk that's nearly the same white as the bowls, no splashing, we thank Baby Jesus. I choose Meltedy Spoon with the white all blobby on his handle when he l...

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58 pages of catechism and 7 pages of prayers.... Read more about Baltimore Catechism One

The book centers on the character of Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. Young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he considers to be an abus... Read more about The Warden

Early in life Mr Harding found himself located at Barchester. A fine voice and a taste for sacred music had decided the position in which he was to exercise his calling, and for many years he performe...

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From iconic tortured artist/everyman Charles Bukowski, Hollywood is the fictionalization of his experience adapting his novel Barfly into a movie by the same name.

Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's alter-ego, is pushed to translate a semi-autobiographical ... Read more about Hollywood

Then we were down at the harbor, driving past the boats. Most of them were sailboats and people were fiddling about on deck. They were dressed in their special sailing clothes, caps, dark shades. Some...

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A Best Book of the Year

The Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Denver Post

In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her h... Read more about Our Souls at Night

They lived a block apart on Cedar Street in the oldest part of town with elm trees and hackberry and a single maple grown up along the curb and green lawns running back from the sidewalk to the two-st...

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