Books

★ 5

Wish

Walrus Diary

Graphic Novel

Wu Dong

Warm and healing daily fragments, a fairy tale for adults.

★ 5

Reading

Catfish

Memoir

Joan Chen

A stunning memoir by Joan Chen, capturing family history and personal growth.

★ 5

Reading

Giovanni's Room

Fiction

James Baldwin

A heartbreakingly pure classic about love, shame, and self-identity.

★ 5

Reading

The Wall

Dystopian

Marlen Haushofer

How a woman survives and thinks alone behind an invisible wall. The ultimate solitude.

★ 5

Read

Love You Like Love Life

Letters

Wang Xiaobo

The purest and most passionate love letters I have ever read.

★ 5

Read

Why Libraries Matter

Non-fiction

Yang Suqiu

A moving story of an idealistic professor building a library against all odds.

★ 4

Read

Vivian Maier Developed

Photography

Colin Westerbeck

The legendary life of the nanny photographer who saw humanity through her lens.

★ 4

Read

The Common People

Fiction

Cai Chongda

Cai Chongda returns to his hometown, depicting the lives of people on the Fujian coast.

★ 4

Read

Vessel

Essays

Cai Chongda

The body is meant to be used, not to be served.

★ 5

Read

My Mother the Cleaner

Non-fiction

Zhang Xiaoman

Seeing the 'invisible' people; a re-examination of the mother-daughter relationship.

★ 5

Read

Journey Under the Midnight Sun

Mystery

Keigo Higashino

I just want to walk under the sun, hand in hand.

★ 5

Read

Love Letter

Romance

Shunji Iwai

How are you? I am fine. The ultimate romance of unrequited love and memory.

★ 5

Read

Good Morning, Monster

Psychology

Catherine Gildiner

Five heroic stories about trauma, courage, and self-healing.

★ 4

Read

The Power of Depression

Psychology

Izumiya Kanji

Depression is not a disease, but a signal from the body to rest.

★ 4

Read

The Eve of the Three Kingdoms

History

Zhang Xiangrong

Understanding the politics of the gentry is key to the power games of the Three Kingdoms.

★ 4

Read

I Dreamt in Chinese

Essays

Alessandro

When a language enters your blood, it changes the way you see the world.

★ 5

Read

Imaginary Sea

Stories

Zhu Yue

Mind-bending philosophical fantasies, a Borgesian labyrinth.

★ 4

Read

Hidden in the Wild

History

Ya Shalong

Seeing the fate of ordinary people through the cracks of history.

★ 5

Read

Possible Worlds

Travel

Yang Xiao

Searching for the possibility of connection in a divided world.

★ 5

Read

Higher Than Mountains

Mountaineering

Song Mingwei

An epic of free climbers, about finding freedom and self-limits.

★ 4

Read

The Temptation of Borders

Non-fiction

Bai Lin

Walking on the edges of Central Europe, recording forgotten pains.

★ 5

Read

Aging While Eating

Food Essays

Liang Shiqiu

Life is just about eating and drinking; wisdom from the modest cottage.

★ 5

Read

Stet: An Editor's Life

Memoir

Diana Athill

A candid confession of a great editor about books, love, and old age.

★ 4

Read

The Red Tickets of Kangxi

History

Sun Litian

A glimpse into the clash of civilizations during the Kangxi era.

★ 5

Read

The Winter of Literature

History

Uwe Wittstock

1933: The fate of German writers in the 33 days after Hitler took power.

★ 4

Read

Cold Water Pit

Fiction

Jin Te

The biting cold wind of Northeast China; a raw narrative of the underclass.

★ 4

Read

Tumultuous Fire and Water

Fiction

Lin Gesheng

About women, desire, and the dilemmas of contemporary life.

★ 4

Read

The Reunion

Fiction

Yang Yunsu

The tragicomedy of a Chinese family, delicate and real.

★ 4

Read

When I Sing, Mountains Dance

Fiction

Irene Solà

Spiritual Catalan literature, a magical poem where everything has a soul.

★ 4

Read

Zoli

Fiction

Laird Hunt

A forgotten Roma singer, a wandering history in search of home.

★ 4

Read

Outlying Islands

Travel

Ku Suo

Finding another time scale of life on Japan's outlying islands.

★ 4

Read

Through the Air of Nothingness

Poetry

Margaret Atwood

Atwood's poetic sharpness pierces the surface of life.

★ 4

Read

Knot of Life and Death

Fiction

Yin Xueyun

The myriad faces of grassroots bureaucracy; the entanglement of human nature.

★ 5

Read

To Live

Classic

Yu Hua

Man lives for the sake of living itself, not for anything else.

★ 5

Read

The Right Bank of the Argun River

Fiction

Chi Zijian

An epic of the Ewenki people, desolate yet full of deep emotion; the solitude and dignity of the mountains.

★ 5

Read

The Three-Body Problem

Sci-Fi

Cixin Liu

Give civilization to the years, not years to civilization. The pinnacle of Chinese sci-fi.

★ 4

Read

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store

Fiction

Keigo Higashino

The inner bonds of modern people; every small act of kindness can change a life.

★ 5

Read

The Story of the Stone

Classic

Cao Xueqin

Pages full of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears. Understanding the Red Chamber means understanding the destiny of Chinese culture.

★ 4

Read

Elon Musk

Biography

Walter Isaacson

A crazy history of adventure, paranoia, and genius; understanding the 'demonic' innovator of our time.

★ 5

Read

American Prometheus

Biography

Kai Bird

American Prometheus; the glory and tragedy of the fire-stealer.

★ 4

Read

The Worlds I See

Memoir

Fei-Fei Li

The memoir of the Godmother of AI; a story about science, immigration, and finding one's North Star.

★ 4

Read

The Journey to the South

Historical Fiction

Ma Boyong

Exploring the secrets of the Han Empire amidst the smoke and fire of Lingnan; food and love are not to be betrayed.

★ 4

Read

Wordslut

Social Science

Amanda Montell

How women take back language; a satisfying linguistic counterattack.

★ 4

Read

The Museum of Unconditional Surrender

Essays

Dubravka Ugrešić

A museum of exile, memory, and fragments; picking up life in the ruins of history.

★ 5

Read

Norwegian Wood

Fiction

Haruki Murakami

Death exists, not as the opposite of life, but as a part of it. A melancholic tale of youth, loss, and growth.