Central Skagit Library District

The Metamorphosis is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often, cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect. "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous...

Fifty-year-old artist's model Helen Knightly, worn down by years of dealing with her depressed and needy mother, gives in to the temptation to smother the now old and senile Clair and spends the next twenty-four hours feeling both liberated by what she has done, and tormented by her memories of the past and expectations for the future.

After losing virtually everything meaningful in his life, Benjamin trains to be a caregiver, but his first client, a fiercely independent teen with muscular dystrophy, gives him more than he bargained for and soon the two embark on a road trip to visit the boy's ailing father.

The greatest haunted house story ever written—the inspiration for the hit Netflix horror series!
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an...

Catalyzed by a nephew's thoughtless prank, a pair of brothers confront painful psychological issues surrounding the freak accident that killed their father when they were boys, a loss linked to a heartbreaking deception that shaped their personal and professional lives.

The tale of a scientist who discovers how to make his body become invisible, but, when he can't make himself visible again, becomes violently insane.

To each of the men and women in "The last time I saw you", this reunion means something different. A last opportunity to say something long left unsaid, an escape from the bleaker realities of everyday life, a means to save a marriage on the rocks, or an opportunity to bond with a slightly estranged daughter, if only over what her mother should wear.

In grief support groups, women and men gain strength by sharing their stories with others who have felt the same pain. For baker Sage Singer, mourning the death of her mother, that sharing brought not only healing; but also an unexpected friend. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day, he asks Sage for a favor. He wants her to kill him, and he tells his story to explain why. Sage then wonders, could he be...

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning, flashing past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stopping at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. Their life, as she sees it, is perfect ... until she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but now everything is changed. Rachel goes to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in the lives of everyone involved....

Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman returns to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child--a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without his recently deceased wife. It is also a return to the place where he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time and his memories of the past.