Books like 'A Spider Thread'
Readers who enjoyed A Spider Thread by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire, Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHere are the gods, goddesses, and legendary figures of ancient Greece--mighty Zeus, with his fistful of thunderbolts; gray-eyed Athena, goddess of wisdom; Helios, the sun; greedy King Midas--lavishly depicted by Caldecott winners Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire... -
Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNow available in trade paper with an eye-catching new cover from the bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis: Megs Devonshire sets out to fulfill her younger brother George’s last wish by uncovering the truth behind his favorite story. The answer provides hope and healing and a magical journey for anyone whose life has ever been changed by a book...Categorized as:
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The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsAlternative cover for ISBN: 978-0-00-746123-3C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside...Categorized as:
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The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 78 ratingsThe story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior "tempter" named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of a British man, known only as "the Patient".Screwtape holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts as a mentor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter...Categorized as:
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Narnia Omnibus: " Magician's Nephew " , " Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe " , " Horse And His Boy " by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe Magician's Nephew opens the doorway to themagical land of Narnia for the first time...In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter,Edmund, Susan and Lucy stumble upon the world ofNarnia. Here, Winter and the White Witch are thegreatest threats and the children must join forces with thegreat lion, Aslan, to battle against the evil enchantment...Categorized as:
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The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTranslation to English of the Spanish short story "El Aleph", originally published in 1945...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction fiction fantasy magical-realism 20th-century university anthologies -
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 88 ratingsLibrarian note: An alternate cover for this edition can be found here: 2005.Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil—what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there...Categorized as:
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The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Book of Fantasy began one night when three friends fell to talking about fantasies and ghost stories... -
Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, two of C. S. Lewis's most important and enduring works, are now available in this stunning, collectible hardcover edition. The most popular of C. S. Lewis's works of non-fiction, Mere Christianity, has sold several million copies worldwide... -
This I Know by Eldonna Edwards
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsSet in a small Midwest town in the late 1960s and helmed by an unforgettable young protagonist—compassionate, uncannily wise Grace—This I Know is a luminous coming-of-age story from an astonishing new voice. Eleven-year-old Grace Carter has a talent for hiding things...Categorized as:
literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century audiobook book coming-of-age cults -
Aztec by Gary Jennings
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAztec is the extraordinary story of the last and greatest native civilization of North America... -
The Screwtape letters & Screwtape proposes a toast by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsDedicated to his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, this masterpiece of satire has entertained and enlightened millions of readers with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life from the vantage point of the demon Screwtape. At once wildly comic and strikingly original, the correspondence of the worldly-wise old devil to his nephew Wormwood shows C.S. Lewis at his darkest and most playful... -
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso, Tim Parks
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPresenting the stories of Zeus and Europa, Theseus and Ariadne, the birth of Athens and the fall of Troy, in all their variants, Calasso also uncovers the distant origins of secrets and tragedy, virginity, and rape. "A perfect work like no other. (Calasso) has re-created . . . the morning of our world."--Gore Vidal. 15 engravings...Categorized as:
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 100 ratingsPeter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy find their way through an old wardrobe into the world of Narnia. There, they unite with Aslan to fight the White Witch and save Narnia from perpetual Darkness...Categorized as:
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Remembrance of Things Past: Volume III - The Captive, The Fugitive, & Time Regained by Marcel Proust
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe third and final volume includes THE CAPTIVE, THE FUGITIVE, and TIME REGAINED...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies family fiction historical literary -
രണ്ടാമൂഴം | Randamoozham by M.T. Vasudevan Nair
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsRandamoozham is the masterpiece of Jnanpith winning writer M. T. Vasudevan Nair. It was translated into English as Second Turn in 1997. M. T. Vasudevan Nair won Vayalar Award, given for the best literary work in Malayalam, for the novel in 1985. Later, in the year 1995, Mr. Nair was awarded the highest literary award in India, Jnanpith Award, for his overall contribution to Malayalam literature... -
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsIn this timeless tale of two mortal princesses- one beautiful and one unattractive- C.S. Lewis reworks the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche into an enduring piece of contemporary fiction. This is the story of Orual, Psyche's embittered and ugly older sister, who posessively and harmfully loves Psyche... -
The Moon Under Her Feet by Clysta Kinstler
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNarrative weaving the biblical account of Mary and Jesus, the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris, and the Sumerian story of Inanna and Dumuzi to create an exotic tale of a strong, sensual woman.From Publishers WeeklyThis feminist retelling of the conception, birth, life and death of Christ as narrated by Mary Magdalene may cause some uproar in Christian circles... -
The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Ballad of the White Horse is one of the last great epic poems in the English language. On the one hand it describes King Alfred's battle against the Danes in 878. On the other hand it is a timeless allegory about the ongoing battle between Christianity and the forces of nihilistic heathenism...Categorized as:
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Hell Screen by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"There can be no doubt that Akutagawa had more individuality than any other writer of his time and has left in Japanese literature a mass of artistic work, often grotesque and curious, that, while it undoubtedly angers the proletarian experimenters who now hold the stage and fight with lusty pens and a highly developed class consciousness against all that he stood for, will continue to live as... -
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPerhaps the most light-hearted of all Chesterton's "serious" works, Manalive pits a group of disillusioned young people against Mr. Innocent Smith, a bubbly, high-spirited gentleman who literally falls into their midst. Later accused of murder and denounced for philandering everywhere he goes, Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea in most unexpected ways...Categorized as:
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The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig by Stefan Zweig
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe collected stories of Stefan Zweig, one of the most popular writers of short fiction of the twentieth century This collection brings together twenty-three of Stefan Zweig's best-loved short stories. Written in his typically flowing and readable style, these tales are characterised by their pacing, their psychological insightfulness, and above all their pervading humanity...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction fiction 20th-century anthologies psychological fantasy historical -
The Mahabharata by Jean-Claude Carrière
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA unique dramatization of India's greatest epic poem, fifteen times longer than the Bible, The Mahabharata has played to enthralled audiences throughout Europe, the Far East and America. Regarded as the culmination of Peter Brook's extraordinary research into the possibilities of theatre, the production has been hailed as the 'theatrical event of this century' (Sunday Times)... -
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life by Peter J. Leithart
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the tradition of Grimm's fairytales, Peter Leithart has produced a wonderful collection of whimsical, yet meaningful, bedtime stories. The characters in each story are as varied as the biblical proverbs they reveal. Meet a chatty squirrel with a secret, or find out what happens when you run up against the Ministry of Nasty Smells...Categorized as:
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The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War... -
Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida by Robert Chandler, Various
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the reign of the Tsars in the early 19th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, the short story has long occupied a central place in Russian culture...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies fiction historical literary -
The Singer: A Classic Retelling of Cosmic Conflict by Calvin Miller
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Singer quickly became a favorite of evangelists, pastors, artists, students, teachers and readers of all sorts when it was originally published in 1975... -
The Day Boy and the Night Girl by George MacDonald
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Romance of Photogen and Nycteris I. Watho THERE was once a witch who desired to know everything. But the wiser a witch is, the harder she knocks her head against the wall when she comes to it. Her name was Watho, and she had a wolf in her mind. She cared for nothing in itself — only for knowing it. She was not naturally cruel, but the wolf had made her cruel...Categorized as:
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Day of War by Cliff Graham
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn ancient Israel, at the crossroads of the great trading routes, a man named Benaiah is searching for a fresh start in life. He has joined a band of soldiers led by a warlord named David, seeking to bury the past that refuses to leave him. Their ragged army is disgruntled and full of reckless men. Some are loyal to David, but others are only with him for the promise of captured wealth... -
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA national bestseller, Dictionary of the Khazars was cited by The New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of the year...Categorized as:
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The Martyr's Song by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWhat would you die for?That's the question suddenly thrust upon a small band of women and children in Bosnia at the close of World War II. When a group of bitter soldiers stumble upon their peaceful village, they suddenly face an insidious evil...and the ultimate test.It is then, in the midst of chaos and pain that the Martyr's Song is first heard...Categorized as:
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The Two Collars by Jeri Massi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKrea is seven years old and a slave. With a ragged troupe of tumblers and jugglers, she travels from town to town in Folger, now a part of the kingdom of Bracken. Every day of the year she is walking or working, and she is always lonely. Then, as winter takes hold of Folger, the troupe realizes that an old woman is haunting their footsteps, and that she has her eye on Krea...Categorized as:
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A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFirst published in 1932, here is John Cowper Powys's masterwork, an epic novel of terrific cumulative force and lyrical intensity... -
Ka by Roberto Calasso, Els van der Pluym
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Calasso turned ancient legends into modern literature and created a postmodern novel out of the ancient myths of classical Greece...in Ka, Calasso attempts to do the same with the far more sprawling and elusive corpus of classical Sanskritt literature...The result is a book as brilliantly original as anything I have ever read on Hinduism.. -
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The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen he found himself unable to find a publisher for his story, author Philip Van Doren Stern printed up copies of the “The Greatest Gift” and gave them out as Christmas cards in 1943. Eventually, the story came to the attention of director Frank Capra, who explained later, “It was the story I had been looking for all my life! A good man, ambitious... -
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 81 ratingsNARNIA... the world of wicked dragons and magic spells, where the very best is brought out of even the worst people, where anything can happen (and most often does)... and where the adventure begins.The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries...Categorized as:
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Mules And Men by Zora Neale Hurston
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsMules and Men is a treasury of black America's folklore as collected by a famous storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed an oral history of the South since the time of slavery...Categorized as:
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Sinuhé, el egipcio I by Mika Waltari
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTranslated by Naomi...Categorized as:
classics religion spirituality africa northern-africa egypt historical-fiction fiction -
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsA continuation of Homer’s epic poem, Kazantzakis’s own Odyssey finds Odysseus once again leaving Ithaca on finding that the satisfactions of home and hearth are not as he remembered them... -
A Wrinkle in Time: With Related Readings by Madeleine L'Engle
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 58 ratingsNow, 40 years after A Wrinkle in Time was first published to become one of the landmark books in childrens' literature, Square Fish is proud to present this Newbery Medal winner, completely redesigned and with bonus material, including an appreciation by Anna Quindlen, a new interview with Madeleine L'Engle, and the author's Newbery Medal acceptance speech...Categorized as:
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Fairy & Folk Tales of Ireland by W.B. Yeats, Benedict Kiely
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHE CLASSIC ONE-VOLUME INTRODUCTION TO IRELAND'S RICH FOLKLORE: WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS'S MAGICAL SELECTION OF TRADITIONAL IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland combines two books of Irish folklore collected and edited by William Butler Yeats -- Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, first published in 1888, and Irish Fairy Tales, published in 1892...Categorized as:
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The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNobel Prize laureate Anatole France's The Revolt of the Angels, often considered his most profound novel, tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu, who falls in love and joins the revolutionary movement of angels. Originally published in 1914... -
Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRafik Schami's award-winning novel. In the classical Arab tradition of tale-telling, here is a magical book that celebrates the power of storytelling, delightfully transformed for modern sensibilities by an award-winning author. The time is present-day Damascus, and Salim the coachman, the city's most famous storyteller, is mysteriously struck dumb...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
The Sibyl by Pär Lagerkvist
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratings4 K- Blackstone Exclusive This Nobel Prize-winning author here explores the meaning of divine and human love, through the characters of a wandering Jew and a sibyl of Delphi. This is a remarkable book...Lagerkvist has written a disturbing and fearful fable about human and divine love, and about the glories and disasters of both...Categorized as:
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The Tower of Geburah by John White
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOne moment Wesley, Kurt and Lisa are poking around in their uncle's attic. The next moment they have stepped into the magical world of Anthropos, where their help is needed to free a king and defeat the powers of evil. Book Three in John White's Archives of Anthropos...Categorized as:
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The Song by Calvin Miller
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Singer quickly became a favorite of evangelists, pastors, artists, students, teachers and readers of all sorts when it was originally published in 1975... -
Gaal the Conqueror: The Archives of Anthropos by John White
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA boy follows a runaway girl across a frozen Canadian lake into the magical land of Anthropos and finds himself involved in a battle of good against evil...Categorized as:
christian religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books -
Island Magic by Elizabeth Goudge
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA lonely wanderer... A magical island... And Two People Bewitched By Love....The Channel Islands were divided in allegiance between France and England. Of French blood, and yet subjects of Queen Victoria, the islanders were curious hybrid creatures. But now, in 1888, England is slowly stretching out her arms to them... -
Pilgermann by Russell Hoban
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHe climbs a ladder to reach another man's wife and gives himself up to her beauty, but then Pilgermann descends into a mob of peasants inspired by the Pope to shed the blood of Jews. Alone on the cobblestones, he cries out to Israel, to the Lord his God, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He is answered instead by Jesus Christ... -
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