Recs if you like Audition for the Fox...

Books We Love from NPR began in 2013, always boasting over 200 books (almost 400 in recent years) featuring genres from memoirs, to cookbooks, to graphic novels, to children’s literature, to nonfiction, to novels. Check out NPR’s website to filter this massive list.

The list is in reverse alphabetical order directly from NPR.

Novellas, shorter books, and stories that are a decent bite of literature and a full meal despite being compact. Like a burrito on a commute to work. AKA my full novella master list.

Books that highlight hope, empathy, and justice. I will take suggestions if anyone has any!

Requirements:

1. The Mc(s) is a tricksters or unreliable narrator who spends most of the book lying to, bluffing or otherwise misleading others or themselves.

2. They would continue lying even if they didn’t have to either they can’t help it or enjoy the game too much.

3. This causes situations that get unpredictable, chaotic or even completely ridiculous as the characters dodge or face consequences for their actions.

an unranked list of memorable short stories and collections

Fairy tale and folklore-inspired narratives as well as atmospheric/quiet/light fantasy with canon aspec characters, aspec-readable themes such as rejection of relationship hierarchy and meaningful companionships, or simply excluding elements of either sexuality or romance. Limiting these to books aimed at adults but will include kidlit that may resonate with older audiences too, such as classics or kidlit with older protagonists.

I love the Pagebound community but the one thing I don’t like about the app is how it incentives sticking to popular books more likely to have a decent amount of posts. (Granted some of this has to do with it being a little new) It’s my experience however that the hidden gems or even just less popular books are often just as if not more interesting as the best sellers.

So this is my list of books with 5 posts or less that I think deserve more love.

Books that predominantly feature foxes

Works published in 2025

Best Novel Nominees: Audition for the Fox • Once Was Willem • The Secret Market of the Dead • The Everlasting • The Adventures of Mary Darling

Best Novella Nominees: 🚀🌌The River Has Roots • "The Secret Diary of Mina Harker" (Letters from an Imaginary Country) • "Uncertain Sons" • The Death of Mountains • "The Spotter" (You, Human, Vol. 2) • Psychopomp & Circumstance • A Mouthful of Dust

Legend: 🏆 Winner • 🚀 Hugo Award Winner • 🌌 Nebula Award Winner

Titles not available on PageBound: Descent by Wole Talabi (Clarkesworld Magazine) Novella Novelettes Human Voices by Isabel J. Kim (Lightspeed Magazine) We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue (Clarkesworld) Short Stories Autogas Ferryman by Champ Wongsatayanont (Nightmate Magazine) Because I Held His Name Like a Key - Aimee Ogden (Strange Horizons) Commensalism, Or the Labyrinth's Vessels - Albert Nkereuwem (Will This Be a Problem) Ichthyosis by M.L. Krishnan (Fantasy Magazine) The Octopus Dreams of Personhood by Hannah Yang (Diabolical Plots) Poetry After the Storm – Ishita Basu Mallik (The Deadlands) In an attempt to seduce Death my sister starts calling him Love – Karan Kapoor (Strange Horizons) Set It Off (1996) – Fans’ Cut – Nova Cypress Black (Strange Horizons) The Language of Fireflies – Angela Liu (The Deadlands) The oblique light at Kakushima (a memory of persimmons) – Ryu Ando | 安堵 龍 (Strange Horizons) Narrative Non-fiction A Conjuror’s Manifesto: Notes on the Afrosurreal – Shyheim Williams (Strange Horizons) Photon Torpedoes Break the Space Muqarnas: SFF Audiovisuals and Anti-Muslim Violence – Tanvir Ahmed (Strange Horizons) Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler – Susana M. Morris (Amistad) The Outspoken and the Incendiary – Terry Bisson (PM Press) The Secret History of Indian Science Fiction – Gautam Bhatia (Alter Magazine) Other categories not listed include Community Award, Ember Award, Podcasts, Critics