12 Innovative Books to Get You Out of Your Reading Rut

This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel shifts back and forth in time and from various points of view, brilliantly revealing the pasts of two music industry veterans. With musical energy pulsing on every page, A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD is an exhilarating piece of art about self-destruction and redemption.

HORRORSTÖR is a contemporary haunted-house story set in an Ikea-like furniture superstore and told in the format of a glossy mail-order catalog—complete with product illustrations and a map of the labyrinthine showroom.

Darren hasn’t had an easy year for the following reasons: 1. His parents divorced. 2. His older brother left for college. 3. His best friend moved away. 4. He doesn’t exactly have a girlfriend. This is the heartfelt, humorous story of one modern-day teen’s coming-of-age—and it’s told entirely in lists.

The year is 2575 and two rival mega-corporations are at war amidst an outbreak of the plague. When one woman hacks into a fascinating collection of secret documents—including emails, maps, files, medical reports, interviews, and more—the truth about what’s happening on their planet is revealed.

Anne Garreta is a member of Oulipo, an exclusive French experimental literary group that creates literature based on mathematical and linguistic restraint. SPHINX is her beautiful and complex love story between lovers “I” and “A***,” and it’s written without any gender markers to refer to them.

This voyeuristic story of a divorce is told entirely through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, handwritten notes, and legal documents. With heartache and exceptional comedic timing, it explores the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails.

A profound and moving work of Native American literature about a deeply scarred World War II veteran and prisoner of the Japanese who is rejected by his community because of his mixed heritage. With the help of an enigmatic medicine man, Tayo immerses himself in Pueblo myth, song, and history to overcome his pain and suffering and regain the peace that was taken from him.

THE VERSIONS OF US explores the possibilities of a relationship—beginning with the way a couple met and departing into several parallel narratives of what could potentially come of their relationship. Laura Barnett expertly depicts how even the smallest choices we make can define the course of our lives.

Part memoir, part philosophical exploration, BLUETS is composed of a series of small, numbered writings that look back on an ended relationship and its emotional aftermath. An investigation into the symbolism of the color blue is used as a lens through which to understand love.

DEPT. OF SPECULATION follows a nameless couple with a journal-like, meditative account of their love and marriage. Over time, their relationship has become complicated by the strains of monotony, parenthood, and infidelity, and this story recounts the steps that have led them to a sudden breaking point.

Take a peek inside this book and it won’t take long to realize that it looks different from anything you’ve read before. JJ Abrams, director of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” dreamt up this multilayered story about a novel, its author, and two readers who have scribbled notes in the margins.

This wildly creative tale about second chances and alternate histories follows the many lives of one woman who lives her life over and over, instantly returning to where her former life left off each time she dies.