"All Quiet on the Western Front" is a novel by the German author Erich Maria Remarque. Originally published in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung in November and December of 1928, the story was collected into a novel and published in January 1929. In its first 18 months of print alone, the book sold 2.5 million […]
The Bean Trees
"The Bean Trees" is a novel by the American author Barbara Kingsolver that was published in 1988. The novel was Kingsolver's first and was generally well-reviewed by critics. As a feminist and an advocate for the rights of immigrants, Kingsolver wrote the book to reflect many of these deeply-held beliefs. The protagonist of the novel, […]
The Color Purple
"The Color Purple" is a 1982 novel written by Alice Walker. The novel is told in an epistolary style, through the usage of 90 different letters written by the characters. In 1983, the book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. Several years later in 1985, it was adapted […]
Hiroshima
"Hiroshima" is a novel published 1946 and written by the American author John Hersey. The novel was collected from an article originally run by the magazine The New Yorker in August of 1946. Initially, the magazine intended to run the full article over several issues but ended up dedicating on issue to it entirely. Only […]
Dubliners
"The Irish are a melancholy lot" - "Dubliners" by James Joyce proves that old saying. Written in 1914, it is a collection of fifteen short stories. The only thread that runs through the stories, tying them together is Dublin, Ireland. They are arranged with the first few stories with a child as the narrator, then […]
Wuthering Heights
"Wuthering Heights" is a classic gothic horror/romance novel written by Emily Brontë and published in England in 1847. The book was originally published under the pen name "Ellis Bell" and Brontë died the year after it was released. When the book was first released it was considered controversial for it's themes of violence and it's […]
The Giver
Published in 1993, "The Giver" is a young adult dystopian novel. The story is told through the limited eyes of an eleven-year-old boy. Jonas has a special gift that allows him to have flashes of color in a world that has done away with it. In Jonas's Community, people have eliminated crime, war, disease and […]
Slaughterhouse Five
"Slaughterhouse Five - The Children's Crusade; A Duty-Dance with Death" is a book written by author Kurt Vonnegut, published in 1969. It is the semi-autobiographical story of the Dresden firebombing during World War II. The story begins with Kurt Vonnegut's voice and moves to the main character, Billy Pilgrim. Vonnegut had been a prisoner of […]
Taming of the Shrew
"The Taming of the Shrew" was written by William Shakespeare about 1590 to 1592. The story begins with a ruse played on a drunk named Christopher Sly. Some hunters come across him passed out in the alley and decide to put him in a beautiful home and convince him his life as a bum was […]
Invisible Man
"Invisible Man" is a 1952 novel by the acclaimed black author Ralph Ellison. The novel was very well-received and won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1953. It has since been featured in Time magazine's 100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th century and won the Modern Library ranking of the same name. It […]
Frankenstein
On a dark and stormy night, a group of friends was staying at a manor in Switzerland. The year is 1816, and the group consists of famous authors of the time, including Lord Byron, John William Polidori and his girlfriend, Clair Claremont, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Lord Byron came up […]
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
"Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is a novella by the author Robert Louis Stevenson that was first published in 1886. Stevenson conceived of the novella when he began studying the different aspects of man and how good and evil can play a part in our everyday lives. He decided to create a […]
Treasure Island
"Treasure Island" was serialized in a children's magazine, Young Folks, between 1881 and 1882. It was titled, "Treasure Island, or Mutiny of the Hispaniola". The story was written under the pseudonym, Captain George North. Then it was published in book form in 1883. The story is about a young boy, so it was written as […]
I Am Legend
In 1954 Richard Matheson published a ground-breaking story "I Am Legend". The story is about the last man on Earth, Robert Neville. The year is 1975, a virus starts to spread after the latest war is finally over. The speed of the virus is phenomenal. Science can't find the cure fast enough, as people drop […]
Persuasion
"Persuasion", published in 1817, is Jane Austen's last completed novel. It is a love story for older adults. Anne Elliot is twenty-seven years old, which is considered a spinster in this time period. She has only loved once, but that was about eight years ago. She was then persuaded to end the engagement because his […]
Ender's Game
"Ender's Game" is a science fiction novel written by Orson Scott Card and published in 1985. The book was originally a short story, published in the August 1977 in an issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Critical reception of the book was positive and it won both the Nebula Award (1985) and the […]
The Awakening
"The Awakening" is a novel written by Kate Chopin and published in 1899. The novel has since become a seminal work in feminist literature and is seen as one of the earliest feminist novels in American history. The novel focuses on women's issues with societal standards and the struggle with the idea of being a […]
The Pearl
"The Pearl" is a novella written by the famous American author John Steinbeck and published in 1947. The story was originally published in an issue of 'Woman's Home Companion' magazine and is the re-imagining of a Mexican folk tale that Steinbeck heard while traveling in La Paz, Mexico in 1940. The novella is considered a […]
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is a novel published in 1943 by the American author Betty Smith. The book was a reflection of Smith's childhood as the daughter of poor German immigrants growing up in Brooklyn, New York. The book was a huge hit and became an immediate success. A film adaptation was made only […]
King Lear
"King Lear" is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare in 1605. It is based off on a mythological story about a pre-Roman Celtic King named Leir of Britain. The play was performed for the first time on St. Stephen's Day in 1606. The ending was changed to be less tragic after the English Restoration […]
For Whom the Bell Tolls
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" was written by Ernest Hemingway and published in 1940. The story is set during the Spanish Civil War and is about a young man, Robert Jordan, who was assigned to compete for a mission to blow up a bridge. He was an American who taught Spanish at a University in […]
Democracy in America
In the year 1831, while the United States was still fairly young, and thirty years before the start of the American Civil War, two young men arrived on the shores from France. Alexis de Tocqueville and his long time friend, Gustave de Beaumont were sent to study the prison system of America. The two men […]
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" is a memoir published in 2007 by former child soldier Ishmael Beah. The memoir is an account of his time in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces during the civil war in the country in the 1990's. The book was applauded by critics for it's accuracy and […]
Dune
In 1965, Frank Herbert introduced the world of Dune and opened up a whole new style of science fiction writing. This is the kind of book that contributed to Star Wars and other space fantasy books. He developed an entire solar system. Arrakis is a spice world. The spice, known as melange, is highly addictive […]
Silas Marner
Originally published in 1861, "Silas Marner: the Weaver of Raveloe", is the third novel by George Eliot. It tells a moral story about a weaver and how his life changes. The story begins with Silas, who has been displaced from his former home after being falsely accused of stealing money from his chapel. He settles […]
Their Eyes Were Watching God
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" is a novel published in 1937 by the African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Though initially critically panned, the book has come to be seen as an important and ground-breaking work in African-American and Women's literature of the twentieth century. It has since been adapted into many different formats including theater […]
Life of Pi
"Life of Pi" is a fantasy/adventure novel written by the Canadian writer Yann Martel and published in 2001. The novel was an immediate success after it's release and has since sold more than ten million copies worldwide. It has also won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction (2002) the Best Adult Fiction award (2001, 2002 […]
Siddhartha
"Siddhartha" is a novel published in 1922 and written by the German writer Herman Hesse. The novel was originally written in German but then released in an English translation in 1951. "Siddhartha" was written after Hesse took a trip to India and became fascinated with the world of Eastern mysticism. It is a short lyrics […]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is a comedic novel written by Douglas Adams and published in 1979. The novel's witty, dry take on a space opera was an immediate hit with readers. It was adapted from a radio serial in 1978 and adapted into many other formats including the novel series (which includes 5 […]
Hard Times
"Hard Times" by Charles Dickens was originally published between April and August in 1854 in a serialized form. Realizing that his weekly periodical, Household Words needed a boost in sales, Dickens hoped that putting "Hard Times" in it would help. He was right, it did boost sales. Charles Dickens had visited some factories in Manchester […]