Foul Lady Fortune (2022) is the third novel by author Chloe Gong, all of whose books draw heavily from Shakespeare’s plays. The central characters in her first two novels, Roma and Juliette, represent modern-day versions of Romeo and Juliet. The novels’ titles are borrowed quotes from the same play.Similarly, Foul Lady Fortune is loosely based on As You Like It, and the novel depicts the characters Rosalind and Orlando as Rosalind and Orion. The book’s... Read Foul Lady Fortune Summary

Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant, titled simply Grant, was published in 2017 by Penguin Press. A biographer specializing in United States history, Chernow wrote Grant in order to correct what he perceives as misconceptions about Grant’s life, especially his presidency. In particular, Chernow argues that Grant was a more pivotal figure when it came to African American rights than has usually been appreciated. Also, Chernow focuses on Grant’s alcoholism, seeing Grant’s struggle with... Read Grant Summary

Hecuba is an Attic tragedy composed by Euripides (circa 480-406 BCE). There is no definite information about when the play was first performed, though metrical and stylistic analysis suggests a date of around 424 BCE. The play was presumably performed at the dramatic contests that were held in ancient Greece as part of the annual festival of the Great Dionysia; the names and contents of the other plays in the tetralogy are unknown. Hecuba, which... Read Hecuba Summary

The memoir Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is an account of the life of Harriet Ann Jacobs, who calls herself “Linda Brent” in the narrative. It is a key text in the slave narrative genre, which were first-person narratives written by formerly enslaved people that hoped to convert readers to the abolitionist cause. While most such narratives were written by men, such as The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah... Read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Summary

Jesse is a young adult novel written by Gary Soto and published in 1994. The novel uses first-person perspective to bring readers on a journey through evolving faith and growing up in an uncertain world. Drawing on historical allusions, Soto utilizes tropes from both young adult fiction and the historical fiction genre. Soto is the author of several young adult novels and collections of poetry. He was the first Mexican American student to earn an... Read Jesse Summary

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (2012), by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, tells the story of the Kennedy presidency and its tragic end on November 22, 1963. O’Reilly and Dugard present an episodic narrative designed to build maximum drama before culminating in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.Killing Kennedy does not attempt to be a comprehensive biography. Nor does it linger on political analysis. Instead, it describes the people, events, and circumstances surrounding the Kennedy... Read Killing Kennedy Summary

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (1997) by legal scholar Dorothy E. Roberts is a study on the history of reproductive rights in the US as they pertain to African American women. The book combines historical, sociological, and legal frameworks to examine how federal and state governments have infringed on Black women’s bodies from the antebellum era to the 1990s. Although the book was published 24 years ago, many of... Read Killing the Black Body Summary

Let Me Hear a Rhyme (2019) is a young adult mystery novel by Tiffany D. Jackson. After the death of an aspiring teenage Brooklyn rapper in the 1990s, Steph, his friends, and sister sell and market his music, pretending he’s still alive. The stakes escalate as the kids tell lie after lie, but they also get closer to the truth behind their friend’s murder. The novel explores the power of music, the complexity of grief... Read Let Me Hear a Rhyme Summary

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1900) is a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, one of the architects of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson composed the poem to be shared at a school celebration of the birthday of US President Abraham Lincoln, whose emancipation of enslaved Black Americans during and after the Civil War made him an important cultural figure for the Harlem Renaissance movement. When J. Rosamond Johnson, Johnson’s brother, composed music to accompany... Read Lift Every Voice and Sing Summary

Originally published in 1983, Night Flying Woman: An Ojibway Narrative is a nonfiction work that lauds Indigenous history (specifically, that of Ojibway oral tradition). The author, Ignatia Broker, tells the life story of her great-great-grandmother, the titular Night Flying Woman (or Oona), who lived from the mid-19th century until the 1930s. An activist for Native American rights and a member of the Ojibway people, Broker received a Wonder Woman Foundation Award for her work toward... Read Night Flying Woman Summary

No Promises in the Wind is a young-adult historical novel that takes place at the height of the Great Depression. The first-person narrative tells the coming-of-age story of a 15-year-old boy who leaves home with his younger brother because their family doesn’t have enough to eat. Josh and Joey Grondowski use their musical talents to survive on their own as they travel through a country of angry and impoverished people. First published in 1970, the... Read No Promises In The Wind Summary

Originally published in 2002, Numbering All the Bones is historical fiction for middle-grade readers. The novel is written by New York author Ann Rinaldi, who died at age 86 in July 2021. The novel tells the story of the changes in Eulinda’s life as the Civil War ends in the mid-1860s and she is no longer enslaved. Pond Bluff, the plantation where Eulinda lives, is adjacent to Andersonville Confederate Prison.During the last 18 months of... Read Numbering all the Bones Summary

Published in 1993, Paul Woodruff’s Thucydides: On Justice, Power and Human Nature, Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War is a curated collection of original translations from the ancient Greek historian and general’s landmark work. Woodruff is an award-winning professor, author, and scholar of ancient Greek philosophy, and his selections from Thucydides speak to the topics that his subtitle enumerates, featuring several of the History’s most famous speeches and debates. These include Pericles’s Funeral... Read On Justice Power and Human Nature Summary

Out of the Easy, written by Ruta Sepetys and published in 2013, is a young adult historical fiction novel. Sepetys is an award-winning Lithuanian American writer of young adult historical fiction. Her honors include the Carnegie Medal, awarded to one work of children’s or young adult literature per year. Her novels are international best sellers and are widely translated. Out of the Easy is about Josie, a teenage girl living in the French Quarter of... Read Out of the Easy Summary

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is one of several bestselling nonfiction works by science writer and humorist Mary Roach. Published in 2010, the work focuses on the human side of space travel and offers behind-the-scenes accounts of peculiar and taboo topics such as sex, vomit, and toilets in space. Roach writes from a candid, outsider’s point of view and demystifies some of the grandeur of space travel by reporting... Read Packing for Mars Summary

Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral recounts the story of a young Black woman in the 1920s who decides to pass as white. Ostensibly a coming-of-age story, the novel features a complex treatment of racial barriers and gender inequalities. While the trajectory of the novel is straightforward and relatively typical for the bildungsroman—young woman leaves home, discovers herself through a series of obstacles she must overcome, and finally learns how to... Read Plum Bun Summary

Alan Gratz’s 2013 novel Prisoner B-3087 is based on the true-life story of Yanek (Jack) Gruener, who endured numerous Nazi concentration and death camps during World War II. The story is written for a middle-grade audience, but its overarching themes of survival and identity make it relatable to audiences of any age. This study guide uses the 2013 Scholastic Press hardcover edition.Plot SummaryPrisoner B-3087 follows a linear timeline, starting with the moment the Nazi soldiers... Read Prisoner B-3087 Summary

Salt to the Sea is a historical young adult novel written by Ruta Sepetys and published in 2016. Sepetys is known for similar young adult historical fiction works, such as I Must Betray You (2022) and Between Shades of Gray (2011). Set during World War II, Salt to the Sea is a coming-of-age story that follows four protagonists as they make and resist the journey to adulthood in a world characterized by war and trauma... Read Salt to the Sea Summary

Shogun is a 1975 novel by American author James Clavell. It is one of six books in Clavell’s Asian Saga, which chronicles the ways Europeans interacted with countries in Asia from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The novel tells the story of English ship pilot John Blackthorne, loosely based on the real life navigator William Adams, who becomes intimately involved in the rise to power of Yoshi Toranaga, a fictionalized version of Tokugawa Ieyasu... Read Shogun Summary

Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse and first published in German in 1922, is a work of philosophical fiction. The book is based closely on the teachings of the spiritual leader Gautama Buddha who lived in present day Nepal or Northern India in the 4th or 5th century BCE. The book tells the story of the physical and spiritual journey of a fictional Brahmin’s son Siddhartha, in his quest for self-discovery and the meaning of existence... Read Siddhartha Summary