W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) wrote The Razor’s Edge in 1944. The novel’s title comes from a quotation translated from the Katha Upanishad, with the assistance of Christopher Isherwood: “Rise, wake up, seek the wise and realize. The path is difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor." The story has been adapted for film twice, once in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and again in 1984 with Bill Murray. When World War I air... Read The Razor's Edge Summary

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is a 2008 book by Timothy Keller that seeks to provide a rational defense of the Christian faith. As such, it is a book on religion and society that falls within the subgenre of Christian apologetics. Keller (1950-2023) was the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the author of many notable works of popular Christian theology, with a particular focus... Read The Reason for God Summary

The Red Tent (1997) is an adult historical novel by Jewish American author Anita Diamant. It describes the life of Dinah, daughter of Jacob, who appears in the biblical Book of Genesis. While her mention in the Bible only concerns her abduction by a Canaanite man and her brothers’ act of atrocity in response, Diamant imagines a full life for Dinah—including a childhood raised by several mothers, her first marriage, and life in Egypt, where... Read The Red Tent Summary

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The Rest of Us Just Live Here, a novel by critically acclaimed young adult (YA) author Patrick Ness, tells the story of Mikey, a high school senior living in a fictional town in the state of Washington. The novel follows Mikey as graduation approaches and he navigates the anxieties and uncertainties of love, friendship, and the fear of leaving behind everything he’s grown up with. Ness, the author of the widely lauded Chaos Walking trilogy... Read The Rest of Us Just Live Here Summary

In The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, published in 2012, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt presents a new way to understand the often-contentious moral divides in politics and religion. Haidt looks at the topic in three separate parts. First, he works to give a clearer picture of how the mind works. Secondly, he presents a framework for understanding the different moral values that emerge between different cultures and political parties... Read The Righteous Mind Summary

The Rig Veda: An Anthology is a selection of 108 hymns from the ancient Sanskrit collection of religious poetry, the earliest substantial literary composition in an Indo-European language. Intended for a general audience, Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty’s popular translation of the Rig Veda, published by Penguin in 1981, anthologizes approximately one tenth of the original Sanskrit text, which numbers over 1,000 poems. Composed between 1400-900 BCE, the hymns of the Rig Veda praise the gods of Bronze... Read Rig Veda Summary

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The River Between is Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s second novel and was published in 1965 after his debut title, Weep Not, Child. While The River Between is widely interpreted as an anticolonial work, its denouncement of colonial institutions is subtler than that of Ngugi’s later, more critical works on colonialism. His later novels were originally written in the Gikuyu language rather than in English; discourse surrounding the modern-day role of African literature is ongoing... Read The River Between Summary

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“The Rockpile” is a short story by the novelist, essayist, and civil rights activist James Baldwin. Although it was originally published in Baldwin’s only short story collection, 1965’s Going to Meet the Man, it was likely written much earlier, as it uses characters that appear in his 1953 semi-autobiographical debut novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain. This guide refers to the 1995 First Vintage International edition of Going to Meet the Man.“The Rockpile” takes... Read The Rockpile Summary

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The Satanic Verses is a 1988 magical realism novel by Salman Rushdie. The novel weaves together different narratives spread across hundreds of years, framed by the story of two competing Indian Muslim actors. The publication of The Satanic Verses caused controversy, particularly due to the novel's supposedly blasphemous depiction of the prophet Muhammad. The book was burned, riots resulted in death, and a religious edict was issued against Rushdie in 1989 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah... Read The Satanic Verses Summary

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The Screwtape Letters, first published in serial format in The Guardian and then as a single volume in 1942, is an epistolary novel by British author C. S. Lewis; its epilogue, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” was published in 1959. Like much of Lewis’s work, the novel is a work of Christian apologetics, using letters penned by a senior devil named Screwtape to expound on different elements of Christian theology and morality, exploring themes of Human... Read The Screwtape Letters Summary

The Seat of the Soul (1989) is a best-selling spiritual self-help book by American author Gary Zukav. After being featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late 1990s, Zukav became well-known to American readers for his beliefs on the nature of the soul and the meaning of life. In this work, Zukav argues that humanity is evolving from pursuing “external power,” which is defined as conquering and exploiting others, toward “authentic power,” in which... Read The Seat of the Soul Summary

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