Books that Feature the Theme of Masculinity

... Read A Day's Wait Summary

... Read A Flicker in the Dark Summary

A Game of Thrones is a 1996 epic fantasy novel by George R. R. Martin and is the first in his long-running A Song of Ice and Fire series. The novel introduces the audience to the fictional world of Westeros, where characters become embroiled in a complicated web of plots, conspiracies, and betrayals as they pursue power. A Game of Thrones won numerous awards on publication and was adapted for television in 2011. This guide... Read A Game of Thrones Summary

... Read A Handful of Dates Summary

Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by Pat Frank. Written during the Cold War, it is one of the earliest post-apocalyptic novels to deal with the potential consequences of nuclear war. It examines themes of nationalism, natural selection, deterrent force, and resilience.Plot SummaryAs the novel begins, Mark Bragg sends a telegram to his brother, Randy. The telegram includes the words, “Alas, Babylon,” their code for the onset of a nuclear attack. Mark is an officer... Read Alas, Babylon Summary

... Read A Little Life Summary

Published in 1939, And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, best-selling novelist of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. With over 100 million copies sold, And Then There Were None is the world’s best-selling crime novel as well as one of the best-selling books of all time. It has had more adaptations than any other work by Agatha Christie, including television programs, films, radio broadcasts, and most... Read And Then There Were None Summary

A Painted House, a novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham, tells the story of seven-year-old Luke Chandler coming of age in Black Oak, Arkansas, in 1952. The novel focuses on a fateful autumn in which one of the workers on Luke’s family’s cotton farm murders a local man. Luke, as one of the only witnesses to the murder, must navigate the tensions that arise as his loyalty to his family is... Read A Painted House Summary

As Brave as You is a middle grade novel written by American author Jason Reynolds and published in 2016. It won several awards, including the Kirkus Award, the NCAAP Image award for children’s literature, and the Schneider Family Book Award, which recognizes superior depictions of disability in children’s literature. It was also chosen as a Coretta Scott King Honor book, awarded to African-American writers and illustrators for excellence in conveying the African-American experience in children’s... Read As Brave As You Summary

“A Summer Tragedy” is a short story written by poet and fiction author Arna Bontemps. It was originally published in 1933 in Opportunity and has since been included in multiple anthologies, including Bontemps’s 1973 short story collection The Old South: “A Summer Tragedy” and Other Stories of the Thirties. Focusing on an elderly Black couple who have endured a difficult life of share farming, “A Summer Tragedy” addresses the themes of Desperation and Hopelessness, The... Read A Summer Tragedy Summary

... Read A Thousand Steps into Night Summary

A View from the Bridge is a two-act play by American playwright Arthur Miller. Originally staged as a one-act on Broadway in 1955, Miller expanded the play to two acts and re-debuted the final version in London in 1956. Ten major revivals have been staged in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, London, and Manchester since then. The play has received drama awards, including multiple Tonys, and has been adapted as feature films, TV movies, and... Read A View from the Bridge Summary

Banner in the Sky, published by Harper Collins in 1954, is American author and mountaineer James Ramsey Ullman’s most popular novel. Based on the true story of the ascent of the Matterhorn, it tells the story of Rudi Matt, a 16-year-old boy who desperately wants to climb the Citadel, the mountain that claimed his father's life. Through Rudi’s journey, the novel explores themes of Maturity and Masculinity, The Relationship Between Humans and Nature, and The... Read Banner In The Sky Summary

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... Read Blackouts Summary

John Grisham, known best for writing legal dramas such as The Pelican Brief and The Firm, branches into writing for young adults with his sports drama, Bleachers. The novel was originally published in 2003 and is loosely inspired by Grisham’s own experience as a high school quarterback in Mississippi. Bleachers follows former all-American quarterback Neely Crenshaw, who returns after 15 years to his small hometown of Messina. Neely and the rest of the former players... Read Bleachers Summary

Bless Me, Ultima is a novel by American author Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020). Published in 1972 by independent Chicanx publishing house TQS Publications, it is one of the first literary accounts of Chicanx culture to attain widespread acclaim in the United States. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account based on Ayana’s experience of coming of age in post-World War II New Mexico. Anaya explores themes of the Multiplicity within Chicanx Identity, Catholicism, Innocence Versus the Power... Read Bless Me, Ultima Summary

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Since its 1977 publication, Bridge to Terabithia has become a classic children’s novel. The author, Katherine Paterson, wrote the novel after her son’s best friend was killed by lightning. The novel won a Newbery Medal and is beloved by readers all over the world. Bridge to Terabithia explores the transformative power of friendship, the power of childhood imagination, and the process of grief. Because Bridge to Terabithia deals with grief and death, it is best... Read Bridge To Terabithia Summary

Thomas Mann’s novel Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family was first published in 1901 and came to be recognized as a monumental work in the canon of modern literature. Thomas Mann (1875­–1955) was a German novelist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929 for his novels, Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain. Mann draws on his own family history to craft Buddenbrooks’ narrative, demonstrating profound understanding of societal and familial dynamics in the... Read Buddenbrooks Summary

... Read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch Summary

First performed in 1955, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of American playwright Tennessee Williams’s best-known works. This classic play won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award for Best American Play, and was adapted into a 1958 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Adapted from Williams’s short story “Three Players of a Summer Game,” the three-act Cat on a Hot Tin Roof occurs in real-time as the Pollitt family gathers... Read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Summary

... Read Cat Person Summary

Confessions of a Mask is a novel by Yukio Mishima, first published in Japan in 1949. The novel takes place during and immediately after World War II and centers on the struggles of a young man named Kochan. It has significant elements of the coming-of-age (bildungsroman) and queer literature genres, as Kochan is a closeted gay man trying to navigate his complex inner life and sexuality in contrast with his carefully controlled outer persona. The... Read Confessions of a Mask Summary

... Read Confessions on the 7:45 Summary

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... Read Dark Matter Summary

Dark Places is a 2009 mystery thriller novel by American author Gillian Flynn. The narrative moves between two time periods, 1985 and 2009, as the protagonist, Libby Day, tries to solve her family’s brutal murder. The novel deals with the consequences of the 1980s Satanic Panic and the fallout from the 1970s Farm Boom for a community in the rural Midwest. Flynn is the author of Gone Girl (2012) and other popular mystery thrillers.Dark Places... Read Dark Places Summary

Death of a Salesman is a play written by American playwright Arthur Miller and first performed on Broadway in 1949. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play, it is considered by critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The cynical play follows the final hours of a mentally unstable salesman at the end of his career who fails to attain the American Dream... Read Death of a Salesman Summary

James Dickey’s novel Deliverance takes place in the wilderness of North Georgia. Four friends, Lewis, Bobby, Drew, and Ed, decide to take a weekend canoe trip to escape their lives in the city and the boredom they feel there. None of them have any experience canoeing, and their knowledge about the wilderness is limited, yet Bobby, Ed, and Drew go along with Lewis’s suggestion that they make this trip.Lewis’s closest friend is Ed, a graphic designer... Read Deliverance Summary

... Read Dragonfly in Amber Summary

Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by Irish writer James Joyce. Originally published in 1914, the collection met resistance from publishers and critics due to its controversial themes and unusual portrayal of the everyday. Dubliners follows a range of people living in the titular city, often seeking some form of social or emotional transcendence without ever truly achieving it. This study guide is for the 1965 paperback edition from Penguin Modern Classics. Content... Read Dubliners Summary

Fight Club (1996) is the debut novel of American author Chuck Palahniuk. Three years later, American filmmaker David Fincher directed the film adaptation starring Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Edward Norton as the Narrator, and Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer. This study guide uses the 2018 paperback edition published by W. W. Norton & Co.Fight Club is a contemporary work of literary fiction that contends with masculinity, materialism, consumer culture, and modern disillusionment. Inspired... Read Fight Club Summary

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... Read Flight Summary

Football Genius is a middle grade sports fiction novel by former NFL player Tim Green. A graduate of Syracuse University’s College of Law, Green played in the NFL for eight seasons before turning his focus towards broadcasting, law, business, and creative writing. In the novel, protagonist Troy White discovers an almost supernatural ability to predict football plays, wrestles with his father’s abandonment, and pushes back against the nepotism and bullying on his own high school... Read Football Genius Summary

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) is a novel by the Modernist American author Ernest Hemingway. The novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, an American volunteer working as a demolition specialist for the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. Robert, sent to blow up a bridge to aid a Republican offensive, enlists the aid of a band of guerrilla fighters in the mountains. Robert falls in love with a woman in their care... Read For Whom the Bell Tolls Summary

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006) is a graphic novel memoir written and illustrated by underground cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The book centers on Bechdel’s relationship with her late father Bruce Allen Bechdel, who died in what she believes was a death by suicide. Fun Home is a non-linear narrative that rehashes events from Alison Bechdel’s youth and adolescence. Her memories are presented in the comic panels, overlayed with her prosaic, retrospective musings in text boxes... Read Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Summary

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... Read George Washington Gomez Summary

... Read Ghost Story Summary

Giovanni’s Room, originally published in 1956, is a romantic tragedy written by author and activist James Baldwin. The book follows American protagonist David’s life and relationships in France during the 1950s. David tries to come to terms with his sexuality after falling in love with Giovanni, an Italian barman, but he also seeks the safety of his heterosexual relationship with another American expatriate, Hella. Due to the story’s depiction of diverse sexual orientations, the novel... Read Giovanni's Room Summary

The “coffee is for closers” line is considered one of the most iconic moments from playwright David Mamet’s entire oeuvre (Glengarry Glen Ross. Directed by James Foley, New Line Cinema, 1992). However, the line is actually nowhere to be found in the playscript for Glengarry Glenn Ross, which premiered at the National Theatre in London in 1983 and debuted on Broadway in 1984. Rather, it appears in the 1992 film adaptation, with a screenplay that... Read Glengarry Glen Ross Summary

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... Read Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone Summary

... Read Greasy Lake Summary

... Read Greater Love Summary

... Read Greenlights Summary

... Read Hands Summary

... Read Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Summary

Originally published in 1993, Heart of a Champion is a young adult novel written by award-winning author Carl Deuker, whose work is primarily about sports and intended for young adult readers. The novel is the first-person narrative of a California boy, Seth, whose father died prematurely, leaving a huge void. Seth befriends Jimmy, whose love of baseball quickly becomes Seth’s passion as well. After the death of his friend after an alcohol-induced car crash, Seth... Read Heart of a Champion Summary

Heart-Shaped Box (2007), a horror novel by American author Joe Hill, tells the story of an aging heavy metal star and collector of macabre memorabilia who discovers he is in possession of an actual ghost. The book became a New York Times bestseller and received the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel.Judas Coyne, or "Jude," is a fifty-four-year-old heavy metal rock star who entertains himself in retirement by purchasing macabre memorabilia. His collection includes... Read Heart-Shaped Box Summary

... Read Heartstopper: Volume One Summary

High Fidelity is a 1995 fiction novel by the English author Nick Hornby. It tells the story of Rob Fleming, an obsessive music fan who examines his top five worst break ups to understand his most recent heartbreak. The book was adapted into a musical, a television series, and 2000 film starring John Cusack and directly by Stephen Frears.Plot SummaryRob Fleming is the 35-year-old owner of a record store in London. When his girlfriend Laura... Read High Fidelity Summary

... Read How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America Summary

... Read In a Different Voice Summary

“In Another Country” is a short story by Ernest Hemingway first published in Scribner’s Magazine in 1927. Hemingway was one of the most celebrated writers of his time and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His works include short stories and novels as well as journalism and non-fiction studies, such as Death in the Afternoon (1932), about bullfighting. This guide refers to the version of “In Another Country” reprinted in the 1938... Read In Another Country Summary

One of his several short stories set in Northern Michigan, “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was first published in a 1924 issue of the Parisian literary magazine Transatlantic Review. The next year, “Indian Camp” was included in Hemingway’s first story collection, In Our Time. “Indian Camp” has since become one of Hemingway’s most heavily anthologized works. Based partly on Hemingway’s visits to Petoskey, Michigan, during childhood and young adulthood, “Indian Camp” follows young Nick... Read Indian Camp Summary

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... Read I Will Find You Summary

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Robert Olen Butler’s 1995 short story “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot” has been widely reprinted and anthologized. Its themes, which typify Butler's work, include alienation, desire, and the challenges of communicating with others. Butler is a best-selling American author and won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his short story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which explores the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. “Jealous Husband,” however... Read Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot Summary

... Read Jesse Summary

Jesus’ Son is a 1992 collection of linked short stories by American author Denis Johnson. The collection’s unnamed narrator—known by the nickname “Fuckhead”—is a heroin addict, and his stories revolve around memorable drug binges, criminal misadventures and the mistrustful community of drug-users wandering between various Midwestern and Pacific North-western locales. Hailed as “a point-black godsend” (L.A. Weekly) upon publication, Jesus’ Son has come to be recognized as one of the most important and influential story... Read Jesus' Son Summary

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... Read Last Night at the Telegraph Club Summary

... Read Later Summary

... Read Lavinia Summary

Legends of the Fall is a collection of three novellas by Jim Harrison, including “Revenge,” “The Man Who Gave Up His Name,” and the titular novella, “Legends of the Fall.” First published in 1979 by Collins, Legends of the Fall remains one of Harrison’s most highly regarded works. Harrison wrote across a range of genres such as fiction, poetry, essay, and film and was the recipient of several awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work... Read Legends of the Fall Summary

... Read Less Is Lost Summary

... Read Listen for the Lie Summary

... Read Little Men Summary

Lonesome Dove is a 1985 novel by American author Larry McMurtry. Chronologically, it is the third book in the Lonesome Dove series, although it was published before its two prequels, Dead Man’s Walk (1995) and Comanche Moon (1997). One of the most celebrated novels in the Western genre, Lonesome Dove tells the story of former Texas Rangers Augustus (Gus) McRae and Woodrow Call (Call) as they take a herd of cattle on an ill-fated drive... Read Lonesome Dove Summary

... Read Love, Theoretically Summary

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World is a work of self-help psychology by Admiral William H. McRaven. The book is a continuation and expansion of a commencement speech McRaven delivered at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, which went viral on the internet. Formerly a high-ranking officer of the US Navy and Commander of US Special Operations Command, McRaven relates his experiences in Navy SEAL training to... Read Make Your Bed Summary

Men of Iron is an 1891 young adult novel written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. Pyle was born in Delaware in 1853, and after years of training—beginning with a childhood passion for art—he taught illustration at Drexel University before establishing his own institute, the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. His style of art, which he himself was instrumental in developing, was named the Brandywine School after the mid-Atlantic region from which the artists in... Read Men of Iron Summary

... Read Miniver Cheevy Summary

Miracle's Boys (2000) by American author Jacqueline Woodson follows a seventh grade boy grieving the recent death of his mother. The novel won the 2001 Coretta Scott King Award, given to the best book primarily intended for an African-American youth audience. Woodson is a prominent writer. She received the National Book Award for Children’s Literature in 2014 for her novel Brown Girl Dreaming. Miracle's Boys centers around themes of guilt, emotional trauma, gang violence, and brotherly love... Read Miracle's Boys Summary

... Read Nana Summary

Njal’s Saga is a late medieval Icelandic family saga authored around 1280 but set around the year 1000. It combines legend and history—many of its protagonists were historical figures, and other historical sources corroborate some of the major events the saga mentions. However, the author also embellishes characters and events as he describes them in the saga.The saga recounts intermarriage, friendships, and tragic blood feuds between multiple Icelandic families who trace their ancestry back to... Read Njals Saga Summary

... Read No Name in the Street 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

... Read Not So Pure and Simple Summary

No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us (2019) was written by Rachel Louise Snyder, an associate professor of creative writing and journalism at American University. A world traveler, longtime contributor to magazines and podcasts, and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, Snyder has won awards for both her fiction and nonfiction works, which include Fugitive Denim and What We’ve Lost is Nothing. No Visible Bruises, published by Bloomsbury Publishing, won the... Read No Visible Bruises Summary

On Beauty by the celebrated British author Zadie Smith was published in 2005. On Beauty was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Smith is known for writing novels and essays that analyze the intersections of identity in the contemporary world with nuance, clarity, and empathy. She is also known to be influenced by the classic English author E.M. Forster. On Beauty is loosely based on Forster’s masterpiece... Read On Beauty Summary

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... Read On Killing Summary

... Read Open Water Summary

Out of Darkness is a young adult historical novel written by Ashley Hope Pérez and published in 2015 by Holiday House of New York. Pérez holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Indiana University, where her research focused on Latin American literature. A professor of World Literatures at Ohio State University, she is also the author of What Can’t Wait (2011), The Knife and The Butterfly (2012), and Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions about... Read Out of Darkness Summary

... Read Performative Acts and Gender Constitution Summary

Phantastes: a Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858) by George MacDonald is an extended fairy tale in which Anodos, a youth just coming of age, enters a hauntingly beautiful fairy wood. Ever pursuing his ideal of beauty, he meets many of the inhabitants of the enchanted world, overcoming obstacles as he learns what it means to become not just a man but a good man, eventually achieving union with the divine.George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a... Read Phantastes Summary

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... Read Reasons to Stay Alive Summary

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IntroductionRichard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road was published in 1961 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962, along with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, which won the award. The book was Yates’s first novel, though he had worked as a journalist and ghostwriter, writing some of John F. Kennedy’s speeches following his service in the US Army during World War II. In a 1976 interview for the literary journal... Read Revolutionary Road Summary

Riders of the Purple Sage is a novel by western writer Zane Grey. Set in 1871, the novel follows the story of Jane Withersteen, a Mormon woman being persecuted by her church leaders for refusing to become the third wife of church leader, Elder Tull, as well as her fondness for non-Mormons, or gentile, settlers in the area. The novel first appeared as a 19-part series in the magazine, Field and Stream, in January of... Read Riders of the Purple Sage Summary

... Read Rite of Passage Summary

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Susan Eloise Hinton was born in 1948 and lives in Oklahoma, where most of her novels are set. She wrote her first novel, The Outsiders, while still in high school. It was published in 1967 and earned Hinton her reputation as a pioneer of the young adult genre. The work “grew out of her dissatisfaction with the way teen-age life was being portrayed in the books she read” (Michaud, Jon. “S.E. Hinton and the Y.A... Read Rumble Fish Summary

Scorpions is a young adult, coming-of-age novel written by best-selling children’s author Walter Dean Myers. Like many of Myers’s works, the book is based on his experience of growing up in New York City’s historically African American Harlem neighborhood. Exploring themes of brotherhood and masculinity, love and loyalty, race, class, and curtailed opportunity, the narrative follows 12-year-old Jamal Hicks as he is confronted with a life-changing dilemma: whether or not to step into the shoes... Read Scorpions Summary

Seven Guitars, which premiered in 1995 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and transferred to Broadway in 1996, is the seventh play in August Wilson’s American Century Cycle, also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle. This series, consisting of ten plays that are each set in a different decade of the 20th century, explore the lives of African Americans during each era. With the exclusion Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), which takes place in 1920s Chicago... Read Seven Guitars Summary

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a chivalric romance of unknown authorship. Written sometime in the late-14th century, the work employs a complex metrical scheme that involves several lines of pentameter punctuated by a “bob and wheel”: a two-syllable “bob” followed by a rhyming quatrain of six-syllable lines. The bob and wheel structure is fairly typical of Middle English verse, as is the alliterative verse used throughout the sections written in pentameter. Its subject... Read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Summary

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“Soldier’s Home” is a short story first published in Ernest Hemingway’s 1925 debut collection In Our Time. The version discussed in this guide is from The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition (Scribner, 2003).The story’s protagonist is Harold Krebs, a young man who returns home to Oklahoma after serving in World War I. It is one of many works by Hemingway, a WWI survivor, to show the impacts of the war... Read Soldier's Home Summary

... Read Someone We Know Summary

Sometimes a Great Notion (1964) is American author Ken Kesey’s second novel. The plot revolves around the Stampers, a family of independent loggers who choose to continue working in opposition to a logging union’s dispute with company leadership. The novel uses an experimental structure, switching between first-person and omniscient narrators and telling the story from the perspectives of multiple characters. Kesey and his counterculture group, the “Merry Pranksters,” were the precursors to the hippies of... Read Sometimes a Great Notion Summary

... Read Sonnet 1 Summary

Theresa Rebeck’s provocative feminist two-act drama Spike Heels, first produced in 1990, is a problem play, that is a drama that looks at cultural, social, and economic issues. Problem plays intended to participate in the cultural conversation have a long and significant history in the theater. Playwrights like the Ancient Greek Euripides, 19th century Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw (whose presence looms large in Spike Heels), and a wide number of contemporary playwrights have... Read Spike Heels Summary

“Spunk” is a short story by Zora Neale Hurston published in 1925. Set in the rural Southern United States, “Spunk” follows the conflict that ensues when one man pursues another man’s wife. The story’s publication helped establish Hurston as a significant literary voice during the Harlem Renaissance. In 1989, George C. Wolfe adapted the story, along with content from two others by Hurston, into a play by the same name. Citations in this guide correspond... Read Spunk Summary

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Ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote the Symposium around 385 BCE. One of Plato’s best-known and most important works, the Symposium is a philosophical dialogue that explores the nature and virtues of Love (Eros) through seven speeches delivered at a symposium in 416 BCE. The Symposium is considered fiction, though the setting and characters are based on historical fact: For example, Socrates features in the dialogue, but Plato gives him a fictional speech. Plato is one... Read Symposium Summary

Tenth of December: Stories (2013) is American author George Saunders’s fourth short story collection. Saunders is widely regarded as one of the modern masters of the short story form, and this collection features stories written between 1995 and 2012, some of which were previously published in various literary outlets. The book was a bestseller and was widely praised on release, winning both the Story Prize and the Folio Prize. This guide refers to the 2013... Read Tenth of December Summary

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a young adult novel by Sherman Alexie, published in 2007 with art by Ellen Forney. Alexie, a Spokane/Cour d’Alene Indian (a term he prefers to “Native American”), began the book as a memoir inspired by experiences he had growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, and attending the predominantly white Reardan High School in Reardan, Washington. The book received much praise and many... Read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Summary

... Read The Adventures of Ulysses Summary

... Read The Art of Love Summary

“The Battle of Maldon” is a heroic poem, also classified as an epic, dating from the 10th century. Originally written in Old English, the text details a violent battle between the Anglo-Saxon warriors and the raiding Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons are led by Earl Byrhtnoth, who held land in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Essex and fought for his ruler, King Æthelred the Unready. The poem depicts some of the central tenets of Anglo-Saxon culture, praising loyalty... Read The Battle of Maldon Summary

Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, is a critically acclaimed, sprawling saga of the vivid world of New York City in the 1980s. Modeled after Charles Dickens’s socially realistic novels, the book is a satire on the excesses and disparities of New York society. Powered by diverse, opinionated characters and iconic locations, the plot follows the wealthy, married Manhattan investment broker Sherman McCoy as his American Dream begins to unravel. Sherman’s... Read The Bonfire of the Vanities Summary

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a 2007 novel by the Dominican American author Junot Díaz. Its title character is a young overweight Dominican American man obsessed with fantasy novels, superhero comics, and tabletop role-playing games. Using Spanish neologisms, magical realism, and references to late-20th-century nerd culture, Díaz weaves a multigenerational family saga chronicling life under the murderous Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and the subsequent Dominican diaspora to the United States. Widely praised... Read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Summary

The Castle of Otranto, first published in 1764 by English author Horace Walpole (1717-1797), is considered the first supernatural work of Gothic fiction, influencing many well-known 19th century writers such as Clara Reeve, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson.The five-chapter long novella revolves around the mysterious supernatural events at the titular castle, whose owner goes to villainous lengths to maintain control of it. Walpole introduces Gothic elements that drive the... Read The Castle of Otranto Summary

... Read The Charm Offensive Summary

John Collier (1901-1980) is best known for his short stories, many of which are constructed as fantastic parables of modern day life. He also wrote poetry and screenplays, and was a developer for the television show “The Twilight Zone.” “The Chaser” first appeared in his short story collection Fancies and Goodnights, which won the 1952 Edgar Award and the 1952 International Fantasy Award. It is a cautionary parable of love, capitalism, and the wisdom of... Read The Chaser Summary

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, first published in 1974, is a novel that delves into the dark aspects of adolescence, authority, and conformity. Set in an all-boys Catholic high school called Trinity, the story centers around Jerry Renault, a freshman who defies the school’s two most powerful forces–the secret student group known as the Vigils, and acting Headmaster Brother Leon–by refusing to participate in the annual chocolate sale. Jerry’s act of defiance exposes the... Read The Chocolate War Summary

... Read The Crossing Summary

... Read The Death of Vivek Oji Summary

... Read The Door of No Return Summary

"The Epic of Gilgamesh" is the oldest existing myth in the world. It tells of the historical king Gilgamesh who reigned over Mesopotamia (in what is now Iraq) around 2750 BCE. The author of the poem is unknown, for "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is sourced from multiple fragments that have been excavated since the 19th century. The earliest versions of the epic are written in Sumerian and date to about 2100 BCE. The current translation... Read The Epic of Gilgamesh Summary

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... Read The Frozen River Summary

Paula Hawkins wrote The Girl on the Train over the course of six months in 2014. Hawkins, an Oxford-educated journalist and writer, drew on her experience as a reporter in London to structure the novel and describe its locations. Drawing immediate comparisons to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Girl on the Train had similar performance, debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2015, and remaining there for 13 consecutive weeks... Read The Girl On The Train Summary

The Godfather, by American author Mario Puzo, was published in 1969 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. It was an immediate success, remaining on the New York Times Bestseller List for 67 weeks and selling over nine million copies in two years. The book was lauded for its authenticity, despite the fact that Puzo had no real-life experience with the Mafia, though he did grow up in Vito Corleone’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola’s... Read The Godfather Summary

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... Read The Homecoming Summary

... Read The Immoralist Summary

The Labyrinth of Solitude is a nine-part philosophical and historical essay on Mexican identity and culture. Octavio Paz, a famous Mexican poet and career diplomat, began writing The Labyrinth of Solitude during his time as the Mexican ambassador to France in the late 1940s. Originally published in 1951, the first edition of Paz’s work appeared in Spanish under the title El labertino de la soledad, and it is widely considered to be Paz’s masterpiece. This... Read The Labyrinth of Solitude Summary

The Last Kingdom, published in 2004, was the first volume in what would become a series of 12 historical adventure novels, set in Britain in the late-ninth and early 10th centuries. The novels chronicle the bloody territorial wars between the English armies of the island’s then four kingdoms and the invading Danish armies, fierce Northern warriors known in contemporary pop culture as the Vikings. Bernard Cornwell was already an established and prolific writer of historical... Read The Last Kingdom Summary

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“The Luck of Roaring Camp” is the short story that established Bret Harte’s (also spelled Hart) reputation in the United States and internationally. Set in a gold prospecting camp in 1850 California, the story explores the themes of relationships between man and nature, the possibility of man’s redemption, and the rejection of standard gender roles. Widely published in newspapers and magazines, Harte was known for his depictions of rough or romantic life in the American... Read The Luck of Roaring Camp Summary

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) is a detective novel that was first serialized in the magazine Black Mask. As Hammett’s third novel, The Maltese Falcon includes the introduction of Sam Spade as the protagonist, a departure from the nameless Continental Op who narrated his previous stories. Spade’s hard exterior, cool detachment, and reliance on his own moral code would become staples of the hardboiled genre, and The Maltese Falcon has since been named one... Read The Maltese Falcon Summary

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“The Man Who Was Almost a Man” is a short story by African American author Richard Wright, first published in 1940 by Harper’s Bazaar magazine and again in the posthumous 1961 short story collection Eight Men. The story engages with issues of racial discrimination, oppression, and African American identity in a naturalistic writing style. It follows the struggles of Dave Saunders, a young African American man who works at a plantation in the rural South... Read The Man Who Was Almost a Man Summary

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838) is Edgar Allan Poe’s only complete novel. The first two installments were published in 1837 in the Southern Literary Messenger magazine, where Poe was an editor. After leaving the Messenger, he continued working on the novel intermittently until it was published as a complete text in 1838. It brings together various literary genres—including the adventure story, coming-of-age narrative, and scientific guidebook— and infuses them with an... Read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket Summary

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In The Old Man and the Sea, a 1952 adventure novella by American author Ernest Hemingway, an aging fisherman pits his life and wits against a giant fish as he battles to catch it and then protect its flesh from ravenous sharks. With its themes of endurance, perseverance, and respect for one’s opponent, this simple, straightforward narrative is widely regarded as an American classic and one of the greatest sea stories ever told.The book helped... Read The Old Man and the Sea Summary

The Playboy of the Western World is a comedy written by Irish playwright John M. Synge. The play was first produced in 1907 at the Abbey Theatre, or the National Theatre of Ireland. Although his work was largely criticized during his lifetime, Synge is one of Ireland’s most famous 20th-century playwrights. He wrote only six plays during his relatively short career; the most notable among his works are The Playboy of the Western World and... Read The Playboy of the Western World Summary

The Song of the Cid, also known as El Cantar de mio Cid, is a Spanish epic written in verse by an unknown author. The only surviving medieval Spanish epic, it is widely considered Spain’s national folktale, telling of fictionalized events at the formation of medieval Spain in the 11th century. It is based on the true story of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a Castilian knight who in reality fought for both Christian and Muslim... Read The Poem of the Cid Summary

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“The Rape of Lucrece,” written by William Shakespeare, was originally published in 1594 by Richard Field. This poem comes early in Shakespeare’s canon, with its original publication near the end of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, shortly after Taming of the Shrew and around the time of A Midsummer Nights’ Dream. As a companion piece to “Venus and Adonis,” Shakespeare dedicates “The Rape of Lucrece” to the Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, his patron. It went... Read The Rape of Lucrece Summary

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

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The Red Pony by John Steinbeck was published in installments from 1933 to 1936, as a novella in 1937, and in a short story collection, The Long Valley, in 1945. Steinbeck drew upon his experience living in the Salinas Valley. The four stories that make up The Red Pony are considered works of classic literature and bildungsroman, or coming-of-age stories. Steinbeck also wrote the screenplay for the 1949 film adaptation of The Red Pony, and... Read The Red Pony 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

First published in the New Yorker in 1939, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is James Thurber’s short story about the flamboyant fantasy life of a timid suburban Everyman. A gentle satire of the human imagination (among other things), the story struck an immediate and lasting chord in the midcentury American imagination and is widely regarded as a comic masterpiece. Its distinctive mixture of pathos and parody made it one of the most anthologized short... Read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Summary

Published in 1983, The Sign of the Beaver is a historical adventure novel for middle grade readers written by Elizabeth George Speare. Based on a true story that took place in 1760s Colonial America, the book follows the adventures of a young English boy who, while living alone in the Maine wilderness, befriends a local Penobscot boy who teaches him how to survive. The experience changes his views of himself, his family and fellow colonists... Read The Sign of the Beaver Summary

The Sisters Brothers is a 2011 novel by Canadian writer Patrick DeWitt. Set in 1851, it traces the journey of Charlie and Eli Sisters, two hired killers traveling from Oregon to San Francisco to find a man called Warm, who allegedly stole something from their boss, the Commodore. The darkly comic Western is in the picaresque genre, as the brothers’ episodic misadventures explore different communities populating the American West.The Sisters Brothers is divided into 64... Read The Sisters Brothers Summary

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“The Sky is Gray” by African American writer Ernest J. Gaines is a short story within the collection Bloodline: Five Stories, first published in Negro Digest in August 1963 and in the collection in 1968. Gaines is best-known for his novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, published in 1971 and adapted into a television movie starring Cicely Tyson in 1974. Gaines is the winner of numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award... Read The Sky Is Gray Summary

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William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury relays the trials and decline of a once-prominent Southern family, the Compsons. The novel grapples with the challenges of a changing cultural landscape as modernity encroaches on the values—and deep-seated prejudices—of the Old South. Told through the perspectives of the three Compson brothers, Benjy, Quentin, and Jason, the novel visits and revisits key events in the family’s past and present. Much of the concern swirls around... Read The Sound and the Fury Summary

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The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, written and illustrated by Howard Pyle, was originally published in 1903. Pyle’s Book 1s part of the Arthurian romance genre, which begins with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s introduction of the Arthur character in The History of the Kings of Britain, written in the twelfth century. The Arthurian, or chivalric, romance genre includes texts from many different eras and in many different languages. Pyle’s novel offers an American perspective... Read The Story of King Arthur and His Knights Summary