Kiss the Villain is a standalone queer romance novel within the series The Villains by prolific New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Rita Kent. Published on March 18, 2025, Kiss the Villain will be followed by two other standalone novels, Hunt the Villain and Crave the Villain, which are expected to be published in March 2026 and March 2027, respectively. Kiss the Villain is also a spinoff from Kent’s other series, specifically The... Read Kiss the Villain Summary

Kitchens of the Great Midwest (2015) by J. Ryan Stradal is an immersive novel delving into the rich heritage and lifestyles of Midwestern Americans who are descendants of Norwegian immigrants navigating the challenges of the Dakota prairies and open country. The narrative unfolds as they forge a living, experience love, endure financial setbacks, and persevere in an unforgiving territory. This culinary journey serves as a window into the heart of the Midwest, capturing traditions like... Read Kitchens of the Great Midwest Summary

Daniel Beaty (also known as KOA) first performed his poem “Knock Knock” in a 2005 episode of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Hosted by the singer and songwriter Mos Def, the show featured well-known and emerging poets, especially those engaged in slam poetry (see Literary Context). Soon after, Beaty’s performance became an Internet sensation, receiving millions of views. Autobiographical in nature, the poem describes the experience of a Black boy who loses his father to prolonged... Read Knock Knock Summary

Knowing God is a 1973 book by the prolific Christian author J. I. Packer (1926-2020). It describes the basics of the Christian life within the framework of a personal relationship with God, as guided by Scripture. Packer, a British-born and Oxford-educated academic and clergyman, was a leader in evangelical, Reformed, and Anglican circles and was active in both teaching and writing for over six decades of his public career. Knowing God is Packer’s best-known work... Read Knowing God Summary

One of Nikki Giovanni's best known and most anthologized poems, "Knoxville, Tennessee'' (originally published in 1968) recalls the memories of a little girl's childhood. Giovanni shapes these memories in free verse, using a simple, almost conversational tone. Describing a young Black girl's family life and the importance of spiritual community for herself and those around her, Giovanni rhythmically uses the cadence of spoken language to mimic the freedom and jouncing thought-patterns of a child at... Read Knoxville, Tennessee Summary

Krik? Krak! is the debut short story collection by Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat. Published in 1995, the critically acclaimed collection explores themes of gendered violence, Haitian resilience, and the necessity of art. The collection features nine stories of Haitian men and women living in Port-Au-Prince, New York City, and the fictional town of Ville Rose; many of the stories are interconnected. The title of the collection comes from a Haitian storytelling tradition in which... Read Krik? Krak! Summary

Kristin Lavransdatter is a trilogy of historical novels by Norwegian author and Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset. Published between 1920 and 1922, the trilogy consists of The Wreath, The Wife, and The Cross. The novels chronicle Scandinavian life during the Middle Ages. They follow the eponymous protagonist, Kristin Lavransdatter, a woman living in 1300s Norway. The trilogy is generally considered Undset’s magnum opus.This guide is based on the 2005 Penguin Books edition, translated by Tiina... Read Kristin Lavransdatter Summary

The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea (1986) is the first novel in the long-running Baby-Sitters Club series written by Ann M. Martin. Kristy’s Great Idea is a middle grade novel that details the formation of the famous Baby-Sitters Club. The club acts as a catalyst for Self-Growth Through Responsibility and Agency while helping Kristy and her friends explore The Importance of Friendship and Teamwork. Along the way, Kristy also copes with Navigating Family Changes. Kristy’s... Read Kristy's Great Idea Summary

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (2023) is a work of adult historical fiction written by American author Lisa See. The novel fictionalizes the life of Tan Yunxian, a female physician who lived in imperial China during the Ming dynasty and whose compendium of cases is the earliest surviving Chinese medical text written by a woman. Yunxian, shaped by the early death of her mother and educated by grandparents who are both medical practitioners, marries into... Read Lady Tan's Circle of Women Summary

Lady Tremaine is a work of literary fiction by debut author Rachel Hochhauser. Originally published in 2026 by St. Martin’s Press, Lady Tremaine retells the classic Cinderella fairy tale from the point of view of the stepmother. In Hochhauser’s narrative world, Lady Tremaine is living in Bramley Hall with her daughters, Mathilde and Rosamund, and her stepdaughter, Elin, when she learns of an impending royal ball. Eager to change her daughters’ circumstances, she arranges a... Read Lady Tremaine Summary

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s 2025 novel, Lake Effect, is a family saga that explores the long-lasting repercussions of a single, life-altering choice. Set primarily in a suburb of Rochester, New York, the narrative begins in 1977 when Nina Larkin, a talented cook in a passionless marriage, and Finn Finnegan, an ambitious grocer from across the street, engage in an affair, leave their spouses, and elope. The novel spans three decades, tracing the deep and often painful... Read Lake Effect Summary

Miguel and his younger sister Elena endure hardship and brave horrific dangers as they struggle to leave Mexico, cross the border, and join their family in California in Ann Jaramillo’s young adult contemporary adventure, La Línea (2006). With Miguel’s story, Jaramillo strives to humanize the immigrant perspective by putting a face on the desperate, hopeful individuals who risk everything to make a better life for their families. Over the course of their arduous journey, Miguel... Read La Linea Summary

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Lament” first appeared in print in 1921 in her collection Second April (1921). The poem portrays a widow’s explanation to her children about their father’s death. The speaker does not seem in despair, and instead is trying to help her children come to terms with their father’s death. The poem examines both hidden and expressed grief. The poem also explores how society’s cliches and expectations about death may differ from an... Read Lament Summary

Maggie O’Farrell’s 2026 novel, Land, is a work of historical fiction that explores memory, loss, and resilience. O’Farrell, born in Northern Ireland, is celebrated for her immersive historical narratives, including the award-winning novels Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait. Set on a remote Irish peninsula in 1865, Land centers on Tomás, a gifted cartographer working for the British Ordnance Survey. In the destructive aftermath of the Great Famine, Tomás is torn between his lucrative colonial employment... Read Land Summary

Published in 2016 and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, LaRose is a work of fiction written by author Louise Erdrich, an enrolled member of the Ojibwe people. The novel takes place on the land in and around an Ojibwe North Dakota reservation, the same physical setting as Erdrich’s previous award-winning novel The Round House. However, LaRose’s characters and time period differ from her previous book. LaRose takes place primarily during the years... Read LaRose Summary

Last Bus to Wisdom, a New York Times bestseller, was the 16th and final novel by Ivan Doig, who died prior to the book’s 2015 release. The novel is also the last to take place in the fictional Two Medicine Country, Montana, in which Doig set 11 other novels. Though the main character, Donal Cameron, is 11 years old, the book is intended for adult audiences. The coming-of-age story and fictional travelogue follows a summer-long... Read Last Bus To Wisdom Summary

Mike Lupica’s 2016 middle grade sports novel, Last Man Out, tells the story of 12-year-old Tommy Gallagher, a star football player who idolizes his father, Patrick, a Boston firefighter. When his father is killed in the line of duty, Tommy’s world is shattered, and the grief he cannot articulate begins to manifest as uncontrolled aggression on the football field. As he struggles with his loss, Tommy must navigate a new family dynamic and find a... Read Last Man Out Summary

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a 2021 coming-of-age Young Adult novel centering on the experience of Lily Hu, a teenager in 1950s San Francisco, as she comes to terms with her sexuality while also dealing with the prevalent societal racism toward Chinese Americans. Lily comes across an ad for the titular Telegraph Club in the newspaper and then discovers that one of her classmates, Kath, has been to the nightclub. The story proceeds... Read Last Night at the Telegraph Club Summary

Lavinia is a 2008 novel by American author Ursula K. Le Guin. As her last novel, it tells part of the story of Virgil’s Aeneid from the perspective of Aeneas’s wife, Lavinia, who appears in the Aeneid as only a minor character. Although primarily a retelling of myth, the novel also attempts to explore what little is known about the people of the Italian peninsula before the founding of Rome. The subject matter of Lavinia... Read Lavinia Summary

Set in the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and spanning more than half a century, the novel traces four generations of the Lázár family, Hungarian aristocrats whose private demons mirror the catastrophes of the 20th century.On Epiphany at the turn of the century, Lajos von Lázár is born in the family manor house with translucent skin through which his organs are visible. His father, Baron Sándor von Lázár, suppresses an anxiety he associates with... Read Lázár Summary