Locomotion, Jacqueline Woodson’s 2003 novel in verse, follows the perspective of Lonnie Collins Motion, nicknamed Locomotion. After his parents die in a fire and his sister is adopted, Lonnie grieves and navigates life, first in a group home and then with Miss Edna, his foster mother. Through poetry, he slowly finds joy in life again, highlighting the themes of The Search for Identity and Belonging, The Healing Power of Writing, and The Enduring Support of... Read Locomotion Summary

Lola in the Mirror (2023) by Trent Dalton follows an unnamed teenage protagonist who is unhoused and grapples with a tragic past. Presenting a detailed picture of Brisbane’s housing crisis and the city’s criminal underbelly, Dalton infuses the narrative with artwork and magic realism elements, illuminating the difficulties of growing up in traumatic circumstances. Winner of the 2024 Australian Book Industry Award for Literary Fiction of the Year, Lola in the Mirror explores themes of... Read Lola in the Mirror Summary

Published in 2023, Lone Women is the fifth full-length novel by critically acclaimed author Victor LaValle. The novel was a national bestseller and was lauded as a book of the year by publications such as the New York Times Book Review, NPR, and the Washington Post. LaValle has previously written four other novels, a short-story collection, two novellas, and five graphic novels. Most of his works exist at the intersection of suspense or horror fiction... Read Lone Women Summary

Longbourn (2013) is a work of fiction by British author Jo Baker, who is the author of several other novels of historical fiction and literary suspense. Longbourn depicts what life is like for the servants of the Bennet family of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. While events in Austen’s book frame this novel, Longbourn follows the inner lives of housemaid Sarah, housekeeper Mrs. Hill, and James Smith, the mysterious footman who shows up... Read Longbourn Summary

Long Bright River (Jan 2020) is the fourth novel by author Liz Moore. Aside from being a New York Times bestseller, the book has been named as A Best Book of the Year by NPR, Parade, Real Simple, and Buzzfeed. Good Morning America also named it a Book Club Pick. The novel is classified under the categories of Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction and Family Life Fiction. (All page references in this study guide... Read Long Bright River Summary

Long Day’s Journey into Night is widely considered Eugene O’Neill’s best play. It was published posthumously under the pseudonym Tyrone and is an autobiographical work about O’Neill’s family. The play was originally published in 1956 with a first showing in Sweden that same year. The play has been adapted into film several times, including productions in 1962 and 1996, as well as television adaptations in 1973, 1982, and 1987. O’Neill was awarded the Nobel Prize... Read Long Day's Journey Into Night Summary

Kiese Laymon’s YA novel Long Division is a work of speculative fiction variously described as a coming-of-age story, postmodern metafiction, and magical realism; it was originally published in 2013 by Agate Publishing but was republished with significant structural revisions in 2021. The novel is set in Jackson and Melahatchie, Mississippi, in the years 1964, 1985, and 2013. Written from the first-person point of view of its protagonist, Citoyen “City” Coldson, the narrative traces City’s experiences... Read Long Division Summary

Long Island, by Colm Tóibín, is a novel published by Scribner on May 7, 2024, and is a sequel to Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn. While Brooklyn is largely considered a work of historical fiction as it follows Eilis Lacey’s immigration to America from Ireland, Long Island occurs over 20 years later, as she returns to Ireland in crisis. Eilis’s husband, Tony Fiorello, is having a child with another woman, and despite Eilis’s insistence that she... Read Long Island Summary

Long Island Compromise, published in 2024, is a family saga and the second novel by American author Taffy Brodesser-Akner. In an essay for The New York Times Magazine, Brodesser-Akner explains that the novel was loosely inspired by the 1974 kidnapping of a family friend, Jack Teich (Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. “The Kidnapping I Can’t Escape.” The New York Times Magazine, 7 July 2024). Though the central family of her novel is not meant to resemble the Teich... Read Long Island Compromise Summary

Long Time Gone is the ninth novel by acclaimed author Charlie Donlea, published in 2024. Donlea’s works have been published in 25 languages across 40 countries, selling over 5 million copies worldwide. This psychological thriller centers on Sloan Hastings’s search for the truth about her missing birth parents, a murdered sheriff, and the person trying to keep everything hidden. Exploring themes of The Impact of Buried Truth on Identity, The Problematic Ethics of the Profit-Driven... Read Long Time Gone Summary

Book DetailsLong Way Down (2017) by Jason Reynolds is a young adult novel in free verse about Will Holloman, a young Black boy struggling to make a decision after his brother, Shawn, is shot dead in the street. Will plans to seek revenge, but before he can leave the elevator of his building, he is greeted by a series of ghosts who confuse and complicate his perspective on Shawn’s death and the idea of revenge... Read Long Way Down Summary

A National Book Award finalist, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks (2019) by Jason Reynolds chronicles 10 stories of adolescents attending Latimer Middle School. The stories take place within 10 blocks of the school as each character journeys homeward at the end of the school day. Look Both Ways follows the lauded Ghost and Long Way Down, both of which explore the experiences of Black young adults in America. In Look Both... Read Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks Summary

Look Closer is a crime thriller written by American author David Ellis and published in 2022. Ellis is a Chicago attorney, and this book draws heavily on his legal expertise and his familiarity with the city. He has written numerous thrillers and has coauthored a series with James Patterson. Set in Chicago and surrounding areas, Look Closer follows Simon Dobias and Vicky Lanier, a married couple. After a wealthy socialite is murdered, the book slowly... Read Look Closer Summary

Lost and Found is a young adult novel written by Anne Schraff and originally published in 2002. It centers around 10th grader Darcy Wills, her family, and her life at school. Throughout the novel, Darcy encounters challenges both at school and at home, and through her experiences, the novel explores themes including Deepening the Bonds of Sisterhood, How Family Shapes Growth in Adolescence, and Questioning Preconceptions and Embracing Possibilities. It is the first book in... Read Lost and Found Summary

Lost Children Archive is the first English-language novel by Mexican author Valeria Luiselli. Published in 2019, Lost Children Archive was awarded the 2020 Rathbones Folio Prize and was shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the 2019 Booker Prize. The novel illustrates the intersections and overlaps between a troubled family’s cross-country journey and the treacherous journeys of “lost” children migrating from Mexico to the United States.Lost Children Archive is also an archive in... Read Lost Children Archive Summary

Lost in the Sun by middle grade author Lisa Graff follows the story of Trent Zimmerman, who feels responsible for the accidental death of a hockey teammate. Trent grapples with issues of self-loathing, guilt, and rage as he begins his journey of healing through friendship. This 2015 middle grade novel is Graff’s eighth full-length children’s book and was chosen for Amazon’s 2015 Best Book list. Other works by Graff include A Tangle of Knots, Absolutely... Read Lost in the Sun Summary

Lost in Yonkers is a play by American playwright Neil Simon that premiered in 1991. It centers around Jay Kurnitz, a teenage boy sent with his younger brother, Arty, to live with his grandmother in Yonkers. Many critics consider the play, which debuted to overwhelming critical acclaim, one of Simon’s best works. It explores themes of abbreviated childhood, war, and generational trauma. Lost in Yonkers won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama upon its release, and... Read Lost In Yonkers Summary

Lost Lambs is Madeline Cash’s debut novel. Since its January 2026 release, it has become a national bestseller and New York Times Editors’ Choice award winner. It blends elements of family drama, cultural satire, and crime caper in its examination of the dysfunctional Flynn family as the parents navigate a newly “opened” marriage, the daughters attempt to establish and refine their own identities, and they all become involved in a high-level conspiracy involving human trafficking... Read Lost Lambs Summary

Drawing on the rich tradition in both film and fiction of romance stories set in the Tuscany region of central Italy, Jenna Evans Welch’s romantic comedy Love & Gelato (2016) tells the story of 16-year-old Lina Emerson. Reeling from the death of her mother, a noted photographer, Lina reluctantly sets off from her home in Seattle to spend the summer in Florence with a father she has never met. Reading her mother’s entries in a... Read Love & Gelato Summary

Love, Hate and Other Filters is a young adult novel written by Samira Ahmed. Published in 2018, the novel tells the story of Maya Aziz, a 17-year-old Indian American teenager in Batavia, Illinois. The book, Ahmed’s first, was nominated for the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award. It received critical acclaim for its diversity and was popular among teenage readers.Maya is the daughter of Asif and Sofia, Muslim Indians who came to the United States from Hyderabad... Read Love, Hate and Other Filters Summary