The Marianne Wiggins novel Properties of Thirst (2022) is set in the early-1940s US during World War II, opening with the bombing of the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Rockwell “Rocky” Rhodes, the owner of a large estate in California, is estranged from his son, Stryker, whose last-known location was Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was stationed with the navy. Rocky has been engaged in a longtime battle with the city of Los Angeles over... Read Properties of Thirst Summary

Written by Rita Williams-Garcia in 2013, P.S. Be Eleven is a historical fiction novel that is set in the late 1960s and features the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Narrated from the perspective of Delphine Gaither, the eldest of three sisters, the work explores the importance of family relationships, the realities of Black childhood and identity, and the influence of Black power politics on children of this era. Williams-Garcia is an award-winning author whose... Read P.S. Be Eleven Summary

PS: I Hate You (2024) by Lauren Connolly is a bittersweet romantic comedy that explores themes of grief, rediscovery, vulnerability, and connection. In PS: I Hate You, Maddie Sanderson sets out to fulfill her late brother Josh’s final wish: scatter his ashes across the eight US states he never got to visit. Josh complicates Maddie’s mission by insisting that she travel with Dominic Perry, his best friend and the man who once broke Maddie’s heart... Read PS: I Hate You Summary

Pucking Around is a 2023 romance by academic Emily Rath, a professor of international politics as well as a novelist. Pucking Around is a sports romance in the “why choose” subgenre of romance, leading the protagonist Rachel Price to a polyamorous relationship with multiple partners in the Jacksonville Rays hockey team. The self-published novel became popular after it was praised in the BookTok community of the social media platform TikTok.This guide refers to the digital... Read Pucking Around Summary

Pucking Sweet (2024) is the third novel in American writer Emily Rath’s best-selling Jacksonville Rays series, following Pucking Around (2023) and Pucking Wild (2023). Rath’s series first gained popularity with Pucking Around, which was widely shared on the social media platform TikTok. Like the previous two novels in the series, Pucking Sweet is in the “why choose” subgenre of romance, meaning that its protagonists have a polyamorous relationship. The novel explores The Challenges of Craving... Read Pucking Sweet Summary

Written by Diane Glancy in 1996, Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears follows a group of Cherokee people as they are forced to relocate to “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma in 1838 and 1839. The novel is told from varying perspectives of members of the Cherokee Nation as well as soldiers, reverends, and disembodied voices. These shifting perspectives create a fragmented yet nuanced narrative as Glancy weaves together multiple viewpoints and utilizes... Read Pushing the Bear Summary

Queen Esther (2025) is a novel by John Irving. It is a multi-generational literary saga that begins with Esther Nacht, a Jewish orphan rescued from antisemitic violence in early 20th-century Vienna and raised by the Winslows, a liberal New England family. Sprawling across the 20th century until 1981, Queen Esther tracks the fortunes of the charismatic Esther and her biological son, Jimmy, adopted by the Winslows, as they balance duty, identity, and selfhood. The novel... Read Queen Esther Summary

Queenie, published in 2019, is Candice Carty-Williams’s debut novel. It won Book of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2020 (marking the first time a Black author won the award) and was nominated for Goodreads’ Choice Awards in both the Best Fiction and Best Debut Novel categories. The novel inspired a planned television series, for which Carty-Williams herself is the writer.Content Warning: This guide quotes and describes the novel’s frequent references to sexual... Read Queenie Summary

Richard Flanagan’s creative non-fiction Question 7 (2023) is an exploration of Flanagan’s life and family history in Tasmania, Australia and its relationship to the development of the atomic bomb and the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan during World War II. The complex text weaves together memoir, historical narrative, and historical fiction as Flanagan reflects on his history as a writer, the role of literature in shaping historical events, and his relationship to his parents through a... Read Question 7 Summary

Stephen King’s “Quitters, Inc.” is a darkly satirical short story about the power of addiction and the cruelty of the self-help and psychological industries that claim to help people struggling to overcome it. Originally published in King’s first collection of short stories Night Shift (1978), the story follows Richard Morrison, who has a cigarette addiction, as he finds himself suddenly trapped in a sadistic and violent recovery program.As someone who has experienced addiction himself, King... Read Quitters Inc. Summary

Race to the Sun is a 2020 middle grade novel by Indigenous American author Rebecca Roanhorse, whose science fiction and fantasy works are notable for featuring Navajo characters reflective of Roanhorse’s Navajo heritage. Race to the Sun is an installment in the “Rick Riordian Presents” imprint of Disney Hyperion, which collaborates with Percy Jackson & the Olympians author Rick Riordan to publish novels that feature different cultural mythologies as written by authors from those cultural... Read Race to the Sun Summary

Ragged Company (2008) is a novel penned by Richard Wagamese. The story follows four unhoused people and their unlikely friendship with a retired journalist, whose shared love of movies brings them all together. When one of them finds a lottery ticket and wins big, all of their lives change forever.Richard Wagamese, an Indigenous writer from Canada, has received numerous awards, such as the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize (2013) and the Writers’ Trust... Read Ragged Company Summary

Ragtime is a historical fiction novel by E.L. Doctorow published in 1974. It was Doctorow’s fourth novel and among the most famous of his many works. In Ragtime, Doctorow weaves in real figures and events to situate his narrative in American history. He places Ragtime’s characters in historical moments to speak to the socio-politics of his own time in the 1970s. The Modern Library ranked Ragtime as one of the 100 best English-language novels in... Read Ragtime Summary

Rain Reign is a work of middle-grade contemporary fiction written by American author Ann M. Martin and published in 2014. The novel was chosen for the 2014 New York Times Notable Children’s Books list. Martin is the original author of the best-selling Baby-Sitters Club series of books and has written over 100 books for young readers. She has received numerous awards over the course of her career, including the Newbery Medal in 2013 and a... Read Rain Reign Summary

Ramona and Her Father is the fourth book in the eight-book Ramona series, written by Beverly Cleary and first published in 1975. Cleary was a renowned children’s author who penned several monumental series in the genre and paved the way for what the genre has evolved into today. Over 91 million copies of her novels have been sold. Ramona and Her Father is a realistic fiction novel featuring seven-year-old Ramona, who deals with Facing Adult... Read Ramona and Her Father Summary

Ramona and Her Mother is the fifth book in Beverly Cleary’s beloved Ramona Quimby series that chronicles the life of the title character from toddlerhood through adolescence. Ramona and Her Mother follows Ramona through the winter of her second-grade year. Cleary published her first book, Henry Huggins, in 1950, which introduced readers to the character of Henry, his dog Ribsy, and a very young Ramona Quimby. Throughout her career, Cleary received numerous awards and accolades... Read Ramona and Her Mother Summary

Ramona Forever is a children’s chapter book by celebrated American author Beverly Cleary. Published in 1984, the book is the seventh in Cleary’s famous “Ramona” series, following Ramona Quimby as she grows up on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon. In Ramona Forever, Ramona insists that she does not need to be babysat by her neighbor, Mrs. Kemp. While she is best friends with Howie Kemp, she believes his grandmother Mrs. Kemp dislikes her, and she... Read Ramona Forever Summary

Ramona Quimby, Age 8, (1981) is the sixth book in Beverly Cleary’s middle-grade Ramona series. It follows spirited and curious Ramona as she balances her excitement about entering the third grade with her trepidation over the Quimby family’s financial struggles. Through her misadventures, Ramona learns her place in the family and how to stand up for herself at school using determination and creativity.Known for realistic fiction, Cleary organizes the novel in a series of loosely... Read Ramona Quimby Age 8 Summary

Raymie Nightingale is a 2016 middle grade novel by two-time Newbery Medal winner Kate DiCamillo. The novel was a National Book Award finalist in the year of its publication. Set in Florida in the summer of 1975, it tells the story of 10-year-old Raymie Clark as she copes with loss and forms a deep friendship that helps her and her new friends in unexpected ways.Plot SummaryRaymie Clark is determined to win the Little Miss Central... Read Raymie Nightingale Summary

Razorblade Tears is a 2021 crime novel by author S. A. Cosby. It tells the story of Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee Williams, two men with violent histories. They meet at a funeral after their sons—who were married—are brutally executed at gunpoint as part of a cover-up. Cosby uses Ike and Buddy Lee’s ensuing investigation, as well as their pursuit of retribution and justice, to explore loyalty, intolerance toward gay people and the fear of... Read Razorblade Tears Summary