Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh was originally published in 2023. The novel is a bestseller, won the 2024 Hugo Award, and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. Some Desperate Glory is Tesh’s first novel; she published two award-winning novellas in 2019 and 2020. The novel is a space opera featuring LGBTQ+ characters. Through the main character, a soldier named Kyr, Tesh explores How Fascist... Read Some Desperate Glory Summary

The novel opens with an anonymous narrator reflecting on having killed someone, describing the act as born from fury rather than premeditation. The narrator has fled to a distant place with sparkling canals, but the horror of that night persists like a second heartbeat.The story alternates between two timelines and perspectives. "After" chapters follow Gretchen Falk, the wife of Goldman Sachs managing director Richard Falk, in third person as she contends with the aftermath of... Read Someone Else's Husband Summary

Someone Like You is a 1998 young adult novel by Sarah Dessen. The novel follows 16-year-old Halley as she navigates the complexities and challenges of growing up. Halley’s best friend, Scarlett, discovers that she is pregnant after her boyfriend, Michael, dies in a motorcycle accident. Halley steps up to help her friend through this unexpected challenge. Halley also begins dating Michael’s best friend, Macon, and must decide whether she is ready to have sex with... Read Someone Like You Summary

Someone Named Eva is a 2007 middle-grade historical fiction novel by American teacher and children’s author Joan M. Wolf. The book is set around the 1942 Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and Slovakia) during World War II. The story follows 11-year-old Milada Kralicek and her journey of loss and rediscovery. Milada struggles to remember her Czech family and identity after Nazi soldiers kidnap her and force her to... Read Someone Named Eva Summary

Someone We Know is a 2019 mystery thriller by Shari Lapena, a Canadian author best known for her 2016 bestseller The Couple Next Door. A terse whodunnit with plot twists and satirical humor, Someone We Know probes the complacency and paranoia of its suburban setting, where everyone has secrets and no one quite knows their neighbors. A New York Times bestseller, Someone We Know uses its murder-mystery plot to explore themes of trust, deception, parenthood... Read Someone We Know Summary

Someone You Can Build a Nest In (2024) is a fantasy romance novel by John Wiswell. The narrative follows Shesheshen, a shapeshifting monster who lives alone on the margins of a town named Underlook. When she encounters a compassionate human woman named Homily, their unexpected bond challenges Shesheshen’s ideas about survival and family. The novel uses the conventions of dark fantasy and body horror to examine social alienation and the nature of love between fundamentally... Read Someone You Can Build a Nest In Summary

T. J. Klune’s 2024 contemporary/queer cozy fantasy novel Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a sequel to his 2020 best-selling book The House in the Cerulean Sea. Like The House in the Cerulean Sea, Somewhere Beyond the Sea follows the adventures of two men—Arthur Parnassus and Linus Baker—and their efforts to guide and protect a group of magical children. Although both titles are published for adult readers, their creative world-building, gentle tone, and whimsical humor make... Read Somewhere Beyond the Sea Summary

Somewhere in the Unknown World: a Collective Refugee Memoir (2020) is a collection of stories told to Hmong American author Kao Kalia Yang by refugees from across the world now living in Minnesota. Yang is intimately familiar with the issues facing refugee communities: She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after her family was displaced by war in Laos. The collection is her attempt to collect and preserve the stories of other people... Read Somewhere in the Unknown World Summary

“Song of Myself” is a free verse poem by the American writer, journalist, and poet Walt Whitman. The poem is often classified as a work of transcendentalist literature. Originally self-published by Whitman himself in 1855, it was considerably revised and expanded over subsequent decades. In 1889, “Song of Myself” was released in its final form as part of the last edition of the collection Leaves of Grass. This final version—the version referenced in this guide—is... Read Song of Myself Summary

Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon was published in 1977. Since then, the novel has won many awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1978). Morrison later won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Beloved (1988) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993). Song of Solomon, Morrison’s third novel, follows the life of Milkman Dead, who uncovers the truth (the “song”) about his family when he travels south to Virginia... Read Song of Solomon Summary

Son of the Mob is a young adult novel by Gordon Korman, published in 2002. It is a comedic adventure story that concerns a teenaged boy named Vince Luca, and his attempts to come to terms with his Mafia family.Vince’s life is a mixture of mundane teenaged concerns (girls, grades) and adult criminal activity. This is established in the first chapter of the book, when he takes a girl named Angela out on a date... Read Son of the Mob Summary

Sooley, originally published in 2021, is a sports novel and work of historical fiction by American author John Grisham. Like most of his novels, Sooley became a New York Times Best Seller. As of 2023, Grisham has written over 50 novels, mostly in the legal thriller genre. Sooley is one of the few examples of Grisham writing outside his area of expertise; the narrative follows the story of Samuel Sooleymon, a teenager from South Sudan... Read Sooley Summary

Sorrow and Bliss (2020) is a novel by Australian writer Meg Mason. It follows the narrator Martha’s experience with mental illness, and how she ends up pushing away the people closest to her before eventually finding her way back to them again. The book explores themes of motherhood, mental illness, and the importance of communication in relationships.Mason has written for newspapers and magazines, including The Financial Times and The Times of London. Sorrow and Bliss... Read Sorrow and Bliss Summary

Sounder is a 1969 book for young readers by American author William H. Armstrong. In the novel, a young boy grows up in a Black sharecropping family on a sprawling plantation in the 19th-century in the American South, where he lives with his parents, his siblings, and his faithful dog, Sounder. Bored and lonely, the boy dreams of returning to school and learning to read, and he copes with his life of obligation by hunting... Read Sounder Summary

Sounds Like Love is a contemporary romance novel by American novelist Ashley Poston. Published in June 2025 by Berkley Romance, Sounds Like Love traces protagonist Joni Lark as she chases her dreams in the music industry. Joni has established herself as a professional lyricist in Los Angeles, California, but hasn’t been able to write a new song since her mom was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. After an impromptu kiss with boy-band icon Sebastian (Sasha) Fell... Read Sounds Like Love Summary

Source Code: My Beginnings is the first installment of a three-part memoir by American businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. The memoir tracks Gates’s life from his early days in Seattle, Washington, through his unfinished time at Harvard University, to the founding of Microsoft in the mid-1970s. Major themes in the memoir include Cultural Changes in Mid-Century America, The Importance of Exploration in Education, and The Value of Rivalry in Innovation. This guide... Read Source Code Summary

Spare is a memoir by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The book was ghostwritten by J. R. Moehringer and first published in January 2023. The memoir’s title highlights Prince Harry’s position as Prince Charles’s “Spare” (i.e., contingency heir), in contrast to Prince William’s role as “Heir.” The narrative recounts the prince’s struggle to come to terms with his mother’s death and his pursuit of love and purpose. Outlining his reasons for breaking with the royal... Read Spare Summary

Written by Penn Cole and published in 2024, Spark of the Everflame is the first installment in a romantasy series called The Kindred’s Curse Saga. The novel introduces the fantastical Emarion universe and follows the story of 20-year-old Diem Bellator, who lives in a remote village with her mother, father, and younger brother. Diem’s life is predictable and safe because her parents have shielded her from the dangerous world beyond their mortal community. However, when... Read Spark of the Everflame Summary

Sparks Like Stars is the fourth contemporary adult novel by Afghan American author Nadia Hashimi. Hashimi’s previous publications include two children’s books and the bestselling novels A House Without Windows (2016), When the Moon is Low (2015), and The Pearl that Broke its Shell (2014). A trained medical doctor, Hashimi was born in the US to Afghan parents who left Afghanistan in the 1970s. Like her previous novels, Sparks Like Stars focuses on the fate... Read Sparks Like Stars Summary

Speak is a young-adult realistic fiction novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, first published in 1999. It follows the plight of a teenager, Melinda, who was raped at age 13 and struggles to put her life back together and find her voice. Anderson has written several young adult novels, all of which address pressing issues for teens honestly and empathetically. She was honored with the Margaret A. Edwards award for her important and relevant contributions to... Read Speak Summary