Jennifer L. Holm’s Full of Beans is a 2016 middle-grade historical novel set in 1934. Main character and first-person protagonist Beans Curry is a 10-year-old boy born and raised in Key West, Florida. The Great Depression causes difficulties for the locals of the dilapidated town, including Beans’s family. “New Dealer” Mr. Julius Stone, Jr. arrives with the plan to boost Key West’s failing economy by recreating it as a tourist destination, but Beans decides that... Read Full of Beans Summary

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up in America is a 2003 book by Firoozeh Dumas in which she describes her experiences as an Iranian immigrant to the US. The narrative follows a non-linear time structure, and Dumas often moves between different eras of her life, including the time of writing, when she is an adult. Much of her work centers on what life was like for her as a child who came to... Read Funny In Farsi Summary

In her fifth novel, Funny Story, released in April 2024, Emily Henry delves into the life-altering circumstances that force protagonist Daphne Vincent to start anew in her thirties. The novel paints a picture of the complexities of modern relationships, exploring how individuals often shy away from vulnerability, fearing that it may be perceived as weakness. Portraying the less glamorous aspects of love, Henry compels her characters, Daphne and her love interest, Miles, to confront issues... Read Funny Story Summary

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021) is the seventh New York Times bestselling book written by American popular science writer Mary Roach. In Fuzz, Roach takes on the issue of human-animal conflict, ranging from deadly bear attacks to falling trees and gulls destroying flower arrangements. Simultaneously humorous and informative, Roach explores the organized efforts to solve these problems while raising the larger philosophical questions of coexistence and the value of life.Mary Roach is known... Read Fuzz Summary

Galapagos is a 1985 novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut. The novel’s narrator is the long-dead Leon Trout, a ghost who watched the evolution of humanity of the course of a million years. The story explores the themes Nature Versus Nurture, Pacifism, and Regret.This guide uses an eBook version of the 1985 Dial Press edition.Content Warning: This novel depicts explicit acts of violence and refers to death by suicide.Plot SummaryLeon Trout, the story’s narrator, is... Read Galapagos Summary

Gangsta Granny is a 2011 children’s chapter book by British actor and author David Walliams. Walliams brings his trademark humor to his story of an 11-year-old boy named Ben who dreads spending every Friday night at his grandmother Granny’s house, where she expects him to eat cabbage soup and play Scrabble. However, when Ben discovers that Granny has a secret life as a jewel thief, he decides that he wants to get to know Granny... Read Gangsta Granny Summary

The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel is a series of five novels written in French by François Rabelais in the 16th century. The novel-cycle relates the adventures of two giants in hyperbolic, satirical prose. Using humor ranging from slapstick to irony, Rabelais explores serious themes such as the development of education and religious reformation. The books are noted for their colorful, rich literary style, bursting with puns, allusions, and social commentary. An early example of... Read Gargantua And Pantagruel Summary

George’s Marvelous Medicine is a 1981 children’s fantasy/magical realism novella by Roald Dahl. Popular since its publication, the book featured in a 1986 episode of Jackanory, a television show designed to promote reading to children in England. It has also been released twice in audiobook format, featuring narrators Richard E. Grant and Derek Jacobi, respectively. In 2003, George’s Marvelous Medicine appeared 134th on the BBC’s “The Big Read,” which asked readers in the United Kingdom... Read George's Marvelous Medicine Summary

Get a Life, Chloe Brown is a 2019 fiction romance novel by Black British author Talia Hibbert and published by Avon Romance. The novel is an #OwnVoices text, as Hibbert herself lives with fibromyalgia. Get a Life, Chloe Brown challenges conventional notions of the romance genre as it illustrates one experience of living with chronic illness and disability. The novel shows that those living with chronic illness and disability are deserving of loving relationships. The... Read Get a Life, Chloe Brown Summary

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine is a 1965 novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007). The novel is a postmodern satire on wealth, capitalism, and the dark side of the American Dream. Vonnegut’s fifth novel is considered a precursor to Slaughterhouse Five (1969) since it introduces many of the themes that appear in that much-lauded novel. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater contains elements of science fiction, which emerge in a... Read God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater Summary

Goodbye, Vitamin is Asian American author Rachel Khong’s debut novel. Khong, whose grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease, explores how Alzheimer’s disease affects a family in this work of literary fiction. Written as a series of diary entries, Khong’s protagonist, Ruth Young, meditates on memory, forgiveness, and the challenges inherent in familial relationships as she navigates an adulthood that is not turning out as planned.Published in 2017, Goodbye, Vitamin received positive reviews and was named one of... Read Goodbye, Vitamin Summary

Mikki Brammer’s contemporary novel, Good Joy, Bad Joy (2026), explores themes of aging, friendship, and self-discovery in the final chapter of a woman’s life. The story centers on Joy Bridport, an 89-year-old widow who has spent her life adhering to the rules and expectations of others. Her quiet, predictable existence in the small town of Beacon, New York, is shattered when her lifelong best friend, the adventurous and rebellious Hazel Scottsdale, reveals she has terminal... Read Good Joy, Bad Joy Summary

Good Material (2023) is Dolly Alderton’s second novel. It follows protagonist Andy Dawson as he struggles to cope with the end of his relationship. The novel explores the ways men are just as devastated by relationship breakups as women but also highlights men’s lack of emotional support from their friends. Through Andy’s emotional journey, he learns that before he can be a partner to someone else, he must first learn to love and accept himself.As... Read Good Material Summary

Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is a darkly comic novel originally published in 1990. It is a satirical imagining of the Biblical apocalypse featuring angels, demons, humans, and the hosts of Heaven and Hell.Pratchett is well known for his ˙comic fantasy Discworld series, which spans 41 books. Gaiman is the author of, among other titles, Stardust, American Gods, and the graphic novel series... Read Good Omens Summary

Gooney Bird Greene is a middle-grade realistic fiction novel written by Lois Lowry and originally published in 2002. Lois Lowry is a renowned children’s author who has written 48 novels and novellas for young readers. Gooney Bird Greene was awarded the 2002 Rhode Island Children’s Book Award and became a series of five books. It was celebrated for its unique approach to the exploration of What Makes a Great Story and What Makes a Great... Read Gooney Bird Greene Summary

Greetings from Witness Protection (2017) is the debut novel of middle grade author Jake Burt. When the book was first published, it was listed as an Indie Next Selection. Burt has since written four other standalone middle grade novels: The Right Hook of Devin Velma (2018), The Tornado (2019), Cleo Porter and the Body Electric (2020), and The Ghoul of Windydown Vale (2022).Burt teaches sixth-grade students, so he has firsthand insight into the middle grade... Read Greetings From Witness Protection! Summary

Russell Baker (b. August 14, 1925) is an American newspaper columnist, humorist, political satirist, and author. He earned a B.A. from Johns Hopkins in 1947 and began his career at the Baltimore Sun as a police reporter. He was a columnist at the New York Times from 1962 to 1998 and host of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre from 1992 to 2004.His Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Growing Up (1982), recounts his childhood and adolescence during the Great Depression... Read Growing Up Summary

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013) by Mary Roach is a work of contemporary popular science writing that explores the topic of human digestion. Roach, a bestselling science writer, is known for her ability to make complex scientific subjects accessible through humor and meticulous research. Building on the success of her previous works—like Stiff (2003), which examines human cadavers from a scientific perspective, and Packing for Mars (2010), which explores the psychological and physiological... Read Gulp Summary

Drawing on his childhood experiences, Gary Paulsen’s novel for young readers, Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered (1993, 1st edition), contains 12 vignettes chronicling the narrator’s visit to his distant relatives on a farm over one summer. In addition to the culture shock of adjusting to rural life, the book also centers on the narrator’s relationship with his reckless and adventurous country cousin, Harris, and the process of finding acceptance as part of a family... Read Harris and Me Summary

Heartburn (1983) is a roman à clef by American writer, director, and journalist Nora Ephron. The novel is a thinly fictionalized account of the tumultuous end of Ephron’s marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, whose affair while Ephron was pregnant became a subject of public gossip. The story follows Rachel Samstat, a pregnant cookbook author who leaves her husband after discovering his infidelity and uses her sharp wit and culinary knowledge to navigate the painful aftermath... Read Heartburn Summary