The Best of Iggy is a middle grade novel written by Annie Barrows and illustrated by Sam Ricks, published in 2020. The story follows the adventures of Iggy Frangi, a mischievous fourth grader who constantly finds himself in trouble. Through a series of humorous and sometimes regrettable escapades, Iggy learns valuable lessons about friendship, responsibility, and the consequences of his actions.The Best of Iggy is the first in a series of five books about Iggy’s... Read The Best of Iggy Summary

Barbara Robinson’s The Best School Year Ever, first published in 1994, is a humorous middle grade realistic novel told from the perspective of sixth-grade student Beth Bradley. When Beth is assigned to come up with compliments for her classmates, she struggles to find something nice to say about Imogene Herdman. Imogene is part of a notorious family of badly behaved children, and Beth shares several stories of the terrible things that Imogene and her siblings... Read The Best School Year Ever Summary

IntroductionBritish author Roald Dahl first made his mark as a leading writer of children’s literature in 1961, when he published James and the Giant Peach. His subsequent books include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, and his 1982 novel The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), which was illustrated by Quentin Blake and based on a segment of Dahl’s 1975 book Danny, the Champion of the World. His books have been viewed as darker... Read The BFG Summary

Widely known for his best-selling books A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Walk in the Woods, author and educator Bill Bryson published another bestseller in 2019. The Body: a Guide for Occupants is a tour of human anatomy and its wonders. Compiled for the general reader, The Body is a compendium of facts, many amazing or weird, about human anatomy and physiology. It explores the various organ systems—skin, brain, eyes, nose, mouth and throat... Read The Body: A Guide for Occupants Summary

The Bodyguard is a 2022 novel by best-selling American novelist Katherine Center. A lighthearted romantic comedy about the consequences of feeling unlovable, The Bodyguard focuses on the story of Hannah Brooks, an Executive Protection Agent (colloquially known as a bodyguard), as she is assigned to protect superstar Jack Stapleton from his tenacious stalkers. By employing many of the classic tropes of contemporary romance, Center explores how people from completely different worlds can learn to forgive... Read The Bodyguard Summary

Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, is a critically acclaimed, sprawling saga of the vivid world of New York City in the 1980s. Modeled after Charles Dickens’s socially realistic novels, the book is a satire on the excesses and disparities of New York society. Powered by diverse, opinionated characters and iconic locations, the plot follows the wealthy, married Manhattan investment broker Sherman McCoy as his American Dream begins to unravel. Sherman’s... Read The Bonfire of the Vanities Summary

Written by Abbi Waxman in 2019, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill is an adult romantic comedy that follows the slow blooming of Nina Hill, a single bookseller with anxiety who undergoes a personal transformation as she discovers family she never knew she had, acquires a boyfriend, and learns that some aspects of real life can be just as rewarding as fiction. The novel became a USA Today bestseller and received praise from review outlets... Read The Bookish Life of Nina Hill Summary

“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” is a short story by American author Stephen Crane. Published in 1898, the story parodies tropes of old westerns and addresses the themes of the death of the Old West, domesticity, and masculinity. The story details the journey of Jack Potter, marshal of the small town of Yellow Sky, as he brings his new bride from the East back to his home in Texas on the Western frontier. Once... Read The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky Summary

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman was originally published in 2022. It is the third book in the Thursday Murder Club series, which follows a group of seniors living in England as they gather each week in their retirement community to investigate unsolved murders. Osman’s books are cozy mysteries that look at contemporary issues. The Bullet That Missed is a New York Times bestseller, and it was Amazon’s best-selling book in 2022. It was... Read The Bullet That Missed Summary

The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde, is a story about forgiveness, love, and the clash of Old World and New World beliefs. Through a satirical approach, Wilde highlights the shortcomings of each set of beliefs and how the characters overcome those shortcomings to bridge the two worlds.The story begins with Hiram Otis and Lord Canterville discussing the ghost that haunts Canterville Chase, where the Otis family will be living. When they arrive, they find a... Read The Canterville Ghost Summary

“The Carriage,” one of Nikolai Gogol’s shortest stories, was originally published in 1836 and explores themes of vanity, consumption, and the pitfalls of social climbing. Gogol (1809-1852), a popular Russian author of Ukrainian descent, was known for using irony, hyperbole, and figurative language as well as elements of the fantastical and grotesque throughout his many short stories. “The Carriage” employs both subtle humor and comical exaggeration to depict the changes visited upon a small Russian... Read The Carriage Summary

When the story begins, a man named Erwin Martin, who never smokes, is buying cigarettes. Mr. Martin works for a company called F & S, where he is in charge of the filing department. Mr. Martin has already been contemplating—and planning—the murder of a coworker for over a week. Two years prior, a woman named Ulgine Barrows joined F & S, where she quickly proposed changes to the department—changes that Mr. Martin finds intolerable.Later, as... Read The Catbird Seat Summary

The Celebrants (2023) is Steven Rowley’s fourth novel, which explores the power of long-term friendship in the face of life’s catastrophic events and the realities of mortality. A New York Times bestseller, the novel was also a Today Show “Read with Jenna” Book Club Pick. The novel takes place primarily in Big Sur, California, and centers on five friends—Jordan, Jordy, Marielle, Naomi, and Craig—who graduated from Berkeley in 1995. While they grow apart in some... Read The Celebrants Summary

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” by Mark Twain, is a tall tale about a man who bets on anything and wagers that his frog can out-jump a stranger’s frog, with surprising results. The story is the first of Twain’s works to receive popular attention; it appeared in a New York newspaper in 1865 and was widely republished. In 1867, the story served as the title entry in Twain’s first book, a collection of... Read The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Summary

The Charm Offensive is a 2021 debut romantic comedy by American author Alison Cochrun. The novel follows Charlie Winshaw’s journey to repair his public image while appearing on the fictional reality dating show Ever After. Charlie falls in love with his producer, Dev Deshpande, highlighting LGBTQ+ Love and Representation and Personal Growth and Self-Acceptance, two of the novel’s central themes. A best book pick by both Harper’s Bazaar and Entertainment Weekly, The Charm Offensive was... Read The Charm Offensive Summary

John Collier (1901-1980) is best known for his short stories, many of which are constructed as fantastic parables of modern day life. He also wrote poetry and screenplays, and was a developer for the television show “The Twilight Zone.” “The Chaser” first appeared in his short story collection Fancies and Goodnights, which won the 1952 Edgar Award and the 1952 International Fantasy Award. It is a cautionary parable of love, capitalism, and the wisdom of... Read The Chaser Summary

The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling (William Morrow, 1957) is a retelling of the King Midas myth in which (instead of everything a man touches turning to gold) everything a young boy eats turns to chocolate. The book won the Massachusetts Children's Book Award (1989), the Utah Children's Choice Honors Award (1983), and the Beehive Award from the Children's Literature Association of Utah (1983). Patrick Skene Catling currently lives in London, where he writes... Read The Chocolate Touch Summary

The Code of the Woosters (1938) is a farcical tale of romantic mix-ups, grand larceny, extortion, and other antics at a posh country house in Gloucestershire, England. This is the third of P. G. Wodehouse’s novels featuring upper-class London bachelor Bertie Wooster and his masterful valet, Jeeves. Beginning with the 1916 short story “Jeeves Takes Charge,” Wodehouse featured Jeeves and Wooster in 35 short stories and 11 novels over six decades, and they’re among the... Read The Code of the Woosters Summary

The Color of Magic (1983) by Terry Pratchett is the first of 41 books in his beloved Discworld series. This satirical fantasy series plays with the vagaries of human nature, culture, literature, myth, and religion. The Color of Magic has been published as a graphic novel and produced as a video game. It was produced for television in 2008 as the first half of a two-part miniseries featuring Sean Astin, Tim Curry, and Christopher Lee.Other... Read The Color of Magic Summary

Written in 1904 by O. Henry, “The Cop and the Anthem” introduces the reader to Soapy, a former prison inmate struggling to find his footing as a free man. The story takes place at the turn of the 20th century during what was known as the Progressive Era—a time of great business expansion and social reform. O. Henry was one of many pen names used by American writer William Sydney Porter; he adopted it while... Read The Cop and the Anthem Summary