Paul Beatty is the author of the 2015 novel The Sellout—a satire that makes fun of contemporary norms around race and identity. In the novel, Beatty applies his no-holds-barred idea of comedy to segregation, slavery, police brutality, and countless tragic and fraught issues that people typically treat with extreme seriousness and sensitivity. Through the main character, Me, the book provides an ironic and unexpected take on themes like Racial and Personal Identity and Capitalism’s Power... Read The Sellout Summary

The Seven Year Slip is a 2023 romance novel by bestselling American novelist Ashley Poston. A work of magical realism about love, timing, and staying true to oneself, The Seven Year Slip centers on Clementine West, an overworked and grieving book publicist in New York City. Clementine has inherited a magical apartment from her late aunt and finds herself in a time slip where she meets a man living in the apartment seven years in... Read The Seven Year Slip Summary

Holly Kennedy’s 2025 novel, The Sideways Life of Denny Voss, is a literary coming-of-age story narrated by its neurodivergent protagonist. Thirty-year-old Denny Voss lives a quiet, sheltered life in rural Minnesota with his adoptive mother, Nana-Jo. After a series of well-intentioned but chaotic mishaps, he is arrested for the murder of a local businessman and mayoral candidate. To aid his defense, Denny must recount the events of the past year to his court-appointed therapist, uncovering... Read The Sideways Life of Denny Voss Summary

The Sirens of Titan is a 1959 science-fiction novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut. In the novel, questions of free will are explored when Martians invade Earth. As in many of Vonnegut's novels, the novel uses dark humor and irony to portray humanity. The novel has not yet been adapted for other media, despite numerous attempts. This guide uses an eBook copy of the 1975 Coronet edition of the novel. Content Warning: The source material... Read The Sirens of Titan Summary

The Sisters (2025) is a work of literary autofiction by acclaimed Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri, whose novel The Family Clause (2018) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. His first novel to be written in English, The Sisters follows the lives of the three Swedish Tunisian Mikkola sisters as they navigate adulthood from the turn of the millennium onward. Their story is framed by the obsessive recollections of a writer... Read The Sisters Summary

The Sisters Brothers is a 2011 novel by Canadian writer Patrick DeWitt. Set in 1851, it traces the journey of Charlie and Eli Sisters, two hired killers traveling from Oregon to San Francisco to find a man called Warm, who allegedly stole something from their boss, the Commodore. The darkly comic Western is in the picaresque genre, as the brothers’ episodic misadventures explore different communities populating the American West.The Sisters Brothers is divided into 64... Read The Sisters Brothers Summary

The Soulmate Equation (2021) is a romance novel by Christina Lauren—the shared pen name of best friends-partners Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. Following an unlikely romance fueled by science, the book was an instant New York Times bestseller, and was chosen as a best pick by platforms such as BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, Goodreads, Marie Claire, and Woman’s World. The novel is one of 27 books that Lauren has published—other popular works including Love and Other... Read The Soulmate Equation Summary

The Stories Julian Tells, written by Ann Cameron, was first published in 1981 and is the first of eight books in the Julian’s World series, which explores the adventures of young Julian. Cameron, known for her adeptness in children’s literature, weaves humor and adventure into six tales that impart lessons about growth, imagination, and family dynamics. This collection, which falls within the children’s literature genre, focuses on themes relating to truth and fiction, the role... Read The Stories Julian Tells Summary

“The Story-Teller” is a humorous short story by British author Hector Hugh Munro, best known by the pen name Saki. The story first appeared in the Morning Post (a London newspaper) and was later collected in the 1914 anthology Beasts and Super-Beasts. Munro is perhaps best known for his short story “The Interlopers,” which is a common entry in high school reading lists and anthologies of British literature. “The Story-Teller” is also a popular and... Read The Storyteller Summary

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (2010) is a comedic novel for middle-grade readers by Tom Angleberger. In the novel, a sixth-grader’s folded-paper Yoda puppet gives advice that’s so good it causes a sensation, generates mischief and mayhem, and changes children’s lives. The first of six books in the bestselling Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda explores how an eccentric boy can transmit wisdom that’s startlingly on-point.In addition to... Read The Strange Case of Origami Yoda Summary

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a 2016 self-help book by American author and blogger Mark Manson. The book, which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, takes an unconventional look at the way our responses to life’s struggles shape how we live. The crude and brash title paves the way for a blunt, sometimes expletive-laced tone that deftly manages to address life’s deepest and most primary concerns: death, suffering, and... Read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK Summary

Published in 2023, Beth Lincoln’s The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels is a middle grade mystery novel and the first installment of the Swifts series. The story follows Shenanigan Swift, a mischievous girl from a family where names are chosen from a dictionary and are believed to define one’s destiny. During a family reunion at their ancestral home, a series of suspicious events, including the injury of the family matriarch, leads Shenanigan to investigate the... Read The Swifts Summary

The Taming of the Shrew is one of William Shakespeare’s earliest comedies, probably first performed around 1593. While the play’s depiction of women is the subject of much debate among modern readers and scholars, its popularity endures, and the play continues to be reproduced in various mediums. Notable adaptations include the 1967 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and the 1999 romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.This guide refers to the 2014... Read The Taming of the Shrew Summary

The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff, is an introduction to the philosophy of Taoism. Hoff uses Winnie-the-Pooh and other characters from A.A. Milne’s well-known children books to exemplify and explain these principles. The primary character, Pooh, exhibits many qualities that produce contentment. The literal meaning of Tao is “the way,” and the goal of the way is the kind of contentment that Pooh possesses.Many of the book’s passages are devoted to Taoist concepts such... Read The Tao Of Pooh Summary

In The Teacher’s Funeral (2004), Richard Peck gives a humorous, heartwarming look back at a changing time in America’s history. Narrator Russell Culver, a mischievous 15-year-old living in rural Indiana, reveals how his delight turned to dismay when his teacher died in August 1904. Peck draws on both his father’s childhood memories and his own recollections of visits to his grandparents’ farm as inspiration for the novel, which won a 2005 Christopher Award. Page citations... Read The Teacher's Funeral Summary

The Terrible Two, published in 2015, is a middle-grade novel that follows Miles Murphy’s attempts to become the predominant prankster at his new school, despite some competition from presumed teacher’s pet, Niles Sparks. The Terrible Two is the first book in a four-book series co-authored by Mac Barnett and Jory John. Barnett is the New York Times best-selling author of Extra Yarn, illustrated by Jon Klassen, which won the 2013 Caldecott Honor and the 2012... Read The Terrible Two Summary

Larissa Fasthorse wrote The Thanksgiving Play in 2015 as a response to repeated assertions that her previous plays were unstageable, as they required (often only one) Indigenous actor(s). The satirical comedy about the well-meaning ineptitude of all-white attempts at activism on behalf of Indigenous people has a cast of only four white characters, although Fasthorse does encourage theaters to consider white-passing people of color for the roles. As if to prove Fasthorse’s point, this stunt... Read The Thanksgiving Play Summary

The Third Policeman is the second novel by Flann O’Brien, the pseudonym for Irish writer Brian O’Nolan, written in 1939/1940 but only published posthumously in 1967. It was originally rejected by the publishers of his acclaimed first novel, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939) and was largely forgotten until after his death. The novel is an absurdist, darkly comic novel narrated by an unnamed rural Irish “scholar” whose obsession with the eccentric thinker de Selby intersects with him... Read The Third Policeman Summary

The Thursday Murder Club is a mystery fiction novel focused around a murder at a retirement home called Coopers Chase. It was written by Richard Osman in 2020 and published by Penguin. Osman is a British television show producer, and the chosen style of narrative reflects this in the novel; the chapters are often left on cliffhangers and switch to follow different characters as a television show would when compiling several plot threads together. The... Read The Thursday Murder Club Summary

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, originally published in 1894, is a work of fiction written by American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, who lived from 1835 to 1910. Twain spent his early years in Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River, and the river plays a large role in Pudd'nhead Wilson, as it does in Twain's more famous works, Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel... Read Pudd'nhead Wilson Summary