Emma is a fiction novel published in 1815 by the English author Jane Austen. The book centers on the character development of its eponymous protagonist, a genteel young woman on a country estate who meddles in the love lives of friends and neighbors. Jane Austen was conscious that Emma’s snobbery, vanity, and meddling might make her a “heroine whom no one but myself will much like” (Austen-Leigh, James Edward. A Memoir of Jane Austen. London:... Read Emma Summary

In Empire Falls, published in 2001, award-winning author Richard Russo focuses his sharp observations on family, faith, and hope for the future in small-town America, where the factories have left, the populations are dwindling, and the prospects are shrinking. Miles Roby almost got out of Empire Falls, but his mother’s illness brought him back a semester shy of graduating college. Now he runs the Empire Grill, a landmark that still anchors the dying town, and... Read Empire Falls Summary

Enormous Wings (2026) is a work of contemporary fiction by the New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel. The novel centers on 77-year-old Pepper Mills, whose life is upended when her children move her into a Texas retirement community after a minor car accident. Just as she begins to build a new life and finds romance with a fellow resident, Pepper receives an astonishing diagnosis: She is pregnant. The impossible news transforms her into an... Read Enormous Wings Summary

Erasure is a satirical, metafictional novel by American author Percival Everett, originally published in 2001. The novel tackles the complexities of language, racial identity, and the publishing industry, exploring how cultural expectations and the literary marketplace regulate African American literature and the Black experience. The novel won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2002. In 2023, Erasure was adapted into a film by Cord Jefferson with the title American Fiction.Percival Everett is Distinguished Professor of English... Read Erasure Summary

Esio Trot is a 1990 middle-grade novel by children’s author Roald Dahl. It also features illustrations from long-time Dahl collaborator Quentin Blake. Esio Trot tells the story of Mr. Hoppy, a shy, older man who is desperately in love with his neighbor, Mrs. Silver. Unfortunately, he is too shy to speak to her. Mr. Hoppy creates a plan to win her heart by going to absurd lengths to impress her. Dahl uses Mr. Hoppy’s story... Read Esio Trot Summary

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson is a comedic suspense novel of a family who assembles for a weekend getaway at a ski resort in Australia. Billed by the paternal aunt of the family as a “reunion,” the family anticipates the release from prison of Michael Cunningham, brother of the novel’s narrator. The novel blends tropes of the mystery genre with contemporary metafiction as its narrator explicitly draws attention to his... Read Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone Summary

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (2023) is Australian writer Benjamin Stevenson’s second mystery novel featuring the adventures of Ernest Cunningham, a writer and amateur detective who uses his own projects as the basis for true crime narratives. In this novel, while Ernest is attending a literary festival onboard a luxury train, a writer and publisher are both murdered.Stevenson has extensive experience working for publishing houses and, in addition to the two books in... Read Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect Summary

Everything I Know About Love (2018) is the debut book by English author, podcaster, and journalist Dolly Alderton. It is a memoir about her teens and twenties as she navigates romantic love, female friendship, self-discovery, and self-actualization. Everything I Know was an international bestseller and was adapted in 2022 as a television series for the BBC in the United Kingdom and Peacock in the United States. Alderton is also known for the novels Ghosts (2020)... Read Everything I Know About Love Summary

Renowned Canadian/American author Polly Horvath published the middle-grade novel Everything on a Waffle in 2001. Over two years, the book received numerous accolades, including Mr. Christie’s Book Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, the ALSC Notable Children’s Book, a Newbery Honor Medal, and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. Written in the first person, 11-year-old narrator Primrose tells of her parents disappearing in a typhoon off the coast of British Columbia. Primrose discounts... Read Everything on a Waffle Summary

Fair Weather is a 2001 historical fiction novel set against the backdrop of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The author is award-winning children’s novelist Richard Peck, known for his incorporation of historical settings and events. Fair Weather follows 13-year-old Rosie Beckett, her two siblings, and her grandfather as they journey from their rural Illinois farm to the bustling city of Chicago, at the invitation of Rosie’s Aunt Euterpe. Through Rosie’s eyes over the course of... Read Fair Weather Summary

Falling Over Sideways (2016) is a popular middle-grade novel by Jordan Sonnenblick. The novel tells the story of 14-year-old Claire Goldsmith and the events that unfold during her eighth-grade year after her father has a stroke one morning. Claire must face dance school, bullies, her father’s rehabilitation, and a strange new home life, all while trying not to be, look, or feel “awkward” or “unlucky” in her new grade. The narrative further addresses issues of... Read Falling Over Sideways Summary

Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970) is a children’s novel by British author Roald Dahl. One of Dahl’s most acclaimed and enduring titles, the novel follows an anthropomorphic fox—the titular Mr. Fox—and his animal friends, who live near three cruel farmers. Although the farmers continually attempt to kill the animals, Mr. Fox and his friends are able to outsmart them and steal all the food they want. Fantastic Mr. Fox, like many of Dahl’s works, is a... Read Fantastic Mr Fox Summary

Fat Ham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning one-act play by playwright James Ijames that premiered in 2021. It recounts tensions in a Black Southern family through its protagonist Juicy, a young queer man who struggles with his identity and life purpose. In a reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Juicy is ordered by the ghost of his late father to kill his mother’s new husband (Juicy’s uncle and his deceased father’s brother). Each of the play’s seven characters... Read Fat Ham Summary

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a 1971 novel by American author Hunter S. Thompson. The book chronicles the story of journalist Raoul Duke and his attorney Doctor Gonzo who drive to Las Vegas, ostensibly to cover an iconic off-road vehicle race. However, they are also looking to “find the American Dream” and take with them a car’s load of hard drugs. Duke is a fictionalized surrogate for Thompson, while Gonzo is based off... Read Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Summary

Published in 1973, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 is a collection of serialized political coverage essays written by journalist Hunter S. Thompson, covering the 1972 presidential election in the US. Thompson focuses on the Democratic Party’s primary process before the convention in Miami, Florida, as the party tried to select a candidate to face down against incumbent President Richard Nixon, whom Thompson loathed. In his typically idiosyncratic style, Thompson critiques media coverage... Read Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail '72 Summary

Fever Beach, published by Carl Hiaasen in 2025, is the story of Dale Figgo, Viva Morales, and Twilly Spree, three very different Floridians who become entangled in a congressman’s web of corruption. A lifelong Floridian, Hiaasen is an award-winning journalist and author who has written many adult, young adult, and middle grade novels, including 2013’s Bad Monkey and 2020’s Squeeze Me. A number of his books have become New York Times bestsellers, and his work... Read Fever Beach Summary

Fever Pitch (1992), an autobiographical book by British author Nick Hornby, explores Hornby’s life through his love for football (soccer in America) and with the Arsenal Football Club in particular. He discusses seminal football matches he’s attended and their relationship to his life as a whole. Fever Pitch was Hornby’s first published book; he went on to write popular fiction novels including High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down.The first game Hornby... Read Fever Pitch Summary

Fiddler on the Roof, a musical with a score by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a libretto by Joseph Stein, first opened on Broadway in 1964. The play is based on an amalgam of stories written by Solomon NaumovichRabinovich under the pen name Sholem Aleichem, which is Hebrew for “peace be unto you.” The musical takes place on a fictional Russian shtetl, or Jewish village, called Anatevka during the reign of Tsar Nicholas... Read Fiddler on the Roof Summary

Ben Philippe’s 2019 young adult novel, The Field Guide to the North American Teenager, follows the life of Black Haitian Canadian teen, Norris Kaplan, as he settles into his new life in Austin, Texas. Through Norris’s experiences, the novel explores the harmful impacts of words, stereotypes, and judgment. Philippe, a Haitian Canadian immigrant, lends his unique perspective to the novel as Norris navigates the challenges of his new life. This novel won the American Library... Read Field Guide to the North American Teenager Summary

Fight Night, published in 2021, is Canadian author Miriam Toews’s ninth book. Like many of her works, including the award-winning 2018 novel Women Talking, Fight Night draws on the author’s personal history as a Mennonite to explore themes of mortality and despair, repression and joy, and the limits and means of language. The novel became a bestseller upon its publication and received positive reviews. It was shortlisted for the 20201 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was... Read Fight Night Summary