Required Reading Lists

Rebecca, a bestselling novel by famed English writer Daphne du Maurier, was published in 1938, and has never gone out of print. The winner of the National Book Award for favorite novel of 1938, Rebecca has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and a 1997 television miniseries. It was most recently adapted for a Netflix film in 2020 by the same name. Rebecca... Read Rebecca Summary

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Published in 1997, Rich Dad Poor Dad is a financial self-help book written by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. Kiyosaki’s aim in writing the book was to impart financial lessons and insights to the masses, drawing from his own life experiences and the starkly contrasting financial philosophies of his two “dads.” Upon its release, the book quickly became a bestseller and remains a classic in the personal finance genre. Kiyosaki structures the book as a... Read Rich Dad Poor Dad Summary

Riddley Walker (1980) is a dystopian science fiction novel by Russell Hoban. The novel is famous for its use of a phonetic, idiosyncratic version of English, spoken by the characters who live in a post-apocalyptic society. Riddley Walker won numerous awards, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1981.Plot SummaryA young boy named Riddley Walker lives in Inland, the name given to the south of England 2,000 years after a nuclear war sent human... Read Riddley Walker Summary

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Edith Wharton wrote “Roman Fever” near the end of a career that spanned more than five decades. Like many of her works, this 1934 short story investigates the social norms of affluent people from the US, considering the forms of violence these norms tolerate and even encourage. Spare in setting and restricted in action, the story shifts between the present and the past as it depicts a love triangle’s long reverberations. As the Roman backdrop... Read Roman Fever Summary

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a three-act play by the English playwright Tom Stoppard. It is an existentialist, absurdist satire featuring characters and events from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead enjoyed critical success, winning The New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s Award for Best Play and four Tony Awards in 1968. Since then, the play has been adapted into several radio plays and a... Read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Summary

’Salem’s Lot (1975) is the second published novel by Stephen King, his first being Carrie (1974). The book won the Locus Award for best fantasy and was adapted as a television miniseries in 1979 and 2004. It also inspired a movie sequel, A Return to Salem’s Lot.King wrote ’Salem’s Lot after being inspired when teaching the novel Dracula in a college course. Originally titled Second Coming, ’Salem’s Lot places a similar tale in a rural... Read 'Salem's Lot Summary

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“Shooting an Elephant,” is an essay by British author George Orwell, first published in the magazine New Writing in 1936. Orwell, born Eric Blair, is world-renowned for his sociopolitical commentary. He served as a British officer in Burma from 1922 to 1927, then worked as a journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and essayist for the remainder of his career, going on to produce celebrated works such as Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). Before penning this... Read Shooting an Elephant Summary

Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse and first published in German in 1922, is a work of philosophical fiction. The book is based closely on the teachings of the spiritual leader Gautama Buddha who lived in present day Nepal or Northern India in the 4th or 5th century BCE. The book tells the story of the physical and spiritual journey of a fictional Brahmin’s son Siddhartha, in his quest for self-discovery and the meaning of existence... Read Siddhartha Summary

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards, pastor of the Congregational church of Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1741, during the period of the First Great Awakening. Edwards delivered the sermon to remarkable effect on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Connecticut, during a revival tour, and it was published shortly thereafter in Boston. Though its hellfire-and-brimstone style is not typical of Edwards’s work, it quickly became his best-known publication... Read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Summary

Introduction Sold is a young adult novel published in 2006 by American author Patricia McCormick. The protagonist and first-person narrator is Lakshmi, a Nepali girl from a remote mountain village who is 13 when she is trafficked for sex to an illicit organization in a large city in India. Through a series of short, titled poems (or vignettes), Lakshmi chronicles her experiences in the brothel called the “Happiness House,” recording her experiences with the people... Read Sold Summary

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) is a horror novel by American science fiction author Ray Bradbury. It tells the story of Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, two small-town boys whose lives are threatened when a mysterious carnival arrives the week before Halloween. Bradbury, from a small Midwestern town himself, examines The Nature of Good and Evil, the human fear of mortality, and the sometimes-frightening experience of coming of age in the American Midwest. The... Read Something Wicked This Way Comes Summary

... Read Sonnet Summary