Little House in the Big Woods was published in 1932 by American author Laura Ingalls Wilder. The first in a nine-book series, the autobiographical narrative relates the story of a family of homesteading pioneers living and laboring in Wisconsin. The story is illustrated by Garth Williams, whose drawings of the Ingalls family are often considered iconic and an integral part of the reading experience.This is a classic children’s tale set during an era of western... Read Little House in the Big Woods Summary

The Ingalls family—parents Charles and Caroline, known as “Pa” and “Ma” in the book, and daughters Mary (age seven), Laura (age six) and Carrie (a baby)—live in Wisconsin in the late 1800s near their extended families. Pa hears that Native American territory on the prairies of Kansas will soon open up to settlement by whites and decides to move there to claim a good plot of land before the selection gets too competitive. The family... Read Little House on the Prairie Summary

Dava Sobel’s best-selling book Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time tells the story of the 18th-century contest to find a precise way to locate a ship at sea, the clockmaker who built the first timepiece that could do so, and his battle with the astronomers whose alternate method competed for the winning prize. Replete with sea disasters, brilliant scientists, and scheming politicians, Longitude won... Read Longitude Summary

Looking for Alaska is narrated by a sixteen-year-old boy, Miles Halter, who leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies detailing the adventures of notable figures during their days at boarding school. Most of all, he is motivated by the notion of a “Great Perhaps”. Miles has a fascination with famous last words, and particularly with the last words of the poet Francois... Read Looking for Alaska Summary

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Mrs. Fletcher is a 2017 comic novel by American author Tom Perrotta. It follows the sexual reawakening of middle-aged divorcée Eve Fletcher after her son, Brendan Fletcher, departs for college. Meanwhile, Brendan finds the campus environment inhospitable to his unthinking “lacrosse bro” misogyny. Mrs. Fletcher is the seventh novel by Perrotta, best known for 1998’s Election (adapted into a movie of the same name, starring Reese Witherspoon) and 2011’s The Leftovers, which was adapted into... Read Mrs. Fletcher Summary

Normal People is a novel by Sally Rooney, published by Faber & Faber in 2018. Rooney is also the author of the novel Conversations With Friends, and the winner of the 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Normal People is set in the author’s native Ireland. The two main characters are Connell Waldron, a boy from a lower-middle-class background, and Marianne Sheridan, who comes from a wealthy family. As disparate as their socioeconomic... Read Normal People Summary

Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir, Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, chronicles the 13 months she spent in a federal women’s prison in Danbury, Connecticut. In 2013, Netflix adapted the memoir into an original series featuring the experiences of fictional character Piper Chapman. The memoir follows a linear timeline, starting with the crime Kerman unknowingly commits right after college, the process leading up to the sentencing, and her time in Danbury... Read Orange Is The New Black Summary

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Published anonymously in 1813, Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen’s most well-known book. A “novel of manners,” which presents a realistic picture of society through the customs and manners of everyday life, Pride and Prejudice offers a glimpse into 19th-century English social hierarchies, as well as women’s roles and the importance of marriage. While Austen’s books were popular during her lifetime, she died before she was acknowledged as their author; when Persuasion was published posthumously, her... Read Pride and Prejudice Summary

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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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Ruin and Rising is the third and final book in Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy of young adult fantasy adventure/romance novels. Ruin and Rising was originally published in 2014. Bardugo has written 12 novels as of 2021, many of which are set in the “GrishaVerse” world first portrayed in the novel Shadow and Bone. The Shadow and Bone trilogy, combined with Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology, has been adapted as a television miniseries. Before... Read Ruin and Rising Summary

Sense and Sensibility (1811) was the first published novel of English writer Jane Austen (1775-1817). She published it anonymously, identifying herself only as "a lady." It tells the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who find love after their father dies and they are plunged into a more modest lifestyle. Sense and Sensibility’s continual presence in the cultural imagination is evident in its numerous film and TV adaptations, including the award-winning 1995 version... Read Sense and Sensibility Summary

Shadow and Bone (2012) by Leigh Bardugo is a young adult fantasy adventure and romance novel. It is Bardugo’s debut novel and the first book in her Shadow and Bone trilogy, also called the Grisha trilogy. Inspired by 19th-century Tsarist Russia, Bardugo creates a darkly magical world characterized by strange armies, extreme wealth and poverty, and personifications of light and shadow. The novel was a New York Times best seller, a Los Angeles Times best... Read Shadow and Bone Summary

Shantaram is a 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts. Written as a semi-autobiographical telling of his adventures as one of the most wanted men in 1980s Australia, Shantaram tells the story of Lindsay Ford (who usually goes by “Lin”), who, after fleeing from an Australian prison, escapes to Mumbai. He falls in love with the country and rises through the ranks of a criminal organization led by Abdel Khader Khan.At the time of its publication... Read Shantaram Summary

Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects tells the story of Camille, a crime reporter living in Chicago. After a little girl goes missing in Camille’s hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, Camille’s boss talks her into going home to report on the disappearance. Although she is reluctant to revisit her hometown, a place she hasn’t seen in over ten years, she is eager to please her boss and gives in to his pleas. Most the novel takes place... Read Sharp Objects Summary