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Julius Caesar

William Shakespeare

The Oxford School Shakespeare has become the preferred introduction to the literary legacy of the greatest playwright in the English language. This exclusive collection of the Bard's best works has been designed specifically for readers new to Shakespeare's rich literary legacy. Each play ispresented complete and unabridged, in large print. Every book is well illustrated, and starts with a commentary and character summary. Scene synopses and character summaries clarify confusing plots, while incisive essays explore the historical context and Shakespeare's sources. Each book ends with a complete list of Shakespeare's plays and a brief chronology of the Bard's life. The detailed explanatory notes are written clearly and positioned right next to the text--no more squinting at microscopic footnotes or flipping pages back and forth in search of endnotes!The new edition of the series features new covers and new illustrations, including both new drawings and photos from recent productions of Shakespeare's plays around the globe. In addition, the notes and the introductory material have been completely revised in line with new research and in order tomake them clearer and more accessible. Finally, the entire text has been redesigned and reset to enhance readability. The new edition achieves the feat of unprecedented clarity of presentation without any cuts to the original text or the detailed explanations.

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'School', 'Historical Fiction', 'Read For School']

194,812

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13006.Julius_Caesar

Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Based on the real-life adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the award-winning Little House series, which has captivated generations of readers. This edition features the classic black-and-white artwork from Garth Williams.Little House in the Big Woods takes place in 1871 and introduces us to four-year-old Laura, who lives in a log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. She shares the cabin with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their lovable dog, Jack.Pioneer life isn’t easy for the Ingalls family, since they must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But they make the best of every tough situation. They celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do their spring planting, bring in the harvest in the fall, and make their first trip into town. And every night, safe and warm in their little house, the sound of Pa’s fiddle lulls Laura and her sisters into sleep.The nine books in the timeless Little House series tell the story of Laura’s real childhood as an American pioneer, and are cherished by readers of all generations. They offer a unique glimpse into life on the American frontier, and tell the heartwarming, unforgettable story of a loving family.

['Classics', 'Historical Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Historical', 'Middle Grade']

258,953

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8337.Little_House_in_the_Big_Woods

Neverwhere (London Below, #1)

Neil Gaiman

Under the streets of London there's a world most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. "Neverwhere" is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.Strange destinies lie in wait in London below - a world that seems eerily familiar. But a world that is utterly bizarre, peopled by unearthly characters such as the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds Court on a tube train.Now a single act of kindness has catapulted young businessman Richard Mayhew out of his safe and predictable life - and into the realms of "Neverwhere." Richard is about to find out more than he ever wanted to know about this other London. Which is a pity. Because Richard just wants to go home...

['Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Urban Fantasy', 'Audiobook', 'Science Fiction Fantasy', 'Science Fiction', 'Horror']

501,602

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14497.Neverwhere

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Mary Ann Shaffer

A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.“Treat yourself to this book, please - I can’t recommend it highly enough.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.... As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends - and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island - boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.Praise for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society“A jewel... Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends.” (People)“A book-lover’s delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary.” (Chicago Sun-Times)“A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb.” (The Sunday Times [London]) “Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish.” (The Times [London])

['Historical Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Romance', 'Historical', 'World War II', 'Book Club', 'War']

719,137

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2728527-the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society

The Elements of Style

William Strunk Jr.

This style manual offers practical advice on improving writing skills. Throughout, the emphasis is on promoting a plain English style. This little book can help you communicate more effectively by showing you how to enliven your sentences.

['Writing', 'Nonfiction', 'Reference', 'Language', 'Classics', 'Education', 'Self Help']

81,796

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33514.The_Elements_of_Style

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The rapid-fire wit and eccentric characters of The Importance of Being Earnest have made it a mainstay of the high school curriculum for decades.Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds pandemonium breaks loose. Only a senile nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day!This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader appreciate Wilde's wry wit and elaborate plot twists.

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'Humor', 'Literature', 'School']

351,494

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92303.The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)

J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter is about to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unlike most schoolboys, Harry never enjoys his summer holidays, but this summer is even worse than usual. The Dursleys, of course, are making his life a misery, but even his best friends, Ron and Hermione, seem to be neglecting him.Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...

['Fantasy', 'Young Adult', 'Fiction', 'Magic', 'Childrens', 'Audiobook', 'Adventure']

3,147,846

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2.Harry_Potter_and_the_Order_of_the_Phoenix

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote to Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Literature', 'War', 'Novels', 'American']

280,515

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46170.For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield - the novel he described as his 'favourite child' - Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. This edition uses the text of the first volume publication of 1850, and includes updated suggestions for further reading, original illustrations by 'Phiz', a revised chronology and expanded notes. In his new introduction, Jeremy Tambling discusses the novel's autobiographical elements, and its central themes of memory and identity.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Literature', 'Historical Fiction', '19th Century', 'Novels', 'British Literature']

226,005

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58696.David_Copperfield

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

['Nonfiction', 'History', 'Biography', 'World War II', 'War', 'Historical', 'Audiobook']

897,253

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8664353-unbroken

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium, #2)

Stieg Larsson

The ExposeMillenium publisher Mikael Blomkvist has made his reputation exposing corrupt establishment figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with an investigation into sex trafficking, Blomkvist cannot resist waging war on the powerful figures who control this lucrative industry.The MurderWhen a young couple is found dead in their Stockholm apartment, it's a straightforward job for Inspector Bublanski and his team. The killer left the weapon at the scene - and the fingerprints on the gun point in only one direction.The Girl Who Played with FireEx-security analyst Lisbeth Salander is wanted for murder. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. The only way Salander can be reached is by computer. But she can break into almost any network she chooses...

['Fiction', 'Mystery', 'Thriller', 'Crime', 'Mystery Thriller', 'Suspense', 'Contemporary']

892,818

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5060378-the-girl-who-played-with-fire

The Thorn Birds

Colleen McCullough

The Thorn Birds is a robust, romantic saga of a singular family, the Clearys. It begins in the early part of the 20th century, when Paddy Cleary moves his wife, Fiona, and their seven children to Drogheda, the vast Australian sheep station owned by his autocratic and childless older sister; and it ends more than half a century later, when the only survivor of the third generation, the brilliant actress Justine O'Neill, sets a course of life and love halfway around the world from her roots.The central figures in this enthralling story are the indomitable Meggie, the only Cleary daughter, and the one man she truly loves, the stunningly handsome and ambitious priest Ralph de Bricassart. Ralph's course moves him a long way indeed, from a remote Outback parish to the halls of the Vatican; and Meggie's except for a brief and miserable marriage elsewhere, is fixed to the Drogheda that is part of her bones - but distance does not dim their feelings though it shapes their lives.Wonderful characters people this book; strong and gentle, Paddy, hiding a private memory; dutiful Fiona, holding back love because it once betrayed her, violent, tormented Frank, and the other hardworking Cleary sons who give the boundless lands of Drogheda the energy and devotion most men save for women; Meggie; Ralph; and Meggie's children, Justine and Dane. And the land itself; stark, relentless in its demands, brilliant in its flowering, prey to gigantic cycles of drought and flood, rich when nature is bountiful, surreal like no other place on earth.Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0380018179 (ISBN13: 9780380018178)

['Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Romance', 'Classics', 'Australia', 'Historical', 'Historical Romance']

341,020

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3412.The_Thorn_Birds

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1)

Robert M. Pirsig

Robert M. Pirsig's Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an examination of how we live, a meditation on how to live better set around the narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father & his young son.

['Philosophy', 'Fiction', 'Classics', 'Spirituality', 'Travel', 'Psychology', 'Self Help']

222,549

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629.Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller

'For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.'Willy Loman has been a salesman for 34 years. At 60, he is cast aside, his usefulness now exhausted. With no future to dream about he must face the crushing disappointments of his past. He takes one final brave action, but is he heroic at last?, or a self-deluding fool?

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'School', 'Theatre', 'Literature']

221,290

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12898.Death_of_a_Salesman

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Bill Bryson

The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America—majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way—and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).

['Nonfiction', 'Travel', 'Memoir', 'Humor', 'Nature', 'Adventure', 'Audiobook']

392,565

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9791.A_Walk_in_the_Woods

Othello

William Shakespeare

In Othello, Shakespeare creates a powerful drama of a marriage that begins with fascination (between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona), with elopement, and with intense mutual devotion and that ends precipitately with jealous rage and violent deaths. He sets this story in the romantic world of the Mediterranean, moving the action from Venice to the island of Cyprus and giving it an even more exotic coloring with stories of Othello's African past. Shakespeare builds so many differences into his hero and heroine—differences of race, of age, of cultural background—that one should not, perhaps, be surprised that the marriage ends disastrously. But most people who see or read the play feel that the love that the play presents between Othello and Desdemona is so strong that it would have overcome all these differences were it not for the words and actions of Othello's standard-bearer, Iago, who hates Othello and sets out to destroy him by destroying his love for Desdemona. As Othello succumbs to Iago's insinuations that Desdemona is unfaithful, fascination—which dominates the early acts of the play—turns to horror, especially for the audience. We are confronted by spectacles of a generous and trusting Othello in the grip of Iago's schemes; of an innocent Desdemona, who has given herself up entirely to her love for Othello only to be subjected to his horrifying verbal and physical assaults, the outcome of Othello's mistaken convictions about her faithlessness.

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'School', 'Theatre', 'Literature']

369,920

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12996.Othello

The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx

A rousing call to arms whose influence is still felt todayOriginally published on the eve of the 1848 European revolutions, The Communist Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the worldview Marx and Engels developed during their hectic intellectual and political collaboration. Formulating the principles of dialectical materialism, they believed that labor creates wealth, hence capitalism is exploitive and antithetical to freedom.This new edition includes an extensive introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones, Britain's leading expert on Marx and Marxism, providing a complete course for students of The Communist Manifesto, and demonstrating not only the historical importance of the text, but also its place in the world today.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

['Philosophy', 'Nonfiction', 'Politics', 'Classics', 'History', 'Economics', 'Sociology']

150,373

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30474.The_Communist_Manifesto

Beowulf

Unknown

Questo poema senza nome d'autore e senza titolo, di datazione incerta (VII secolo?), è il più antico testo poetico lungo, scritto in un volgare europeo, l'unica epica compiuta delle letterature germaniche antiche, uno dei testi principali della letteratura anglosassone, poema dedicato a un tema mitico: il combattimento tra un uomo e un mostro. In poco più di tremila versi il poema racconta la strenua lotta di un giovane di nome Beowulf con un drago, intersecando elementi mitici, favolistici, leggende eroiche e fatti storici documentabili e datati.

['Classics', 'Poetry', 'Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Mythology', 'School', 'Literature']

288,583

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52357.Beowulf

Norwegian Wood

Haruki Murakami

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman. A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

['Fiction', 'Romance', 'Japan', 'Contemporary', 'Japanese Literature', 'Novels', 'Classics']

533,298

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11297.Norwegian_Wood

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)

Gregory Maguire

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.An astonishingly rich re-creation of the land of Oz, this book retells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, who wasn't so wicked after all. Taking readers past the yellow brick road and into a phantasmagoric world rich with imagination and allegory, Gregory Maguire just might change the reputation of one of the most sinister characters in literature.

['Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Adult', 'Retellings', 'Science Fiction Fantasy', 'Adult Fiction', 'Witches']

589,186

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37442.Wicked

It

Stephen King

Welcome to Derry, Maine ...It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real ...They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.

['Horror', 'Fiction', 'Thriller', 'Fantasy', 'Audiobook', 'Classics', 'Mystery']

1,026,135

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/830502.It

Room

Emma Donoghue

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough ... not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

['Fiction', 'Contemporary', 'Adult', 'Thriller', 'Adult Fiction', 'Audiobook', 'Book Club']

783,235

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7937843-room

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future. As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state.

['Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'India', 'Indian Literature', 'Literary Fiction', 'Canada', 'Historical']

144,031

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5211.A_Fine_Balance

Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle, #1)

Christopher Paolini

An alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780375826696 can be found here.One boy...One dragon...A world of adventure. When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

['Fantasy', 'Young Adult', 'Fiction', 'Dragons', 'Adventure', 'Magic', 'High Fantasy']

1,675,932

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113436.Eragon

The Chosen (Reuven Malther, #1)

Chaim Potok

It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again. . . .

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Historical Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Jewish', 'Religion', 'School']

91,050

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187181.The_Chosen

Thirteen Reasons Why

Jay Asher

You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past.The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

['Young Adult', 'Fiction', 'Contemporary', 'Realistic Fiction', 'Mental Health', 'Mystery', 'Teen']

927,921

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29844228-thirteen-reasons-why

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War

Tim Butcher

On a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin named Gavrilo Princip fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history, when he killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yet the events Princip triggered were so monumental that his own story has been largely overlooked, his role garbled and motivations misrepresented.The Trigger puts this right, filling out as never before a figure who changed our world and whose legacy still has an impact on all of us today. Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip’s life changed when he trekked through Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, radicalisation slowly transformed him from a frail farm boy into history’s most influential assassin.By retracing Princip’s journey from his highland birthplace, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him. Tim uncovers details about Princip that have eluded historians for a century and draws on his own experience, as a war reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, to face down ghosts of conflicts past and present.The Trigger is a rich and timely work that brings to life both the moment the world first went to war and an extraordinary region with a potent hold over history.

['History', 'Nonfiction', 'World War I', 'Biography', 'War', 'Travel', 'Politics']

3,908

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18300212-the-trigger

The Awakening

Kate Chopin

When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Feminism', 'School', 'Literature', 'Historical Fiction', 'Read For School']

197,131

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58345.The_Awakening

The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.Contents:Rocket SummerYllaThe Summer NightThe Earth MenThe TaxpayerThe Third Expedition-And the Moon Be Still As BrightThe SettlersThe Green MorningThe LocustsNight MeetingThe ShoreInterimThe MusiciansWay in the Middle of the AirThe Naming of NamesUsher IIThe Old OnesThe MartianThe Luggage StoreThe Off SeasonThe WatchersThe Silent TownsThe Long YearsThere Will Come Soft RainsThe Million Year Picnic

['Science Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Classics', 'Short Stories', 'Fantasy', 'Science Fiction Fantasy', 'Audiobook']

248,937

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76778.The_Martian_Chronicles

The Reader

Bernhard Schlink

Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

['Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Classics', 'German Literature', 'Romance', 'Holocaust', 'Historical']

199,345

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101299.The_Reader

Who Moved My Cheese?

Spencer Johnson

"Who Moved My Cheese?" is a simple parable that reveals profound truths. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a "Maze" and look for "Cheese" to nourish them and make them happy.Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are "Littlepeople" — beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw."Cheese" is a metaphor for what you want to have in life — whether it's a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind.And the "Maze" is where you look for what you want — the organisation you work in or the family or community you live in.In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the Maze walls.When you come to see "The Handwriting on the Wall," you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success (however you define it) in your work and in your life.Written for all ages, the story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime.

['Nonfiction', 'Self Help', 'Business', 'Psychology', 'Leadership', 'Personal Development', 'Management']

447,976

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4894.Who_Moved_My_Cheese_

The Plague

Albert Camus

The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947. It tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The narrator remains unknown until the start of the last chapter, chapter 5 of part 5. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view.The book tells a gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial, whose individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings; the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Philosophy', 'France', 'Literature', 'French Literature', 'Novels']

238,718

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11989.The_Plague

The Host (The Host, #1)

Stephenie Meyer

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared, a human who still lives in hiding, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she's never met. Reluctant allies, Wanderer and Melanie set off to search for the man they both love.Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] ACE #1 - ACE #2

['Young Adult', 'Science Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Romance', 'Fiction', 'Dystopia', 'Paranormal']

977,653

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1656001.The_Host

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Christopher Moore

The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years—except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer).Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more—except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala—and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

['Fiction', 'Humor', 'Historical Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Religion', 'Comedy', 'Historical']

168,937

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28881.Lamb

Calvin and Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes, #1)

Bill Watterson

This is the first collection of the popular comic strip that features Calvin, a rambunctious 6-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, who comes charmingly to life.

['Comics', 'Humor', 'Graphic Novels', 'Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Comedy', 'Graphic Novels Comics']

145,893

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77727.Calvin_and_Hobbes

Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton

Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, “We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.” Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Africa', 'Historical Fiction', 'South Africa', 'Literature', 'School']

72,536

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6150.Cry_the_Beloved_Country

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Philip K. Dick

It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!

['Science Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Classics', 'Dystopia', 'Cyberpunk', 'Science Fiction Fantasy', 'Fantasy']

420,412

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36402034-do-androids-dream-of-electric-sheep

Holy Bible: New International Version

Anonymous

The New International Version is the world's most popular Bible in modern English and is renowned for its combination of accuracy and clarity of language.

['Religion', 'Christian', 'Nonfiction', 'Classics', 'Christianity', 'Reference', 'Spirituality']

82,196

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/280111.Holy_Bible

Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare

In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their happiness. Beatrice and Benedick are kept apart by pride and mutual antagonism until others decide to play Cupid.

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'Romance', 'School', 'Theatre']

236,099

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12957.Much_Ado_About_Nothing

The Elephant Tree

R.D. Ronald

Mark Fallon is an overworked detective investigating a spate of attacks at a string of high profile city centre nightclubs. Scott is a dejected 24 year old struggling to make ends meet working for his brother and supplementing his income with a small-scale drug dealing operation. Angela is an attractive 23 year old, raised by her father, a career criminal and small time drug dealer who supplies Scott with cannabis. This is a chilling tale spanning a few months in the lives of Scott and Angela, where realizations about the present combine with shocking revelations from the past leading to an apocalyptic climax where they no longer know whom they can trust.

['Thriller', 'Fiction', 'Mystery', 'Crime', 'Drama', 'Suspense', 'Contemporary']

26,696

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9293020-the-elephant-tree

Steppenwolf

Hermann Hesse

Steppenwolf is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf. This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope. Yet his novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of the intellectual hypocrisy of the period. As Hesse himself remarked, "Of all my books Steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any of the others".

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Philosophy', 'German Literature', 'Literature', 'Novels', 'Germany']

171,245

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16631.Steppenwolf

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)

Stieg Larsson

The stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson's internationally best-selling trilogy.Lisbeth Salander - the heart of Larsson's two previous novels - lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Salander is fighting back.~from the jacket

['Fiction', 'Mystery', 'Thriller', 'Crime', 'Mystery Thriller', 'Suspense', 'Contemporary']

711,801

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6892870-the-girl-who-kicked-the-hornet-s-nest

Faust, First Part

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe’s masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, Faust has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental Faust, an audacious man boldly wagering with the devil, Mephistopheles, that no magic, sensuality, experience, or knowledge can lead him to a moment he would wish to last forever. Here, in Faust, Part I, the tremendous versatility of Goethe’s genius creates some of the most beautiful passages in literature. Here too we experience Goethe’s characteristic humor, the excitement and eroticism of the witches’ Walpurgis Night, and the moving emotion of Gretchen’s tragic fate.This authoritative edition, which offers Peter Salm’s wonderfully readable translation as well as the original German on facing pages, brings us Faust in a vital, rhythmic American idiom that carefully preserves the grandeur, integrity, and poetic immediacy of Goethe’s words.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Plays', 'Poetry', 'German Literature', 'Drama', 'Literature']

71,727

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14706.Faust_First_Part

Johnny Got His Gun

Dalton Trumbo

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered - not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives... This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war. Winner of the National Book Award.

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'War', 'Historical Fiction', 'Horror', 'Literature', 'Novels']

41,171

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51606.Johnny_Got_His_Gun

The Cider House Rules

John Irving

Raised from birth in the orphanage at St. Cloud's, Maine, Homer Wells has become the protege of Dr. Wilbur Larch, its physician and director. There Dr. Larch cares for the troubled mothers who seek his help, either by delivering and taking in their unwanted babies or by performing illegal abortions. Meticulously trained by Dr. Larch, Homer assists in the former, but draws the line at the latter. Then a young man brings his beautiful fiancee to Dr. Larch for an abortion, and everything about the couple beckons Homer to the wide world outside the orphanage ...

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Historical Fiction', 'Literature', 'Literary Fiction', 'Contemporary', 'Novels']

178,782

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4687.The_Cider_House_Rules

Antigone (The Theban Plays, #3)

Sophocles

The curse placed on Oedipus lingers and haunts a younger generation in this new and brilliant translation of Sophocles' classic drama. The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Antigone is an unconventional heroine who pits her beliefs against the King of Thebes in a bloody test of wills that leaves few unharmed. Emotions fly as she challenges the king for the right to bury her own brother. Determined but doomed, Antigone shows her inner strength throughout the play.Antigone raises issues of law and morality that are just as relevant today as they were more than two thousand years ago. Whether this is your first reading or your twentieth, Antigone will move you as few pieces of literature can.To make this quintessential Greek drama more accessible to the modern reader, this Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary of difficult terms, a list of vocabulary words, and convenient sidebar notes. By providing these, it is our intention that readers will more fully enjoy the beauty, wisdom, and intent of the play.

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Drama', 'Fiction', 'School', 'Mythology', 'Read For School']

139,510

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7728.Antigone

Inferno

Dante Alighieri

Of the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to understand it so that the reader can as well. With this major new translation, Anthony Esolen has succeeded brilliantly in marrying sense with sound, poetry with meaning, capturing both the poem’s line-by-line vigor and its allegorically and philosophically exacting structure, yielding an Inferno that will be as popular with general readers as with teachers and students. For, as Dante insists, without a trace of sentimentality or intellectual compromise, even Hell is a work of divine art.Esolen also provides a critical Introduction and endnotes, plus appendices containing Dante’s most important sources—from Virgil to Saint Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic theologians—that deftly illuminate the religious universe the poet inhabited.

['Classics', 'Poetry', 'Fiction', 'Literature', 'Religion', 'Fantasy', 'School']

170,086

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15645.Inferno

The Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan

This famous story of man's progress through life in search of salvation remains one of the most entertaining allegories of faith ever written. Set against realistic backdrops of town and country, the powerful drama of the pilgrim's trials and temptations follows him in his harrowing journey to the Celestial City.Along a road filled with monsters and spiritual terrors, Christian confronts such emblematic characters as Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, Talkative, Ignorance, and the demons of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But he is also joined by Hopeful and Faithful.An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language, The Pilgrim's Progress remains one of the most widely read books in the English language.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Christian', 'Religion', 'Christian Fiction', 'Christianity', 'Theology']

129,810

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29797.The_Pilgrim_s_Progress

Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.

['Fiction', 'Magical Realism', 'Fantasy', 'Japan', 'Japanese Literature', 'Contemporary', 'Novels']

424,771

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4929.Kafka_on_the_Shore

Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1)

James Clavell

Alternate Cover for ISBN: 0440178002A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life. All brought together in an extraordinary saga aflame with passion, conflict, ambition, and the struggle for power.Here is the world-famous novel of Japan that is the earliest book in James Clavell’s masterly Asian saga. Set in the year 1600, it tells the story of a bold English pilot whose ship was blown ashore in Japan, where he encountered two people who were to change his life: a warlord with his own quest for power, and a beautiful interpreter torn between two ways of life and two ways of love. The principal figures are John Blackthorne, whose dream it is to be the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, to wrest control of the trade between Japan and China from Portuguese, and to return home a man of wealth and position; Toranaga, the most powerful feudal lord in Japan, who strives and schemes to seize ultimate power by becoming Shogun—the Supreme Military Dictator—and to unite the warring samurai fiefdoms under his own masterly and farsighted leadership; and the Lady Mariko, a Catholic convert whose conflicting loyalties to the Church and her country are compounded when she falls in love with Blackthorne, the barbarian intruder. In dramatizing how a Westerner, the representative man of his time, comes to be altered by his exposure to an alien culture, Mr. Clavell provides a spellbinding depiction of a nation seething with violence and intrigue as it moves from the medieval world to the modern.

['Historical Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Japan', 'Historical', 'Classics', 'Adventure', 'Asia']

168,270

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/402093.Sh_gun

Dead Poets Society

N.H. Kleinbaum

Todd Anderson and his friends at Welton Academy can hardly believe how different life is since their new English professor, the flamboyant John Keating, has challenged them to "make your lives extraordinary! " Inspired by Keating, the boys resurrect the Dead Poets Society--a secret club where, free from the constraints and expectations of school and parents, they let their passions run wild. As Keating turns the boys on to the great words of Byron, Shelley, and Keats, they discover not only the beauty of language, but the importance of making each moment count. But the Dead Poets pledges soon realize that their newfound freedom can have tragic consequences. Can the club and the individuality it inspires survive the pressure from authorities determined to destroy their dreams?

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Contemporary', 'Poetry', 'Novels', 'Drama']

88,484

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67238.Dead_Poets_Society

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Hunter S. Thompson

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Humor', 'Journalism', 'Novels', 'Literature', 'American']

334,686

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7745.Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas

The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh #2)

A.A. Milne

Winnie-the-Pooh, the Best Bear in All the World, has long been adored by readers young and old. In this beautiful full-color gift edition of "The House at Pooh Corner, " Ernest H. Shepard's classic illustrations have been painstakingly hand-colored. An exquisite volume and the perfect gift for any occasion, this book is as vivid and charming as the beloved characters from the Hundred Acre Wood.

['Classics', 'Childrens', 'Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Animals', 'Audiobook', 'Middle Grade']

87,738

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/776407.The_House_at_Pooh_Corner

Common Sense

Thomas Paine

Among the most influential authors and reformers of his age, Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was born in England but went on to play an important role in both the American and French Revolutions. In 1774, he emigrated to America where, for a time, he helped to edit the Pennsylvania Magazine. On January 10, 1776, he published his pamphlet Common Sense, a persuasive argument for the colonies' political and economic separation from Britain.Common Sense cites the evils of monarchy, accuses the British government of inflicting economic and social injustices upon the colonies, and points to the absurdity of an island attempting to rule a continent. Credited by George Washington as having changed the minds of many of his countrymen, the document sold over 500,000 copies within a few months.Today, Common Sense remains a landmark document in the struggle for freedom, distinguished not only by Paine's ideas but also by its clear and passionate presentation. Designed to ignite public opinion against autocratic rule, the pamphlet offered a careful balance between imagination and judgment, and appropriate language and expression to fit the subject. It immediately found a receptive audience, heartened Washington's despondent army, and foreshadowed much of the phrasing and substance of the Declaration of Independence.

['History', 'Nonfiction', 'Classics', 'Philosophy', 'Politics', 'American History', 'Essays']

34,676

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161744.Common_Sense

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)

Ray Bradbury

One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre.For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.

['Horror', 'Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Classics', 'Science Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Halloween']

122,546

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/248596.Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes

Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)

Michael Crichton

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price. Until something goes wrong. . . . In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller.

['Science Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Thriller', 'Adventure', 'Fantasy', 'Horror', 'Classics']

913,748

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40604658-jurassic-park

Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, #1)

Sophocles

"...what man wins more happiness than just its shape and the ruin when that shape collapses?"Sophocles' Oedipus Rex has never been surpassed for the raw and terrible power with which its hero struggles to answer the eternal question, "Who am I?" The play, a story of a king who acting entirely in ignorance kills his father and marries his mother, unfolds with shattering power; we are helplessly carried along with Oedipus towards the final, horrific truth. To make Oedipus more accessible for the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classics includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked. We hope that the reader may, through this edition, more fully enjoy the beauty of the verse, the wisdom of the insights, and the impact of the drama.

['Classics', 'Plays', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'School', 'Mythology', 'Read For School']

204,271

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1554.Oedipus_Rex

Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn

Who are you?What have we done to each other?These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

['Fiction', 'Mystery', 'Thriller', 'Mystery Thriller', 'Crime', 'Suspense', 'Contemporary']

2,874,971

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19288043-gone-girl

The Power of One (The Power of One, #1)

Bryce Courtenay

In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams, which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives and the power of one.

['Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Africa', 'Classics', 'South Africa', 'Coming Of Age', 'Historical']

86,239

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122.The_Power_of_One

Hatchet (Brian's Saga, #1)

Gary Paulsen

Brian is on his way to Canada to visit his estranged father when the pilot of his small prop plane suffers a heart attack. Brian is forced to crash-land the plane in a lake--and finds himself stranded in the remote Canadian wilderness with only his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present before his departure. Brian had been distraught over his parents' impending divorce and the secret he carries about his mother, but now he is truly desolate and alone. Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Brian struggles to find food and make a shelter for himself. He has no special knowledge of the woods, and he must find a new kind of awareness and patience as he meets each day's challenges. Is the water safe to drink? Are the berries he finds poisonous? Slowly, Brian learns to turn adversity to his advantage--an invading porcupine unexpectedly shows him how to make fire, a devastating tornado shows him how to retrieve supplies from the submerged airplane. Most of all, Brian leaves behind the self-pity he has felt about his predicament as he summons the courage to stay alive. A story of survival and of transformation, this riveting book has sparked many a reader's interest in venturing into the wild.

['Young Adult', 'Fiction', 'Classics', 'Adventure', 'Survival', 'Middle Grade', 'Childrens']

369,140

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50.Hatchet

A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks

There was a time when the world was sweeter...when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats...when something happened to a seventeen-year-old boy that would change his life forever. Every April, when the wind blows in from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood. No other author today touches our emotions more deeply than Nicholas Sparks.Illuminating both the strength and the gossamer fragility of our deepest emotions, his two New York Times bestsellers, The Notebook and Message in a Bottle, have established him as the leading author of today's most cherished love stories. Now, in A Walk to Remember, he tells a truly unforgettable story, one that glimmers with all of his magic, holding us spellbound-and reminding us that in life each of us may find one great love, the kind that changes everything...

['Romance', 'Fiction', 'Contemporary', 'Young Adult', 'Chick Lit', 'Adult', 'Contemporary Romance']

780,286

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35545737-a-walk-to-remember

Wonder (Wonder, #1)

R.J. Palacio

I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse. August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. Wonder, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others.

['Young Adult', 'Fiction', 'Middle Grade', 'Contemporary', 'Realistic Fiction', 'Childrens', 'School']

1,016,176

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11387515-wonder

The Complete Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi

Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips.Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom—Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

['Graphic Novels', 'Nonfiction', 'Comics', 'Memoir', 'Biography', 'History', 'Feminism']

167,797

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/991197.The_Complete_Persepolis

Shantaram

Gregory David Roberts

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.

['Fiction', 'India', 'Travel', 'Adventure', 'Contemporary', 'Novels', 'Historical Fiction']

202,798

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33600.Shantaram

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Garth Stein

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through.A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life ... as only a dog could tell it.

['Fiction', 'Animals', 'Contemporary', 'Dogs', 'Audiobook', 'Adult Fiction', 'Adult']

500,287

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3153910-the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)

Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

['Fantasy', 'Young Adult', 'Paranormal', 'Romance', 'Urban Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Vampires']

1,915,502

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256683.City_of_Bones

His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)

Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass are available together in one volume perfect for any fan or newcomer to this modern fantasy classic series.These thrilling adventures tell the story of Lyra and Will—two ordinary children on a perilous journey through shimmering haunted otherworlds. They will meet witches and armored bears, fallen angels and soul-eating specters. And in the end, the fate of both the living—and the dead—will rely on them.Phillip Pullman’s spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy has captivated readers for over twenty years and won acclaim at every turn. It will have you questioning everything you know about your world and wondering what really lies just out of reach.

['Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Childrens', 'Science Fiction Fantasy', 'Science Fiction', 'Classics']

157,133

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18116.His_Dark_Materials

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson

Silent Spring is an environmental science book. The book documents the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting the industry's marketing claims unquestioningly.The book appeared in September 1962 and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.

['Nonfiction', 'Science', 'Environment', 'Nature', 'Classics', 'Ecology', 'History']

44,533

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27333.Silent_Spring

Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell

A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profund as it is playful. Now in his new novel, David Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity.Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.

['Fiction', 'Science Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Historical Fiction', 'Dystopia', 'Contemporary', 'Literary Fiction']

240,485

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49628.Cloud_Atlas

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

['Nonfiction', 'Science', 'History', 'Biography', 'Medicine', 'Audiobook', 'Medical']

695,186

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks

Cosmos

Carl Sagan

The story of fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution transforming matter and life into consciousness, of how science and civilisation grew up together, and of the forces and individuals who helped shape modern science. A story told with Carl Sagan's remarkable ability to make scientific ideas both comprehensible and exciting, based on his acclaimed television series.

['Science', 'Nonfiction', 'Physics', 'Astronomy', 'History', 'Space', 'Philosophy']

139,781

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55030.Cosmos

The Zombie Room

R.D. Ronald

An unlikely bond is forged between three men from very different backgrounds when they serve time together in prison. A series of wrong turns and disastrous life choices has led to their incarceration. Following their release, Mangle, Decker and Tazeem stick together as they return to a life of crime, embarking on a lucrative scam. But when they stumble upon a sophisticated sex-trafficking operation, they soon realise that they are in mortal danger. The disappearance of a family member and the murder of a dear friend lead the three to delve deeper into a world of violence and deception. In their quest for retribution and justice, they put their lives on the line. Their paths cross with that of Tatiana, who has left her home country for a better life in the West—or so she thinks. She soon realises she is in the hands of ruthless, violent people, who run an operation supplying girls to meet the most deviant desires of rich and powerful men. Will she survive the horrors of The Zombie Room? Are Mangle, Decker and Tazeem brave enough to follow her there, in an attempt to set her free?

['Thriller', 'Fiction', 'Mystery', 'Crime', 'Drama', 'Suspense', 'Novels']

27,885

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29908754-the-zombie-room

Native Son

Richard Wright

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

['Fiction', 'Classics', 'Historical Fiction', 'African American', 'Race', 'Literature', 'Novels']

96,052

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15622.Native_Son

The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams

No play in the modern theater has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. As Williams's first popular success, it launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career, of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, Menagaerie has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by the editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Robert Bray, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes." (back cover)

['Plays', 'Classics', 'Drama', 'Fiction', 'School', 'Theatre', 'Literature']

128,337

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92517.The_Glass_Menagerie

Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett

The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men simply waiting for someone—or something—named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind’s inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.

['Plays', 'Classics', 'Fiction', 'Drama', 'Theatre', 'Literature', 'Philosophy']

190,559

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17716.Waiting_for_Godot

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier

With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries—and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title.Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant—and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model.

['Historical Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Historical', 'Classics', 'Art', 'Romance', 'Adult']

712,430

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2865.Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring

The Once and Future King

T.H. White

T.H White′s masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend is an abiding classic. Here all five volumes that make up the story are published in one volume, as White himself always wished. Exquisite comedy offsets the tragedy of Arthur′s personal doom as White brings to life the major British epic of all time with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm.

['Fantasy', 'Classics', 'Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Arthurian', 'Mythology', 'Young Adult']

106,016

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43545.The_Once_and_Future_King

The Four Agreements

Miguel Ruiz

In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best.

['Self Help', 'Nonfiction', 'Spirituality', 'Philosophy', 'Personal Development', 'Psychology', 'Inspirational']

336,406

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6596.The_Four_Agreements

Old Yeller

Fred Gipson

At first, Travis couldn't stand the sight of Old Yeller.The stray dog was ugly, and a thieving rascal, too. But he sure was clever, and a smart dog could be a big help on the wild Texas frontier, especially with Papa away on a long cattle drive up to Abilene.Strong and courageous, Old Yeller proved that he could protect Travis's family from any sort of danger. But can Travis do the same for Old Yeller?

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Childrens', 'Animals', 'Historical Fiction', 'Dogs']

94,863

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/130580.Old_Yeller

Heidi

Johanna Spyri

Little orphan Heidi goes to live high in the Alps with her gruff grandfather and brings happiness to all who know her on the mountain. When Heidi goes to Frankfurt to work in a wealthy household, she dreams of returning to the mountains and meadows, her friend Peter, and her beloved grandfather.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Young Adult', 'Historical Fiction', 'Middle Grade', 'Historical']

192,203

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93.Heidi

Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa's Fighting Spirit

Tim Butcher

For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous to travel through, bedevilled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which sprang many of Africa's cruellest contemporary icons. This travel book touches on one of the most fraught parts of the globe at a different moment in its history.

['Africa', 'Travel', 'Nonfiction', 'History', 'Adventure', 'Liberia', 'Sierra Leone']

1,809

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7940583-chasing-the-devil

The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women—the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia—both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end, Myshkin’s honesty, goodness, and integrity are shown to be unequal to the moral emptiness of those around him. In her revision of the Garnett translation, Anna Brailovsky has corrected inaccuracies wrought by Garnett’s drastic anglicization of the novel, restoring as much as possible the syntactical structure of the original story.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Russia', 'Russian Literature', 'Literature', 'Novels', 'Philosophy']

167,103

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12505.The_Idiot

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Captain Nemo, #2)

Jules Verne

When an unidentified “monster” threatens international shipping, French oceanographer Pierre Aronnax and his unflappable assistant Conseil join an expedition organized by the US Navy to hunt down and destroy the menace. After months of fruitless searching, they finally grapple with their quarry, but Aronnax, Conseil, and the brash Canadian harpooner Ned Land are thrown overboard in the attack, only to find that the “monster” is actually a futuristic submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by a shadowy, mystical, preternaturally imposing man who calls himself Captain Nemo. Thus begins a journey of 20,000 leagues—nearly 50,000 miles—that will take Captain Nemo, his crew, and these three adventurers on a journey of discovery through undersea forests, coral graveyards, miles-deep trenches, and even the sunken ruins of Atlantis. Jules Verne’s novel of undersea exploration has been captivating readers ever since its first publication in 1870, and Frederick Paul Walter’s reader-friendly, scientifically meticulous translation of this visionary science fiction classic is complete and unabridged down to the smallest substantive detail.

['Classics', 'Science Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Adventure', 'Fantasy', 'France', 'Literature']

240,121

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33507.Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and he works on Wall Street, he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America's greatest dream—and its worst nightmare—American Psycho is bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognise but do not wish to confront.

['Fiction', 'Horror', 'Classics', 'Thriller', 'Crime', 'Contemporary', 'Novels']

288,399

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28676.American_Psycho

Black Beauty

Anna Sewell

As a young horse, Black Beauty is well-loved and happy. But when his owner is forced to sell him, his life changes drastically. He has many new owners--some of them cruel and some of them kind. All he needs is someone to love him again...Whether pulling an elegant carriage or a ramshackle cab, Black Beauty tries to live as best he can. This is his amazing story, told as only he could tell it.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Animals', 'Young Adult', 'Horses', 'Historical Fiction']

268,080

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3685.Black_Beauty

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

Born a slave circa1818 (slaves weren't told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape.An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.

['Nonfiction', 'History', 'Classics', 'Biography', 'Memoir', 'School', 'Autobiography']

116,659

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36529.Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Frederick_Douglass

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? Freakonomics will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.(front flap)

['Nonfiction', 'Economics', 'Business', 'Science', 'Psychology', 'Sociology', 'Finance']

821,508

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1202.Freakonomics

Life Application Study Bible: NIV

Anonymous

- Application Notes provide penetrating insight into what the Bible says to you about how you live. - Book Introductions use timelines, overviews, and outlines to prepare you to hear and respond to the book's truths. - Character Sketches spotlight key Bible figures and the lessons you can learn from their lives.- In-Text Charts and Maps help you locate key places and grasp difficult concepts at a glance. - Dictionary-Concordance developed specifically for the NIV Life Application Study Bible.- Red Letter Edition with the words of Christ printed in red.

['Christian', 'Religion', 'Nonfiction', 'Christianity', 'Reference', 'Spirituality', 'Faith']

22,738

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/265205.Life_Application_Study_Bible

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

['Fantasy', 'Fiction', 'Romance', 'Historical Fiction', 'Magical Realism', 'Magic', 'Young Adult']

895,538

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9361589-the-night-circus

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

THE ONLY ONE-VOLUME EDITION CONTAINING ALL 1,775 OF EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMSOnly eleven of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work doomed it to obscurity in her lifetime. Early posthumously published collections-some of them featuring liberally “edited” versions of the poems-did not fully and accurately represent Dickinson’s bold experiments in prosody, her tragic vision, and the range of her intellectual and emotional explorations. Not until the 1955 publication of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, a three-volume critical edition compiled by Thomas H. Johnson, were readers able for the first time to assess, understand, and appreciate the whole of Dickinson’s extraordinary poetic genius.This book, a distillation of the three-volume Complete Poems, brings together the original texts of all 1,775 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote.

['Poetry', 'Classics', 'Fiction', 'Literature', 'American', '19th Century', 'Classic Literature']

92,330

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8125919-the-complete-poems-of-emily-dickinson

Mrs. Dalloway

Virginia Woolf

Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Literature', 'Novels', 'Feminism', 'British Literature', '20th Century']

280,572

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14942.Mrs_Dalloway

The Jungle Books

Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Books can be regarded as classic stories told by an adult to children. But they also constitute a complex literary work of art in which the whole of Kipling's philosophy of life is expressed in miniature. They are best known for the 'Mowgli' stories; the tale of a baby abandoned and brought up by wolves, educated in the ways and secrets of the jungle by Kaa the python, Baloo the bear, and Bagheera the black panther. The stories, a mixture of fantasy, myth, and magic, are underpinned by Kipling's abiding preoccupation with the theme of self-discovery, and the nature of the 'Law'.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Fantasy', 'Adventure', 'Short Stories', 'Literature']

86,570

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41684.The_Jungle_Books

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

E.L. Konigsburg

Winner of the 1968 Newbery MedalWhen Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort - she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because he was a miser and would have money.Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie had some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she had discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too.The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her - well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.

['Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Young Adult', 'Middle Grade', 'Mystery', 'Classics', 'Realistic Fiction']

205,454

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3980.From_the_Mixed_Up_Files_of_Mrs_Basil_E_Frankweiler

The War of the Worlds

H.G. Wells

When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of the Earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilization and the beginning of Martian rule.Inspiring films, radio dramas, comic-book adaptations, television series and sequels,The War of the Worlds is a prototypical work of science fiction which has influenced every alien story that has come since, and is unsurpassed in its ability to thrill, well over a century since it was first published.

['Classics', 'Science Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Fantasy', 'Horror', 'Science Fiction Fantasy', 'Literature']

295,059

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8909.The_War_of_the_Worlds

Little House on the Prairie (Little House, #3)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Meet Laura Ingalls, the little girl who would grow up to write the Little House books.Pa Ingalls decides to sell the little log house, and the family sets out for Indian country! They travel from Wisconsin to Kansas, and there, finally, Pa builds their little house on the prairie. Sometimes farm life is difficult, even dangerous, but Laura and her family are kept busy and are happy with the promise of their new life on the prairie.LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE is the second book in the Laura Years series.--back cover

['Classics', 'Historical Fiction', 'Childrens', 'Fiction', 'Young Adult', 'Historical', 'Middle Grade']

283,041

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77767.Little_House_on_the_Prairie

Inkheart (Inkworld, #1)

Cornelia Funke

Alternate cover edition: 9780439709101From internationally acclaimed storyteller Cornelia Funke, this bestselling, magical epic is now out in paperback!One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever.This is INKHEART--a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud.

['Fantasy', 'Young Adult', 'Fiction', 'Middle Grade', 'Childrens', 'Adventure', 'Magic']

409,648

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28194.Inkheart

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner

The tragedy of the Compson family features some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Literature', 'Novels', 'American', '20th Century', 'Southern Gothic']

175,123

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10975.The_Sound_and_the_Fury

Mansfield Park

Jane Austen

Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Romance', 'Historical Fiction', 'Literature', '19th Century', 'Historical']

331,878

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45032.Mansfield_Park

My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy, #3)

Willa Cather

Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland, with all its insistent bonds. Guiding the way are some of literature's most beguiling characters: the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride, Antonia's desperately homesick father and self-indulgent mother, and the coy Lena Lingard. Holding the pastoral society's heart, of course, is the bewitching, free-spirited Antonia.

['Classics', 'Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'Literature', 'School', 'American', 'Historical']

132,360

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17150.My_ntonia

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

['Historical Fiction', 'Fiction', 'Historical', 'War', 'World War II', 'Audiobook', 'Adult']

1,446,436

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143977-all-the-light-we-cannot-see