recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Great Books Wiki

**Welcome to the Great Books Wiki!**
This wiki is devoted to spreading the awareness of **great books** (fiction and non-fiction) for all ages. This is the place to find your next favourite book to read or add to your personal library. **Rare books** and **non-English books** are included on this site!

## Non-Fiction

Science and TechnologyPhilosophy and ReligionMathematics and Computer SciencePsychology and NeuroscienceHistory and AnthropologyPolitics and Social ScienceEconomics and SociologyBiography and Chronicles
## Literature

DramaAnthologySci-Fi and FantasyUtopian and DystopianMystery and HorrorRomance and Historical FictionPoetryComics, Manga and Light Novels

## **Featured Articles**

**The Hobbit**
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**The Chronicles of Narnia**
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**A Brief History of Time**
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**Contact:** mindfulbooks@outlook.com
Fahrenheit 451

## Description

***Fahrenheit 451*** is a dystopian science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. First published in 1953 by Ballantine Books, the novel is set in a future American society where books are outlawed and any that are found are burned. Bradbury wrote it as a response to the threat of book burning during the McCarthy Era in the United States.

## About the Author

**Ray Bradbury** (b. August 22, 1920, Waukegan, Illinois, U.S. - d. June 5, 2012, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) was an American author and screenwriter who wrote in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction. He is best known for his speculative fiction novel *Fahrenheit 451* and short story collection *The Illustrated Man*, but also wrote screenplays, including *Moby Dick* (1956).

## Trivia

* *Fahrenheit 451* won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature in 1954.
* Bradbury published a stage play version of the book in 1979.
* The novel was adapted for film in 1966 and 2018.

## Other books by Ray Bradbury

* *The Martian Chronicles* (1950)
* *The Illustrated Man* (1951)
* *Something Wicked This Way Comes* (1962)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

## Description

***Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking*** is a book by Susan Cain. The book argues that modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people. Cain outlines the advantages and disadvantages of introversion and extraversion, emphasizing the myth of the extrovert ideal which has dominated in the West since the early twentieth century. The book was first published in 2012 by Crown Publishing Group.

## About the Author

**Susan Cain** (b. March 20, 1968 Lawrence, New York, United States) is an American author and lecturer best known for her book *Quiet*. She worked for several years as an attorney and then as a negotiations consultant before leaving her careers for a quieter life of writing. In 2015, she founded Quiet Revolution, a mission-based company that empowers introverts children, training them to be leaders.

## Trivia

* *Quiet* appeared on several bestsellers lists, including the *New York Times* for 138 weeks and the *Wall Street Journal.*
* More than 2 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide.

## Other books by Susan Cain

* *Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts* (2016)
* *Quiet Journal: Discover Your Secret Strengths and Unleash Your Inner Power* (2020)
The Future of an Illusion

## Description

***The Future of an Illusion*** (German: *Die Zukunft einer Illusion*) is a non-fiction book by Sigmund Freud. First published in 1927, the work provides a psychoanalysis of religion, which Freud defines as an illusion.

## About the Author

**Sigmund Freud** (b. May 6, 1856, Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Příbor, Czech Republic] - d. September 23, 1939, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a set of theories and therapeutic techniques used to study the unconscious mind in order to treat mental disorders. As a Jew, Freud moved to London in 1938 to escape from Nazism. He died from jaw cancer the following year.

## Other books by Sigmund Freud

* *On Aphasia* (1891)
* *Studies on Hysteria* (co-authored with Josef Breuer; 1895)
* *The Interpretation of Dreams* (1899)
* *The Psychopathology of Everyday Life* (1904)
* *Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious* (1905)
* *Totem and Taboo* (1913)
* *Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego* (1921)
* *The Ego and the Id* (1923)
* *The Question of Lay Analysis* (1926)
* *Civilization and Its Discontents* (1930)
* *Moses and Monotheism* (1939)
Norwegian Wood

## Description

***Norwegian Wood*** is a novel by Haruki Murakami. The story is set in 1960s Japan and explores the reminiscences of the protagonist as a college student. The novel was first published in Japanese in 1987 by Kodansha. The first English translation by Alfred Birnbaum was published in 1989. The novel was translated in English again by Jay Rubin in 2000.

## About the Author

**Haruki Murakami** (b. January 12, 1949, Kyoto, Japan) is a Japanese author whose works have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally. He published his first novel in 1979 after working as the owner of a jazz bar for seven years. Murakami writes in many genres including science fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction, which often contain elements of magical realism and surrealism. His works have garnered numerous awards, including the 2006 World Fantasy Award and the 2018 America Award in Literature for a lifetime contribution to international writing.

## Trivia

* The title comes from the Beatles song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" from their 1965 album *Rubber Soul.*
* *Norwegian Wood* was adapted into a film released in 2010.

## Other books by Haruki Murakami

* *Hear the Wind Sing* (1979)
* *The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle* (1994-95)
* *Kafka on the Shore* (2002)
* *1Q84* (2010)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell

## Description

***Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell*** is a novel by Susanna Clarke. It is an alternative history set in 19th-century England during the Napoleonic Wars. Its premise is that magic once existed in England and centres on the relationship between two magicians: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. The novel was first published in September 2004 by Bloomsbury.

## About the Author

**Susanna Clarke** (b. November 1, 1959) is an English author best known for her debut novel *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.* She first developed the idea of the novel while working as a teacher in Bilbao in 1993. Over the next decade, she published short stories from the *Strange* universe before Bloomsbury bought her manuscript of the novel in 2003. Her works are set in a magical England and written in a pastiche of the styles of 19th-century authors such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

## Trivia

* *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* reached number 3 on the *New York Times* bestseller list.
* It has won several awards, including the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
* The novel was adapted into a miniseries by BBC, which aired in 2015.

## Other books by Susanna Clarke

* *The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories* (2006)
* *Piranesi* (2020)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

## Description

***The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales*** is a non-fiction book by British neurologist Oliver Sacks. First published in 1985 by Summit Books in the United States and Gerald Duckworth in the United Kingdom, the book is a compilation of case studies of some of Sacks's patients.

## About the Author

**Oliver Sacks** (b. July 9, 1933, Cricklewood, London, UK - d. August 30, 2015, Manhattan, New York City, USA) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. After receiving his medical degree from Queen's College, Oxford in 1960, he moved to the United States, where he spent most of his career. He passed away in Manhattan at age 82.

## Trivia

* *The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat* was adapted into a one-act chamber opera by Michael Nyman.

## Other books by Oliver Sacks

* *Migraine* (1970)
* *Awakenings* (1973)
* *A Leg to Stand On* (1984)
* *Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf* (1989)
* *An Anthropologist on Mars* (1995)
* *The Island of the Colorblind* (1997)
* *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain* (2007)
* *The Mind's Eye* (2010)
* *Hallucinations* (2012)
Gödel, Escher, Bach

## Description

**Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid** is a non-fiction book by Douglas Hofstadter. The book explores the common themes in the lives and work of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M.C. Escher, and composer J.S. Bach, discussing concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence through short stories, illustrations, and analysis. It was first published in 1979 by Basic Books.

## About the Author

**Douglas Hofstadter** (b. February 15, 1945, New York City, United States) is an American scholar of cognitive science, physics, and comparative literature. He grew up on the campus of Stanford University where his father was a professor. He graduated from Stanford in 1965 and received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oregon in 1975. His study of the energy levels of Bloch electrons in a magnetic field led to his discovery of the fractal known as Hofstadter's butterfly. Hofstadter's research includes the fields of cognitive science, philosophy of mind, translation, and physics.

## Trivia

* The won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and a National Book Award for Science.
Anne of Avonlea

## Description

***Anne of Avonlea*** is a children's novel by L.M. Montgomery. The sequel to *Anne of Green Gables*, the novel continues the story of Anne, who becomes the town schoolteacher of Avonlea. It was first published on January 14th, 1909 by L.C. Page & Co.

## About the Author

**Lucy Maud Montgomery** (b. November 30, 1874, Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada - d. April 24, 1942, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was a Canadian author best known for her series of novels beginning with *Anne of Green Gables.* A prolific writer, she went on to publish 20 novels, 530 short stories, and 500 poems. Most of her novels are set in her home province of Prince Edward Island. Before becoming a published author, she worked as a teacher for many years in various Prince Edward Island schools.

## Trivia

* *Anne of Avonlea* has been adapted into a 1987 television miniseries, *Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel*, starring Megan Follows.

## Other books by L.M. Montgomery

* *Anne of Green Gables* (1908)
* *The Story Girl* (1911)
* *Chronicles of Avonlea* (1912)
* *The Golden Road* (1913)
* *Anne of the Island* (1915)
* *Anne's House of Dreams* (1917)
* *Rainbow Valley* (1919)
* *Rilla of Ingleside* (1921)
* *Emily of New Moon* (1923)
* *Emily Climbs* (1925)
* *Emily's Quest* (1927)
* *Anne of Windy Poplars* (1936)
* *Anne of Ingleside* (1939)
Waiting for Godot

## Description

***Waiting for Godot*** is a tragicomedy play by Samuel Beckett. It is an English translation of Beckett's original French play, *En attendant Godot*, which was composed between October 9, 1948 and January 29, 1949. The play premiered in French on January 5, 1953 at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris. It premiered in English at the Arts Theatre in London on August 3, 1955.

## About the Author

**Samuel Beckett** (b. April 13, 1906, Foxrock, Dublin, Ireland - d. December 22, 1989, Montparnasse, Paris, France) was an Irish author, playwright, theatre director, and literary translator best known for his tragicomic works. He lived in Paris for most of his adulthood, and wrote in both French and English. Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

## Trivia

* *Waiting for Godot* was voted the most influential English-language play of the 20th century in a poll by the British Royal National Theatre.
* *Waiting for Godot* was adapted into a web series, *While Waiting for Godot*, in 2013.

## Other books by Samuel Beckett

* *The Trilogy*
	+ *Molloy (1951)*
	+ *Malone Dies* (1956)
	+ *The Unnamable* (1958)
* *Endgame* (1957)
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult

## Description

***The Romance of Tristan and Iseult*** is a retelling of the 12th century chivalric romance Tristan and Iseult by Joseph Bédier. The story tells of the tragic love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult. Bédier's retelling was first published in French in 1900. It was translated into English by Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld.

## About the Author

**Joseph Bédier** (b. January 28, 1864, Paris, France –d. August 29, 1938, Le Grand-Serre, France) was a French author and historian of medieval France. He was a professor of medieval French literature at the Université de Fribourg, Switzerland from 1889 to 1891, and the Collège de France, Paris in 1893. He revived interest in many important old French texts, and was a member of the French Academy from 1920 until his death.

## Trivia

* *Tristan and Iseult* has inspired many works, including Matthew Arnold's 1852 narrative poem *Tristram and Iseult* and Richard Wagner's 1865 opera *Tristan and Isolde.*

## Other books by Joseph Bédier

* *Les fabliaux* (1893)
* *La chanson de Roland* (1921)
Undeniable

## Description

***Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation*** is a non-fiction book by Bill Nye, and co-written and edited by Corey S. Powell. The book discusses advances in science that support evolution, sparked by a controversial creationism versus evolution debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham in February 2014. The book was first published on November 4, 2014 by St. Martin's Press.

## About the Author

**William Sandford Nye** (b. November 27, 1955, Washington, D.C., United States) is an American mechanical engineer, science communicator, and television presenter. He is best known as the host of the children's television program *Bill Nye the Science Guy*, which aired on PBS from 1993 to 1998. From 2017 to 2018, he was the host of the Netflix series *Bill Nye Saves the World.*

## Other books by Bill Nye

* *Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World* (2015)
A Short History of Progress

## Description

***A Short History of Progress*** is a non-fiction book by Ronald Wright. Originally part of the CBC Massey Lectures Series, the book is an analysis of societal collapse using the fallen civilizations of Easter Island, Sumer, Rome, and Maya, as well as examples from the Stone Age*.* It examines the conditions that led to the downfall of these civilizations, and the meaning of progress and its implications for for civilizations from the past and present. *A Short History of Progress* was first published in October 2004 by House of Anansi Press Inc. It has since been reprinted in an illustrated edition and in Kindle and EPUB formats.

## About the Author

**Ronald Wright** (b. 1948, London, United Kingdom) is a Canadian author who has written books about travel, history, and fiction. Both his non-fiction and fiction works have won awards, including the Gordon Montador Award and the David Higham Prize for Fiction. Wright studied archaeology at Cambridge University and later at the University of Calgary. He lives in British Columbia.

## Trivia

* *A Short History of Progress* was originally a lecture series delivered as a series of five speeches, each taking place in different cities in Canada as part of the 2004 Massey Lectures broadcast on the CBC Radio program *Ideas.*

## Other books by Ronald Wright

* *Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico* (1989)
* *Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes Since 1492* (1992)
* *A Scientific Romance* (1997)
* *What is America?: A Short History of the New World Order* (2008)
The Time Machine

## Description

***The Time Machine*** is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells. Written as a frame narrative, the novella is credited with popularizing the concept of time travel. It was first published in 1895 by William Heinemann in the United Kingdom and Henry Holt in the United States.

## About the Author

**Herbert George Wells** (b. September 21, 1866, Bromley, Kent, England - d. August 13, 1946, Regent's Park, London, England) was an English author best known for his science fiction novels. As a futurist, his novels foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television, and the World Wide Web. He is now considered the "father of science fiction."

## Other Books by H.G. Wells

* *The Island of Doctor Moreau* (1896)
* *The Invisible Man* (1897)
* *The War of the Worlds* (1898)

## Trivia

* *The Time Machine* has been adapted numerous times for radio, film, and comics.
The Invisible Man

## Description

***The Invisible Man*** is a science fiction novel by H.G. Wells. The story is set in an English village in West Sussex and follows a mysterious scientist who invents a procedure that renders himself invisible. The novel was first serialized in *Pearson's Weekly* in 1897. It was first published in book form the same year by C. Arthur Pearson.

## About the Author

**Herbert George Wells** (b. September 21, 1866, Bromley, Kent, England - d. August 13, 1946, Regent's Park, London, England) was an English author best known for his science fiction novels. As a futurist, his novels foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television, and the World Wide Web. He is now considered the "father of science fiction."

## Other Books by H.G. Wells

* *The Time Machine* (1895)
* *The Island of Doctor Moreau* (1896)
* *The War of the Worlds* (1898)

## Trivia

* *The Invisible Man* has been adapted numerous times for film, television, radio, and comics.
* The novel helped establish Wells as the "father of science fiction."
The Female Brain

## Description

***The Female Brain*** is a non-fiction book by American neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine. The main thesis of the book is that women's behaviour is different from that of men in every phase of life due to hormonal differences. According to Brizendine, there are also structural differences between the female and the male brain. *The Female Brain* was first published in 2006 by Morgan Road Books.

## About the Author

**Louann Brizendine** (b. December 30, 1952, United States) is an American neuropsychiatrist, researcher, clinician and professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research mainly concerns women's moods and hormones. In 1994, she founded the UCSF Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic, where she serves as director.

## Trivia

* *The Female Brain* was loosely adapted into a romantic comedy film in 2017. Brizendine was the inspiration for the main character.
A Brief History of Time

## Description

***A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes*** is a popular science book on theoretical cosmology by Stephen Hawking. Hawking wrote the book for readers who had no prior knowledge of theoretical physics and people who are interested in learning something new about black holes and cosmology. The book was first published in 1988 by Bantam Dell Publishing Group.

## About the Author

**Stephen Hawking** (b. Jan. 8, 1942 Oxfordshire, England - d. Mar. 14, 2018, Cambridgeshire, England) was a renowned English physicist whose research on black hole thermodynamics and the Big Bang theory revolutionized the human understanding of the cosmos. He held the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.

## Trivia

* Hawking’s publisher warned him that readership would be cut in half for every equation in the book, so Hawking included only one:

# E
m

c

2

{\displaystyle E = m{c}^{2} }

.

* Physicist and science writer Leonard Mlodinow said "A Brief History of Time, was probably the least-read, most-bought book ever."

## Other books by Stephen Hawking

* *Black Holes and Baby Universes: And Other Essays* (1993)
* *The Universe in a Nutshell* (2001)
* *On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy* (2002)
* *God Created The Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History* (2005)
* *A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein* (2009)
* *The Grand Design* (2010)
* *The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics and How They Shook the Scientific World* (2011)
* *My Brief History* (2013)
What the Dog Saw

## Description

***What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures*** is a non-fiction book by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a compilation of 19 articles on topics ranging from business to psychology and sociology originally published in *The New Yorker.* The book was first published on October 20, 2009 by Little, Brown and Company of New York City.

## About the Author

**Malcolm Gladwell** (b. September 3, 1963, Fareham, Hampshire, England) is a Canadian author and journalist who has been a staff writer for *The New Yorker* since 2006. He is best known for his non-fiction books on business and the social sciences. His first five books were *New York Times* bestsellers. Born in England, Gladwell moved to Canada at the age of 6. In 2011, he was appointed to the Order of Canada.

## Trivia

* *What the Dog Saw* was named to Bloomberg's top 50 business books in 2009.

## Other books by Malcolm Gladwell

* *The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference* (2000)
* *Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking* (2005)
* *Outliers: The Story of Success* (2008)
* *David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants* (2013)
* *Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know* (2019)
* *The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War* (2021)
Grimm's Fairy Tales

## Description

***Grimms' Fairy Tales,*** originally known as the ***Children's and Household Tales*** (German: *Kinder- und Hausmärche*) is collection of fairy tales by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The book was first published on December 20, 1812. The first edition contained 86 stories. The seventh and final edition, published in 1857, had 210 stories. Some of the best known fairy tales include Cinderella, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood.

## About the Author

**Jacob Grimm** (b. January 4, 1785, Hanau, Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Holy Roman Empire - d. September 20, 1863, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation) was a German linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of *Deutsches Wörterbuch*, the author of *Deutsche Mythologie*, and the editor of *Grimm's Fairy Tales.*

**Wilhelm Grimm** (b. February 24, 1786, Hanau, Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Holy Roman Empire - d. December 16, 1859, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation) was a German author and anthropologist. He studied at the University of Marburg along with his brother Jacob Grimm, with whom he co-authored *Grimm's Fairy Tales*.

## Other Books by the Brothers Grimm

* *Deutsche Sagen* (1816, 1818)
* *Deutsche Mythologie* (1835)
* *Deutsches Wörterbuch* (1854)

## Trivia

* The first volumes of *Grimm's Fairy Tales* were criticized because they were deemed as not suitable for children.
* In the mid-20th century, the tales were used as propaganda by Nazi Germany.
* Several tales were adapted for film by Walt Disney, such as *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty,* and *Cinderella.*
A Moveable Feast

## Description

***A Moveable Feast*** is a memoir by Ernest Hemingway documenting his years as an expat journalist and writer in Paris in the 1920s. It involves many notable figures of the time, including F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. The book was published posthumously in 1964 by Scribner's.

## About the Author

**Ernest Hemingway** (b. July 21, 1899, Oak Park, Illinois, United States - d. July 2, 1961, Ketchum, Idaho, United States) was an American author, journalist, and sportsman. He was best known for his modernist novels, including *The Old Man and the Sea*, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He also won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Before becoming a published author, he served as an ambulance driver in World War I and worked as a journalist for *The Toronto Star.* In the 1920s, Hemingway lived in Paris, where he became part of the expatriate community. He later maintained permanent residences in Cuba and Ketchum, Idaho.

## Trivia

* *A Moveable Feast* became a bestseller in France after the 2015 terrorist attacks.
* Hemingway's suicide in 1961 delayed publication of the book. It was published posthumously by his fourth wife and widow, Mary Hemingway.
* An edited and revised edition was published by his grandson Sean Hemingway in 2009.

## Other books by Ernest Hemingway

* *In Our Time* (1925)
* *The Sun Also Rises* (1926)
* *A Farewell to Arms* (1929)
* *To Have and Have Not* (1937)
* *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1940)
* *The Old Man and the Sea* (1952)
David and Goliath

## Description

***David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants*** is a non-fiction book by Malcolm Gladwell in which Gladwell challenges how people think about obstacles and disadvantages. Gladwell provides stories of underdogs who succeeded despite their setbacks. The book was first published on October 1, 2013 by Little, Brown and Company of New York City.

## About the Author

**Malcolm Gladwell** (b. September 3, 1963, Fareham, Hampshire, England) is a Canadian author and journalist who has been a staff writer for *The New Yorker* since 2006. He is best known for his non-fiction books on business and the social sciences. His first five books were *New York Times* bestsellers. Born in England, Gladwell moved to Canada at the age of 6. In 2011, he was appointed to the Order of Canada.

## Trivia

* *David and Goliath* was a bestseller despite receiving largely negative reviews.

## Other books by Malcolm Gladwell

* *The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference* (2000)
* *Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking* (2005)
* *Outliers: The Story of Success* (2008)
* *What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures* (2009)
* *David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants* (2013)
* *Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know* (2019)
* *The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War* (2021)
Great Expectations

## Description

***Great Expectations*** is a coming-of-age novel by Charles Dickens. The story is set in Kent and London during the early to mid-19th century, and depicts the education of an orphan boy named Pip. It outlines three stages of Pip's expectations. The novel was first published in serial form from December, 1860 to August, 1861 in the literary periodical *All the Year Round*. It is full of extreme imagery and a colourful cast of characters that have entered popular culture.

## About the Author

**Charles Dickens** (b. February 7, 1812, Landport, Hampshire, England - d. June 9, 1870, Higham, Kent, England) was an English writer and social critic best known for his novels depicting poor social and working conditions. He is considered by many to be the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, and his works remain popular today. The term "Dickensian" is used to describe situations reminiscent of Dickens' writings. A famous celebrity of his time, Dickens took a series of public reading tours later in his career due to public demand.

## Trivia

* *Great Expectations* has been adapted numerous times for film, radio, television, and stage.

## Other books by Charles Dickens

* *The Pickwick Papers* (1836-7)
* *Oliver Twist* (1837-9)
* *Nicholas Nickleby* (1838-9)
* *A Christmas Carol* (1843)
* *David Copperfield* (1849-50)
* *Bleak House* (1852-3)
* *Hard Times* (1854)
* *Little Dorrit* (1855-7)
* *A Tale of Two Cities* (1859)
The Male Brain

## Description

***The Male Brain*** is a non-fiction book by American neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine. The main thesis of the book is that men's behaviour is different from that of women in every phase of life due to hormonal differences. Brizendine argues that there are also structural differences between the male brain and the female brain. *The Male Brain* was first published in 2010 by Three Rivers Press.

## About the Author

**Louann Brizendine** (b. December 30, 1952, United States) is an American neuropsychiatrist, researcher, clinician and professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research mainly concerns women's moods and hormones. In 1994, she founded the UCSF Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic, where she serves as director.
Hedda Gabler

## Description

***Hedda Gabler*** is a play by Henrik Ibsen. The story is set in Norway in the 1890s, and concerns a newlywed trapped in a marriage and life she does not want. The play premiered on January 31, 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. It was originally written in Danish (the common literary language in Denmark and Norway at the time), and was first published by Gyldendal of Denmark. The play won the Laurence Olivier Award twice for Best Revival.

## About the Author

**Henrik Ibsen** (b. March 20, 1828, Skien, Telemark, Norway - d. May 23, 1906, 23 May 1906, Kristiania, Norway [modern Oslo]) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. He is often referred to as "the father of realism," as he was one of the founders of modernism in theatre. He wrote his plays in Danish, although most of his plays are set in Norway. Ibsen's plays are the most frequently performed in the world after Shakespeare's.

## Trivia

* *Hedda Gabler* has been adapted for the screen numerous times in several languages.

## Other books by Henrik Ibsen

* *Peer Gynt* (1867)
* *A Doll's House* (1879)
Anne of Green Gables

## Description

***Anne of Green Gables*** is a children's novel by L.M. Montgomery. The story is set during the late 19th century and follows an orphan girl adopted by two middle-aged siblings in rural Prince Edward Island. The novel was first published in June 1908 by L.C. Page & Co.

## About the Author

**Lucy Maud Montgomery** (b. November 30, 1874, Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada - d. April 24, 1942, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was a Canadian author best known for her series of novels beginning with *Anne of Green Gables.* A prolific writer, she went on to publish 20 novels, 530 short stories, and 500 poems. Most of her novels are set in her home province of Prince Edward Island. Before becoming a published author, she worked as a teacher for many years in various Prince Edward Island schools.

## Trivia

* *Anne of Green Gables* has been adapted into numerous films, television series, musicals, and plays.
* The novel has been translated into at least 36 languages and sold more than 50 million copies, making it one of the bestselling novels of all time.

## Other books by L.M. Montgomery

* *Anne of Avonlea* (1909)
* *The Story Girl* (1911)
* *Chronicles of Avonlea* (1912)
* *The Golden Road* (1913)
* *Anne of the Island* (1915)
* *Anne's House of Dreams* (1917)
* *Rainbow Valley* (1919)
* *Rilla of Ingleside* (1921)
* *Emily of New Moon* (1923)
* *Emily Climbs* (1925)
* *Emily's Quest* (1927)
* *Anne of Windy Poplars* (1936)
* *Anne of Ingleside* (1939)
All the Light We Cannot See

## Description

***All the Light We Cannot See*** is a novel by Anthony Doerr. The story is set in occupied France during World War II and follows a blind French girl and a German orphan boy whose paths cross. The novel was first published by Scribner on May 6, 2014.

## About the Author

**Anthony Doerr** (b. October 27, 1973, Cleveland, Ohio, United States) is an American author best known for his novel *All the Light We Cannot See.* Before publishing the novel, he wrote short story collections set in Africa and New Zealand, where he has worked and lived. Doerr writes a column on science books for *The Boston Globe* and is a contributor to *The Morning News*, an online magazine. He has won numerous awards, including five O. Henry Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Carnegie Medal.

## Trivia

* *All the Light* we cannot see won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
* The novel will soon be adapted into a Netflix series.

## Other Books by Anthony Doerr

* *The Shell Collector* (2002)
* *About Grace* (2004)
* *Four Seasons in Rome* (2007)
* *Memory Wall* (2010)
* *Cloud Cuckoo Land* (2021)
The English Patient

## Description

***The English Patient*** is a novel by Canadian author Michael Ondaatje. The story is set in Italy during the Italian/North African Campaigns of World War II and follows four main characters. The novel was first published in September, 1992 by McClelland & Stewart of Toronto. In 1992, it won the Booker Prize and the Governor General's Award. It also won the Golden Man Booker Award in 2018.

## About the Author

**Michael Ondaatje** (b. September 12, 1943, Colombo, Sri Lanka) is a Canadian author and filmmaker. Born in Sri Lanka, he is of Dutch and Sinhalese ancestry. He moved to Canada in 1962. Ondaatje is the recipient of numerous literary awards and is also and Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing him as one of the most renowned Canadian authors.

## Trivia

* *The English Patient* was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996, which received nine Academy Awards.

## Other books by Michael Ondaatje

* *The Collected Works of Billy the Kid* (1970)
* *Coming Through Slaughter* (1976)
* *In the Skin of a Lion* (1987)
* *Anil's Ghost* (2000)
* *Divisadero* (2007)
* *Warlight* (2018)
The Iliad

## Description

***The Iliad*** is an epic poem by Homer written c. 8th century BCE. One of the oldest extant literary works still read by contemporary audiences, the poem is divided into 24 books and written in dactylic hexameter. The story is set during the Trojan War, and tells of the battles and events during the quarrel between King Agamemnon and Achilles. The poem was first published in English in 1598. It was translated by George Chapman, who set the poem in rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter.

## About the Author

**Homer** (b. c. 800 BCE–d. c. 701 BCE) was an ancient Greek poet best known for presumably composing the epic poems *The Odyssey* and *The Iliad*. Little is known about the life of Homer. Some ancient accounts of Homer's life include that he was blind and born in Chios and died in Ios, both islands in the Aegean Sea.

## Trivia

* William Shakespeare used the plot of *The Iliad* as the basis for his play *Troilus and Cressida.*
* *The Iliad* was loosely adapted into the film *Troy* (2004), which achieved commercial success.

## Other books by Homer

* *The Odyssey*
* *Homeric Hymns*
The Count of Monte Cristo

## Description

***The Count of Monte Cristo** (French: Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)* is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. The story is set in France, Italy, and Mediterranean islands from 1815 to 1839 during the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of King Louis-Philippe of France. It centres on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned and escapes from jail to exact revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. The novel was first published serially from 1844 to 1846 in the journal *Journal des Débats.* It was first translated into English in 1845 in an abridged serialization by W. Francis Ainsworth.

## About the Author

**Alexandre Dumas** (b. July 24, 1802, Villers-Cotterêts, France - d. December 5, 1870, Puys, France), also known as Alexandre Dumas père to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils, was a French author best known for his historical adventure novels. Of mixed French and African ancestry, Dumas was born into an aristocratic family, which helped him acquire work with Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, as a writer. Prolific in many genres, he began his career writing plays and founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris in the 1840s. Dumas' works have translated into many languages and he is one of the most widely read French authors.

## Trivia

* The novel alludes to historical events, such as Napoleon I's return to power in 1815.
* *The Count of Monte Cristo* has been adapted numerous times for film, television, theatre, and video games.
* Like many of his novels, Dumas collaborated on the work with ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.

## Other Books By Alexandre Dumas

* *The Three Musketeers* (1844)
* *The Corsican Brothers* (1844)
* *Twenty Years After* (1845)
* *The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later* (1850)
Troilus and Criseyde

## Description

***Troilus and Criseyde*** is an epic poem written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer. The story tells of the tragic romance between Troilus and Criseyde against the backdrop of the Trojan War. The poem was written in rhyme royal, a rhyming stanza form consisting of seven lines in iambic pentameter. It was likely completed during the mid-1380s.

## About the Author

**Geoffrey Chaucer** (b. c. 1343–d. October 25, 1400) was an English poet and author widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was also a philosopher, astronomer, and civil servant who served as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Chaucer was one of the first writers to write in Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.

## Trivia

* *Troilus and Criseyde* has inspired many works, including Shakespeare's tragedy *Troilus and Cressida.*

## Other books by Geoffrey Chaucer

* *The Book of the Duchess*
* *The Canterbury Tales*
* *The House of Fame*
* *The Legend of Good Women*
Mrs Dalloway

## Description

***Mrs Dalloway*** is a novel by Virginia Woolf. The story is set in post-World War I England and details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged high-society woman who reminisces about her past. The novel was first published on May 14, 1925 by Hogarth Press of London. It is written in the stream of consciousness style.

## About the Author

**Virginia Woolf** (b. January 25, 1882, South Kensington, London, England - d. March 28, 1941, Lewes, East Sussex, England) was an English author renowned as an important modernist 20th-century author and a pioneer of the stream of consciousness narrative device. In 1917, she and her husband Leonard Woolf founded Hogarth Press, a publishing house that published much of her work. Woolf was troubled by mental illness throughout her life. Her symptoms would be diagnosed today as Bipolar Disorder, for which there was no effective intervention during her lifetime.

## Trivia

* *Mrs Dalloway* was adapted for film in 1997.
* The protagonist, Clarissa Dalloway, also appears in Virginia Woolf's first novel, *The Voyage Out*, and five of her short stories.

## Other books by Virginia Woolf

* *The Voyage Out* (1915)
* *To the Lighthouse* (1927)
* *Orlando* (1928)
* *A Room of One's Own* (1929)
* *The Waves* (1931)
The Second Continuum

**The Second Continuum**(Book 1 Of The Collective Cosmos Series) is about Jim Mulligan, who is about to find out that the reality of a do-over is vastly more complex than he ever imagined. Waking up from a car accident that should have killed him, he finds himself uninjured in his seventeen-year-old body, in the 1980's. Seeking to rewrite his failed life, he is frequently thwarted by diversions, temporal paradoxes and his own character flaws.
The Trumpet of the Swan

## Description

***The Trumpet of the Swan*** is a children's novel by E.B. White. The story is set in Canada and the United States. It follows a trumpeter swan born without a voice who learns to play the trumpet. The book was first published in 1970 by Harper & Row in the US and Hamish Hamilton in the UK.

## About the Author

**Elwyn Brooks White** (b. July 11, 1899, Mount Vernon, New York – d. October 1, 1985, North Brooklin, Maine) was an American writer and a contributing editor to *The New Yorker* magazine. He authored several popular books for children, including *Stuart Little* (1945), *Charlotte's Web* (1952), and *The Trumpet of the Swan* (1970). He was also the co-author of the English language style guide *The Elements of Style.* He received numerous literary awards, including the 1953 Newbery Medal and the 1970 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award.

## Other books by E.B. White

* *Stuart Little* (1945)
* *Charlotte's Web* (1952)
* *The Elements of Style* (with William Strunk Jr.; 1959)
North

## Description

***North*** is a is a collection of poetry by Seamus Heaney. The collection is split into two parts. The first deals with themes such as the Greek myth of Antaeus, the bog bodies of northern Europe, Vikings, and other historical figures. The second part deal with life in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict during the 1960s to 1990s in Northern Ireland. The book was first published in 1975 by Faber and Faber of London.

## About the Author

**Seamus Heaney** (b. April 13, 1939, Tamniaran, Northern Ireland - d. August 30, 2013, Blackrock, Dublin, Ireland) was an Irish poet, translator, and playwright. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. During his lifetime, he was recognized as one of the most important contributors to poetry in Ireland. He has been described as the most important Irish poet since Yeats. From 1981 to 2006, he lived part-time in the United States, where he was a professor at Harvard University.

## Trivia

* The book was awarded the Duff Cooper Prize in 1975.

## Other books by Seamus Heaney

* *Death of a Naturalist* (1966)
* *Field Work* (1979)
* *The Spirit Level* (1996)
* *Beowulf: A New Verse Translation* (1999)
* *District and Circle* (2006)
* *Human Chain* (2010)
A Series of Unfortunate Events

## Description

***A Series of Unfortunate Events*** is a series of thirteen children's novels by Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the lives of three orphaned siblings as they encounter unfortunate events escaping from the evil Count Olaf. The series was published from September 30, 1999 to October 13, 2006 by HarperCollins in the U.S. and Egmont in the U.K.

## About the Author

**Daniel Handler** (b. February 28, 1970, San Francisco, California, U.S.) is an American author and musician. He is best known for writing the children's series *A Series of Unfortunate Events* and *All the Wrong Questions* under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket. Under his real name, he has published novels for adults and a stage play. He is also an accordionist, whose work has appeared on the album *69 Love Songs* by the indie pop band The Magnetic Fields.

## Trivia

* The first three books in the series was adapted into a 2004 film by Brad Silberling.
* The series was adapted into a Netflix TV series from 2017 to 2019.
* The series has sold more than 60 million copies.

## Other books by Daniel Handler

* *The Basic Eight* (1999)
* *Watch Your Mouth* (2000)
* *Adverbs* (2006)
* *Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid* (2007)
* *The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming* (2007)
* *The Lump of Coal* (2008)
* *The Composer is Dead* (2009)
* *Why We Broke Up* (2011)
* *All the Wrong Questions* (2012-2015)
* *We Are Pirates* (2014)
Sanaaq

## Description

***Sanaaq: An Inuit Novel*** is a novel by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk. The story is set in northern Quebec and follows an Inuit family negotiating the changes brought to their community by the coming of white people in the mid-nineteenth century. The novel was first published in Inuktitut in 1984 by the Association Inuksiutiit. It was translated into French by Bernard D'Anglure, and published in 2002 by Les Éditions Stanké. The book was translated into English from French by Peter Frost and published in 2014.

## About the Author

**Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk** (b. 1931, Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec - d. 2007) was a Canadian Inuit author best known for her novel *Sanaaq*. She began writing the novel in the 1950s when a missionary in her area asked her to write some sentences in Inuktitut so he could learn the language. She translated the Roman Catholic Prayer Book into Inuktitut and wrote several books for use in Inuit schools. Nappaaluk was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2004 and won a National Aboriginal Achievement Award.

## Trivia

* *Sanaaq* was the first Canadian Inuit novel to be written, although the first Inuit novel to be published was Markoosie Patsauq's *Harpoon of the Hunter*, which was first published in 1970.
* It is the first Inuktitut-language novel.
The Chronicles of Narnia

## Description

***The Chronicles of Narnia*** is a children's series of seven fantasy novels by C.S. Lewis. Originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fantasy world of Narnia. Books 1-5 were published by Geoffrey Bles Ltd., and books 6-7 were published by The Bodley Head of London.

## About the Author

**C.S. Lewis** (b. November 29, 1898, Belfast, Ireland [\*] - d. November 22, 1963, Oxfordshire, England) was an Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author. He was also a Christian apologist. Lewis was a close friend of fellow author J.R.R. Tolkien, and they were both active in the informal literary group "The Inklings" at Oxford University.

[\*] Now in Northern Ireland

## Trivia

* *The Magician's Nephew* (1955) and *The Horse and His Boy* (1954) are set significantly earlier in the series than their publication order.
* Three of the novels, *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe* (2005), *Prince Caspian* (2008), and *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader* (2010) were adapted into movies.

## Other books by C.S. Lewis

* *The Space Trilogy* (1938-1945)
* *The Problem of Pain* (1940)
* *The Screwtape Letters* (1942)
* *The Abolition of Man* (1943)
* *The Great Divorce* (1945)
* *Miracles* (1947)
* *Mere Christianity* (1952)
* *Till We Have Faces* (1956)
* *Reflections on Psalms* (1958)
M. Butterfly

## Description

***M. Butterfly*** is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story is set in Paris and is based on the true story of an affair between a French diplomat and a Peking opera singer. The play premiered on February 10, 1988 at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. It won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play.

## About the Author

**David Henry Hwang** (b. August 11, 1957, Los Angeles, California, United States) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theatre professor at Columbia University. Many of his works deal with the Chinese-American experience and Asian-American identity. He has won three Obie Awards.

## Trivia

* *M. Butterfly* was adapted into a 1993 film directed by David Cronenberg.

## Other books by David Henry Hwang

* *FOB* (1980)
* *Golden Child* (1996)
* *Yellow Face* (2007)
Oryx and Crake

## Description

***Oryx and Crake*** is a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by primitive human-like creatures called "Crakers." First published in 2003 by McClelland and Stewart, *Oryx and Crake* is the first novel of the MaddAddam trilogy.

## About the Author

**Margaret Atwood** (b. November 18, 1939, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian poet, novelist, environmental activist, and feminist. She is best known for her works exploring gender and identity, religion and myth, and climate change. A renowned Canadian author, Atwood is the founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writer's Trust of Canada.

## Other books by Margaret Atwood

* *The Edible Woman* (1969)
* *Surfacing* (1972)
* *The Handmaid's Tale* (1985)
* *Cat's Eye* (1988)
* *The Robber Bride* (1993)
* *Alias Grace* (1996)
* *The Blind Assassin* (2000)
* *The Penelopiad* (2005)
* *The Year of the Flood* (2009; sequel to *Oryx and Crake*)
* *MaddAddam* (2013; third novel in *Oryx and Crake* trilogy)
* *The Heart Goes Last* (2015)
* *The Testaments* (2019)