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Tobacco Road is a novel written by Erskine Caldwell. The novel was first published in 1932, set in the rural Georgia which the author knew well. It features the memorable (if not entirely pleasant) character Jeeter Lester as well as his wife, Ada,...

Originally beginning his career as a pornography writer in the 1970's, Hanif Kureishi is now an acclaimed British playwright and novelist. His stories demonstrate remarkable prose and narrative grace, with TIME naming him one of the most brilliant...

Written by prominent United States author Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain is a novel published in 1903. The book is essentially a compilation of a series of essays lyrically exploring the various aspects of the American Southwest.

The...

Le Bel Inconnu is literally translated to "The Fair Unknown" and it is a popular folk tale that has strong ties to the legends of King Arthur, telling the popular story of a young man of questionable heritage who becomes a key player in polite...

Are You Somebody is a memoir (an autobiography) written by the Irish journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain. It was first published in 1996. O'Faolain was born in 1940 and died in 2008. She started writing at a young age but this book is what made...

The Buddha in the Attic is the follow-up novel by Julie Otsuka's prize-winning novel When The Emperor Was Divine. This novel tells the story of a group of young Japanese women brought over from their home country to San Francisco as what were...

Samuel Johnson, also known as "Dr. Johnson," was born in 1709. His father, Michael Johnson, was a poor bookseller. He was born ill with tuberculosis. He faced many physical illnesses, such as being almost blind in one eye and deaf in one ear....

Written by British author Matt Ridley and published in 1999, Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapter, or, Genome for short, is a popular science publication. The book has 23 chapters because of the 22 human chromosomes as well as an...

In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women is a collection of short stories written by the famous author Alice Walker. Alice Walker is an American writer, poet, and activist. She has written many books about black people and their sufferings. She...

Ten is a horror-mystery novel by noted Young-Adult author Gretchen McNeil. It was published in 2012 and since then has been translated into multiple languages.

The protagonists of Ten are Meg and Minnie, two best friends who are eager to attend a...

Bruce Dawe was in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia in 1930. Due to his family's relative lack of wealth, he was unable to complete his primary education. At the age of 16, he took various jobs to help support his family, including work at a mill...

Soren Kierkegaard composed Fear and Trembling under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio. He wrote it to discuss the stories from Genesis, and is in reference to the book of Philippians. Part of the inspiration for the book was an effort to...

The Yellow Arrow is a short allegorical story by Russian author Victor Pelvin, known for his postmodernist style and his method of incorporating pop culture and philosophy into his works. Pelvin's The Yellow Arrow has been re-published multiple...

Heda Margoulis Kovaly originally published her memoir under the title "The Victors and The Vanquished" in Canada in 1973. A second version, "I Do Not Want To Remember", was published later the same year in the U.K. The memoir tells of the years...

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents is a collection of short stories by legendary science fiction writer H G. Wells. The introduction by Wells indicates that the bulk of the collection appeared originally in Pall Mall Budget, the Pall Gazette...

We do not know who wrote "The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee," but the anonymous author of this Eighteenth Century Chinese detective novel gives us a great insight into the way in which the criminal justice system worked in the country at that...

Written by vehement feminist Joanna Russ, The Female Man is a science fiction novel published in 1975. It is extremely notable for its challenging of traditional gender roles and sexist views during the 1900's.

The Female Man centers around four...

Simon Armitage: Poems is a collection of a few of Simon Armitage’s works. Armitage is an English writer who specializes in poetry, plays, and novels. In addition to the poems that are included in this work, Armitage has written additional poetry,...

The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LLD, was written by Scotsman James Boswell. It is a travel journal that was published in 1785. It documents a trip that Boswell took with his English friend Samuel Johnson whom Boswell...

Samuel Johnson, more widely known as Dr Johnson published his book "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland", in 1775. The book was the journal of a three month trip to Scotland that he took with his dear friend and biographer, James Boswell,...

Theogony (meaning "birth of the gods"), is a poem that was orally composed by Hesiod in roughly 700 BC, and outlines the origins and genealogy of the Greek gods. It is considered to be Hesiod's first work. Hesiod, along with Homer, is considered...

Winnie the Pooh is the most beloved bear in the world and one of the reasons for this is his particular way of doing things. Benjamin Hoffman brilliantly shoes the similarity between Pooh's Way and Taoism. His book explains both Taoism by...

A Cyborg Manifesto is a critical feminist essay published by Donna Haraway in 1984. The essay is one of a series centering around the same subjects. Haraway is a prominent science scholar and distinguished thinker, and The Cyborg Manifesto is one...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American feminist writer who published a large amount of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1860 to a prominent family. At a young age, however, Gilman's father abandoned his...