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Devil in the Grove is a nonfiction account of a 1949 court case involving the Groveland Boys, who were accused of rape by a 17 year-old Caucasian-American. The book was published in 2012 by American writer Gilbert King. The book is set in Florida...

The Cement Garden is Ian McEwan's 1978 novel that explores complex themes of maturing, family, and dealing with loss. The novel follows Jack, the narrator, and his siblings, as they attempt to grow up without having parents. The novel is...

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is one of the most famous spy novels ever written and one of the most influential. John le Carre published his novel just as the modestly successful James Bond series by Ian Fleming was about to become a global...

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, a Japanese writer from the Taisho period in Japan, was considered the “Father of the Japanese short story”. He wrote a number of beautiful, concise short stories that explored diverse themes with an intricate understanding of...

T.C. Boyle—often found under his name T Coraghessan Boyle—is almost certainly known to most readers of short fiction through his short story “Greasy Lake.” That coming-of-age story that combines humor with terror without any elements of horror is...

Published in 1994, Gardening in the Tropics was the second book of poetry by Olive Senior. The book is a sequence of twelve poems that all begin with the book’s title as their opening line which sets the stage for each individual work of verse to...

When Eavan Boland began her career as a published poet in 1967 with the collection New Territory, the mixed reviews from critics hardly indicated that that career would go on to situate her as the vanguard of contemporary Irish verse. Since the...

With the 1986 publication of her third volume of verse, Thomas and Beulah, Rita Dove was elevated into that most exclusive sphere of American poets: those singled out for distinction with the honor of a Pulitzer Prize. Thomas and Beulah is a...

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism was begun by bell hooks (lowercase intentional by the author's convention) when she was just 19 years old. At the time, she was not only attending Stanford full-time, but also working as a phone operator....

Mister Pip, written by Lloyd Jones, was published in 2006. It is to some extent a response to the character Pip from the novel Great Expectations. It takes place in the Pacific and is set during the civil war on Bougainville Island.

Matilda is a...

Of the fifty-eight stories that make up North Carolina's most famous author Thomas Wolfe's short story collection, (which spans the peak of the author's career), the most important and popular are such stories as "The Train and the City" and "The...

"The Story of the Treasure Seekers" is a children's novel written by British novelist Edith (E.) Nesbit, and like her other much-loved novels including "The Phoenix and the Carpet" and "Five Children and It", "The Story of the Treasure Seekers" is...

Ian Bone is an Australian novelist born in 1956 in Geelong, Victoria. He possesses a PhD from Adelaide University and works as an English professor. His foray into the realm of young adult fiction began in 1998 with the release of his book...

Lady Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji is universally regarded as the finest literary work to come out of medieval Japan. Although published around 1000 A.D., the text would not be translated into English until the second quarter of the 20th...

Published in 1983, A Gathering of Old Men is the fifth novel from plantation-born African-American writer Ernest J. Gaines. Perhaps most famous for writing The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, the author here focuses not only on the masculine...

In the Afterlight is the third book in the trilogy The Darkest Minds, written by Alexandra Bracken, published in 2014. It delves deep into the intriguing story of Ruby, and her fight to save the children of America. The government has set off a...

Never Fade is a second novel in a three-book series called The Darkest Minds Series, about a fictional world where teenagers become affected by a disease called IAAN and most of them die. Those remaining start to have special abilities and are...

The Darkest Minds is the first in the three-book series of science fiction novels about a world where kids with special abilities are born and deemed threat to the national security.

The first novel follows the young protagonist Ruby who got put...

Immortal is a Young Adult novel by British author and teacher Gillian Shields. It is the first book in the Immortal series, introducing the character of Evie Johnson, a teenage girl shipped to an elite boarding school who soon finds that there are...

John Barth's cerebral novel Chimera (1972) is made up of three seperate but loosely connected novellas: Dunyazadiad, Perseid, and Bellerophoniad. The three novels mirror the way that the mythical Chimera is a hybrid creature composed of three...

The infamous My Lai massacre of the Vietnam War plays a significant role in Tim O’Brien’s novel, In the Lake of the Woods. Unlike the previous literary works which brought him fame, critical attention and, in 1979 the National Book Award, In the...

Bridget Sprouls is a well-regarded author of multiple poems that have appeared in prestigious publications. Some popular poems of hers are "Scout," "Mouth," and "Down the Shore," but she has more. Sprouls presents a very earthy and cultured tone...

The poetry of Li-Young Lee is charged with the influence of being an outsider and dealing assimilating within a different culture. Young’s father was a doctor who at one time treated a very famous patient: Chairman Mao. Later he was imprisoned for...

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man was composed in 1483, but not published until after his death in 1486. Considering the temper of the times, the amazing thing is that it got published at all. The oration itself...