Zadie Smith became an instant phenomenon when her bestselling debut novel White Teeth was published at the tender age of 25. Instantly hailed as “the new Salman Rushdie,” it was clear that an astonishing contemporary writing talent had arrived. That…
Although there are those who question its relevance and appropriateness in the modern classroom, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird remains a beloved classic. The story of Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of sexual assault in a small…
Marie Lu’s revolutionary debut novel Legend jumpstarted her illustrious career in speculative YA. Protagonists June and Day grew up under vastly different circumstances, yet the military prodigy and the rebel from the slums still manage to work together to uncover…
Jules Verne was one of the most influential popular writers in modern history. A forerunner of the science fiction genre, Verne took inspiration from the explosion of technological progress during the Industrial Revolution. He crafted adventure stories where daring, intelligent…
Since Percy Jackson debuted in 2005, Rick Riordan has been stealth-educating millions of people in over 35 countries with his perfect blend of comedy, action, and Greek mythology. The Percy Jackson series has also been known for its diverse cast…
There was a time when Michael Crichton ruled pop culture like few authors before. Crichton, who held an M.D. from Harvard, leveraged his intense interest in science, history, and technology into page-turning stories. He wrote screenplays for films like Westworld…
Franz Kafka was a master of depicting the political and existential troubles of the 20th century. His works deal with isolation, hidden desires, and pointless bureaucratic processes that continue to govern our lives. However, in all of their bleakness, Kafka’s…
Simon Spier and his adorkable email exchanges with the mysterious Blue took the world by storm in 2015. Followed by the movie adaptation Love, Simon and the spin-off TV series Love, Victor, the Creekwood universe continues to endear its fans…
One of the most popular end-of-the-world stories, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a Pulitzer Prize-winner about an unnamed man who travels with his son across a lifeless post-apocalyptic America. Although it’s violent and can be hard to read, The Road…
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” The spark Victor Hugo ignited in the literary world made him one of the greatest French writers. He was among the leaders…