John Green’s young adult novel The Fault In Our Stars became an instant cult classic upon its release in 2012. Hazel Grace Lancaster is 17 and has Stage 4 thyroid cancer. Her life is a series of bad daytime television…
John Green’s young adult novel The Fault In Our Stars became an instant cult classic upon its release in 2012. Hazel Grace Lancaster is 17 and has Stage 4 thyroid cancer. Her life is a series of bad daytime television…
Fifteen years after its initial publication, Freakonomics remains one of the most influential books about economic theory ever written. That’s because it uses economics as a starting point, then jumps into several unexpected and atypical applications of its tenets. From…
The novel was born in the 18th century, but it reached maturity in the 19th century. With early Bildungsroman novels still playing second fiddle to poetry, it wasn’t until the 1800s that the novel really came into its own. Eliot,…
Sarah J. Maas’ bestselling Throne of Glass series is a thrilling epic fantasy. Celaena Sardothien—a teenage assassin with a grudge against the empire—is one of those unforgettable heroines whose quest for freedom and vengeance captivates readers from page one. If you’re…
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. He lived in Paris for a few years as an adult before permanently relocating with his family in California. Hosseini went to medical school, but while he became a full-fledged doctor,…
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White is considered a classic thanks to its relatable characters and bittersweet ending. Since its publication in 1952, it has taught generations of children lessons about friendship, growing up, death, and grief. Like other books starring…
Reading a book is usually a passive experience. The author dictates everything, from the description of the characters and their behavior to the sequence of events. But there is one kind of story that shifts the power dramatically, giving the…
Margaret Atwood is a Canadian author and poet. She was born in Ontario in 1939 and didn’t start school until she was 12 years old. From the young age of six, she began writing poetry, and by 16 she realized…
Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life was sold to me as “the most depressing book you’ll ever read.” The New Yorker labels it ‘dark and disturbing,’ and The Guardian called it both ‘traumatic’ and a tale of ‘relentless suffering.’ If you…
Fantasy novels are frequently filled with evil wizards, dark powers, black knights and hellish monsters. This genre explores the dark side of nature—our lust for power, need for revenge, our weakness in the face of despair or temptation. So, in…