Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Human Condition
Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino
A fantastical exploration of the cities of the imagination and the possibilities of life.
"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young ... (Goodreads)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Quirky comedic intergalactic adventure, exploring the absurdities of life.
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of the The Hitch ... (Goodreads)
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
A man's transformation into an insect and the surreal journey that follows.
Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a "monstrous vermin". He initially considers the transformation to be temporary and slowly ponders the consequences of this ... (Wikipedia)
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
An absurdist war satire highlighting the absurdity of bureaucracy and the human condition.
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—books of all time. In recent years it has been named to ... (Goodreads)
Silence of the Grave
by Arnaldur Indriðason
A detective investigates a decades-old murder to uncover the truth and bring justice.
Inspector Erlendur returns in this gripping Icelandic thriller When a skeleton is discovered half-buried in a construction site outside of Reykjavík, Inspector Erlendur finds himself knee-deep in ... (Goodreads)
Moral Disorder and Other Stories
by Margaret Atwood
An exploration of the lives of characters in a small Canadian town, delving into their stories of joy, sorrow, and moral ambiguity.
Margaret Atwood is acknowledged as one of the foremost writers of our time. In Moral Disorder she has created a series of interconnected stories that trace the course of a life and also the lives ... (Goodreads)
The Naked and the Dead
by Norman Mailer
Based on WWII, a journey of a platoon of soldiers in the Pacific theater as they confront death and the harsh realities of war.
The novel is divided into four parts: Wave; Argil and Mold; Plant and Phantom; and Wake. Within these parts are chorus sections, consisting of play-like dialogue between characters, as well as Time ... (Wikipedia)
The Plague
by Albert Camus
A small town in Algeria is struck by a deadly plague, testing the courage and faith of its citizens.
The book begins with an epigraph quoting Daniel Defoe , author of, A Journal of the Plague Year, . In the town of Oran, thousands of rats, initially unnoticed by the populace, begin to die in the ... (Wikipedia)
The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway
A group of expatriates in 1920s Europe, struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of WWI.
On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes—a man whose war wound has made him unable to have sex—and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett ... (Wikipedia)
Les Misérables
by Victor Hugo
Epic tale of love, loss, and redemption set against the backdrop of 19th-century France.
The story begins in 1815 in Digne , as the peasant Jean Valjean , just released from 19 years' imprisonment in the Bagne of Toulon —five for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family and ... (Wikipedia)
Endgame
by Samuel Beckett
A darkly humorous exploration of the human condition and the inevitability of death.
Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969; his literary output of plays, novels, stories, and poetry has earned him an uncontested place as one of the greatest writers of our ... (Goodreads)
Bluets
by Maggie Nelson
A lyrical exploration of love, loss, and grief, expressed through memories and reflections.
Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color... A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as ... (Goodreads)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories
by Ernest Hemingway
Collection of short stories exploring the human condition and the consequences of life choices.
The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway,, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from, ... (Goodreads)
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
by Milan Kundera
An exploration of the power of memory and the meaning of life through a series of interconnected stories.
The first section occurs in 1971 and is the story of Mirek, as he explores his memories of Zdena. Knowing that he loved this ugly woman has left a blemish, and he hopes to rectify this by destroying ... (Wikipedia)
The Black Obelisk
by Erich Maria Remarque
A soldier's story of survival in the chaos and destruction of WWI.
From the author of the masterpiece, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Black Obelisk, is a classic novel of the troubling aftermath of World War I in Germany. A hardened young veteran from the First ... (Goodreads)
The Poetry of Robert Frost
by Robert Frost
Collection of masterfully crafted poems examining the beauty, challenges and complexities of life.
A feast for lovers of American literature-the work of our greatest poet, redesigned and relaunched for a new generation of readers No poet is more emblematically American than Robert Frost. From "The ... (Barnes & Noble)
Pastoralia
by George Saunders
Short stories exploring the complexities of modern life, through characters struggling to survive in an ever-changing world.
With this new collection, George Saunders takes us even further into the shocking, uproarious and oddly familiar landscape of his imagination. The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed ... (Goodreads)
Herzog
by Saul Bellow
A man's existential journey to make sense of his life and relationships.
Herzog is set in 1964 in the United States, and is about the midlife crisis of a Jewish man named Moses E. Herzog. At the age of forty-seven, , he is just emerging from his second divorce, this one ... (Wikipedia)
The Late Mattia Pascal
by Luigi Pirandello
A man's journey to reclaim his identity and freedom from a life of dullness and unhappiness.
The protagonist, Mattia Pascal, finds that his promising youth has, through misfortune or misdeed, dissolved into a dreary dead-end job and a miserable marriage. His inheritance and the woman he ... (Wikipedia)
Too Loud a Solitude
by Bohumil Hrabal
A man's reflections on life and literature, as he crushes books for a living.
The entire story is narrated in the first person by the main character Hanta. Hanta is portrayed as a sort of recluse and hermit, albeit one with encyclopedic literary knowledge. Hanta uses ... (Wikipedia)
The October Country
by Ray Bradbury
A collection of strange and haunting stories set in a surreal landscape of the American Midwest.
Ray Bradbury's second short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's ... (Goodreads)
The Illustrated Man
by Ray Bradbury
A collection of short stories about the human condition and its connection to the universe.
That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival ... (Goodreads)
The Road Not Taken and Other Poems
by Robert Frost
Collection of poems exploring the power of choice, the passage of time, and the beauty of nature.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I– I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." These deceptively simple lines from the title poem of this collection suggest Robert ... (Goodreads)
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
by Michel Foucault
Examination of the changing attitudes towards mental illness over time and the implications of social control.
Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found, here,. Michel Foucault examines the archeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 – from the late Middle Ages, when insanity ... (Goodreads)
The Moviegoer
by Walker Percy
A young man's journey of self-discovery, as he confronts the meaninglessness of life.
The Moviegoer tells the story of Jack "Binx" Bolling, a young stock-broker in postwar New Orleans . The decline of tradition in the Southern United States , the problems of his family and his ... (Wikipedia)
Snow Country
by Yasunari Kawabata
A story of forbidden love between a Tokyo sophisticate and a geisha in the secluded depths of a mountain village.
Snow Country is a stark tale of a love affair between a Tokyo dilettante and a provincial geisha that takes place in the remote hot spring (, onsen, ) town of Yuzawa . , (Kawabata did not mention the ... (Wikipedia)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
by Oliver Sacks
A collection of case studies, illustrating extraordinary neurological phenomena.
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the ... (Goodreads)
Nutshell
by Ian McEwan
A unique retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, from the perspective of an unborn child.
Nutshell is a classic story of murder and deceit, told by a narrator with a perspective and voice unlike any in recent literature. A bravura performance, it is the finest recent work from a true ... (Goodreads)
Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy
by Irvin D. Yalom
A collection of stories from a psychotherapist's practice, exploring the human condition and the struggles we face in life.
"The publication of, Creatures of a Day, is reason to celebrate." - Steven Pinker In this stunning collection of stories, renowned psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom describes his patients' struggles – as ... (Goodreads)
The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann
A young man's journey of self-exploration and personal growth during a long stay at a Swiss sanatorium.
The narrative opens in the decade before World War I . It introduces the protagonist, Hans Castorp, the only child of a Hamburg merchant family. Following the early death of his parents, Castorp has ... (Wikipedia)
Bartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
A story of a mysterious scrivener whose refusal to comply with workplace demands leads to tragedy.
The narrator is an unnamed Manhattan lawyer, aged around his late 50s, with a business in legal documents. He already employs two scriveners , Nippers and Turkey, to copy legal documents by hand, but ... (Wikipedia)
Foe
by J.M. Coetzee
A reimagining of Robinson Crusoe, exploring themes of colonialism, gender and power.
Susan Barton is on a quest to find her kidnapped daughter who she knows has been taken to the New World. She is set adrift during a mutiny on a ship to Lisbon . When she comes ashore, she finds ... (Wikipedia)
Notes from Underground
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A portrait of the struggles of a troubled man, exploring his inner turmoil.
The novel is divided into two parts. Serving as an introduction into the mind of the narrator, the first part of Notes from Underground is split into nine chapters: The narrator observes that utopian ... (Wikipedia)
Too Much Happiness: Stories
by Alice Munro
Exploration of the human condition through stories of everyday people and their complex relationships.
In these ten stories, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often ... (Goodreads)
Swann's Way
by Marcel Proust
Autobiographical novel tracing the narrator's reminiscences of an aristocratic upbringing.
Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century. But since its original prewar ... (Goodreads)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
A collection of poetry exploring themes of melancholy and despair.
Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless ... (Goodreads)
Without Feathers
by Woody Allen
Collection of humorous short stories, exploring the absurdities of life.
Here they are–some of the funniest tales and ruminations ever put into print, by one of the great comic minds of our time. From THE WHORE OF MENSA, to GOD (A Play), to NO KADDISH FOR WEINSTEIN, old ... (Goodreads)
Chicken with Plums
by Marjane Satrapi
A whimsical story of a man's quest for fulfillment amidst the chaos of life.
In November 1955, Nasser Ali Khan, one of Iran's most celebrated tar players, is in search of a new instrument. His beloved tar has been broken. But no matter what tar he tries, none of them sound ... (Goodreads)
2666
by Roberto Bolaño
An epic saga of interconnected stories exploring the darkness of the human soul.
The novel is substantially concerned with violence and death. According to Levi Stahl, it "is another iteration of Bolaño's increasingly baroque, cryptic, and mystical personal vision of the world, ... (Wikipedia)
Where Is God When It Hurts?
by Philip Yancey
An exploration of faith through suffering, and how to find hope in times of despair.
OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD! An inspirational classic for more than thirty years,, Where Is God When It Hurts?, honestly explores pain—whether physical, emotional, or spiritual—and sheds new light ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens
Witty comedy of misadventures of a group of travelers in 19th century England.
Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers –-a comic masterpiece that catapulted its 24-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the ... (Goodreads)
Death in Venice and Other Tales
by Thomas Mann
A collection of stories exploring the interplay of beauty, mortality and morality.
Featuring his world-famous masterpiece, "Death in Venice," this new collection of Nobel laureate Thomas Mann's stories and novellas reveals his artistic evolution. In this new, widely acclaimed ... (Goodreads)
Kaddish and Other Poems
by Allen Ginsberg
A collection of poems exploring the themes of death, mourning, and Jewish tradition, including the famous "Kaddish" poem for his mother.
Great strange visionary poems by the author of Howl, “in the midst of the broken consciousness of mid-twentieth century . . .” In the midst of the broken consciousness of mid-twentieth century ... (Goodreads)
Wit
by Margaret Edson
A professor's journey of self-discovery as she faces her own mortality.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Oppenheimer Award,Margaret Edson’s ... (Goodreads)
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle
by Harold Bloom
A satire of religion, science, and the arms race, exploring themes of morality and mortality.
A critical overview of the work features the writings of Terry Southern, William S. Doxey, Jerome Klinkowitz, Richard Giannone, John L. Simons, James Lundquist, and other scholars. - After the bomb, ... (Goodreads)
Molloy
by Samuel Beckett
A fragmented narrative of a man's journey to find his mother and his own identity.
On first appearance the book concerns two different characters, both of whom have interior monologues in the book. As the story moves along the two characters are distinguished by name only as their ... (Wikipedia)
The Essential Rumi
by Rumi
Collection of the spiritual poet's works, exploring life, love, and the divine.
This revised and expanded edition of The Essential Rumi includes a new introduction by Coleman Barks and more than 80 never-before-published poems. Through his lyrical translations, Coleman Barks has ... (Barnes & Noble)
A Hunger Artist
by Franz Kafka
A unique artist's exploration of suffering, as he strives to make his art ever more extreme.
"A Hunger Artist" is told retrospectively through third-person narration. The narrator looks back several decades from "today", to a time when the public marveled at the professional hunger artist. ... (Wikipedia)
Runaway: Stories
by Alice Munro
A collection of short stories exploring the complexities of human relationships and the struggles of women in rural Canada.
The incomparable Alice Munro’s bestselling and rapturously acclaimed Runaway is a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises, from the title story about a young ... (Goodreads)
The Machine Stops
by E.M. Forster
A dystopian tale of a society reliant on technology, and the consequences of over-dependence.
The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, ... (Wikipedia)
To Live
by Yu Hua
A man's life journey, depicting the social and political changes in China.
From the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel, originally banned in China ... (Goodreads)
The Last Good Kiss
by James Crumley
Private investigator C.W. Sughrue searches for a missing writer, encountering violence and betrayal along the way.
An unforgettable detective story starring C.W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl ... (Goodreads)
Suttree
by Cormac McCarthy
A man's passage from a broken home to embracing a life of freedom and solitude.
The novel begins with Suttree observing police as they pull a suicide victim from the river. Suttree is living alone in a houseboat, on the fringes of society on the Tennessee River, earning money by ... (Wikipedia)
The Moon and the Bonfire
by Cesare Pavese
Pubblicato nell'aprile del 1950 e considerato dalla critica il libro più bello di Pavese, "La luna e i falò" è il suo ultimo romanzo. Il protagonista, Anguilla, all'indomani della Liberazione torna ... (Goodreads)
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
by Raymond Carver
An exploration of mundane moments and everyday lives of ordinary people.
With this, his first collection, Carver breathed new life into the short story. In the pared-down style that has since become his hallmark, Carver showed us how humour and tragedy dwelt in the hearts ... (Goodreads)
The Mouse on the Mile
by Stephen King
Story of a convict's journey to redemption, through the harrowing realities of prison life.
Featuring a first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, the novel switches between Paul as an old man in the Georgia Pines nursing home writing down his story in 1996, and his time in 1932 as the ... (Wikipedia)
Jailbird
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A satirical look at the prison system, as a prisoner faces the challenge of reforming himself.
Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in government—and in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from ... (Goodreads)
Beyaz Zambaklar Ülkesinde
by Grigory Petrov
Bazı devletler, halk olarak korkunç krizler geçirir ya da tümüyle perişan bir hale düşerler. Bazı uluslar ise hayatlarına iyi bir düzen kazandırırlar. Bu misallerin her ikisi de sadece devlet ... (Goodreads)
Escape from Freedom
by Erich Fromm
An examination of the psychological effects of modern freedom, exploring how to find a balance between freedom and security.
If humanity cannot live with the dangers and responsibilities inherent in freedom, it will probably turn to authoritarianism. This is the central idea of Escape from Freedom , a landmark work by one ... (Goodreads)
The Year of the Hare
by Arto Paasilinna
A man's journey of self-discovery, learning to let go of societal norms and expectations.
A journalist and a photographer set out on an assignment on lovely sunny evening. As they drive through the country they hit a young hare. Vatanen, the journalist, leaves the car and goes in search ... (Goodreads)
Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte
by Horacio Quiroga
A collection of stories focusing on love, madness, and death.
Constituye la obra cumbre del autor, en las breves y apasionantes historias que componen el libro, la intriga, el drama y el misterio se desbordan y nos invaden. Quiroga es aquí consagrado como uno ... (Goodreads)
A Strangeness in My Mind
by Orhan Pamuk
A story of a street vendor's life in Istanbul, exploring his dreams, disappointments and daily encounters.
A Strangeness In My Mind is a novel Orhan Pamuk has worked on for six years. It is the story of boza seller Mevlut, the woman to whom he wrote three years' worth of love letters, and their life in ... (Goodreads)
Homesick for Another World
by Ottessa Moshfegh
Collection of darkly humorous short stories probing the human condition.
«NO HI HA CAP HISTÒRIA QUE NO SIGUI ORIGINAL I ESTIGUI PERFECTAMENTCONSTRUÏDA. EL TALENT DE MOSHFEGH ÉS ÚNIC.» - NPR Si bé per les sevesnovel·les Ottessa Moshfegh ha rebut tota mena d'elogis i ... (Goodreads)
Hocus Pocus
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A darkly comedic tale of a man's struggle to cope with the absurdity of life.
Eugene is fired from his job as a college professor after having several of his witticisms surreptitiously recorded by the daughter of a popular conservative commentator. Eugene then becomes a ... (Wikipedia)
The Elephant Man
by Bernard Pomerance
The story of John Merrick, a severely deformed man in Victorian England, and his journey to find acceptance and dignity.
The Elephant Man opens with Frederick Treves , an up-and-coming surgeon, meeting his new employer Francis Carr-Gomm, the administrator of the London Hospital. Ross, the manager of a freak show , ... (Wikipedia)
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories
by Anton Chekhov
Collection of stories depicting the struggles of life in late 19th century Russia.
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, by Anton Chekhov, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics (1899), as well as several lesser-known works, no less masterful in their composition. David Plante is a ... (Goodreads)
Doppler
by Erlend Loe
A whimsical journey of a man's search for self-acceptance and understanding of the world.
Otec dvoch detí jedného dňa spadne v lese z bicykla a zrazu zacíti pokoj a harmóniu. Už ho neotravujú nekonečné detské pesničky zo synových rozprávok, myšlienky na novú kúpeľňu a výber správnej ... (Goodreads)
The Wasteland, Prufrock and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
A poetic exploration of loneliness and despair in the modern world.
This volume brings together three of T. S. Eliot's powerful collections into one. It includes such classic poems as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Portrait of a Lady," "Preludes," ... (Goodreads)
The Day of the Locust
by Nathanael West
A study of the dark side of the American Dream, exploring the disappointments and struggles of the have-nots.
Tod Hackett is the novel's protagonist. He moves from the east coast to Hollywood, California in search of inspiration for his next painting. The novel is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression ... (Wikipedia)
Happy Days
by Samuel Beckett
Two characters, Winnie and Willie, are stuck in a barren landscape, reflecting on their past and present lives.
Winnie is embedded waist-deep in a low mound under blazing light, with a large black bag beside her. She is awakened by a piercing bell and begins her daily routine with a prayer. Talking incessantly ... (Wikipedia)
Seeing
by José Saramago
A story of an old man's journey to find meaning in a world of chaos and suffering.
Seeing is set in the same unnamed country featured in, Blindness,. The story begins with a parliamentary election, in which the majority (83%) of the populace cast blank ballots. The first half of ... (Wikipedia)
Post Office
by Charles Bukowski
A poetic and darkly humorous narrative about a man's struggles with poverty and loneliness.
In Los Angeles, California , down-and-out barfly Henry Chinaski becomes a substitute mail carrier ; he quits for a while and lives on his winnings at the race track, then becomes a mail clerk. ... (Wikipedia)
The Box Man
by Kōbō Abe
A man abandons his life to live in a cardboard box, observing society from the outside.
Kobo Abe, the internationally acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes , combines wildly imaginative fantasies and naturalistic prose to create narratives reminiscent of the work of Kafka and Beckett. ... (Goodreads)
Exile and the Kingdom
by Albert Camus
Six short stories exploring the human condition through the lens of morality and justice.
These six stories, written at the height of Camus' artistic powers, all depict people at decisive, revelatory moments in their lives. Translated from the French by Justin O'Brien. The six works ... (Goodreads)
The Rebel
by Albert Camus
Philosophical meditation on the individual's search for meaning in an absurd world.
By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the "essential dimensions" of human ... (Goodreads)
The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
by Pablo Neruda
A collection of lyrical verses that evoke emotion and explore themes of love, nature, and the human condition.
The most comprehensive English-language collection of work ever by "the greatest poet of the twentieth century - in any language" - Gabriel García Márquez "In his work a continent awakens to ... (Goodreads)
Água Viva
by Clarice Lispector
A stream of consciousness narrative exploring the innermost thoughts and sensations of an unnamed narrator.
A meditation on the nature of life and time, Água Viva (1973) shows Lispector discovering a new means of writing about herself, more deeply transforming her individual experience into a universal ... (Goodreads)
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
by Richard Yates
A collection of short stories exploring the various forms of loneliness experienced by individuals in post-World War II America.
Richard Yates's unflinchingly realistic stories explore loneliness, but they don't neglect failure, cruelty, and heartbreak. Most of the stories feature men who have been disappointed, somehow, by ... (Goodreads)
The Silence of the White City
by Eva García Sáenz de Urturi
A murder mystery in a small town full of secrets, as a young detective investigates.
Veinte años después, cuando Tasio, el brillante arqueólogo condenado por los asesinatos está a punto de salir de prisión en su primer permiso, los crímenes se reanudan de nuevo: una pareja de veinte ... (Goodreads)
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
by Albert Camus
Philosophical essays on the absurd human condition, questioning the value of life.
One of the most influential works of this century, this is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan, and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a ... (Goodreads)
Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A collection of essays and speeches by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on various topics, including his experiences in World War II and his views on society.
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) is a rare opportunity to experience Kurt Vonnegut speaking in his own voice about his own life, his views of the world, his writing, and the writing of ... (Goodreads)
Island
by Aldous Huxley
A utopian society on a remote island is challenged by the reemergence of human nature.
Englishman William Asquith "Will" Farnaby deliberately wrecks his boat on the shores of the Kingdom of Pala, an island halfway between Sumatra and the Andaman Islands , thus forcing his entry to this ... (Wikipedia)
The Hour of the Star
by Clarice Lispector
A poor Brazilian girl's life story, illustrating the struggles of the working class.
The novel starts with the narrator, Rodrigo S.M., discussing what it means to write a story. He addresses the reader directly and spends a lot of time talking about his philosophical beliefs. After ... (Wikipedia)
The Alienist
by Machado de Assis
A story of scientific progress, exploring the consequences of modernity.
Published a year after Machado's first major novel,, Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, , "The Psychiatrist" follows the scientific efforts of Dr. Simon Bacamarte ( Simão Bacamarte in the original – ... (Wikipedia)
Diary of a Bad Year
by J.M. Coetzee
A writer hires a typist to transcribe his thoughts on politics, love, and aging. Their relationship evolves as they share their personal stories.
The protagonist, called Señor C. by the other characters, is an aging South African writer living in Sydney . The novel consists of his essays and musings alongside diary entries by both Señor C. and ... (Wikipedia)
The Far Side Gallery 4
by Gary Larson
Collection of humorous single-panel cartoons, exploring the absurd and the surreal.
1993 FarWorks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Far Side and the Larson signature are registered trademarks of FarWorks, Inc. ... (Goodreads)
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