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Books about Language
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov
Autobiographical journey exploring the intimate memories of author's past.
This is an older alternate cover edition for ISBN 0141183225/ 9780141183220. A newer edition may be found here . From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies ... (Goodreads)
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester
True story of a murderer's contribution to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The book tells the story of the making of the, Oxford English Dictionary, (OED) and one of its most prolific early contributors, William Chester Minor , a retired United States Army surgeon . Minor ... (Wikipedia)
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
A young girl's journey of survival in Nazi Germany, preserving the power of words.
Narrated by Death , a male voice who over the course of the book proves to be morose yet caring. The plot follows Liesel Meminger as she comes of age in Nazi Germany during World War II . After the ... (Wikipedia)
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)
1984
by George Orwell
A cautionary tale of a society taken over by a totalitarian regime, where freedom of thought is suppressed.
In the year 1984, civilization has been damaged by war, civil conflict, and revolution. Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania , one of the three totalitarian ... (Wikipedia)
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
A fantastical journey to the depths of the imagination, reclaiming the power of storytelling.
At the beginning of the story, protagonist Haroun Khalifa lives with his father Rashid, a famous storyteller and doctor, and his mother Soraya, until the latter is seduced by their neighbor 'Mr. ... (Wikipedia)
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
by Lewis Carroll
Alice's fantastical journey through a strange and surreal world of her own making.
Chapter One – Looking-Glass House : Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty") when she ponders what the world is like on the other ... (Wikipedia)
Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
An intertwined story of mistaken identity, love, and hilarity in a world of deception.
Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke (or Count) ... (Goodreads)
The Woman Warrior
by Maxine Hong Kingston
A personal memoir of identity and culture, told through Chinese mythology and folklore.
The book is divided into five interconnected chapters, which read like short stories. In the first part of this chapter, the narrator is recounting how her mother once told her the story of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz
An exploration of love, identity, and the power of fate in a family's struggles and triumphs.
Oscar de León (nicknamed Oscar Wao, a bastardization of Oscar Wilde ) is an overweight Dominican growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar desperately wants to be successful with women but, from a ... (Wikipedia)
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King
A series of personal reflections on the art of writing, and the power of story-telling.
"Long live the King" hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is ... (Goodreads)
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
A hacker's quest in a futuristic America dealing with a mysterious computer virus.
Hiro Protagonist is a hacker and pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. He meets Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier ( courier ) who refers to herself in the third person , during ... (Wikipedia)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
An exploration of a young man's struggle to find his identity and place in the world.
The portrayal of Stephen Dedalus's Dublin childhood and youth, his quest for identity through art and his gradual emancipation from the claims of family, religion and Ireland itself, is also an ... (Goodreads)
100 Selected Poems
by E.E. Cummings
An exploration of life, love, and the beauty of nature through the lens of poetry.
E.E. Cummings is without question one of the major poets of this century, and this volume, first published in 1959, is indispensable for every lover of modern lyrical verse. It contains one hundred ... (Barnes & Noble)
E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962
by E.E. Cummings
Collection of iconic poetry from the American modernist, exploring themes of life and love.
At the time of his death in 1962, E. E. Cummings was, next to Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in America. Combining Thoreau's controlled belligerence with the brash abandon of an uninhibited ... (Goodreads)
Dubliners
by James Joyce
Collection of stories about everyday life in Dublin, exploring the Irish psyche.
This work of art reflects life in Ireland at the turn of the last century, and by rejecting euphemism, reveals to the Irish their unromantic realities. Each of the 15 stories offers glimpses into the ... (Goodreads)
The Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr.
A practical guide to written English, providing guidance on grammar and style.
This style manual offers practical advice on improving writing skills. Throughout, the emphasis is on promoting a plain English style. This little book can help you communicate more effectively by ... (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 Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
A lighthearted comedy of manners, full of witty dialogue and satirizing Victorian society.
Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The ... (Goodreads)
Ficciones
by Jorge Luis Borges
A collection of short stories exploring the limits of the imagination.
The seventeen pieces in Ficciones demonstrate the whirlwind of Borges's genius and mirror the precision and potency of his intellect and inventiveness, his piercing irony, his skepticism, and his ... (Goodreads)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
by David Foster Wallace
Collection of essays and arguments, exploring the absurdities of contemporary culture.
In this exuberantly praised book — a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary ... (Goodreads)
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
by Emily Dickinson
A compilation of Dickinson's poetic works, exploring themes of nature, mortality, and love.
THE ONLY ONE-VOLUME EDITION CONTAINING ALL 1,775 OF EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS Only eleven of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work ... (Goodreads)
Gravity's Rainbow
by Thomas Pynchon
A surreal exploration of war and technology, and their impact on the human spirit.
Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its ... (Goodreads)
The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
by Ambrose Bierce
Collection of satirical definitions of everyday words, offering a cynical take on humanity.
If we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. There, a bore is "a person who talks ... (Goodreads)
Collected Fictions
by Jorge Luis Borges
An anthology of Borges' masterful short stories, exploring the depths of human thought and imagination.
Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges' dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, ... (Goodreads)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino
An exploration of the nature of storytelling, as two readers attempt to uncover the lost story of the novel's title.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration—"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to ... (Goodreads)
The New York Trilogy
by Paul Auster
A series of interconnected stories exploring the hidden mysteries of New York City.
A 2006 reissue by Penguin Books is fronted by new pulp magazine -style covers by comic book illustrator Art Spiegelman . The first story, City of Glass , features an author of detective fiction who ... (Wikipedia)
Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
A comedic romance of misunderstandings and eventual triumph of love over deception.
In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their ... (Goodreads)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
A complex exploration of logic, mathematics and art, exploring their relationships and interconnections.
Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity ... (Goodreads)
The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
A journey through a web of intertwining stories, searching for the meaning of love.
Approximately 70 years before the present, the 10-year-old Polish-Jewish Leopold (Leo) Gursky falls in love with his neighbor Alma Mereminski. The two begin a relationship that develops over the ... (Wikipedia)
Selected Poems
by William Carlos Williams
Exploration of beauty and truth through the medium of language and poetry.
Opening with Professor Tomlinson's superbly clear and helpful introduction this selection reflects the most up-to-date Williams scholarship. In addition to including many more pieces, Tomlinson has ... (Goodreads)
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
by Bill Bryson
Fascinating exploration of the history and evolution of English language.
With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson—the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent —brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English ... (Goodreads)
Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
A collection of short stories exploring themes of science, technology, and humanity.
Ted Chiang's first published story, ",Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon ... (Goodreads)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
by Dr. Seuss
A whimsical journey of rhyming words and simplistic stories, teaching life lessons.
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish is a 1960 children's book by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel). A simple rhyming book for learner readers, it is a book with a freewheeling plot about a boy and a ... (Goodreads)
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace
A journey through the absurdist world of entertainment, drugs, addiction & death.
There are four major interwoven narratives: , These narratives are connected via a film, Infinite Jest , also referred to in the novel as "the Entertainment" or "the samizdat ". The film is so ... (Wikipedia)
Ulysses
by James Joyce
Epic narrative following a day in the life of an Irishman living in Dublin.
It is 8 a.m. Buck Mulligan , a boisterous medical student, calls Stephen Dedalus (a young writer encountered as the principal subject of, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, ) up to the roof of ... (Wikipedia)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
A fantastical journey of a curious young girl down the rabbit hole into a surreal world.
Chapter One – Looking-Glass House : Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty") when she ponders what the world is like on the other ... (Wikipedia)
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
by Benedict Anderson
Exploration into the development of nations and nationalism, and its impact on society.
What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality–the personal and ... (Goodreads)
The Waves
by Virginia Woolf
Inner musings of six characters in search of individual identity, expressed through the ebb and flow of the sea.
The novel follows its six narrators from childhood through adulthood. Woolf is concerned with the individual consciousness and the ways in which multiple consciousnesses can weave together. Bernard ... (Wikipedia)
Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!
by Dr. Seuss
An imaginative exploration of the alphabet, using fun characters and rhyming words.
From Aunt Annie's Alligator to Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, this sturdy board book version of 'Dr. Seuss's ABC' is now available in a bigger trim size. With Dr. Seuss as your guide, learning the alphabet is ... (Goodreads)
The Far Side Gallery
by Gary Larson
Collection of single-panel cartoons exploring the absurd, surreal and humorous aspects of life.
1984 FarWorks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Far Side and the Larson signature are registered trademarks of FarWorks, Inc. The Far Side Gallery is an anthology of Gary Larson's The Far Side comic ... (Goodreads)
Pale Fire
by Vladimir Nabokov
A darkly comic and philosophical exploration of art, sanity, and the nature of reality.
Shade's poem digressively describes many aspects of his life. Canto 1 includes his early encounters with death and glimpses of what he takes to be the supernatural. Canto 2 is about his family and ... (Wikipedia)
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
by Dr. Seuss
A whimsical exploration of the power of imagination and the wonders of the world.
The book begins with a reader thinking about colors or animals that she knows, like birds, or horses, but as quickly as page three he asks the reader to think of something completely made up; a GUFF! ... (Wikipedia)
The Idiot
by Elif Batuman
A young woman's journey of self-discovery, learning to navigate the complexities of life.
Selin Karadağ is a freshman studying linguistics at Harvard University . She meets an older Hungarian mathematics student, Ivan, in a Russian language class and the two begin corresponding over ... (Wikipedia)
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
by Ken Liu
Collection of science fiction and fantasy stories exploring themes of identity and belonging.
A publishing event: Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume. With ... (Goodreads)
The Lover's Dictionary
by David Levithan
A unique exploration of the complexities of a relationship, told through a series of dictionary entries.
A nameless narrator tells the story of a relationship through dictionary entries. These short entries provide insight into the ups and downs of their romantic relationship, revealing the couple's ... (Wikipedia)
The Crying of Lot 49
by Thomas Pynchon
A surreal journey of uncovering the truth of a mysterious organization.
In the mid-1960s, Oedipa Maas lives a fairly comfortable life in the (fictional) northern Californian village of Kinneret, despite her lackluster marriage with Mucho Maas, a rudderless radio jockey , ... (Wikipedia)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by Tom Stoppard
A humorous exploration of fate and free will, seen through the eyes of two minor characters in Shakespeare's "Hamlet".
Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters, bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a ... (Goodreads)
The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norton Juster
A whimsical adventure through a magical land, searching for a way out of the boredom of everyday life.
Milo is a boy bored by the world around him; every activity seems a waste of time. He arrives home from another boring day at school to find a mysterious package. Among its contents are a small ... (Wikipedia)
The Salmon of Doubt
by Douglas Adams
A collection of essays, musings, and unfinished stories, exploring the human condition.
Douglas Adams changed the face of science fiction with his cosmically comic novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its classic sequels. Sadly for his countless admirers, he hitched his own ... (Goodreads)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
by Bill Martin Jr.
A playful story of letters competing to climb a coconut tree.
The 26 characters in this rhythmic, rhyming baby book are a lowercase alphabet with attitude. "A told b, and b told c, 'I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree'"–which probably seemed like a ... (Goodreads)
Brain Droppings
by George Carlin
A collection of humorous, thought-provoking, and often irreverent musings on modern life.
With nearly 20 albums, two Grammys, two Cable ACE awards, and more HBO specials sunder his belt than anyone else, George Carlin is more popular than ever. Now, for the first time, Carlin has produced ... (Goodreads)
Selected Poems
by Rainer Maria Rilke
An exploration of love, life, and the beauty of the natural world through the lens of a lyrical poet.
Parallel German text and English translation. The influence and popularity of Rilke’s poetry in America have never been greater than they are today, more than fifty years after his death. Rilke is ... (Goodreads)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by Lynne Truss
A humorous look at the importance of punctuation and its effect on language.
In Eats, Shoots & Leaves , former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and ... (Goodreads)
Hag-Seed
by Margaret Atwood
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" with a cast of unique characters.
Hag-Seed follows the life of Felix, once experimental Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg theatre festival, now an exiled man who speaks to his daughter's ghost. Felix's fall from the theatrical ... (Wikipedia)
Shades of Grey
by Jasper Fforde
A satirical fantasy adventure through a world divided by the ability to see colors.
Chromatacia is a future dystopian society that exists at least five hundred years (although possibly more) after the collapse of our own society, identified as 'the Previous'. All life is governed by ... (Wikipedia)
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories
by Nikolai Gogol
A collection of humorous, satirical tales, exploring the human condition in 19th century Russia.
The story narrates the life and death of titular councillor Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (Russian: Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин), an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of ... (Wikipedia)
Zen in the Art of Writing
by Ray Bradbury
A passionate collection of essays on creativity, forging a path to artistic enlightenment.
"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!" Zest. ... (Goodreads)
Collected Poems, 1909-1962
by T.S. Eliot
Exploration of the complexities of life and the human condition, through innovative and experimental verse.
There is no more authoritative collection of the poetry that Eliot himself wished to preserve than this volume, published two years before his death in 1965., Poet, dramatist, critic, and editor, T. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
by Mark Dunn
A story told through letters of a society that forbids certain letters of their language, unraveling their oppressive regime.
The plot is conveyed through mail or notes sent between various characters. The book is "progressively lipogrammatic"—as the story proceeds, more and more letters of the alphabet are excluded from ... (Wikipedia)
Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw
The transformation of a poor flower girl into an elegant society lady.
George Orwell claimed that "The central plot of Shaw's play, Pygmalion , is lifted out of Peregrine Pickle [by Tobias Smollett ], and I believe that no one has ever pointed this out in print, which ... (Wikipedia)
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
by Anne Fadiman
A collection of essays about the joy and significance of reading, exploring the impact of books on everyday life.
Anne Fadiman is—by her own admission—the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of, Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Collected Poems
by Wallace Stevens
A compilation of the renowned poet's lyrical works exploring life, love, and the human condition.
This definitive poetry collection, originally published in 1954 to honor Stevens on his 75th birthday, contains: - "Harmonium" - "Ideas of Order" - "The Man With the Blue Guitar" - "Parts of the ... (Goodreads)
The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
A collection of dark and mysterious stories and verses, exploring the human psyche.
The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe , by Edgar Allan Poe , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Code of the Woosters
by P.G. Wodehouse
A series of comic misadventures of a bumbling British gentleman in search of a silver cow creamer.
Jeeves wants to go with Bertie on a round-the-world cruise but Bertie is not interested. Bertie's Aunt Dahlia sends Bertie to go to a particular antique shop and sneer at a silver eighteenth-century ... (Wikipedia)
The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
by Oscar Wilde
Satirical plays that explore the hypocrisies and absurdities of Victorian society.
Combining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation, the works collected in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays are edited with an introduction, commentaries and ... (Goodreads)
The Book with No Pictures
by B.J. Novak
A children's book filled with silly words and sounds that encourages kids to explore their imaginations.
A book with no pictures? What could be fun about that? After all, if a book has no pictures, there's nothing to look at but the words on the page. Words that might make you say silly sounds... In ... (Goodreads)
Mother Night
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A tale of moral ambiguity, exploring the consequences of deception and the power of words.
“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—,Time,, Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American ... (Barnes & Noble)
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
by Roland Barthes
An exploration of the nature of photography and its power to evoke emotion.
A graceful, contemplative volume, Camera Lucida was first published in 1979. Commenting on artists such as Avedon, Clifford, Mapplethorpe, and Nadar, Roland Barthes presents photography as being ... (Goodreads)
Cronopios and Famas
by Julio Cortázar
A surrealist collection of short stories, exploring the absurdities of the world.
"The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions ... (Goodreads)
Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
by Oscar Wilde
Collection of witty, satirical and thought-provoking works from the iconic playwright.
The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde is the only truly complete and authoritative single-volume edition of Oscar Wilde’s works.Continuously in print since 1948, the Collins Complete Works of ... (Barnes & Noble)
Napalm & Silly Putty
by George Carlin
A collection of humorous and thought-provoking essays on modern life and culture.
I THINK I AM, THEREFORE I AM. I THINK. In Napalm & Silly Putty , George Carlin, the thinking person's comic, offers a hilarious new collection of razor-sharp observations on God, language, death, ... (Goodreads)
The Joke
by Milan Kundera
A reflection on the nature of humor, and the consequences of a single joke.
The novel is composed of many jokes, which have strong effects on the characters. The story is told from the four viewpoints of Ludvik Jahn, Helena Zemánková, Kostka, and Jaroslav. Jaroslav's joke is ... (Wikipedia)
Lexicon
by Max Barry
A thrilling adventure through an underground world of secret language and mind control.
In a school in Virginia, children are taught the art of persuasion instead of usual subjects. They learn in detail how to handle the power of language to control other individuals by breaking them ... (Wikipedia)
The Areas of My Expertise: An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order
by John Hodgman
A humorous almanac of random knowledge and trivia, organized into various topics.
The brilliant and uproarious #15 bestseller (i.e., a runaway phenomenon in its own right-no, seriously) - a lavish compendium of handy reference tables, fascinating trivia, and sage wisdom - all of ... (Goodreads)
How to Be Both
by Ali Smith
Exploring duality and interconnectedness through the life of a girl and a Renaissance artist.
Passionate, compassionate, vitally inventive and scrupulously playful, Ali Smith’s novels are like nothing else. A true original, she is a one-of-a-kind literary sensation. Her novels consistently ... (Goodreads)
The Algebraist
by Iain M. Banks
A cosmic adventure to unlock the secrets of an ancient mathematical language in the depths of space.
The novel takes place in 4034. With the assistance of other species, humans have spread across the galaxy, which is largely ruled by the Mercatoria, a complex feudal hierarchy, with a religious zeal ... (Wikipedia)
Just My Type: A Book about Fonts
by Simon Garfield
Exploration of the fascinating history and variety of typefaces that have shaped our world.
What’s your type? Suddenly everyone’s obsessed with fonts. Whether you’re enraged by Ikea’s Verdanagate, want to know what the Beach Boys have in common with easy Jet or why it’s okay to like Comic ... (Goodreads)
Embassytown
by China Miéville
Exploring a distant alien city and unraveling its mysteries.
Embassytown takes place mostly in the city of the title, on the planet Arieka. Embassytown exists on the very edge of the "Manchmal" (from the German for "sometimes"), which is suspected to be the ... (Wikipedia)
Rain Reign
by Ann M. Martin
A young girl with Asperger's navigates her world through her love of homonyms while dealing with family issues.
From Newbery Honor author Ann M. Martin, who wrote the Baby-sitters Club series, comes a, New York Times,-bestselling middle grade novel about a girl, her dog, and the trials of growing up in a ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
by Bill Bryson
A humorous account of an American's journey through the British Isles, exploring its customs and culture.
The hilarious and loving sequel to a hilarious and loving classic of travel writing:, Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson’s valentine to his adopted country of England In 1995 Bill Bryson got into ... (Goodreads)
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
by David Foster Wallace
Collection of essays exploring the human experience in a humorous, thoughtful and often absurd way.
Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these ... (Goodreads)
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
by Dr. Seuss
A fun-filled adventure of reading and exploration filled with imagination.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go”. In this delightful book, Dr. Seuss celebrates the joys of reading, encouraging young children ... (Goodreads)
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe
by Bill Bryson
A humorous and informative look at the many cultures, customs and curiosities of Europe.
Bill Bryson's first travel book, The Lost Continent , was unanimously acclaimed as one of the funniest books in years. In Neither Here nor There he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe ... (Goodreads)
Bee Season
by Myla Goldberg
A family's unraveling as a daughter discovers an unexpected gift for language and wordplay.
Eleven-year-old Eliza Naumann is the only "ordinary" member in a family of gifted people living in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania . Her father Saul is a cantor at the local ... (Wikipedia)
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
by Bill Bryson
An exploration of Shakespeare's life, works, and enduring cultural impact.
At first glance, Bill Bryson seems an odd choice to write this addition to the Eminent Lives series. The author of 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' isn't, after all, a Shakespeare scholar, ... (Goodreads)
The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss's Wacky Book of Opposites
by Dr. Seuss
Exploration of opposites in a whimsical and humorous way.
A Dr. Seuss classic turns 50! Since 1968, this super-simple, simply brilliant Bright and Early Book about feet has been helping beginning beginner readers step into the world of reading by ... (Barnes & Noble)
V.
by Thomas Pynchon
A mysterious search for the truth, uncovering a vast conspiracy involving multiple characters.
The novel alternates between episodes featuring Benny, Stencil and other members of the Whole Sick Crew (including Profane's sidekick Pig Bodine ) in 1956 (with a few minor flashbacks), and a ... (Wikipedia)
Frindle
by Andrew Clements
A boy's simple idea revolutionizes the English language, sparking a debate among teachers and students.
Nicholas "Nick" Allen is a class clown who has been formulating creative schemes throughout grade school . At the start of fifth grade in 1987, he is unhappy because his English teacher is the ... (Wikipedia)
The Lost City of the Monkey God
by Douglas Preston
An exploration into a lost civilization in the jungles of Honduras.
A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle. Since the days of conquistador Hernán ... (Goodreads)
الفيل الأزرق
by أحمد مراد
A young boy's journey of self-discovery, navigating complexities of tribal life in the Sahara.
بعد خمس سنوات من العُزلة الاختيارية يستأنف د. يحيى عمله في مستشفى العباسية للصحّة النفسية، حيث يجد في انتظاره مفاجأة.. في "8 غرب"، القسم الذي يقرّر مَصير مُرتكبي الجرائم، يُقابل صديقاً قديماً يحمل ... (Goodreads)
No Matter the Wreckage
by Sarah Kay
Poems exploring the power of language and the human experience.
Top-selling poet Sarah Kay releases her debut collection of work from the first decade of her career. Following the success of her breakout poem, "B", No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new ... (Barnes & Noble)
Selected Poems
by E.E. Cummings
A compilation of lyrical poetry that explores the beauty and complexity of life.
E.E. Cummings is without question one of the major poets of this century, and this volume, first published in 1959, is indispensable for every lover of modern lyrical verse. It contains one hundred ... (Barnes & Noble)
Why I Write
by George Orwell
Reflection on the art and craft of writing, exploring its purpose and power.
Whether puncturing the lies of politicians, wittily dissecting the English character or telling unpalatable truths about war, Orwell's timeless, uncompromising essays are more relevant, entertaining ... (Goodreads)
Evening Class
by Maeve Binchy
A group of strangers come together to learn Italian, forging relationships, finding love and understanding.
Among the many evening classes starting all over Dublin is an 'Introduction to Italian'. On the surface it could be just one of hundreds in which some students will succeed and some will fall along ... (Goodreads)
The Comedy of Errors
by William Shakespeare
Two sets of twins, separated at birth, reunite in a farcical story of mistaken identity.
Two sets of twins are separated at birth by a storm at sea: a pair of masters (both named Antipholus) and a pair of servants (both named Dromio). Years later, the Antipholus-and-Dromio pair raised in ... (Goodreads)
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
by Jordan Ellenberg
A journey through the power of mathematical thinking, and how it can be applied to everyday life.
The, Freakonomics, of math — a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, ... (Goodreads)
Lying
by Sam Harris
Examination of the morality of deception, exploring its implications in modern society.
As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, ... (Goodreads)
الأسود يليق بك
by أحلام مستغانمي
A journey of self-discovery, exploring identity and culture through the eyes of a young girl.
ما من قصة حب إلا و تبدأ بحركة موسيقية ، قائد الأوركسترا فيها ليس قلبك، إنما القدر الذي يخفي عنك عصاه . بها يقودك نحو سلم موسيقي لا درج له، مادمت لا تملك من سيمفونية العمر لا ((مفتاح صول)) ..ولا ... (Goodreads)
Pygmalion and Three Other Plays
by George Bernard Shaw
Collection of witty plays, exploring social conventions and modern morality.
George Orwell claimed that "The central plot of Shaw's play, Pygmalion , is lifted out of Peregrine Pickle [by Tobias Smollett ], and I believe that no one has ever pointed this out in print, which ... (Wikipedia)
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