Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Life And Death
Tuesdays with Morrie
by Mitch Albom
An exploration of life through the lessons of a beloved professor facing terminal illness.
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way ... (Goodreads)
The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story
by Edgar Allan Poe
A man is sentenced to death by a cruel Spanish Inquisition, and struggles against insurmountable odds to survive.
The unnamed narrator is brought to trial before sinister judges of the Spanish Inquisition . Poe provides no explanation of why he is there or of the charges on which he is being tried. Before him ... (Wikipedia)
Flaubert's Parrot
by Julian Barnes
A quest to uncover the life of the author, exploring his works and the truth behind them.
The novel follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, visiting France. While visiting sites related to Flaubert, Geoffrey discovers two museums claiming to display the stuffed ... (Wikipedia)
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
A unique love story between a time-traveler and his wife, exploring questions of fate and destiny.
Using alternating first-person perspectives , the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago , and his wife, Clare Anne Abshire (born 1971), ... (Wikipedia)
Living Dead in Dallas
by Charlaine Harris
A vampire detective novel, exploring a mystery that has its roots in the supernatural.
This book opens with Sookie Stackhouse finding the dead body of Lafayette in the backseat of Andy Bellefleur 's car, which had been left at Merlotte's the night before. Sookie learns that her friend ... (Wikipedia)
Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart
A post-apocalyptic tale of a man's journey to rebuild civilization.
While working on his graduate thesis in geology in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Ish is bitten by a rattlesnake. As he heals from the bite, taking refuge in a cabin, he gets sick with a disease that ... (Wikipedia)
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
A family's terrifying journey of life and death, as the line between the living and the dead blurs.
Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago , is appointed director of the University of Maine 's campus health service. He moves to a large house near the small town of Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their two ... (Wikipedia)
Hideaway
by Dean Koontz
A suspenseful thriller about a man who is brought back from the dead with superhuman powers.
Following a traffic accident that left him clinically dead for more than 80 minutes, a Southern California antique dealer named Hatch Harrison begins experiencing strange dreams and visions that ... (Wikipedia)
The World According to Garp
by John Irving
A humorous and heart-wrenching journey of life, love and literature.
This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a ... (Goodreads)
The Brooklyn Follies
by Paul Auster
An aging man's journey of self-discovery, revealing the beauty and complexity of life.
60-year-old Nathan Glass returns to Brooklyn after his wife has left him. He is recovering from lung cancer and is looking for "a quiet place to die". In Brooklyn he meets his nephew , Tom, whom he ... (Wikipedia)
On Heroes and Tombs
by Ernesto Sabato
A philosophical meditation on life, death, and the various forms of heroism.
Nineteen-year-old Martín Castillo is a boy from Buenos Aires trying to find his path in life. He meets and falls in love with Alejandra Vidal Olmos who with her father Fernando represents the "old", ... (Wikipedia)
Speaker for the Dead
by Orson Scott Card
A search for the truth about an alien species, uncovering secrets of the past.
Now available in mass market, the revised, definitive edition of the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic. In this second book in the saga set 3,000 years after the terrible war, Ender Wiggin is ... (Goodreads)
The Graveyard Book, Volume 1
by P. Craig Russell
A young boy is adopted by ghosts, learning to navigate between life and death.
The story begins as the man Jack murders most of the members of a family (later revealed to be the Dorian family) except for the toddler upstairs. Unknown to him, the toddler has climbed out of his ... (Wikipedia)
The Complete Poems 1927-1979
by Elizabeth Bishop
A lyrical exploration of life's moments, relationships, and nature.
This study guide consists of approx. 36 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Complete Poems, 1927-1979. This ... (Barnes & Noble)
Old Man's War
by John Scalzi
Elderly citizens enlist in an interstellar war to save humanity, discovering new strength and purpose.
Old Man's War is about a soldier named John Perry and his exploits in the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF). The first-person narrative follows Perry's military career from CDF recruit to the rank of ... (Wikipedia)
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory
by Caitlin Doughty
A journey through the funeral industry, exploring death, grief, and the beauty of life.
"Morbid and illuminating" ( Entertainment Weekly )—a young mortician goes behind the scenes of her curious profession. Armed with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre, Caitlin ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
An uplifting story of a race car driver and the bond between humans and animals.
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by ... (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)
The Bone Clocks
by David Mitchell
A time-spanning saga of a war between two powerful supernatural forces.
Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew ... (Goodreads)
Tenth of December
by George Saunders
A collection of stories exploring the human condition through diverse characters and their struggles.
A young girl named Alison is kidnapped three days before her birthday. Kyle, a boy who lives nearby whose parents enforce very strict household rules, sees the event unfold and must decide whether to ... (Wikipedia)
The Stone Angel
by Margaret Laurence
An elderly woman reflects on her life and relationships with family, friends, and society.
In a series of vignettes , The Stone Angel tells the story of Hagar Shipley, a 90-year-old woman struggling to come to grips with a life of intransigence and loss. The themes of pride and the ... (Wikipedia)
If I Stay
by Gayle Forman
Young girl must decide between life and death after a devastating car accident.
On a snowy day in Portland, Oregon , Mia, her mother, her father, and her little brother, Teddy, decide to go for a morning drive. The snow causes their car to swerve into another lane where a car ... (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)
Jitterbug Perfume
by Tom Robbins
A journey through time and space, exploring the mysteries of life, death, and the pursuit of immortality.
A powerful and chiseled 8th-century king named Alobar narrowly escapes regicide at the hands of his own subjects, from a custom of killing the leader at the first sign of aging. After fleeing, no ... (Wikipedia)
Elsewhere
by Gabrielle Zevin
A young girl's journey to the afterlife, grappling with the reality of death.
Fifteen-year-old Liz is hit and killed by a taxi. When she wakes up, she finds herself in the cabin of a ship named the SS Nile. She meets her idol, who turns out to be dead, like her. The ship ... (Wikipedia)
They Both Die at the End
by Adam Silvera
Two strangers, united by fate, explore life and death while forming a unique bond.
Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable ... (Goodreads)
Death: The High Cost of Living
by Neil Gaiman
A teenage girl's journey of self-actualization, learning the consequences of life and death.
The main character is a teenage girl named Didi, who appears to be an eccentric, orphaned goth , but who also insists that she is Death personified, taking her one-day every hundred-year sabbatical ... (Wikipedia)
Mercy
by Jodi Picoult
A gripping tale of a family confronting a moral dilemma when their daughter is diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Police chief of a small Massachusetts town, Cameron McDonald makes the toughest arrest of his life when his own cousin Jamie comes to him and confesses outright that he has killed his terminally ill ... (Goodreads)
Blood Work
by Michael Connelly
A retired FBI agent unravels a mystery while struggling with his own mortality.
After receiving a heart transplant, retired FBI criminal profiler Terrell "Terry" McCaleb is contacted by Graciela Rivers, the sister of his donor Gloria, and asked to investigate her death, which ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Book of Life
by Deborah Harkness
A journey of magic and science to unlock the secrets of eternal life.
The #1, New York Times, bestselling series finale and sequel to, A Discovery of Witches, and, Shadow of Night, Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying ... (Goodreads)
Death Note, Vol. 4: Love
by Tsugumi Ohba
A boy's mission to rid the world of evil while struggling with the morality of his actions.
With two Kiras on the loose, L asks Light to join the task force and pose as the real Kira in order to catch the copycat. L still suspects Light and figures that this is the perfect excuse to get ... (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)
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
by David Eagleman
A collection of imaginative stories exploring life after death.
At once funny, wistful and unsettling, Sum is a dazzling exploration of unexpected afterlives—each presented as a vignette that offers a stunning lens through which to see ourselves in the here and ... (Goodreads)
Messenger
by Lois Lowry
A young boy's mission to save his community, using his bravery and ingenuity.
Matty, who was introduced in Gathering Blue as "Matt", now lives with Seer, who was originally named Christopher and is a blind man rescued by the people of the Village years earlier. Outside the ... (Wikipedia)
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death
by Maggie O'Farrell
A collection of personal stories of near-death experiences, exploring life and mortality.
We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death. I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and ... (Goodreads)
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
by Arundhati Roy
Exploration of the lives of a diverse group of characters in India, searching for identity and purpose.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on a journey of many years – the story spooling outwards from the cramped neighbourhoods of Old Delhi into the burgeoning new metropolis and beyond, to the ... (Goodreads)
Warm Bodies
by Isaac Marion
A zombie's story of overcoming his undead state to find true love.
Now a major motion picture from Summit Entertainment. R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He ... (Goodreads)
The Last Lecture
by Randy Pausch
Reflection on life and lessons learned, approaching death with courage and optimism.
A lot of professors give talks titled 'The Last Lecture'. Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we ... (Goodreads)
Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits
by Friedrich Nietzsche
A philosophical exploration of the human condition and the pursuit of morality.
This volume presents Nietzsche's remarkable collection of almost 1400 aphorisms in R. J. Hollingdale's distinguished translation, together with a new historical introduction by Richard Schacht. ... (Goodreads)
Death Note, Vol. 5: Whiteout
by Tsugumi Ohba
A suspenseful manga series, exploring the consequences of a battle of wits between a genius detective and a mysterious killer.
After a week locked up with no one but Ryuk for company, Light is ready to give up his Death Note and all memories of it. Freed from his past actions, Light is convinced he's innocent. But L is ready ... (Goodreads)
What Dreams May Come
by Richard Matheson
A man's journey of resurrection and redemption, discovering a spiritual afterlife.
The prologue is narrated by a man telling of his visit from a psychic woman, who gives him a manuscript she claims was dictated to her by his deceased brother Chris. Most of the novel consists of ... (Wikipedia)
More Than This
by Patrick Ness
Young adult discovers a mysterious afterlife and must make choices that will determine his ultimate fate.
The book begins with a 16-year-old boy, Seth Wearing, drowning. He finds himself in what he assumes is a hell made for him, as it resembles the Southern English town he was born in before moving to ... (Wikipedia)
A Map of the World
by Jane Hamilton
A story of tragedy, resilience and redemption, revealing the fragility of life.
One unremarkable June morning, Alice Goodwin is, as usual, trying to keep in check both her temper and her tendency to blame herself for her family's shortcomings. When the Goodwins took over the ... (Goodreads)
Death with Interruptions
by José Saramago
A mysterious phenomenon that stops all deaths leading to a dilemma of moral, ethical and social implications.
The book, set in an unnamed, landlocked country at a point in the unspecified past, opens with the end of death. Mysteriously, at the stroke of midnight on January 1, no one in the country ... (Wikipedia)
A Certain Slant of Light
by Laura Whitcomb
A ghost's journey to find her place in the afterlife and to understand her previous life.
In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed ... (Goodreads)
Forever
by Maggie Stiefvater
A supernatural romance between a mortal and an immortal, as they struggle to hold onto their love.
Shiver begins against the backdrop of winter, with the character of Grace Brisbane at age 11, who has been pulled from her backyard tyre swing by a pack of wolves. Saved from their attack by a ... (Wikipedia)
The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act
by Kieron Gillen
A group of gods incarnated as humans must choose between creating a utopia or facing destruction.
The narrative focuses on a group of people with superhuman powers known as "The Pantheon". Each member of The Pantheon was at one point a normal person before being chosen to merge with the spirit of ... (Wikipedia)
For One More Day
by Mitch Albom
A man's journey through time, exploring the bonds of family, life, and death.
The book's theme is mortality: , it analyzes how people might react to the chance to have a dead relative back for a day. , The book tells the story of Charles "Chick" Benetto, a former baseball ... (Wikipedia)
Farewell to the East End: The Last Days of the East End Midwives
by Jennifer Worth
Memoir of a midwife in the East End of London, chronicling the lives of her patients.
This final book in Jennifer Worth's memories of her time as a midwife in London's East end brings her story full circle. As always there are heartbreaking stories such as the family devastated by ... (Goodreads)
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)
Second Grave on the Left
by Darynda Jones
A hilarious and thrilling romp through the supernatural, as a Grim Reaper solves a murder mystery.
Second Grave on the Left,Darynda Jones, If you hang around with dead people, life can deliver a whole world of trouble., Take it from Charley Davidson, part-time P.I. and full-time Grim Reaper. The ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Broken Wings
by Kahlil Gibran
A philosophical tale of love and loss, exploring the journey of life and death.
This is the exquisitely tender story of love that beats desperately against the taboos of Oriental tradition. With great sensitivity, Gibran describes his passion as a youth for Selma Karamy, the ... (Goodreads)
Six Wakes
by Mur Lafferty
A group of clones awaken in a spaceship with no memory of who they are or what happened to them.
A space adventure set on a lone ship where the clones of a murdered crew must find their murderer – before they kill again. It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood. At ... (Goodreads)
Every Last Breath
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
In the final installment of the Dark Elements series, Layla must choose between her heart and duty to save the world from destruction.
Some loves will last 'til your dying breath Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, ... (Barnes & Noble)
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