Literary theme analysis, by a book like {foo}
Books about Nature Vs Nurture
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë
A timeless tale of love and revenge, set against the backdrop of the English moors.
In 1801, Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire , pays a visit to his landlord, Heathcliff , at his remote moorland farmhouse, Wuthering Heights. There he meets a reserved young ... (Wikipedia)
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
A scientist's experiments gone wrong, unleashing a creature into a fearful society.
This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847. Mary Shelley's seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves ... (Goodreads)
As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl
by John Colapinto
The true story of a boy who was raised as a girl after a botched circumcision, and the devastating effects of the experiment.
In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern ... (Goodreads)
Moby-Dick or, the Whale
by Herman Melville
A whaling ship's vengeful pursuit of a white whale, with a captivating narrative.
Ishmael travels in December from Manhattan Island to New Bedford, Massachusetts , with plans to sign up for a whaling voyage. The inn where he arrives is overcrowded, so he must share a bed with the ... (Wikipedia)
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
An exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the power of human nature.
The novel focuses on a post-apocalyptic character called "Snowman", living near a group of primitive human-like creatures whom he calls Crakers . Flashbacks reveal that Snowman was once a boy named ... (Wikipedia)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
by Karen Joy Fowler
A family's secrets and a girl's quest for the truth about her own identity.
The, New York Times, bestselling author of, The Jane Austen Book Club, introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award ... (Barnes & Noble)
Watchers
by Dean Koontz
A story of terror and suspense as a genetically engineered creature wreaks havoc in a small town.
Travis Cornell, a former Delta Force operative, feels that his life has become pointless, and is exploring a canyon near his home when he encounters two genetically engineered creatures that have ... (Wikipedia)
Mother
by Maxim Gorky
A journey of self-discovery for a young man, as he learns the truth of his past.
In his novel, Gorky portrays the life of a woman who works in a Russian factory doing hard manual labour and combating poverty and hunger, among other hardships. Pelageya Nilovna Vlasova is the real ... (Wikipedia)
The Winter Long
by Seanan McGuire
A supernatural murder mystery featuring a group of changelings and a hidden fairy kingdom.
For once, it seems like the Kingdom of the Mists has reached a point of, if not perfection, at least relative peace. Queen Arden Windermere is getting settled on her family's throne; no one's going ... (Goodreads)
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
A story of magical revenge, redemption, and forgiveness set on a remote island.
A ship is caught in a powerful storm, there is terror and confusion on board, and the vessel is shipwrecked. But the storm is a magical creation carried out by the spirit Ariel , and caused by the ... (Wikipedia)
Parable of the Talents
by Octavia E. Butler
A post-apocalyptic tale of survival, exploring themes of faith and power.
Parable of the Talents is told from the points of view of Lauren Oya Olamina and her daughter Larkin Olamina/Asha Vere. The novel consists of journal entries by Lauren and passages by Asha Vere. Four ... (Wikipedia)
The Cave
by José Saramago
A group of cave-dwellers uncover a secret that threatens their way of life.
José Saramago is a master at pacing. Readers unfamiliar with the work of this Portuguese Nobel Prize winner would do well to begin with The Cave , a novel of ideas, shaded with suspense. Spare and ... (Goodreads)
Swamp Thing, Vol. 2: Love and Death
by Alan Moore
Supernatural horror story of a creature struggling to understand its own existence.
What Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, and John Totleben accomplished during their time on the comic book series Swamp Thing shouldn't be underestimated in the history of comics and, specifically, the ... (Goodreads)
The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
A story of humble farmers facing the struggles of poverty and the upheaval of social change.
The story begins on Wang Lung 's wedding day and follows the rise and fall of his fortunes. The House of Hwang, a family of wealthy landowners, lives in the nearby town, where Wang Lung's future ... (Wikipedia)
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London
A dog's adventure in the wilderness, confronting the primal struggle for survival.
The story opens in 1897 with Buck, a powerful 140-pound St. Bernard – Scotch Collie mix, , , happily living in California 's Santa Clara Valley as the pampered pet of Judge Miller and his family. One ... (Wikipedia)
Children of Time
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A race of intelligent spiders battles to save their species from extinction.
The book's plot involves a planet inhabited by evolved spiders uplifted by human scientist Avrana Kern, and their much later discovery by the last humans alive in the universe. , , , The work plays ... (Wikipedia)
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)
We3
by Grant Morrison
An animal trio's fight for freedom after being transformed into cyborgs.
A powerful tale from the ALL-STAR SUPERMAN team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Morrison and Quitely deliver the emotional journey of WE3-three house pets weaponized for lethal combat by the ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Cay
by Theodore Taylor
A young boy and an elderly man, stranded on a small island, confront the challenges of survival together.
When World War II breaks out, 11-year-old Phillip Enright and his mother board the S.S. Hato to Virginia because his mother feels it is unsafe to stay in Curaçao with the German submarines ... (Wikipedia)
The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Atwood
A dystopian tale of survival as humanity faces a new plague, and two women fight against a powerful corporation.
The Year of the Flood details the events of, Oryx and Crake, from the perspective of the lower classes in the pleeblands , specifically the God's Gardeners. God's Gardeners are a religious sect that ... (Wikipedia)
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
A study of evolutionary biology, exploring how genes act and how they impact behavior.
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The ... (Goodreads)
The Island of Dr. Moreau
by H.G. Wells
A shipwrecked man's encounters with a mad scientist's experiments in animal-human hybridization.
The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of Edward Prendick, an Englishman with a scientific education who survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. A passing ship called Ipecacuanha ... (Wikipedia)
We Need to Talk About Kevin
by Lionel Shriver
A mother's struggle to come to terms with the monstrous acts of her disturbed son.
In the wake of a school massacre conducted by Kevin Khatchadourian, the 15-year-old son of Franklin Plaskett and Eva Khatchadourian, Eva begins writing letters to Franklin in November 2000. She ... (Wikipedia)
Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn
A gorilla's provocative teachings on the human condition, exposing the flaws of modern society.
Implicitly set in the early 1990s, Ishmael begins with a newspaper advertisement: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person". , The nameless narrator and ... (Wikipedia)
The Mammoth Hunters
by Jean M. Auel
A young woman's adventure, struggling to survive and forge her path in a prehistoric world.
This book picks up where, The Valley of Horses, ends; Ayla and Jondalar meet a group known as the Mamutoi, or Mammoth Hunters, with whom they live for a period of time. As the group's name suggests, ... (Wikipedia)
The Sea Wolf
by Jack London
A man's fight against the savage and untamed elements of nature on a brutal ship voyage.
The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by Jack London about a literary critic Humphrey van Weyden.The story starts with him aboard a San Francisco ferry, called Martinez, which collides ... (Goodreads)
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by Steven Pinker
An exploration of the origins and development of human language and its implications for cognitive science.
The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind. In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you ... (Goodreads)
The Gone-Away World
by Nick Harkaway
A post-apocalyptic adventure filled with monsters, robots, and a search for hope.
The book is a science fiction epic with elements of comedy and nuclear holocaust fiction . It tells the story of the unnamed main character and his best friend Gonzo Lubitsch and their experiences ... (Wikipedia)
Dragonsdawn
by Anne McCaffrey
An epic sci-fi adventure in a distant world, exploring the secrets of a mysterious species.
The planet Pern seemed a paradise to its new colonists—seeking to return to an agrarian-based simpler way of life, Admiral Paul Benden , Governor Emily Boll and the rest of the colonists had selected ... (Wikipedia)
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
by Steven Pinker
The exploration of the science of human nature, including the implications for society.
In The Blank Slate , Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature by ... (Goodreads)
The Wasp Factory
by Iain Banks
A disturbed teenage boy discovers startling truths about his family and himself.
The story is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Frank Cauldhame. Frank lives with his father on a small island in rural Scotland , and he has not seen his mother in many years. There is no ... (Wikipedia)
Linger
by Maggie Stiefvater
Adventure of werewolves and the humans who love them, exploring the power of fate and 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 Lost World
by Michael Crichton
Explorers uncover a prehistoric world and use science to battle its inhabitants.
In 1993, four years after the disaster at Jurassic Park, chaos theorist and mathematician Ian Malcolm – who is revealed to have survived the events of the previous novel , despite being declared dead ... (Wikipedia)
Swamp Thing, Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing
by Alan Moore
A creature of the swamp embarks on a quest for the truth about his existence.
Before WATCHMEN, Alan Moore made his debut in the U.S. comic book industry with the revitalization of the horror comic book THE SWAMP THING. His deconstruction of the classic monster stretched the ... (Goodreads)
Cell
by Stephen King
A group of strangers fight against a virus that turns people into aggressive monsters.
Clayton Riddell, a struggling artist from Maine , has just landed a graphic novel deal in Boston when "The Pulse", a signal sent out over the global cell phone network, suddenly turns every cell ... (Wikipedia)
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham
A post-apocalyptic tale of survival and the struggle against oppressive forces.
The inhabitants of post-apocalypse Labrador have vague knowledge of the "Old People", a technologically advanced civilization they believe was destroyed when God sent " Tribulation " to the world to ... (Wikipedia)
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells
A Martian invasion of Earth, exploring the limits of human resilience.
The narrative opens by stating that as humans on Earth busied themselves with their own endeavours during the mid-1890s, aliens on Mars began plotting an invasion of Earth because their own resources ... (Wikipedia)
Zoo
by James Patterson
A group of strangers must work together to survive a mysterious pandemic unleashed in a national zoo.
The novel centers on Jackson Oz, who is an outcast among professional and academic ecologists and biologists . Oz has tried for years to get these scientists to listen to the data he has been ... (Wikipedia)
Stray
by Rachel Vincent
A teenage girl's journey of self-discovery, navigating the magical and dangerous world of Shifters.
There are only eight breeding female werecats left... And I'm one of them. I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds. Despite ... (Goodreads)
Sing You Home
by Jodi Picoult
A couple's story of a longing for a child, and the legal issues that arise when they attempt to conceive.
Zoe Baxter, a music therapist , and her husband, Max Baxter, have tried for a decade to have children, but it is revealed that they cannot have children because of fertility issues . Zoe has ... (Wikipedia)
Son of the Shadows
by Juliet Marillier
A young woman's journey to discover her true identity, uncovering secrets of her magical heritage.
In this novel, Liadan grows up in Sevenwaters with her twin brother Sean and her older sister Niamh. They are the offspring of Sorcha and Iubdan (formerly Hugh of Harrowfield). Liadan follows in her ... (Wikipedia)
The Fifth Child
by Doris Lessing
A family's life is upended when the fifth child arrives, disrupting the balance of their world.
When David Lovatt meets Harriet at an office party, they both immediately fall in love. They both share the same conservative outlooks, which they perceive to be a rarity in the London of the 1960s. ... (Wikipedia)
Acceptance
by Jeff VanderMeer
A journey of exploration and self-discovery, as humanity faces a mysterious alien power.
Acceptance jumps around in time and between the perspectives of several characters from the first two novels in the Southern Reach Trilogy. The Lighthouse Keeper In the years before Area X, Saul ... (Wikipedia)
The Vegetarian
by Han Kang
A woman's radical decision to pursue a vegetarian lifestyle, leading to unexpected and far-reaching consequences.
The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye, a home-maker who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving images of animal slaughter. This abstention leads her ... (Wikipedia)
Red Prophet
by Orson Scott Card
A young man's quest to save his people, utilizing magical powers and spiritual guidance.
Lolla-Wossiky, a troubled, one-eyed, whiskey "Red", leaves General Harrison's fort and heads north in order to find his "dream beast", the spirit that can save him from the pain of his memories. On ... (Wikipedia)
Jaws
by Peter Benchley
A small beach town is terrorized by a great white shark, leading to a thrilling battle of man versus nature.
The story is set in Amity, a fictional seaside resort town on Long Island , New York. One night, a massive great white shark kills a young tourist named Chrissie Watkins while she skinny dips in the ... (Wikipedia)
Good Morning, Midnight
by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Two loners, one in the Arctic and one in the city, embark on a journey of self-discovery.
Augustine, a brilliant, aging astronomer, is consumed by the stars. For years he has lived in remote outposts, studying the sky for evidence of how the universe began. At his latest posting, in a ... (Goodreads)
The Marsh King's Daughter
by Karen Dionne
A woman's journey to uncover her dark family history and the secrets of her upbringing.
The mesmerizing tale of a woman who must risk everything to hunt down the dangerous man who shaped her past and threatens to steal her future: her father. Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two ... (Goodreads)
Dawn
by Erin Hunter
A group of cats face the dangers of the forest and a rival clan in their quest for survival.
Something terrifying is happening in the world of the Clans. Amid the destruction of the forest, cats are disappearing, including ThunderClan's beloved medicine cat apprentice, Leafpaw. Now the young ... (Goodreads)
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
by Karen Russell
Magical realism tale of young girls raised by wolves, learning to become human in a strange new world.
In these ten glittering short stories, debut author Karen Russell takes us to the ghostly and magical swamps of the Florida Everglades. Here, wolf-like girls are reformed by nuns; a family makes its ... (Goodreads)
The Magic Finger
by Roald Dahl
A little girl with a magical power forces a family of hunters to experience life as the animals they hunt.
What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? To the Gregg family, hunting is just plain fun. To the girl who lives next door, it's just plain horrible. She tries to be polite. She tries to talk ... (Goodreads)
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
An exploration of the origins of inequality between humans, and its effects on society.
If humans are benevolent by nature, how do societies become corrupt? And how do governments founded upon the defense of individual rights degenerate into tyranny? These are the questions addressed by ... (Goodreads)
The Elementals
by Michael McDowell
A gothic horror story about a family haunted by a mysterious force from the sea.
On a split of land cut off by the Gulf, three Victorian summer houses stand against the encroaching sand. Two of the houses at Beldame are still used. The third house, filling with sand, is ... (Goodreads)
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
by John Vaillant
A thrilling tale of a Siberian tiger's fight for survival amidst conflict between man and nature.
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs ... (Goodreads)
Jesus Land: A Memoir
by Julia Scheeres
A coming-of-age story of two adopted siblings navigating life in a strict religious home.
For Julia Scheeres and her adopted brother David, "Jesus Land" stretched from their parents' fundamentalist home, past the hostilities of high school, and deep into a Christian reform school in the ... (Goodreads)
A Dance with Dragons 2: After the Feast
by George R.R. Martin
Epic fantasy story of power struggles and political intrigues in a world of dragons and magic.
Stannis Baratheon , a claimant to the Iron Throne of Westeros , occupies the Wall at the realm's northern border, having helped to repel an invasion of wildlings from the northern wilderness. Stannis ... (Wikipedia)
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152
by David Petersen
Courageous mice protect their world from predators while struggling with internal strife.
The forest is a dangerous place for any animal, especially one as small as a mouse. In the past, the mouse world endured a tyrannical Weasel Warlord until a noble band of mouse soldiers fought back. ... (Goodreads)
Stormy Weather
by Carl Hiaasen
A comedic adventure through the Florida Keys involving a mysterious storm, a drug-smuggling conspiracy, and a motley crew of characters.
NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER,"Hysterically funny...Hiaasen at his satirical best." -, USA Today, Two honeymooners wake up early, make love twice, and brace themselves for a spectacle they won't be ... (Goodreads)
The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
by Jared Diamond
Study of the evolution and history of the human species, exploring its relationship with other primates.
At some point during the last 100,000 years, humans began exhibiting traits and behavior that distinguished us from other animals, eventually creating language, art, religion, bicycles, spacecraft, ... (Goodreads)
Birthmarked
by Caragh M. O'Brien
A post-apocalyptic adventure of a young woman struggling to find her place in a divided world.
In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside. Following in her mother's ... (Goodreads)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
by Mary E. Pearson
A young girl's struggle to uncover her past and find her identity amidst a future of genetic engineering.
Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was ... (Barnes & Noble)
Mirror Dance
by Lois McMaster Bujold
A genetically-engineered clone confronts his identity and struggles to overcome destiny.
Mark, Miles Vorkosigan 's clone , masquerades as him and dupes his mercenary force, the Dendarii, into undertaking a mission to free clones held "prisoner" on Jackson's Whole, an anything-goes ... (Wikipedia)
Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson
by Jeff Guinn
Exploration of the life of notorious cult leader Charles Manson, examining his criminal behavior and cultural impact.
The New York Times bestselling, authoritative account of the life of Charles Manson, filled with surprising new information and previously unpublished photographs: “A riveting, almost Dickensian ... (Barnes & Noble)
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