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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz  is an American children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900. It has since been reprinted on numerous occasions, most often under the title  The Wizard of Oz , which is the title of the popular 1902 Broadway musical as well as the iconic 1939 musical film adaptation. The story chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy in the magical Land of Oz, after she and her pet dog Totoare swept away from their Kansas home by a cyclone.   The novel is one of the best-known stories in American literature and has been widely translated. The  Library of Congress  has declared it "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale." Its groundbreaking success and the success of the Broadway musical adapted from the novel led Baum to write thirteen additional  Oz books  that serve as official sequels to the first stor

Murder on the Orient Express  is a detective novel by Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934.   In the United States, it was published on 28 February 1934,  under the title of  Murder in the Calais Coach,  by  Dodd, Mead and Company .  The U.K. edition retailed at seven  shillings  and  sixpence  (7/6)   and the U.S. edition at $2.00. The U.S. title of  Murder in the Calais Coach  was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel  Stamboul Train  which had been published in the United States as  Orient Express .

The Picture of Dorian Gray  is a philosophical novel by Oscar Wilde, first published complete in the July 1890 issue of  Lippincott's Monthly Magazine .   The magazine's editor feared the story was indecent, and without Wilde's knowledge, deleted roughly five hundred words before publication. Despite that censorship,  The Picture of Dorian Gray  offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution for violating the laws guarding the public morality. In response, Wilde aggressively defended his novel and art in correspondence with the British press, although he personally made excisions of some of the most controversial material when revising and lengthening the story for book publication the following year. The longer and revised version of  The Picture of Dorian Gray  published in book form in 1891 featured an aphoristic preface—a defence of the artist's rights and of art for art's sake—based

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  (commonly shortened to  Alice in Wonderland ) is an 1865  novel  written by English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym  Lewis Carroll . It tells of a girl named  Alice  falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar,  anthropomorphic  creatures. The tale plays with  logic , giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children.  It is considered to be one of the best examples of the  literary nonsense  genre.  Its  narrative  course and structure,  characters  and imagery have been enormously influential  in both popular culture and literature, especially in the  fantasy  genre. Dodgson's tale was published in 1865 as  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  by " Lewis Carroll " with illustrations by  John Tenniel . The first print run of 2,000 was held back because Tenniel objected to the print quality.  A new edition was quickly printed, released in Decembe

The Bell Jar  is the only novel written by the American writer and poet  Sylvia Plath . Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed. The book is often regarded as a  roman à clef  since the protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been  clinical depression . Plath died by suicide a month after its first UK publication. The novel was published under Plath's name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both Plath's husband, Ted Hughes , and her mother.   The novel has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.   The novel, though dark, is often read in high school English classes.

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly , is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings. Uncle Tom's Cabin  was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible.It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States; one million copies in Great Britain. In 1855, three years af

Bridget Jones's Diary  is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships. By 2006, the book had sold over two million copies worldwide.   A sequel,  Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason , was published in 1999. Another sequel,  Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy , came out in 2013.

Heidi W. Durrow  (born June 21, 1969) is an American writer, author of best-seller   The Girl Who Fell From the Sky , and the winner of the 2008 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially-Engaged Fiction. This novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and black father. When Rachel, her mother, and her younger brother fall nine stories from an apartment building, Rachel is the only survivor, and she’s taken in by her black grandmother in a predominantly white Portland neighborhood. With her brown skin and blue eyes (a white girl’s eyes in a Black girl’s face) Rachel faces the challenge of learning what it means to be biracial in a black-and-white world. Duro offers a masterful novel that interrogates the cultural construction of race in America and challenges us to confront our own prejudices.

The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was initially published in serial format beginning in 1910, and was first published in its entirety in 1911. It is now one of Burnett's most popular novels, and is considered to be a classic of English children's literature. Several stage and film adaptations have been produced. A beloved children’s favorite about little Mary Lennox, who goes to live in the English manor house of her reclusive uncle after her parents die of Cholera, The Secret Garden is a timeless classic about the beauty of nature, the healing power of love, and a belief in magic. As the Yorkshire sunshine softens Mary’s hard little heart and she befriends the animal charmer Dicken, her invalid cousin Colin, and a host of gentle creatures, you’ll laugh with her and cry with her as she learns how to love, how to trust, and how to reach outside herself to nurture the world around her.

The End of the Affair  (1951) is a novel by British author Graham Greene, as well as the title of two feature films (released in 1955 and 1999) that were adapted from the novel. Set in London during and just after the Second World War, the novel examines the obsessions, jealousy and discernments within the relationships between three central characters: writer Maurice Bendrix; Sarah Miles; and her husband, civil servant Henry Miles. Graham Greene's own affair with Lady Catherine Walston played into the basis for  The End of the Affair . The British edition of the novel is dedicated to "C" while the American version is made out to "Catherine." Greene's own house at 14 Clapham Common Northside was bombed during the Blitz.

Jane Eyre  (originally published as  Jane Eyre: An Autobiography ) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Primarily of the  Bildungsroman  genre,  Jane Eyre  follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the  Byronic   master of fictitious Thornfield Hall. In its internalisation of the action—the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane's moral and spiritual sensibility, and all the events are coloured by a heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry— Jane Eyre  revolutionised the art of fiction. Charlotte Brontë has been called the 'first historian of the private consciousness' and the literary ancestor of writers like  Joyce  and  Proust

The Reader  ( Der Vorleser ) is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink, published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997. The story is a parable, dealing with the difficulties post-war German generations have had comprehending the Holocaust; Ruth Franklin writes that it was aimed specifically at the generation Bertolt Brecht called the  Nachgeborenen , those who came after. Like other novels in the genre of  Vergangenheitsbewältigung , the struggle to come to terms with the past,  The Reader  explores how the post-war generations should approach the generation that took part in, or witnessed, the atrocities. These are the questions at the heart of Holocaust literature in the late 20th and early 21st century, as the victims and witnesses die and living memory fades. Schlink's book was well received in his native country and elsewhere, winning several awards.  Der Spiegel  wrote that it was one of the greatest triumphs of German literature sin

A Single Man  is a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood.  Set in   Southern California   during 1962, it depicts one day in the life of George, a middle-aged Englishman who is a professor at a  Los Angeles   university. The university might reflect   CSULA , where Christopher Isherwood taught for some time. In 2009, fashion designer Tom Ford directed a film adaptation of the novel, with additions made to the original plot.   The film, starring  Colin Firth  as George, premiered at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. It was nominated for the  Golden Lion  and Firth won the  Volpi Cup  for Best Actor. It received three  Golden Globes  nominations and an  Academy Award  nomination.

Little Women  is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher.   The novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters. Little Women  was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers demanded to know more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume (entitled  Good Wives  in the United Kingdom, although this name derived from the publisher and not from Alcott). It was also successful. The two volumes were issued in 1880 in a single work entitled  Little Women.  Alcott also wrote two sequels to her popular work, both of which also featured the March sisters:  Little Men  (1871) and  Jo's Boys  (1886). Although  Little Women  was a novel for girls, it differed n

Pride and Prejudice  is a  novel of manners  by  Jane Austen , first published in 1813. The story follows the main character,  Elizabeth Bennet , as she deals with issues of  manners , upbringing,  morality ,  education , and  marriage  in the society of the  landed gentry  of the  British Regency . Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman, Mr. Bennet, living in Longbourn. Set in England in the late 18th century,  Pride and Prejudice  tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's five unmarried daughters after two gentlemen have moved into their neighbourhood: the rich and eligible Mr. Bingley, and his status-conscious friend, the even more rich and eligible Mr. Darcy. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy is disdainful of local society and repeatedly clashes with the Bennets' lively second daughter, Elizabeth. Pride and Prejudice  retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of li

Number the Stars  (1989) is a work of historical fiction by American author Lois Lowry, about the escape of a Jewish family (the Rosens) from Copenhagen during World War II. The story centers on ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen, who lives with her family in Copenhagen in 1943. She becomes a part of the events related to the rescue of the Danish Jews, when thousands of Jews were helped to reach neutral ground in Sweden in order to avoid being relocated to concentration camps. She risked her life in order to help her best friend, Ellen Rosen, by pretending that Ellen is Annemarie's late older sister Lise, who had died earlier in the war. Lise had been killed by the Nazi military as a result of her work with the Danish Resistance. The story's title is taken from a reference to Psalm 147:4, in which the writer relates that God has numbered all the stars and has named each one of them. It ties into the Star of David, worn by Ellen on her necklace, which is symbolic to Jud

Left Behind  is a series of 16 best-selling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, dealing with Christian dispensationalist End Times: the pretribulation, premillennial, Christian eschatological viewpoint of the end of the world. The primary conflict of the series is the members of the Tribulation Force against the Global Community and its leader Nicolae Carpathia—the Antichrist.  Left Behind  is also the title of the first book in the series. The series was first published 1995–2007 by Tyndale House, a firm with a history of interest in dispensationalism. The series has been adapted into four films to date. The original series of three films are  Left Behind: The Movie  (2000),  Left Behind II: Tribulation Force  (2002), and  Left Behind: World at War  (2005). A reboot starring Nicolas Cage, entitled simply  Left Behind , was released in 2014 through Cloud Ten Pictures.   The series also inspired the PC game  Left Behind: Eternal Forces  (2006) and its several  sequels .

The Wheel of Time  is a series of high fantasy novels written by American author James Oliver Rigney Jr., under the pen name Robert Jordan. Originally planned as a six-book series,  The Wheel of Time  spanned fourteen volumes, in addition to a prequel novel and a companion book. Jordan began writing the first volume,  The Eye of the World , in 1984. It was published in January 1990. The author died in 2007 while working on what was planned to be the twelfth and final volume in the series. He prepared extensive notes so another author could complete the book according to his wishes. Fellow fantasy author and long-time  Wheel of Time  fan Brandon Sanderson was brought in to complete the final book, but during the writing process it was decided that the book would be far too large to be published in one volume and would instead be published as three volumes:  The Gathering Storm  (2009), Towers of Midnight  (2010), and  A Memory of Light  (2013). The series draws on numerous e

The Vampire Chronicles  is a series of novels by Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman turned into a vampire in the 18th century. Rice said in a 2008 interview that her vampires were a "metaphor for lost souls".   The homoerotic overtones of  The Vampire Chronicles  are also well-documented.As of November 2008,  The Vampire Chronicles  had sold 80 million copies worldwide. Interview with the Vampire  (1976) was made into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater and Kirsten Dunst. 1988's  The Queen of the Damned  was adapted into a 2002 film of the same name, starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah and using some material from 1985's  The Vampire Lestat . In August 2014, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment acquired the motion picture rights to the entire series.

Millennium  is a series of best-selling and award-winning Swedish crime novels, created by Stieg Larsson. The two primary characters in the saga are Lisbeth Salander, a woman in her twenties with a photographic memory and poor social skills, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of a magazine called  Millennium . Larsson planned the series as having ten installments, but due to his sudden death in 2004, only three were completed and published. All of them were published posthumously:  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  in 2005,  The Girl Who Played with Fire  in 2006, and  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest  in 2007. The series was originally printed in Swedish by Norstedts Förlag, with English editions by Quercus in the United Kingdom and Alfred A. Knopf in the United States. The books have since been translated and published by many publishers in over fifty countries. As of March 2015, 80 million copies of the three books have been sold worldw

Alex Cross  is a crime, mystery, and thriller novel series written by James Patterson. Focusing on protagonist Alex Cross as he fights off against threats to his family and  Washington, D.C. , Cross is a widowed father and detective; his wife died leaving him with his children, Damon and Janelle as well as his grandmother "Nana Mama". The series is narrated in first-person perspective by Alex Cross, yet unusually also narrates from the villains' point of view in third person. The series has been published in both the United States and UK, in paperback and hardcover editions. The books are currently being published by Little, Brown. The first book in the series,  Along Came a Spider , was released in 1993 to positive reviews, spawning a series of over twenty subsequent novels. The series has led to three films,  Along Came a Spider ,  Kiss the Girls , and  Alex Cross  (a reboot) with a possible sequel, despite very negative reception. The series has been given mixe

Luckiest Girl Alive  is a 2015 New York Times Bestselling  mystery novel  written by American author Jessica Knoll and is her debut work. It was first published on May 12, 2015 through Simon & Schuster in the United States and Pan Macmillan in Australia, and is written in the first person narrative.   The work follows a young woman that has sought to reinvent herself in her adult life after a series of horrifying events her teen years. During the book the lead character, Ani Fanelli, is referred to by several different names, TifAni FaNelli, Tif, and Finny. In April 2015 Lions Gate announced that they had optioned the film rights to  Luckiest Girl Alive , with Reese Witherspoon's Pacific Standard set to produce.

A Spool of Blue Thread , published in 2015, is  Anne Tyler ’s 20th novel. A Spool of Blue Thread features a typical family settled for a couple of generations in a house built by their grandfather. While they appear to be happy and united to outsiders, cracks gradually develop in the unity of the family. As we probe even further, it is shown that the family never had the kind of background people thought. In short, appearances can be deceiving, and families find a way to work despite all the problems they face. The underlying message of the book is that families can be defined by their individual members, but also by all the joys, sorrows, quirkiness, and events that take place within them.   On April 13, 2015,  A Spool of Blue Thread  was one of six novels shortlisted for  Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction . The prize was established in 1996 for the best novel written in English by a woman of any nationality.  It was also shortlisted for the  2015 Man Booker Prize .

Harry Bosch crosses the line to team up with Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller in the new thriller from #1  New York Times  best-selling author Michael Connelly. Detective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. A woman has been brutally murdered in her bed and all evidence points to Haller's client, a former gang member turned family man. Though the murder rap seems ironclad, Mickey is sure it's a setup. Bosch doesn't want anything to do with crossing the aisle to work for the defense. He feels it will undo all the good he's done in his thirty years as a homicide cop. But Mickey promises to let the chips fall where they may. If Harry proves that his client did it, under the rules of discovery, they are obliged to turn over the evidence to the prosecution. Though it goes against all his instincts, Bosch reluctantly takes the case. The prosecution's file just has too many holes and he h

A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the  New York Times  bestseller  A Man Called Ove. Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry  is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel,  A Man Called Ove . It

The Sympathizer   is a first novel by Vietnamese American professor  Viet Thanh Nguyen .   Set as the flashback in a coerced confession of a political prisoner, the book tells the story of the fall of the South Vietnamese government in 1975, and subsequent events in American exile in Los Angeles, through the eyes of a half-Vietnamese undercover communist agent.   The novel is full of insights into history and human nature.   A Vietnamese reviewer noted that finally Americans have a chance to gain a new perspective on the war, one that is in contrast to the one provided by Hollywood myth makers. It is a best-selling novel,   has been widely reviewed,   and was named a  New York Times  Editor's Choice.   It has been reviewed twice in  The New York Times .   It was awarded the 2016  Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . 

A Man Called Ove  (original title in  Swedish :  En man som heter Ove ) is a 2012 novel by Swedish columnist, blogger and writer  Fredrik Backman .  It was published in English in 2013. In January 2015 a stage version of the book with  Johan Rheborg  in the leading role as Ove had its premiere. Ove is a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” However, behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

Go Set a Watchman  is a novel by Harper Lee published on July 14, 2015, by HarperCollins in the United States and Willam Heinemann in the United Kingdom. Although written before her first and only other published novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning  To Kill a Mockingbird —and initially promoted by its publisher as a sequel—it is now more widely accepted as being a first draft of the famous novel. The title comes from Isaiah 21:6: "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." It alludes to Jean Louise Finch's view of her father, Atticus Finch, as the moral compass ("watchman") of Maycomb, and has a theme of disillusionment, as she discovers the extent of the bigotry in her home community. The book's unexpected and controversial discovery, decades after it was written, together with the exceptional eminence of the author's only other book—an American classic—caused its publication to be highly anticipated; 

Me Before You  is a romantic novel written by  Jojo Moyes . The book was first published on January 5, 2012 in the  United Kingdom . A sequel entitled  After You  was released 29 September 2015 through Pamela Dorman Books. Reception for  Me Before You  has been positive and the book was placed on the  Richard and Judy Book Club .  USA Today  and the  New York Times  both praised the work,   with the  New York Times  reviewer commenting that "When I finished this novel, I didn’t want to review it; I wanted to reread it."

Twilight  is a series of four vampire-themed fantasy romance novels by American author Stephenie Meyer. Released annually from 2005 through 2008, the four books chart the later teen years of Isabella "Bella" Swan, a girl who moves to Forks, Washington, and falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. The series is told primarily from Bella's point of view, with the epilogue of  Eclipse  and Part II of  Breaking Dawn  being told from the viewpoint of character Jacob Black, a werewolf. The unpublished  Midnight Sun  is a retelling of the first book,  Twilight , from Edward Cullen's point of view. The novella  The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner , which tells the story of a newborn vampire who appeared in  Eclipse , was published on June 5, 2010, as a hardcover book and on June 7 as a free online ebook.  The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide , a definitive encyclopedic reference with nearly 100 full color illustrations, was released in b