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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

And Then There Were None  is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write.   It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 as  Ten Little Niggers ,   after the British blackface song, which serves as a major plot point.   The US edition was not released until December 1939 with the title changed to the last five words in the original American version of the nursery rhyme,  And Then There Were None . In the US, it was both adapted and reprinted as  Ten Little Indians . In the novel, a group of people are lured into coming to an island under different pretexts, e.g. offers of employment or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet old friends. All have been complicit in the deaths of other human beings, but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests and two servants who are present are "c

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven high fantasy novels by author C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages.   Written by Lewis, illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and originally published in London between 1950 and 1956, The Chronicles of Narnia has been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, the stage, and film. Set in the fictional realm of Narnia, a fantasy world of magic, mythical beasts, and talking animals, the series narrates the adventures of various children who play central roles in the unfolding history of that world. Except in The Horse and His Boy , the protagonists are all children from the real world, magically transported to Narnia, where they are called upon by the lion Aslan to protect Narnia from evil and restore the throne to its rightful line. The books span the entire history of Narnia, from its creation

Dirk Pitt is a fictional character, the protagonist of a series of bestselling adventure novels written by Clive Cussler. Dirk is an adventurer who seizes the opportunity to save the day. Through action-filled story lines, Pitt is portrayed as a man who is in love with the sea and does not fear pushing the envelope. The character is an avid collector of cars, a characteristic shared with his creator, Clive Cussler.

Frank Merriwell is a fictional character appearing in a series of novels and short stories by Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. The character appeared in over two hundred dime novels between 1896 and 1930 (some between 1927 and 1930 were written by other authors with the same pen name), numerous radio dramas in 1934 and again from 1946 through 1949, a comic strip from 1928 through 1936, a comic book (4 issues) Frank Merriwell At Yale , and a twelve episode serialized film in 1936. The model for all later American juvenile sports fiction, Merriwell excelled at football, baseball, basketball, crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury. A biographical entry on Patten noted dryly that Frank Merriwell "had little in common with his creator or his readers." Patten offered some background on his character: "The name was symbolic of the chief

Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of various characters "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". The whole series of Star Wars novels and novellas in ". txt " and ".rtf" fomat is availaible for free download.

Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It is the first instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey. It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline,dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM). Originally self-published as an ebook and a print-on-demand, publishing rights were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012. Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, selling over 125 million copies worldwide by June 2015. It has been translated into 52 languages, and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time. Critical reception of the book, however, has tended toward the negative, with the quality of its prose generally seen as poor. Universal Pictures and Focus Features produced a film

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a series of fiction books written by the American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney.   All the main books are the journals of the main character, Greg Heffley. Befitting a child's diary, the books are filled with hand-written notes and simple drawings of Greg's daily adventures. Since the release of the online version in May 2004, most of the books have garnered positive reviews and commercial success. For example, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was well-received from The Princeton Review , Gold Card Association , The Dallas News , The TRR Editors , The NW Press , and The JJ Printing Company . As of February 2008, it has been purchased one million times. The first, second, and fourth installments have been adapted into films by 20th Century Fox. The website Poptropica released islands in the theme of Diary of a Wimpy Kid called Wimpy Wonderland and Wimpy Boardwalk, both of which credit Kinney in an ambiguous contributor's role. Diary of a Wimpy

The James Bond series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have written authorised Bond novels or novelizations: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver,William Boyd and Anthony Horowitz. The latest novel is Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz, published in September 2015. Additionally Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny. The character has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip, video games and film. The films are the longest continually running and the third-highest-grossing film series to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No , starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2016, there have been twenty-four films in the Eon

Goosebumps is a series of children's horror fiction novellas by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The stories follow child characters, who find themselves in scary situations. From 1992 to 1997, 62 books were published under the  Goosebumps umbrella title. Various spin-off series were written by Stine: Goosebumps Series 2000 , Give Yourself Goosebumps , Tales to Give You Goosebumps , Goosebumps Triple Header , Goosebumps HorrorLand , and Goosebumps Most Wanted . Another series, Goosebumps Gold , was never released. Goosebumps has spawned a television series and merchandise, as well as a feature film, starring Jack Black as R. L. Stine. Since the release of its first novel, Welcome to Dead House , in July 1992, the series has sold over 350 million books worldwide in 32 languages. Individual books in the series have been listed in several bestseller lists, including the New York Times Best Seller list for children.

The Front Runner is a 1974 novel by Patricia Nell Warren. A love story between a running coach and his star athlete, The Front Runner is noted for being the first contemporary gay novel to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success. Harlan Brown is the athletic director at the fictitious Prescott College, a progressive, experiential, private liberal arts college in New York.   A closeted ex-marine, Harlan has left a prestigious coaching position at Pennsylvania State University following false accusations of sexual misconduct from a male student. Fearing exposure, Harlan has buried himself at the obscure college, and given up his dream of coaching Olympic athletes. The Front Runner was a critical and commercial success upon its release, becoming the first book of contemporary gay fiction to reach the New York Times Best Seller List. In their review, The New York Times called the novel "the most moving, monumental love story ever written about gay life."  

The Giver is a 1993 American young-adult dystopian novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which at first appears to be a utopian society but is revealed to be a dystopian one as the story progresses. The novel follows an 11 year old boy named Jonas. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness," a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, as there may be times where one must draw upon the wisdom gained from history to aid the community's decision making. Jonas struggles with concepts of all the new emotions and things introduced to him: whether they are inherently good, evil, or in between, and whether it is even possible to have one without the other. The Community lacks any color, memory, climate and terrain, all in effort to preserve structure, order, and a true sense of equali

Life of Pi is a Canadian fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The novel, which has sold more than ten million copies worldwide,   was rejected by at least five London publishing houses   before being accepted by Knopf Canada, which published it in September 2001. The UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction the following year.   It was also chosen for CBC Radio's Canada Reads 2003, where it was championed by author Nancy Lee.   The French translation, L'Histoire de Pi , was chosen in the French CBC version of the contest Le combat des livres , where it was championed by Louise Forestier. The novel won the 2003 Boeke Prize, a South African novel award. In 2004, it

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini.   Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, whose closest friend is Hassan, his father's young Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet military intervention, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. Hosseini has commented that he considers The Kite Runner to be a father–son story, emphasizing the familial aspects of the narrative, an element that he continued to use in his later works.   Themes of guilt and redemption feature prominently in the novel, with a pivotal scene depicting an act of violence against Hassan that Amir fails to prevent. The latter half of the book centers on Amir's attempts to atone for this transgression by rescuing Hassan's son over two de

The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. The novel received much critical praise and became an instant bestseller. A film adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson, who personally purchased the rights, was released in 2009. Sebold's novel was a surprise success when it was first published, mainly because it was written by a young author known only for one other book. In addition, the plot and narrative device are unusual and unconventional. It would have been considered a success by Little, Brown and Company had it sold 20,000 copies, but it ultimately sold over a million and remained on the New York Times hardback bestseller list for over a year.

The Cat in the Hat is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and first published in 1957. The story centers on a tall anthropomorphic cat, who wears a red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. The Cat shows up at the house of Sally and her unnamed brother one rainy day when their mother is away. Ignoring repeated objections from the children's fish, the Cat shows the children a few of his tricks in an attempt to entertain them. In the process he and his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, wreck the house. The children and the fish become more and more alarmed until the Cat produces a machine that he uses to clean everything up. He then says his goodbyes and disappears just before the children's mother walks in. Geisel created the book in response to a debate in the United States about literacy in early childhood and the ineffectiveness of traditional primers such as those featuring Dick and Jane. Geisel was asked

A Brief History of Time , published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world--observations that have confirmed many of Hawking's theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book. Now a decade later, this edition updates the chapters throughout to document those advances, and also includes an entirely new chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel and a new introduction. It make vividly clear why A Brief History of Time has transformed our view of the universe.

Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by Welsh author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group under the title Storm Island . This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. The revised title is an allusion to the "eye of a needle" aphorism. The book was made into a motion picture in 1981, starring Donald Sutherland, with a screenplay adapted by Stanley Mann and directed by Richard Marquand.

Catch-22 is a satirical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. It is frequently cited as one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century.   It uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, describing events from the points of view of different characters. The separate storylines are out of sequence so that the timeline develops along with the plot. The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th Squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea, west of Italy. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian and the other airmen in the camp, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home. The novel's title refers to a p

The Prophet is a book of 26 prose poetry essays written in English by the Lebanese artist, philosopher and writer Kahlil Gibran.   It was originally published in 1923 by Alfred A. Knopf. It is Gibran's best known work. The Prophet has been translated into over 40 different languages   and has never been out of print. The Prophet has been translated into well over 40 languages. By 2012, it had sold more than nine million copies in its American edition alone since its original publication in 1923. Of an ambitious first printing of 2,000 in 1923, Knopf sold 1,159 copies. The demand for The Prophet doubled the following year — and doubled again the year after that. Since then, annual sales have risen steadily: from 12,000 in 1935 to 111,000 in 1961 to 240,000 in 1965.   The book sold its one millionth copy in 1957.   At one point, The Prophet sold more than 5000 copies a week worldwide.

Things Fall Apart is a post-colonial novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1958. It is seen as the archetypal modernAfrican novel in English, one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. It was first published in 1958 by William Heinemann Ltd in the UK; in 1962, it was also the first work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series. The title of the novel comes from a line in W. B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming". The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo ("Ibo" in the novel) leader and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, the first describing his family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introduce the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igb

The Plague (French: La Peste ) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition. The characters in the book, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, all help to show the effects the plague has on a populace. The novel is believed to be based on the cholera epidemic that killed a large percentage of Oran's population in 1849 following French colonization, but the novel is placed in the 1940s.   Oran and its environs were struck by disease multiple times before Camus published this novel. According to a research report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oran was decimated by the plague in 1556 and 1678, but all later outbreaks, in 1921 (185 cases), 1931 (76 cases), and 1944 (95 cases), were very far from the scale of the epidemic described in the novel. The Plague is considered an existent

Peyton Place is a 1956 novel by Grace Metalious. The novel describes how three women are forced to come to terms with their identity, both as women and as sexual beings, in a small, conservative, gossipy New England town, with recurring themes of hypocrisy, social inequities and class privilege in a tale that includes incest, abortion, adultery, lust and murder. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks. The novel spawned a franchise that would eventually run through four decades. Twentieth Century-Fox adapted it as a major motion picture in 1957, and Metalious wrote a follow-up novel that was published in 1959, called Return to Peyton Place, which was also filmed in 1961 using the same title. The original 1956 novel was adapted again in 1964, in what became a wildly successful prime time television series for20th Century Fox Television that ran until 1969, and the term "Peyton Place"

Life After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences (NDEs). The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die.   On the basis of his collection of cases, Moody identified a common set of elements in NDEs: (a) an overwhelming feeling of peace and well-being, including freedom from pain. (b) the impression of being located outside one's physical body. (c) floating or drifting through darkness, sometimes described as a tunnel. (d) becoming aware of a golden light. (e) encountering and perhaps communicating with a "being of light". (f) having a rapid succession of visual images of one's past. (g) experiencing another world of much beauty. Life After Life sold more than 13 million copies, was translated into a dozen foreign languages   and became an international best seller, which made

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she started writing the novel, but did most of the work when she was 16 and a junior in high school.   Hinton was 18 when the book was published. The book follows two rival groups, the Greasers and the Socs, who are divided by their socioeconomic status. The story is told in first-person narrative by protagonist Ponyboy Curtis. The story in the book takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1965,   but this is never stated in the book. A film adaptation was produced in 1983, and a little-known short-lived television series appeared in 1990, picking up where the movie left off.

The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Bimini, Bahamas, and published in 1952.   It was the last major work of fiction by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida. In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.

A Wrinkle in Time is a science fantasy novel by American writer Madeleine L'Engle, first published in 1963.   The story revolves around a young girl whose father, a government scientist, has gone missing after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. The book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.  I t is the first in L'Engle's series of books about the Murry and O'Keefe families. This novel is on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 at number 23.   Reasons given include the book's references to witches and crystal balls,   the claim that it "challenges religious beliefs",and the listing of Jesus "with the names of great artists, philosophers, scientists, and religious leaders".