The Odd Couple is a satirical play by American playwright Neil Simon. It opened on Broadway in 1965 and chronicles the unconventional relationship between friends turned roommates, Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar. The play found enduring success and inspired subsequent film and television adaptations. It was nominated for a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1965.Many of Simon’s plays are influenced by his own upbringing. Simon was born in the Bronx and grew up... Read The Odd Couple Summary

“The Open Window” is a frequently anthologized short story by Hector Hugh Munro, or H. H. Munro, whose penname was Saki. This short story, like many of Saki’s works, satirizes Edwardian society. By utilizing a story within a story, or an embedded narrative, Saki uses satire to explore themes like the absurdity of etiquette, escapism, control, and appearance versus reality.Saki originally published “The Open Window” in the Westminster Gazette on November 18, 1911, and later... Read The Open Window Summary

Published in 2024, Casey McQuiston’s The Pairing is a romantic comedy. Four years after their brutal breakup, faced with expiring vouchers for the food and wine tour they’d planned to take together, Theo and Kit individually decide to use their vouchers for a solo trip and accidentally find themselves traveling Europe together. To prove they’re truly over the relationship, they challenge each other to a hookup competition but slowly realize they have unresolved feelings for... Read The Pairing Summary

Published in 2024 and written by Christina Lauren, The Paradise Problem is a romantic comedy that follows Anna Green and Liam “West” Weston as they find themselves thrust together by circumstance nearly five years after marrying for convenience. To preserve Liam’s inheritance, they must now maintain the façade of their marriage throughout the family-related chaos of a destination wedding on a private island, where true feelings begin to emerge. Lauren juxtaposes Anna’s paycheck-to-paycheck life with... Read The Paradise Problem Summary

In Norton Juster’s 1961 middle-grade fantasy adventure The Phantom Tollbooth, a bored young boy visits a magical land whose people suffer from a strange delusion and volunteers to find a source of wisdom that can heal them. The book is a touchstone for generations of young readers; it has sold nearly five million copies in more than a dozen languages and has been adapted for film, stage, and symphony hall. Author Juster published a dozen... Read The Phantom Tollbooth Summary

The Princess Bride is a 1973 adventure novel by American author and screenwriter William Goldman. It uses a unique framing narrative to tell two interwoven stories and claims to be a retelling of an older novel (one that does not actually exist). The Princess Bride was adapted into a film in 1987. Critics regard the film as one of the greatest cinematic accomplishments of all time, and it appears on numerous “best of” lists, including... Read The Princess Bride Summary

The Princess Diaries is the first novel in the titular children’s book series penned by American author Meg Cabot. First published in 2000, The Princess Diaries became a New York Times bestseller and was quickly adapted into a 2001 film of the same name starring Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis and Julie Andrews as Mia’s grandmother. Although the film adaptation deviates greatly from the novel, both versions of The Princess Diaries tackle the adolescent experience... Read The Princess Diaries Summary

Nancy Mitford’s satirical novel The Pursuit of Love, first published in 1945, chronicles the romantic and social education of an eccentric English aristocratic family between the two World Wars. The story is narrated by the sensible Fanny Logan, who recounts the life of her beautiful and impulsive cousin, Linda Radlett. Raised in the chaotic countryside estate of Alconleigh under the rule of her volatile father, Matthew, Linda grows up with a single-minded goal: to find... Read The Pursuit of Love Summary

“The Ransom of Red Chief,” first published in The Saturday Evening Post on July 6, 1907, is a comedic short story by American author O. Henry. Born William Sydney Porter, O. Henry was a prolific short story writer who penned nearly 600 stories in his lifetime. His works depict realistic characters and events, and his stories are classified within the genre of Realism. Like his most famous short story, “The Gift of the Magi” (1905)... Read The Ransom of Red Chief Summary

“The Rape of the Lock” is a mock-epic poem written by Alexander Pope. A mock-epic poem is equal in length to a traditional epic but takes a satirical tone rather than a serious one. The poem was originally published in 1712 and contained only two cantos. Pope, wanting to further expand its epic format, rewrote the poem several times and finally published a five-canto version in 1717. This version is the version we read today... Read The Rape of the Lock Summary

The Report Card is a 2004 middle grade novel by prolific children’s author Andrew Clements that tells the story of a young genius who has kept her intelligence a secret for her entire life. Nora Rowley has never worried about report cards, but by fifth grade, she realizes the negative impact of grades and test scores on her classmates—especially her best friend, Stephen Curtis—and decides to do something about it. The story explores themes about... Read The Report Card Summary

The Reptile Room is a middle-grade novel published by Daniel Handler under the pen name of Lemony Snicket in 1999. It is the second in the 13-book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, which chronicles the lives of the Baudelaire children (Violet, Klaus, and baby Sunny) after the untimely death of their parents. In the first book, a well-intentioned but oblivious man named Mr. Poe places the children under the care of their distant relative... Read The Reptile Room Summary

Louis Sachar is the author of the 1987 novel for young readers, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom. The striking title makes it seem like the book is about gender identity. The book routinely addresses and subverts gender norms, but, more accurately, Sachar’s work of realistic children’s fiction centers on personal growth and transformation. Fifth-grader Bradley Chalkers, the main character, realizes he doesn’t have to be a “monster”: He can become a kind, likable... Read There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom Summary

The Rez Sisters by Tomson Highway is a two-act play that was first performed in 1986 at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. After being translated into French by Jocelyne Beaulieu, “Les Reines de la réserve” premiered by Théâtre Populaire du Québec in 1993. A version of the play in the Cree language was performed in 2010, and Canadian performances with Indigenous actors have been staged in the 2020s. Highway’s play re-envisions the 1965 play... Read The Rez Sisters Summary

The Road to Tender Hearts is a darkly comic novel about PJ Halliday, who embarks on a journey to reunite with his high school crush, bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat that can predict death. The novel explores themes of Grief as a Transformative Force, Redemption Through Responsibility, and Finding Connection Amid Life’s Fragility. This unlikely group of travelers embarks on a road trip adventure that doubles as a meditation... Read The Road to Tender Hearts Summary

The Rom-Commers is a 2024 novel by best-selling American novelist Katherine Center. As a bittersweet romantic comedy about loving and letting go, The Rom-Commers centers on the story of Emma Wheeler, a talented yet unsuccessful screenwriter, as she takes a job rewriting a romantic comedy with her favorite screenwriter, Charlie Yates. By employing many of the classic tropes of contemporary romance, Center explores the effects of grief and guilt while delving into deeper questions about... Read The Rom-Commers Summary

The Rosie Effect (2014) is an adult romantic comedy and sequel to the bestselling The Rosie Project (2013), written by Australian author Graeme Simsion. In The Rosie Project, genetics professor Don Tillman’s efforts to identify an ideal wife lead him to fall in love with Rosie Jarman, a spirited PhD student who defies his requirements. The Rosie Effect features Don and Rosie 10 months into their marriage in New York City, when Rosie suddenly announces... Read The Rosie Effect Summary

Graeme Simsion is an Australian author and playwright who previously worked in the information systems industry. The Rosie Project, originally written as a screenplay, is the first in the Don Tillman trilogy. The novel explores the romantic and comedic errors of protagonist Don Tillman, a man implied (and confirmed on the author’s webpage) to have undiagnosed autism, as he looks for a wife. Set in Melbourne, Australia, and New York City, the novel is told... Read The Rosie Project Summary

Wise-cracking eighth-grader Anthony “Antsy” Bonano befriends Calvin Schwa, a nondescript boy who is virtually invisible to his classmates in Neal Shusterman’s humorous young adult novel, The Schwa Was Here (2004). As Antsy and the Schwa experiment on his invisibility, they meet the crotchety neighborhood recluse Old Man Crawley and fall for his granddaughter, Lexie, who is blind. Antsy learns about the Schwa’s challenging family life and makes discoveries about his own sense of self, his... Read The Schwa Was Here Summary

First published in the New Yorker in 1939, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is James Thurber’s short story about the flamboyant fantasy life of a timid suburban Everyman. A gentle satire of the human imagination (among other things), the story struck an immediate and lasting chord in the midcentury American imagination and is widely regarded as a comic masterpiece. Its distinctive mixture of pathos and parody made it one of the most anthologized short... Read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Summary