Loyalty & Betrayal

Swing Time (2016) is renowned author Zadie Smith’s fifth novel. Inspired by classic movie musicals and Smith’s childhood passion for musical theater, Swing Time is a story about women, how forms of privilege warp our worldviews, and the ways in which history informs our present. The novel is divided into seven parts, each narrated by the same unnamed protagonist sometimes as a child and sometimes as an adult.One of the most respected literary voices of... Read Swing Time Summary

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In 1934, F. Scott Fitzgerald published his fourth and final (completed) novel, Tender Is the Night. Considered by the author to be his masterpiece, the book captures the same Jazz Age-prose style and Lost Generation philosophy as his previous novels, with the added depth of being arguably his most personal novel. Unlike The Great Gatsby, which was published in the middle of the 1920s, Tender Is the Night reflects upon the Roaring Twenties after they... Read Tender Is the Night Summary

That Was Then, This Is Now is a 1971 young adult novel by S. E. Hinton. Set in the same world as Hinton’s earlier novel, The Outsiders, this novel follows a young man’s bleak coming-of-age experience within the broader context of the social upheaval of the 1960s. The novel won a Massachusetts Children’s Book Award in 1978 and was one of four works cited when Hinton won the Margaret Edwards Award in 1988. In 1985... Read That Was Then, This Is Now Summary

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“The Adventure of the Speckled Band” is one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous short stories. Doyle dabbled in several genres and forms, including historical fiction, plays, and poetry, but his Sherlock Holmes mysteries are the chief reason his writing has been beloved around the world for over a century. Doyle’s work has had a profound influence on the genre of detective fiction, and the author considered “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” the... Read The Adventure of the Speckled Band Summary

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Published in 2008, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a New York Times bestselling novel by Garth Stein. It follows the life of race car driver Denny Swift and is told from the perspective of his dog, Enzo. Stein was inspired to write the book after watching the 1998 Mongolian documentary State of Dogs about a dog who is reincarnated as a human after death, and after seeing the poet Billy Collins read... Read The Art of Racing in the Rain Summary

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“The Battle of Maldon” is a heroic poem, also classified as an epic, dating from the 10th century. Originally written in Old English, the text details a violent battle between the Anglo-Saxon warriors and the raiding Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons are led by Earl Byrhtnoth, who held land in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Essex and fought for his ruler, King Æthelred the Unready. The poem depicts some of the central tenets of Anglo-Saxon culture, praising loyalty... Read The Battle of Maldon Summary

The Beautiful Mystery, published in 2012, is the eighth book in former Canadian journalist Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series. The Gamache series is known for its recurring cast of characters, psychological depth, and long-term story arcs. Gamache is a longtime member of Québec’s provincial police force, most often known by its French name, the Sûreté du Québec. Gamache’s struggles with police corruption form the main plot of several books, including A Fatal Grace and... Read The Beautiful Mystery Summary

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Published in 1939, The Big Sleep by novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler is a murder mystery widely regarded as one of the greatest hard-boiled detective stories of the 20th century. The work introduces Philip Marlowe, a fictional private eye with a jaundiced view of humanity but a strong sense of fairness, who appears in seven other novels by Chandler. Hired by a super-rich family to negotiate with a blackmailer, Marlowe encounters murder, mayhem, and a... Read The Big Sleep Summary

The Black Echo (1992) is Michael Connelly’s first novel and the first book in the long-running series featuring Los Angeles police detective Harry Bosch. It won the 1993 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and is now a classic in the modern crime genre. Connelly, who worked as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times while starting his career as a novelist, has written over 37 novels, including 24 featuring Detective Bosch. His works... Read The Black Echo Summary

Walter Farley was only 26 years old when he published The Black Stallion, the fictional adventure story of the friendship between a boy and a majestic, powerful horse. Farley’s book, first available in 1941, was an instant bestseller. The Black Stallion and its 20 sequels have sold more than 12 million copies. The novel won the 1944 Young Reader’s Choice Award and inspired three Black Stallion movies and a TV series. At the heart of... Read The Black Stallion Summary