Mortality & Death

Walk Two Moons is perhaps the most famous work of Sharon Creech, a celebrated author of young adult fiction. The novel blends elements of both a coming-of-age narrative and a road story, and is set in the same literary universe as several of Creech’s other works, including Absolutely Normal Chaos (1990) and Chasing Redbird (1997). Following its 1994 publication, Walk Two Moons won numerous awards, including the 1995 Newbery Medal and the 1995 Children’s Book... Read Walk Two Moons Summary

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War, a battle journal by best-selling reporter and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, describes a year in the rugged highlands of Afghanistan with a platoon of American soldiers who face the worst fighting and toughest conditions of any unit in the US military. Published in 2010, the book describes months of mind-numbing danger, multiple firefights per day, injuries and deaths, and matter-of-fact heroism. The men display extreme toughness, gallows humor, and intense mutual loyalty despite the nearly... Read War Summary

War Horse is a children’s historical fiction novel by Michael Morpurgo. The book was first published in Great Britain in 1982 by Kaye & Ward and was a runner-up for the Whitbread Book Award in the same year. The book is told from the point of view of a young horse named Joey and chronicles his journey and the relationships he builds with his various owners during World War I. The beloved novel is a... Read War Horse Summary

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“We Are Seven” is a lyric poem by English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote it in the spring of 1798 on a walking tour with his sister Dorothy and his friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was recalling a young girl whom he’d met on a previous walking tour, at Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, in 1793. “We Are Seven” describes a young girl who believes herself to be one of seven siblings, even though... Read We Are Seven Summary

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson is a young adult science fiction novel that follows the coming-of-age story of Henry, a teenager whose life is in shambles. Hutchinson uses the first-person point-of-view of his protagonist to explore themes of family, grief, universal unknowns, and the development of identity. Published in 2016, Hutchinson’s novel questions the value of human life while incorporating science fiction elements to portray the smallness of human existence in the... Read We Are the Ants Summary

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Pearl Cleage’s debut novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, traces one summer in the life of the protagonist, Ava Johnson. Ava’s once independent and exciting life in Atlanta, Georgia, changes forever when she tests positive for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that can lead to AIDS. As a Black woman living in the 1990s, Ava is immediately met with social and cultural stigmas surrounding the virus. Unable to maintain her hair... Read What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day Summary

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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape is the debut novel by Academy Award-nominated writer Peter Hedges. Set in 1989, the novel is a coming-of-age story about a young man whose life is overshadowed by the tragedy and family drama that surround him. The novel was a critical success upon its release in 1991 and was adapted into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio in 1993, for which Hedges also wrote the screenplay. This study guide... Read What's Eating Gilbert Grape Summary

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When Breath Becomes Air is a memoir by Paul Kalanithi. It was published in 2016. Kalanithi tells the story of his battle with cancer while being a practicing neurosurgeon. The book is organized chronologically, following the trajectory of his life from childhood to death, and is laced with deep philosophical thought and literary prose. His meditations combine the expertise of a professional with the experience of a patient, resulting in a book that communicates extremely... Read When Breath Becomes Air Summary

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When Nietzsche Wept is a 1992 novel written by Stanford University Professor of Psychology Irvin D. Yalom. Set in Vienna in 1882, the novel imagines a working relationship between the famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the eminent physician Josef Breuer. Breuer believes that Nietzsche’s physical ailments have psychological causes, and he embarks on his newly invented “talking cure”—effectively a precursor to talk therapy and psychoanalysis. Eventually, through an agreement between the two men, it... Read When Nietzsche Wept Summary