The nonfiction book Propaganda by Edward Bernays is considered a classic, evergreen text that draws on social science, psychology, and communication studies. The book is not simply about the mechanics of propaganda and communication; it is also a critical examination of the ethical dimensions and societal effects of those practices. In the first four chapters, Bernays delineates the place of propaganda in American life while also revealing some of the methods through which it functions... Read Propaganda Summary

“Rain, Rain, Go Away” is a short story by American author and professor Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the 1959 issue of Fantastic Universe and later appeared in the collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories, published in 1975. The story blends elements of science fiction and fantasy to explore themes like The Illusion of Perfection and Control, Curiosity and Judgment, and Fear of the Unknown, as well as representations of the traditional American... Read Rain, Rain, Go Away Summary

Published in 2016, Real Tigers is the third novel in British author Mick Herron’s acclaimed Slough House series of satirical spy thrillers. The series, which has been adapted into a television show for Apple TV+, follows the exploits of the “Slow Horses,” a team of disgraced MI5 agents relegated to a dilapidated London office building to perform mind-numbing administrative work. The plot of Real Tigers is set in motion when one of their own, Catherine... Read Real Tigers Summary

Rebel Witch (2025) is the second and concluding book in the Crimson Moth duology, an adult fantasy romance series for young adults by Kristen Ciccarelli. The novel continues the story of a witch, Rune Winters, and a witch-hunter, Gideon Sharpe. In Rebel Witch, Rune, now a fugitive of the Republic, allies with former witch queen Cressida Roseblood to reclaim her throne from the Republic and reinstate the Reign of Witches. Gideon feels betrayed by Rune’s... Read Rebel Witch Summary

Reckless is the second installment in The Powerless Trilogy by American author Lauren Roberts. Published in July 2024, it follows Powerless (2023) and precedes Fearless (scheduled for 2025 release) The series also includes a stand-alone novel, Powerful (2024), set in the same universe. This young adult fantasy series first gained popularity on social media, where Roberts shared her writing journey and amassed a large readership. The popularity of her work stems from her reliance on... Read Reckless Summary

Redhead by the Side of the Road (2020) is bestselling American novelist Anne Tyler’s 23rd novel. A character-driven literary fiction novel, the story follows Micah Mortimer, a mid-forties self-employed IT technician who must learn and grow from the sudden arrival of an ex-girlfriend’s son and a breakup with his current girlfriend. Themes include reevaluating misconceptions, the value of second chances, and the effects of overbearing parenting.Notable works from Tyler, who is also a short story... Read Redhead by the Side of the Road Summary

Red Mars, a 1992 science fiction novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, is the first book in the Mars trilogy about settling and terraforming the planet Mars. Red Mars follows the first 100 people who land on Mars and begin the complex process of terraforming the planet. In 1993, Red Mars won the Nebula Award and the British Science Fiction Association Award. This guide uses the 2009 HarperVoyager edition.Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions... Read Red Mars Summary

Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum (1987) is a historical family saga and a landmark novel of China’s “root-seeking” literary movement of the 1980s. First published as a series of five novellas in 1986, the novel is set in the author’s home province of Shandong. Mo Yan drew heavily from the region’s folklore and his own family’s history to create what the Swedish Academy would later call “hallucinatory realism” when awarding him the 2012 Nobel Prize in... Read Red Sorghum Summary

Scott Adams’s self-help book Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success (2023) coaches you to “reframe” your perspectives to change your own behavior for the better. Adams argues that people can harness the power of language to persuade themselves to see things in a new light and replace negative beliefs with positive, advantageous thoughts. Adams draws on his understanding of human psychology based on his own life experience, his training as a... Read Reframe Your Brain Summary

Published in 2026, Regime Change is a work of political journalism by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Haberman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times and author of the nonfiction bestseller Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (2022). Swan, also of The New York Times, won an Emmy Award for his celebrated 2020 interview with Donald Trump. Regime Change chronicles the first year of the second... Read Regime Change Summary

Published in 1973, Rendezvous With Rama is a science fiction adventure novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. In his time, Clarke was known as one of the “Big Three” writers of science fiction alongside American authors Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein. Clarke’s expertise in space flight prompted him to develop the novel and screenplay for his best-known work, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Rendezvous With Rama won major speculative fiction awards, including the... Read Rendezvous with Rama Summary

Resist is a middle-grade historical fiction novella written by Alan Gratz and originally published in 2019. Alan Gratz is a middle-grade author known for historically accurate and detailed portrayals of heroic children in times of war and crisis. Resist follows 12-year-old Samira on D-Day in World War II as she attempts to save her mother from being killed as a political prisoner in northern France. Samira is part of the French Resistance, and her story... Read Resist Summary

Rez Ball (2023), a work of young adult sports fiction, is the debut novel of American Indigenous author Byron Graves. The book won several major honors, including the William C. Morris Award and the American Indian Youth Literature Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. The story follows Tre Brun, a sophomore basketball player on the Red Lake Indian Reservation who lives in the shadow of his late... Read Rez Ball Summary

The Tragedy of King Richard II is a play by William Shakespeare. It was probably first performed in 1595, and published in 1597. The play covers the last two years of Richard II’s life, from 1398 to 1400, during which he was deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV in 1399. The play explores Richard’s growing unpopularity and ineffective leadership, leading to his overthrow by Bolingbroke, who not only has a taste for power... Read Richard II Summary

Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare written between 1592 and 1594. It is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and his second longest. The play depicts the rise of King Richard III of England, also known as Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Shakespeare portrays Richard as a Machiavellian tyrant who uses lies and violence to unjustly seize the throne during a politically turbulent period of England’s history known as the Wars of the Roses... Read Richard III Summary

Stephen E. Ambrose and Douglas G. Brinkley’s Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 is a comprehensive look at the US foreign policy from the 1930s path toward the Second World War until the early-21st century and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This book initially appeared in 1971 and is now in its 9th edition, the Penguin Group’s Kindle version (2010) of which is used here. Summary The authors examine several important historic events... Read Rise to Globalism Summary

Published in 2011, Rivers of London is the first novel in author Ben Aaronovitch’s popular urban fantasy series, known as Rivers of London in the United Kingdom. The novel blends the police procedural and urban fantasy genres, following Peter Grant, a probationary constable in London’s Metropolitan Police. On the verge of being assigned to a monotonous desk job, Peter’s career takes an unexpected turn when an eyewitness to a bizarre murder turns out to be... Read Rivers of London Summary

IntroductionEmma Donoghue’s Room is a 2010 novel about a boy named Jack who lives in a single room with his mother, Ma. Room is a crime thriller novel that explores themes of trauma, innocence, and adaptability through the eyes of five-year-old narrator, Jack. Room has received many awards, including the ALA Alex Award, the Indies Choice Book Award for Fiction, and The New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year award. Room was... Read Room Summary

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a three-act play by the English playwright Tom Stoppard. It is an existentialist, absurdist satire featuring characters and events from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead enjoyed critical success, winning The New York Drama Critics’ Circle’s Award for Best Play and four Tony Awards in 1968. Since then, the play has been adapted into several radio plays and a... Read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Summary

Royal Assassin, the second installment of Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, continues the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, the illegitimate grandson of King Shrewd and a trained royal assassin in the medieval fantasy kingdom of the Six Duchies. Fitz possesses two rare abilities: the Skill, a telepathic magic tied to the royal bloodline, and the Wit, a forbidden Beast magic that lets him bond mentally with animals. The novel opens with Fitz recovering in the Mountain Kingdom... Read Royal Assassin Summary