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Written by Wallace Stegner and released in 1971, Angle of Repose is a historical fiction novel about Lyman Ward, a wheelchair-bound historian who decides to write about his frontier-era grandparents, particularly his grandmother, Susan Burling Ward. He hopes that their experiences will help him deal with his present situation. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972 and is based on the letters of Mary Hallock Foote, which were later published as A... Read Angle of Repose Summary

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Anna Karenina is Leo Tolstoy’s second novel, following War and Peace (1869). Serially published in 1877, Anna Karenina depicts the efforts of its titular character to escape an unhappy marriage to her older, civil servant husband and pursue a love affair with a young and dashing count, Alexei Vronsky. The novel is a sweeping family drama exploring Tolstoy’s interest in marriage, family, agrarian politics, and gender roles. The work is also a portrait of Russian... Read Anna Karenina Summary

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Fatima Farheen Mirza’s A Place for Us debuted in 2018. The novel, an instant New York Times best seller, was lauded as one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, and more. It’s notable for its extensive use of flashbacks and shifting perspective, which moves between third and first person.Plot SummaryThe novel begins when Amar, a young man estranged from his traditional Indian Muslim family, comes home for his sister... Read A Place for Us Summary

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Ask Again, Yes, a New York Times best seller, is a multigeneration family epic that covers over 40 years in the lives of two Irish American families. A work of domestic realism comparable to works by Anne Tyler and Ann Padgett, the novel was placed on best novel of the year lists by both People magazine and National Public Radio, and it was also optioned to be developed as a limited television series.In 2011, author... Read Ask Again, Yes Summary

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Published in 2019, Jodi Picoult’s novel A Spark of Light tells the story of a gunman’s attack on an abortion clinic from multiple points of view, examining the lives of different characters and the events that lead them to the clinic on that day. Picoult is a New York Times best-selling author and has written 28 novels, several of which have been adapted for film and television. Her books are known for tackling social issues... Read A Spark of Light Summary

A Spool of Blue Thread was published in 2015 and is the twentieth novel by American author Anne Tyler. The novel falls under the subgenre of Women’s Fiction. A Spool of Blue Thread received mixed reviews by critics upon publication but fared far better with the general public. After its commercial success, it was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, as well as the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Other works by Tyler include... Read A Spool of Blue Thread Summary

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A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan tracks the passage of time in the lives of individuals in the rock music industry. The chapters defy conventional temporal and narrative chronologies, and each one is a self-contained episode in an unfolding network of stories, spanning six decades from the 1970s to the 2020s. The novel employs various narrative formats, such as the short story, the magazine article, and the graphic slide presentation. The variety... Read A Visit from the Goon Squad Summary

Etaf Rum’s debut novel, A Woman Is No Man, was originally published in 2019. According to Rum, the novel, a work of historical fiction, relies heavily on autobiographical details. In fact, Rum’s life so closely parallels her characters’ lives that the narrative effectively blurs the line between fiction and memoir.Switching between past and present, the novel tells the intergenerational story of Isra, a Palestinian immigrant living in Brooklyn, and her daughter Deya, growing up in... Read A Woman Is No Man Summary

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Amy Chua’s memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011), depicts Chua’s experience raising two American daughters according to Chinese cultural standards. Chua is a Yale law professor specializing in globalization and ethnic conflict. She is also a second-generation Chinese American, and her husband is Jewish. Chua’s strict approach is influenced by the parenting methods used by her own parents, which clash with those of her husband. Chua’s memoir was a New York Times bestseller... Read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Summary

Written by Fredrik Backman in 2017, Beartown is the first of a trilogy and is followed by the similarly hockey-themed novels, Us Against You (2017) and The Winners (2021). All three novels are set in the town of the same name, and Beartown focuses on the local junior hockey team, the in-game success or failure of which deeply impacts the economy of the town as a whole. As the town's intense focus on the sport... Read Beartown Summary

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