Ransom is part of Daniel Silva's long-running series featuring Gabriel Allon, a retired Israeli intelligence operative and the world's foremost restorer of Italian Renaissance paintings. He lives in Venice with his wife, Chiara, and their children, Irene and Raphael, and spends summers at a farmhouse near Gwennap Head in Cornwall.The novel opens with four women, friends since Cambridge, on their annual summer holiday. Phoebe Chadwick, a coordinator at an underfunded relief organization, usually plans the... Read Ransom Summary

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s short story, “Rashōmon,” originally published in 1916, is a fictional story that details a man on the brink of death who must decide between maintaining his morals and dying or becoming a thief to save his own life. “Rashōmon” sets about to tackle themes of poverty, morality, and survival. Akutagawa is a renowned Japanese author who has been widely named the “father of Japanese short stories.” In addition, Japan’s most prestigious literary award... Read Rashomon 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

Rebecca, a bestselling novel by famed English writer Daphne du Maurier, was published in 1938, and has never gone out of print. The winner of the National Book Award for favorite novel of 1938, Rebecca has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and a 1997 television miniseries. It was most recently adapted for a Netflix film in 2020 by the same name. Rebecca... Read Rebecca 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

Published in 2025, Red City is the adult fiction debut from Marie Lu, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of acclaimed young adult series such as Legend and The Young Elites. Drawing on her own background as an immigrant from China, Lu crafts a story about two teenagers in an alternate Los Angeles who are unknowingly recruited into rival alchemical crime syndicates. Sam Lang, the daughter of a poor single mother, is drawn into... Read Red City Summary

Red Harvest (1929) is a detective novel by American author Dashiell Hammett. The plot is loosely based on the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute that escalated after a mining company fired upon its miners who were on strike, wounding 16 men and killing another. In 2005, Time magazine named Red Harvest one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. The novel has influenced many works of noir fiction. This guide uses the... Read Red Harvest 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

Published in 2024, Rejection is a literary short story collection by American author Tony Tulathimutte. Tulathimutte originally conceived of writing a book of around the topic of rejection in 2011, a subject he viewed as seemingly undramatic and thus challenging to explore. Two of the book’s stories—“The Feminist” and “Ahegao, or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression”—were previously published in literary magazines N+1 and The Paris Review. The collection was longlisted for the National Book Award... Read Rejection Summary

Remote Control (2021) is a science fiction novella by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. It tells the story of Sankofa, a young Ghanaian girl with the ability to kill people with a mysterious power she receives from a seed that falls from the sky during a meteor shower. When the seed is first sold by her parents, then stolen, she tracks it across Ghana on foot, both respected and feared by the people she encounters... Read Remote Control 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

Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky evaluates the rise of income inequality in the US over the last 40 years. It argues that the main consequence of neoliberalism, which has increased since the 1970s, is a dramatic concentration of wealth and power to the elite—at the expense of the lower and middle classes. Chomsky observes how rapid financialization since the... Read Requiem for the American Dream 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

Restless Stars (2024) is the ninth and final book in the Zodiac Academy series by British authors and sisters Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. A work of dark fantasy and paranormal romance, the novel concludes the epic struggle of twin Fae princesses Tory and Darcy Vega to claim their family’s throne in Solaria. As the final battle against the tyrannical Lionel Acrux looms, the sisters must contend with a powerful cosmic impostor, the dark consequences... Read Restless Stars Summary

Published in 2013, Lauren Weisberger’s contemporary novel Revenge Wears Prada is the sequel to her bestselling 2003 debut, The Devil Wears Prada. The story picks up 10 years after Andrea “Andy” Sachs dramatically quit her job as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the formidable editor of Runway magazine. Now the successful co-founder of a high-end bridal magazine called The Plunge, Andy is about to marry a media heir when her past returns to haunt her... Read Revenge Wears Prada 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

Riders of the Purple Sage is a novel by western writer Zane Grey. Set in 1871, the novel follows the story of Jane Withersteen, a Mormon woman being persecuted by her church leaders for refusing to become the third wife of church leader, Elder Tull, as well as her fondness for non-Mormons, or gentile, settlers in the area. The novel first appeared as a 19-part series in the magazine, Field and Stream, in January of... Read Riders of the Purple Sage Summary

Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door is a cozy mystery/romantic comedy novel by New York Times bestselling author Lucy Score. Originally self-published in 2020, the novel is the first title in Score’s Riley Thorn Series, followed by the titles The Corpse in the Closet and The Blast from the Past. Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door introduces the raucous narrative world of Riley, the novel’s protagonist. Born with psychic powers, Riley... Read Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door Summary