biographies & memoirs

Sophia

Scrappy and resourceful, Sophia Amoruso turned her entrepreneurial spirit and vintage fashion passion into a multi-million dollar business that she built from scratch.  Girlboss is the ultimate story of building a business before you have everything figured out.  It’s not just a tale of starting a company or creating a brand, but also fighting to find oneself, forging friendships while navigating rocky romances, and reveling in the moment even while planning for the future.  Come along with Sophia as she stumbles into the skin of who she really is—a young woman who takes ownership of her dreams and learns to lead in new ways, moving from aspiring entrepreneur to accidental CEO. 

Lena

Audrey

#GIRLBOSS

Introducing the new Fisher Investment Series, which offers essential insights into the worlds of investing and finance.  Over the course of nearly two centuries, the innovations, mistakes, and scandals of different market participants have played an important role in shaping today's financial markets.  Now, in 100 Minds That Made the Market, Ken Fisher delivers cameo biographies of these pioneers of American financial history.  From Joe Kennedy's sexcapades to Jesse Livermore's suicide, this book details the drama, the dirt, and the financial principles of an amazingly inventive group of financial minds.  Fisher digs deep to uncover the careers, personal lives, and contributions of these individuals and leads you through the lessons that can be learned from each one. 

Scott 

100 Minds That Made the Market

Chris

Chris Guillebeau, the self-employment guru who dispenses sound financial advice in his book The $100 Startup and on the Side Hustle School podcast, is back with a colorful idea-packed book that will maybe get you to quit your day job.  Inspired by true stories of regular people who have turned their talents into side businesses while they continue to earn a living at their day jobs, this playbook showcases 100 business ideas that are within reach of anyone who's ready to take their business dreams seriously.  Licensed masseuses, jewelry makers, website developers, food truck bakers—readers can learn from the best in each field as they discover the tools and steps required to achieve similar business success.  These are some of the most inspiring examples of side hustling ever collected in one place, and you can use them as inspiration for your own side-hustle business!

Seth

100 Side Hustles

Susan

‍100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is a valuable design-psychology hybrid book for UX designers (and those aspiring to become one) that teaches you how to be more effective at guiding user responses.  Tackling some central UX design thinking questions such as what grabs and holds attention on a page or screen? and how do you motivate people to continue on to the next step? Susan Weinschenk guides you through practical steps to increase the effectiveness, conversion rates, and usability of your UX design.  Like many good UX books, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People is not written to be read continuously.  Instead, it will prove far more valuable over time as you reference it and build on your foundational knowledge of design thinking and UX design knowledge. 

Johnnie

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

Sarah

Don’t just read about it—do it! From the creator of the viral sensation Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings (5+ million views and hundreds of thousands of shares) comes the must-have book you never knew you needed, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings.  In this illustrated guide, you will learn how to appear smart in less than half the time it takes to actually learn anything.  It’s available now from Avery Hill Publishing, a division of Workman Publishing Company.  You know those subtle tricks your coworkers are all guilty of? The constant nodding, pretend concentration, useless rhetorical questions? These tricks make them seem like they know what they’re doing when in fact they have no clue.  This behavior is so ingrained, so subtle, and so often mistaken for true intelligence that identifying it, calling it out, or compiling it into an exhaustive digest has never been attempted.  Until now.  Complete with illustrated tips, examples, and scenarios, 100 Tricks gives you actionable ways to use words like “actionable,” in order to sound smart. 

Jake

Adam

100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings

Nilofer

The land of social technologies seems full of endless opportunities.  However, it’s also the subject of hype.  Yes, the new frontier allows us to do things differently—how do you really capitalize on that? HBR Singles brings in Nilofer Merchant’s new 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era.  This digital book shows how smart companies are letting social become the backbone of their business models, increasing their speed and flexibility by pursuing openness and fluidity.  These organizations don’t act like powerful 800-pound gorillas of yesteryear—but instead act more like a herd of 800 gazelles, moving together across a savannah, outrunning the competition. 

Kathryn

11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era

Greg

Entrepreneurs succeed when they say “no” to the wrong projects, leaving them time, energy and focus to devote to doing what really matters.  Greg McKeown’s Essentialism emphasizes that if you want to do the right things, you have to stop doing the wrong things.  To help you achieve your goals and live a more focused life, McKeown gives readers permission to stop trying to do everything and encourages them to only pursue their most critical objectives while letting go of lesser tasks, which he calls “the disciplined pursuit of less. ”

Vlad

Nathaniel

Essentialism

Joel

In 2005, Joel Greenblatt published a book that is already considered one of the classics of finance literature.  In The Little Book that Beats the Market, a New York Times bestseller with 300,000 copies in print, Greenblatt explained how investors can outperform the popular market averages by simply and systematically applying a formula that seeks out good businesses when they are available at bargain prices.  Now, with a new Introduction and Afterword for 2010, The Little Book that Still Beats the Market updates and expands upon the research findings from the original book.  Included are data and analyses covering the recent financial crisis and model performance through the end of 2009.  In a straightforward and accessible style, the book explores the basic principles of successful stock market investing and then reveals the author's time-tested formula that makes buying above-average companies at below-average prices automatic.  Attached please find a proofreading request for you to revise this document and/or provide feedback on my writing/rewriting based on my comments above.  I have also attached an optional list of references for you to use.  If you can complete this request before 5:00 PM EST on Friday April 23rd that would be fantastic! If not, no worries…I will extend your deadline

Mr. Money Mustache

The Little Book That Still Beats the Market

Richard

The book clears out the mumbo jumbo and muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world.  Richard Rumelt proves that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy. ” He debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy. ” A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for overcoming—the obstacles to progress. 

Daniel

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Steven

Stephen

There is a hidden side to everything, and Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have the guts to discover it.  They will take us on another journey of discovery, revealing why you are more likely to be killed walking drunk than driving drunk; how a prostitute is more likely to sleep with a policeman than be arrested by one; why terrorists might be easier to track down than you would imagine; how a sex change could boost your salary; and how there really is a cheap fix for climate change. 

Malcolm

Bill

SuperFreakonomics

business & management

Sonia

Humanity is on the cusp of a new longevity revolution, and the first person to live 150 years has probably already been born.  Futurist Sonia Arrison brings together over a decade of experience researching and writing about cutting-edge advances in science and technology to paint a vivid picture of a future that only recently seemed like science fiction but is now very real.  The first book to give readers a comprehensive understanding of how life-extending discoveries will change our social and economic worlds, 100 Plus is an illuminating and indispensable text that will help us navigate the thrilling journey of life beyond 100 years. 

Peter

100 Plus

In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement.  His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream—a dream whose promises have never included equality for blacks—provides an incisive look at racial issues in America in the 1960s.  The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as a compelling portrait of a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. 

Rupi

John

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Reni

In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge published an essay entitled Why Im No Longer Talking to White People About Race.  The essay was posted on her blog, and when it went viral, Eddo-Lodge expanded the piece into a book exploring the feelings many people of colour have toward white people.  Whitewashed Britain explores issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race.  It is a searing and illuminating exploration of what it's like to be a person of colour in Britain today. 

UnJaded

Emma

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

George

Written more than 70 years ago, George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future of government is timelier than ever... In Orwell’s chilling vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative, it’s not just Big Brother watching.  It’s Big Brother who writes history.  In 1984, Winston Smith toes the Party line.  With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thought crimes.  But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching. 

Christopher

1984

Yuval Noah Harari

In his new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari examines today’s most pressing issues: How does the rise of artificial intelligence change our understanding of what it means to be human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children? Harari offers a probing and visionary investigation into these propitious times. 

Zoë Foster Blake

Matt

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Howard

In 2006, legendary investor Warren Buffett posed a challenge to his son Howard G.  Buffett: If someone granted you $3 billion to accomplish something great in the world, what would you do? In 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World, Howard recounts the journey he took over 40 years to make this dream a reality.  Beginning with his love for farming, we join Howard around the world as he works to ease the suffering of so many people lacking basic food security.  Each of the 40 stories here provides a compelling look at the lessons Howard learned from his travels and from those working to improve food security. 

Warren

40 Chances

The first sentence of this title does not fit in with the rest.  It is too long and doesn't make sense.  Why use quotes? Reworded: Summers said ‘Malcolm’s writing is immediate, intelligent and provocative.  You see Malcolm as you have never seen him before. ’ Mr Turnbull said ‘The only thing that is more fun than writing an adventure story is living it.  I love stories and telling them.  And this time I am telling my own – an Australian adventure. ’

Nick

A Bigger Picture

David

This enlightening book analyzes the relevant numbers of the energy demand in Europe, United States, and the world.  It looks forward to a plan for change on both a personal and international scale for each country so that world can be saved from power consumption issues.  The tone remains positive as it debunks misinformation and clearly explains the calculations per person or country to encourage people to make individual changes that will benefit the world at large. 

Sustainable Energy

economics & politics

Philip

Here are some of the most well-known poems in the English language, chosen for their literary value as well as popularity.    The following poems date from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century and have the ability to stimulate our intellect and rejuvenate our souls: When You Are Old by W.  B.  Yeats, First Fig by Edna St.  Vincent Millay, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Sonnet XVIII (Shall I compare thee to a summers day?) by William Shakespeare, Holy Sonnet X (Death, be not proud) by John Donne, To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth, Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Children's Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson, O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman, and This Is My Letter to the World by Emily Dickinson. 

Naval

100 Best-Loved Poems

Henry

100 Great Operas is an attractive and informative resource for both casual opera enthusiasts and specialists.  From La Traviata to Adas, Carmina Burana to Don Giovanni, the storylines of the world's most popular operas are described in an exciting and approachable manner.  Written by acknowledged opera scholar Henry W.  Simon, the book offers act-by-act explanations of 100 operatic works, spanning from Monteverdi's early seventeenth-century masterpieces to Gian-Carlo Menotti's modern classics.  The author examines the key characters, the notable narrative twists, and the most essential arias, in addition to spotlighting the most crucial components of each opera.  A variety of tales about the literary background, prior performances and stars, and production issues of the great operas may also be found here. 

Eric

100 Great Operas and Their Stories

Thomas

What do artists consider their best-kept secret? What is regarded as confidential knowledge among the leading players in the global art market? In 100 Secrets of the Art World, the most powerful international individuals share their insights.  Edited by Thomas Girst and Magnus Resch (author of the bestselling Management of Art Galleries), this indispensable and fun guide to contemporary art contains exclusive anecdotes, advice, and personal stories from artists, museum directors, gallerists, auction house insiders, collectors, and many more.  Contributors include Jeff Koons, Zaha Hadid, Marina Abramovic, Ólafur Elíasson, and John Baldessari, as well as directors and curators from the Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, the Nationalgalerie , and elsewhere. 

100 Secrets of the Art World

Lewis

This updated edition of the classic book on 20th-century graphic design surveys trends in typography and design to show how current typographic trends are part of a continuously changing movement that can be plotted through the decades.  Generously illustrated with over three hundred examples—more than two hundred of which are in color—the book charts significant topics including the appearance of the grid (and its subsequent rejection); the coming of non-print media; and the launch of the Macintosh computer and its ushering in of a new generation of designers enfranchised by digital technology.  This revised edition of a fundamental work brings the story up to date with new text and images covering type on screen and, in particular, type for the internet. 

Jeremiah

20th-Century Type

I read sad stories to inoculate myself against grief.  I watch action movies to identify with the quick-witted heroes.  Both the same fantasy: I’ll escape the worst of it. ―from 300 Arguments300 Arguments, a foray into the frontier of contemporary nonfiction writing, is at first glance a group of unrelated aphorisms.  But, as in the work of David Markson, the pieces reveal themselves as a masterful arrangement that steadily gathers power.  Manguso’s arguments about desire, ambition, relationships, and failure are pithy, unsentimental, and defiant, and they add up to an unexpected and renegade wisdom literature. 

Frank

300 Arguments

Andy

This book features sculptures made from a range of natural materials, including snow, ice, leaves, rock, clay, stones, feathers and twigs. 

Amanda

A Collaboration with Nature

Derren

Derren Brown’s astonishing demonstrations of mind control and confidence tricks have dramatically changed the public’s perception of what is possible.  Now, for the first time, he reveals the secrets behind his stagecraft in this entertaining and informative book.  He also investigates the paranormal industry, exposes a few charlatans, and looks at why some people feel the need to believe in it in the first place.  This extraordinary book lifts the lid on the deepest darkest secrets of magic and explores the limits of what can be achieved by an expert performer. 

Derek

Tricks of the Mind

James

Giacometti was born in Switzerland and later became a student of the arts.  He traveled to Paris in his early twenties and became a painter, sculptor, and printmaker.  Throughout his life and work, he focused on three themes: standing women, busts, and a man in motion.  He experimented with surrealism and cubism and kept a riotously colorful list of acquaintances and contemporaries including Picasso and Miró.  In many ways, Giacometti was the perfect subject for a study on the creative process.  He was bohemian but still driven.  James Lord, an author, agreed to sit for a portrait by the artist for 18 days—recording not only Giacometti's daily activity but also his tics, neuroses, passions—anything that might be related to his creative process. 

Rainn

A Giacometti Portrait

From the renowned director of the British Museum, a look at the history of humanity through 100 human-made items.  Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, has selected 100 man-made artifacts, each of which gives us an intimate glimpse of an unexpected turning point in human civilization.  A History of the World in 100 Objects stretches back two million years and covers the globe.  From the very first-hand ax to the ubiquitous credit card, each item has a story to tell. 

Stewart

Mohnish

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Patti

The summer John Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, Patti Smith and her boyfriend Robert Mapplethorpe wandered the streets of New York City.  They made their way from Coney Island to Forty-Second Street, then to Max's Kansas City, where the young artists would sometimes meet Warhol's inner circle.  That year, Smith and Mapplethorpe moved into the Hotel Chelsea.  As artists began to influence each other and coalesce into communities, the two young people found a place in the world of various art forms.  It was a time of heightened awareness—dance, music, poetry, film—and in this milieu two kids made a pact to take care of each other. 

Natalie

Just Kids

arts & entertainment

Who doesn't love a great book recommendation? 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die offers an eclectic array of titles that are sure to please.  Even if the author didn't actually read all the books in the book, it's still a great source for recommendations from friends and family.  So go ahead and flip to any page and discover a fresh take on your favorite books!

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die

After having a nationally televised panic attack, Dan Harris knew he had to make some changes.  A lifelong nonbeliever, he found himself on a bizarre adventure involving a disgraced pastor and a self-help guru.  Eventually, after learning more about neuroscience, he realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had propelled him through the ranks of a hypercompetitive business but had also led him to make the profoundly stupid decisions that provoked his on-air freak-out. 

Veronica

10% Happier

Clint

100 Deadly Skills is an action-packed survival guide to eluding pursuers, evading capture, and surviving any dangerous situation.  In today’s increasingly dangerous world, threats to your personal safety are everywhere.  From acts of terror to mass shootings, and from the unseen (and sometimes virtual) matrix of everyday crime, the danger is no longer confined to dark alleys or unstable regions.  Potentially life-threatening circumstances can arise anywhere, anytime, and Clint Emerson—former Navy SEAL—wants you to be prepared.  His book contains proven self-defense skills, evasion tactics, and immobilizing maneuvers—modified from the world of black ops—to help you take action in numerous “worst case” scenarios from escaping a locked trunk, to making an improvised Taser, to tricking facial recognition software. 

100 Deadly Skills

Jordan

Renowned psychologist Jordan B.  Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awaits those who criticize too easily, and why you should always pet a cat when you meet one on the street.  The answers to these questions can be found in the nervous system of the lowly lobster, the ancient Egyptians' worship of attentiveness as a divine power, modern science that is being conducted on lobsters, and Dr.  Peterson's own life experiences.  In his book 12 Rules for Life , he encourages people to stand up straight with their shoulders back, lobsters have nervous systems that are very similar to human nervous systems, which we now know have a lot of similarities to lobster nervous systems.  The lobster research has informed Dr.  Peeters's insights about lobsters which then informed his work on humans. 

Bret

Jocko

12 Rules for Life

Jonathan

Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian.  Once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important.  Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions by traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits.  He writes in part memoir and part investigative report about how certain animals have become so closely linked to certain human populations, that it is difficult for individuals in those populations to accept the humane eating practices of people within other cultures who hold different views about which animals can be eaten.  The book covers a lot of ground, from the treatment of food animals by modern factory farming to ancient taboos against eating horses and dogs. 

Moby

Eating Animals

Harris' book explores how contemplative wisdom (largely influenced by religion and spirituality) and modern science are married in meditation.  This marriage is a controversial one, in that many scientists are skeptical of its legitimacy.  The author, Sam Harris, is also a scientist and a skeptic who has spent years researching this spiritual practice. 

Waking Up

William

In A Guide to the Good Life, William B.  Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, showing how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives.  In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.  Using the psychological insights and the practical techniques of the Stoics, Irvine offers a roadmap for anyone seeking to avoid the feelings of chronic dissatisfaction that plague so many of us.  He looks at various Stoic techniques for attaining tranquility and shows how to put these techniques to work in our own life. 

Marc

Phil

A Guide to the Good Life

self-improvement

Sebastian

Experts are rarely on the cutting edge of innovation.  Elon Musk was not an electric car guy prior to founding Tesla.  A prominent tech VC once said that when it comes to implausible inventions, only discovery can predict the future; not foresight.  Most attempts at discovery fail due to the nature of the venture-capital game, but a few succeed on such a large scale that they more than compensate for everything else.  That extraordinary success-to-failure ratio is the power-law that drives the venture capital industry, all of Silicon Valley, the broader tech sector, and, by extension, the globe.  In The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby has parlayed unprecedented access to the most celebrated venture capitalists of all time—key figures at Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Benchmark, and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Chinese partnerships like Qiming and Capital Today. 

Paul

Vinod

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future

In 1958, Bank of America dropped its first 60,000 credit cards on the unassuming city of Fresno, California.  This began one of the most astonishing revolutions in modern American life: What I label “the money revolution. ” For decades following, the middle class gained access to credit cards, to mutual funds, retirement accounts—and hundreds of other financial vehicles.  In this lively and engaging book, I tell the story of some of the great financial characters of recent times: from turn-of-the-century financiers like John Pierpont Morgan and J. P.  Getty to today’s workers at Fidelity Investments and PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

A Piece of the Action

Tren

Former Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger, who is considered to be one of the most successful investors of our time and whose partner Warren Buffett credits him with being one of the best financial partners he has had in his career, believes that any investor can be just as successful as he has been.  In this book, readers will learn Munger's strategies for investing and will find inspiration from his unique business acumen and his ability to keep his emotions out of investment decisions. 

Alfred

Charlie Munger

Gary

This lively new collection of essays by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker confronts the problem of preferences and values.  He argues that past experiences and social influences form two basic capital stocks: personal and social.  He then applies these concepts to assessing the effects of advertising, the power of peer pressure, the nature of addiction, and the function of habits.  This framework promises to illuminate many other realms of social life previously considered off-limits by economists. 

Accounting for Tastes

Robert

 Warren Buffett is today’s most admired business leader and one of the greatest investors of all time.  He made his fortune by investing in stocks, rather than trading them on the stock market.  In The Warren Buffett Way, two editions of which have already been published, author Robert G.  Hagstrom explains in detail how Buffett was able to become a billionaire and the world’s second-richest man through his innovative investment strategies.  The new edition of this groundbreaking book focuses on the latest investments made by Buffett, while also drawing on research into behavioral finance to explain how individual investors can overcome the obstacles that stand in their way of investing like Buffett. 

The Warren Buffett Way

Countless readers have been helped by the famous “Babylonian parables,” hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth.  The Success Secrets of the Ancients reveals in language as simple as that found in the Bible how to set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys.  Acclaimed as a modern-day classic, this celebrated bestseller offers an understanding of—and a solution to—your personal financial problems that will guide you through a lifetime. 

Brendon

The Richest Man in Babylon

The stock market consistently hits new highs, catching long-time analysts off-guard and forcing them to revise their estimates.  Amidst this upheaval, Peter Bernstein has written an in-depth history on man's attempts to understand risk and probability from ancient gamblers' basic calculations to modern chaos theory.  Bernstein claims that these studies play an important role in everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking. 

Jason

Michael

Against the Gods

Delivering more capital to entrepreneurs than any other source, angel investors also enjoy an incredible return on their investments.  Many of the world’s most influential companies—such as Apple, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Amazon.com—were originally funded by angels.  Most recently, however, these investors have been receiving a lot of attention from writers and analysts who want to get a glimpse into one of the most exclusive clubs in business today.  Angel Investing: The Gust Guide to Making Money and Having Fun Investing in Startups by David S.  Rose will give you all the tips, tricks, and inside information you need to get started investing in startups—and having fun while you’re at it. 

Reid

Angel Investing

money & investing

When English teacher Jake Epping is grading essays by his GED students, he reads a bizarre essay by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry survived his father’s bloody massacre of his family with only a sledgehammer injury to one arm.  Jake is baffled—but a new mystery arises when Al, the owner of the local diner and Jake's best friend, asks him to take over the mission that has become Al’s obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.  Jake steps through a portal in the diner’s storeroom and finds himself in Jodie, Texas, in 1963.  He begins a new life—but he must constantly deal with troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald.  And it seems that any turn of events could lead to the death of U. S.  President John F.  Kennedy... 

Mindy

11/22/63

Marquis

The 120 Days of Sodom is a book written by Marquis de Sade while he was imprisoned in the Bastille.  He wept blood over the loss of the manuscript and he sent copies to many philosophers and scholars for review.  This book has inspired much controversy among literary critics since its existence was revealed in 1839. 

120 Days of Sodom

J.R.R.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others.  But it was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, this Ring remained lost to him.  After many ages, it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.  From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor—where his power spread far and wide—the Dark Lord gathered all the Great Rings to him but always he searched for the one Ring that would complete his dominion over Middle-earth.  When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing his young cousin Frodo with a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by throwing it into The Cracks of Doom. 

Patrick

The Lord of the Rings

Antoine

The Little Prince, one of the most published and translated books in the world, is a story about a pilot marooned in the Sahara after his plane crashes.  He meets a little man with golden hair who has ‘fallen’ from space by chance.  As the pilot tries to repair his plane, the little man requests him to draw a sheep as well as a box to keep the sheep in, so that it may not harm any flower near by.  Seeing this, the pilot becomes curious and asks him why he cares so much about a flower when there are hundreds of other things around them.  The little man says that he loves that particular flower because it is unique and has special powers of giving pleasure to others around it—and therein begins a friendship that leads us to re-examine things we take for granted in our everyday life.  This book is written as much for children as for adults, bringing home the message ‘what is essential, is invisible to the eye’. 

Meghan

Evan

The Little Prince

Milena

Blanca is forty-years-old, and her mother passed away quite recently.  Blanca had been shaken by the sudden death of the most important person in her life, which led her to realize that she has no idea what the future will look like.  To ease her dizzying grief and confusion, Blanca relies on her dearest friends, her closest family, and a change of scenery.  Leaving Barcelona behind, she returns to Cadaqués on the coast, accompanied by her two sons, two ex-husbands, and two best friends.  While there, she makes a plan to meet her married lover for a few stolen moments.  Blanca spends the summer in an impossibly beautiful place with those she loves most, finding ways to reconnect with herself as well as with others and understanding what it means to truly and happily live on one’s own terms – just as her mother would have wanted. 

Anya

This Too Shall Pass

In September 1969, an old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffled into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn and shot a drug dealer point-blank.  In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to life the people affected by the shooting.  The victim, African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, white neighbors, local cops assigned to investigate, members of Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was a deacon, and neighborhood Italian mobsters all make an appearance in the story that unfolds.  When the truth does emerge, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters overlap in unexpected ways.  McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden; that growing up means facing change without fear; and that love grows from hope and compassion. 

Deacon King Kong

Lisa

Joan has spent her life enduring the cruel acts of men.  But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees to Los Angeles in search of one person: Alice.  Alice witnessed what Joan saw as a child; now she is the only one who can help Joan make sense of her past.  In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan will unravel the horrific event that has haunted her every waking moment while forging the power to strike back. 

Animal

Olivia

Olivia Laing moved to New York City, in her mid-thirties, and found herself living among loneliness everyday.  Intrigued by this shameful experience, she discovered that art could provide a window into loneliness.  Her exploration of the lonely city included works by Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, Henry David Thoreau and others as well as writers such as Dominique Browning and Elizabeth Hardwick.  Ultimately, her exploration led her to believe that art can help redeem and reduce the feelings of loneliness. 

The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

A brilliant, funny, and emphatically raw novel of love on the brink of the apocalypse, from the acclaimed author of The Lonely City. Kathy is a writer.  Kathy is getting married.  It’s the summer of 2017 and the whole world is falling apart.  Fast-paced and frantic, Crudo unfolds in real time from the full-throttle perspective of a commitment-phobic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker. From a Tuscan hotel for the superrich to a Brexit-paralyzed United Kingdom, Kathy spends the first summer of her forties adjusting to the idea of a lifelong commitment.  But it’s not only Kathy who’s changing.  Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is heating up, and Trump is tweeting the world ever-closer to nuclear war.  How do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all?In Crudo, her first work of fiction, Olivia Laing radically rewires the novel with a fierce, compassionate account of learning to love when the end of the world seems near. 

Crudo

Anne

In the novel The Beauty of the Husband, Anne Carson experiments with a new form of writing.  It’s a book-length poem that tells the story of one marriage over four decades.  This experimental novel is written in 29 ‘tangos’, which are a type of poetry.  These ‘tangos’ allow for an immediate and accessible voice to tell the reader about day-to-day life in this relationship.  Because the style and format of this piece is so new, it will teach readers about something unlike anything they have read before. 

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