Category: Fiction

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin is a philosophical science fiction novel published in 1974. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the barren planet Anarres, is preparing to leave for the first time. Anarres is home to a utopian society founded on anarchist principles,…

Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse is a philosophical fiction novel published in 1930. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) Narcissus and Goldmund begins in a medieval German monastery, where two close but contrasting friends – Narcissus, a devoted monk, and Goldmund, a passionate seeker of beauty – live and…

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is a historical fantasy novel published in 2020.  Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) The story opens in 1714 in rural France, where Addie, a free-spirited young girl, enjoys accompanying her father to the market. However, as society tightens its grip…

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is a historical fiction novel published in 2019. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) As the horrors of Nickel Academy’s past emerge, Elwood Curtis, an African-American business owner in New York City, confronts his own traumatic memories from the institution as survivors share their…

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein is a science fiction novel published in 1966. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) In 2075, the Moon (Luna) serves as a penal colony for Earth, housing three million people, mostly former criminals, political exiles, and their descendants. The population is…

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is a historical fiction novel published in 1998. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) The novel opens with the Price family embarking on a mission to the African Congo, where they plan to spend a year spreading Christianity. The family, consisting of father Nathan,…

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is an philosophical adventure fiction novel published in 1988. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) Santiago is a shepherd in the region of Andalusia, Spain, taking pride in his simple life and the connection he feels with his flock of sheep. Raised by his parents…

A Passage To India by E.M. Forster is a historical fiction novel published in 1924.  Purchase the book by clicking this link! General  Summary (No Spoilers!) The novel opens with Miss Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore traveling to Chandrapore, India, to visit Ronny Heaslop – Mrs. Moore’s son and Adela’s potential fiancé – who serves…

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a fable published in 1943. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General  Summary (No Spoilers!) The narrator starts by reflecting on the perplexing nature of adults and their seeming inability to recognize what truly matters. To test their understanding, he shows them a drawing of a…

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a science fiction novel published in 1968. Purchase the book by clicking this link! GENERAL SUMMARY (NO SPOILERS!) After a devastating nuclear war, Earth is deteriorating into a barren wasteland, prompting humanity to seek refuge on other planets. In this bleak future, owning a…

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a philosophical fiction novel published in 2001. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers) Piscine “Pi” Patel grows up in 1960s India, where his father runs a zoo, home to a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Raised as a Hindu and a vegetarian,…

The Sea-Wolf by Jack London is a psychological adventure novel published in 1904. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) The narrator, Humphrey van Weyden, is a timid and intellectual man, unaccustomed to hard labor and lacking any ambitions beyond the comfort of his academic life. While crossing the San Francisco…

Ishmael by Dan Quinn is a fictional philosophical novel published in 1992.  Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) The novel begins in the early 1990s with a nameless protagonist reading a newspaper advertisement. The advertisement says, “Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in…

The Day of the Jackal by Fredrick Forsyth is a political thriller novel published in 1971. Purchase the book by clicking this link! General Summary (No Spoilers!) Set in 1963, the novel opens with the chilling line: “It is cold at six-forty in the morning on a March day in Paris, and seems even colder…