Reflecting on the genesis of La La Land, writer and director Damien Chazelle said, "I guess you write what you know...There is something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don’t come true—that to me is what’s...

"The Drover's Wife" is one of Lawson's most famous short stories. Set in the Australian bush, it is the tale of a woman facing off against a snake in order to protect herself and her children. The character's stoicism and quiet heroism, as well as...

The Storyteller is one of the best-known short stories written by Saki, the pen name of author H. H. Munro. It was first published in 1897; as was customary at the time, it was published in newspapers before its publication in a collection of...

Written, directed, and produced by Stanley Kubrick, The Shining was released by Warner Brothers in 1980 and based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. It was the twelfth feature film by Kubrick and was met with colossal critical success....

Jodi Picoult is an American author who writes novels targeted at both adolescents and adults, choosing themes and language that will allow a wide audience to connect with the story. The Pact, Picoult's fifth book, does exactly this. The plot...

Paul Fisher, the protagonist of Tangerine, has bad eyes, but this doesn’t mean he’s blind. In fact Paul sees through most things in his upper middle class community—a sterile housing development in Tangerine County, Florida, called Lake Windsor...

"The Monkey's Paw" is a chilling and suspenseful short story by W.W Jacobs, first included in Harper’s Magazine and then published in England in 1902 in his collection "The Lady of the Barge." The story has been included in dozens of collections,...

Synge's one-act play Riders to the Sea (1904) deals with the lives and manners of a cross-section of humanity. While the play is concerned with local matters, Synge represents these matters with a universal interest. In other words, Synge, like...

"Christmas Bells" is both an occasional poem written during the Civil War, and a general message about having hope during times of despair. Longfellow wrote it on December 25th, 1863; it was published in a juvenile magazine in 1865 and included in...

Longfellow wrote "The Day is Done" in 1844 and included it as the proem to his anthology The Waif, a selection of sentimental poems mostly about nature that came out at the end of 1844. Some of the poets included were Percy Shelley, Robert...

The poem was written in 1859 and first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1860. It was later included in the collection Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863). Longfellow wrote the poem a few years after resigning from his professorship at Harvard to...

"A Psalm of Life" was first published in The Knickerbocker, attributed only to "L." It was then included in Voices of the Night, published in 1838 not long after Longfellow took on the position of Smith Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard...

Evangeline is one of Longfellow’s most famous works, and with The Song of Hiawatha, one of his longest. Critics designate this poem as the one that secured his literary preeminence.

The provenance of the poem is an interesting one. On April 5th,...

The Infinite Sea is the second book in a published trilogy by Rick Yancey. The first book, The 5th Wave was turned into a movie, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, but it was not well-received. The following sequel is called The Lost Star. The Infinite...

The 5th Wave is the first book of a science-fiction/fantasy trilogy by Rick Yancey and was published in 2013 by Penguin Group. The story is written from a first-person (diary) perspective from the viewpoint of Cassie Sullivan, the protagonist of...

The Death Cure is the last book in the Maze Runner trilogy, and the third book in the overall series. It was written by James Dashner and published on October 11, 2011, by Delacorte Press. Like the other books in the trilogy, this book will have a...

The Kill Order is the prequel to the Maze Runner series. It was published on August 14, 2012, by Delacorte Press. Like the Maze Runner trilogy, The Kill Order is set in the future. It is, however, set 13 years before the Trials with Thomas began....

We Need New Names is a coming-of-age story. A young girl named Darling lives in poverty in Zimbabwe following political unrest. She often steals guavas along with a group of other children, one of whom is pregnant, and is forced to attend church...

A tightly constructed, psychologically incisive commentary on race relations in the early decades of the 20th century, Passing (1929) is the single best-known work of African-American novelist Nella Larsen. On one level, the book is a study of a...

The Scorch Trials is the second book of the Maze Runner trilogy. It was written by James Dashner soon after The Maze Runner, the first installment of the trilogy. It was published on September 18, 2010, by Delacorte Press. No one knows if it is a...