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In retrospect, the most daring film released in 1968 was not Rosemary’s Baby or Night of the Living Dead or even 2001: A Space Odyssey. The major theatrical release that most bucked the conventions of the year 1968 almost certainly has to be...

Tik-Tok is a satirical science fiction novel published in 1983, written by renowned sci-fi author John Sladek. Sladek, who died in 2000, was known for his quirky and entertaining writing which has humor and cynicism in equal measure. Both are...

Though an author of myriad books and plays, William Goldman is perhaps best known for his tale-within-a-tale of love and loss, capture and rescue, action and adventure. The 1973 fantasy romance novel The Princess Bride was a smashing success when...

Hiroshima is a non-fiction book written by John Hersey and published by The New Yorker on August 31 in 1946, a year after the atomic bomb was dropped by the American Army in Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.

Hersey visited Japan from 1945-1946...

Originally, Ellen Raskin, the author of The Westing Game, entered college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the intention of majoring in journalism; however, after visiting the Chicago Art Institute and viewing an exhibition of...

The Silver Sword is a children's novel published in 1956 by British author Ian Serraillier. It is widely considered to be a classic of children’s literature.

Serraillier began the work in 1949, five years after World War II's end, and took five...

To understand Audre Lorde's poetry, one just has to be sincere. She's not writing anything incredibly profound, but she is writing the truth. Based on her own experiences, Lorde writes to dispel the lies which people tell themselves. She was a...

Vikram Chandra is an Indian-American writer born in New Delhi in 1961. In India, there was not a great deal of opportunity to break out as a writer, so he decided to pursue his bachelor’s degree at Pomona College in California. Afterward, he...

For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a 1999 collection of short stories written by American author Nathan Englander. Englander is a writer who has published four books and won several prizes, international and local, for his excellent work. His...

David and Goliath is a non-fiction psychology book written by Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell. The book was first published on September 1, 2011. Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist born in England but lived most of his life and spent his university...

Free Love and Other Stories is an eclectic short story collection by British author Ali Smith. Published as Smith's first book in 1995, it won the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award.

Free Love and Other Stories contains 12 short stories,...

Weber’s text was first written in 1904 as a series of essays. It evolved into a more cohesive work over time, as Weber incorporated responses to criticism and reworked some of his ideas. The text centers itself on a discussion of the 16th century...

The Conversation is one of Francis Ford Coppola's lesser known films, but it is also considered one of his best. Released in 1974, during the middle of the Watergate scandal, its artful depiction of paranoia and fear in the face of improved...

"Desiree's Baby" is the most famous of Kate Chopin's many short stories. It is set before the American Civil War on two plantations in Louisiana: that of the Valmondés and of the Aubignys. The story is about a baby and racial tension between a...

Pretty Woman is considered one of the most iconic American romantic comedies. It is interpreted by many as a modern American retelling of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, in which a rich and successful benefactor plucks a naive girl from the wrong...

The Outsiders was filmed in 1983 and was helmed by the acclaimed film director Francis Ford Coppola. Despite a cast made up of up-and-coming young screen stars such as Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, and others, and the direction of...

Milos Forman is a Czech film director born on February 18, 1932 in Caslav, Czechoslovakia. As a child, both of his parents died in concentration camps and he lived with distant relatives for the duration of World War II. After graduating from King...

A Single Man is a novel by English-American author Christopher Isherwood written in 1964. The novel is set in Southern California during 1962 and tells the story of George, a British professor working at a university in Los Angeles. George is...

A Single Man is a movie directed by Tom Ford based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. It is told from the point of view of George, (Colin Firth), who is single for a number of reasons. He is single because he is not married...

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1958 film directed by Richard Brooks. The movie is an adaptation of the play of the same name by legendary playwright Tennessee Williams which earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. The movie met with success both...

Tobacco Road is a novel written by Erskine Caldwell. The novel was first published in 1932, set in the rural Georgia which the author knew well. It features the memorable (if not entirely pleasant) character Jeeter Lester as well as his wife, Ada,...

Originally beginning his career as a pornography writer in the 1970's, Hanif Kureishi is now an acclaimed British playwright and novelist. His stories demonstrate remarkable prose and narrative grace, with TIME naming him one of the most brilliant...

Written by prominent United States author Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain is a novel published in 1903. The book is essentially a compilation of a series of essays lyrically exploring the various aspects of the American Southwest.

The...

Le Bel Inconnu is literally translated to "The Fair Unknown" and it is a popular folk tale that has strong ties to the legends of King Arthur, telling the popular story of a young man of questionable heritage who becomes a key player in polite...