I’m drawn to the idea of doing what you think is right when others are against you because I’ve always felt the desire to row against the current and just do my own thing. I tend to avoid following the crowd because oftentimes I simply don’t agree with them. Am I being purposely difficult? Maybe. But I fear a society that goes with the flow simply because it’s easier and it doesn’t require them to think for themselves. It’s okay to listen to other people, but before you make any major decisions, ask yourself a question: Is this right for me?
After years of being a helpless witness to his alcoholic father's abuse, seventeen-year-old Miles Boswell has just about reached his breaking point. He dreams of the day where he can leave everything behind – that is, until he discovers that he has the ability to control people's minds. Suddenly, the odds are overwhelmingly in his favor. But what begins as the answer to all of his problems soon causes him to question everything when he captures the attention of August Sylvan, the girl of his dreams. Miles can't help but wonder – where do his powers end, and where does reality begin? At the same time, he finds himself at odds with his potentially warped sense of justice...and discovers that nothing is as simple as it seems.
In The Giver, Jonas lives this very lonely life and as the reader, we understand him. We see what he’s going through.
However, nobody else in his town except for The Giver really knows what he’s dealing with. When Jonas has to make a choice that will have a huge impact on everybody, we’re rooting for him because we ultimately know that it’s better to be human and feel pain than it is to live the ignorant, hollow lives that we see the people in his town living.
This really stuck with me because it shows that people don’t always know what’s best for them, and sometimes you have to make those tough choices and just hope that it works out.
THE GIVER is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift.
Now available for the first time in the UK, THE GIVER QUARTET is the complete four-novel collection.
THE GIVER: It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.
Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is…
Elizabeth was one of those characters that really stuck with me as being an independent woman in a time when it was frowned upon for women to behave as she did.
She doesn’t spend her time kissing up to rich men just to get their attention, and even though she does end up with a man of high status, she makes him earn her affection. Everybody around her is shocked that she doesn’t seem interested in playing the same game that they are, and I love that about her. She made the choices that most benefited her and it works out in the end.
Jane Austen's best-loved novel is an unforgettable story about the inaccuracy of first impressions, the power of reason, and above all the strange dynamics of human relationships and emotions.
Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated by Hugh Thomson and features an afterword by author and critic, Henry Hitchings.
A tour de force of wit and sparkling dialogue, Pride and…
Here’s my confession: I hated Chris McCandless by the time I finished this book. I hated his cockiness and lack of respect for the power of the wilderness.
But you know what I give him credit for? His ability to leave his life of privilege and the courage to go out into the world and forge his own destiny. He did what he thought was best for him despite the pushback he received from his friends and family.
I think I hated him so much because I wanted him to succeed, and he doomed himself through his own hubris.
Krakauer’s page-turning bestseller explores a famed missing person mystery while unraveling the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.
"Terrifying... Eloquent... A heart-rending drama of human yearning." —New York Times
In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all…
Let’s just be honest here: We know we all love this book because of the feels that we experience once that twist hits us, right?
I don’t want to ruin it if you’re not familiar, but once Charlie comes to terms with this very important moment, we empathize with his complicated feelings and we support his recovery, even if it means that certain people in his life will be looked at in a very negative way.
This book reminds us of how important it is to heal, even if the things we have to do to get there may not be something that others (or even we) want to face.
A modern cult classic, a major motion picture and a timeless bestseller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story.
Charlie is not the biggest geek in high school, but he's by no means popular.
Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is attempting to navigate through the uncharted territory of high school. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and music - when all one requires to feel infinite is that…
Fahrenheit 451 shows us that society can just be flat-out wrong about things.
It delivers that age-old lesson that just because everybody else believes something, it doesn’t mean that it’s true. Montag is looked at as a freak because he wants to save books at a time when everybody around him just wants to watch them burn. His journey reminds us of how vital knowledge is, and how important it is to preserve our right to learn and understand the truth about the world.
I’ve been an avid reader since the day I could form letters into words, so I relate to Montag and his determination to preserve books.
The hauntingly prophetic classic novel set in a not-too-distant future where books are burned by a special task force of firemen.
Over 1 million copies sold in the UK.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
I became fascinated with 16th-century and 17th-century Europe after reading Don Quixote many years ago. Since then, every novel or nonfiction book about that era has felt both ancient and contemporary. I’m always struck by how much our environment has changed—transportation, communication, housing, government—but also how little we as people have changed when it comes to ambition, love, grief, and greed. I doubled down my reading on that time period when I researched my novel, Dulcinea. Many people read in the eras of the Renaissance, World War II, or ancient Greece, so I’m hoping to introduce them to the Baroque Age.
Dolça Llull Prat, a wealthy Barcelona woman, is only 15 when she falls in love with an impoverished poet-solder. Theirs is a forbidden relationship, one that overcomes many obstacles until the fledgling writer renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his bestseller.
By doing so, he unwittingly exposes his muse to gossip. But when Dolça receives his deathbed note asking to see her, she races across Spain with the intention of unburdening herself of an old secret.
On the journey, she encounters bandits, the Inquisition, illness, and the choices she's made. At its heart, Dulcinea is about how we betray the people we love, what happens when we succumb to convention, and why we squander the few chances we get to change our lives.
Interested in
the American West,
totalitarianism,
and
dystopian?
10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them.
Browse their picks for the best books about
the American West,
totalitarianism,
and
dystopian.
