Summer Reads

'When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed into some kind of monstrous vermin.' With a bewildering blend of the everyday and the fantastical, Kafka thus begins his most famous short story, The Metamorphosis. A...

Martyrs to hypochondria and general seediness, J. and his friends George and Harris decide that a jaunt up the Thames would suit them to a 'T'. But when they set off, they can hardly predict the troubles that lie ahead with tow-ropes, unreliable...

Richard III is one of the finest of Shakespeare's historical dramas. Although it has a huge cast, Richard himself, gleefully wicked, charismatically Machiavellian, always dominates the play: a role to gratify such leading actors as David Garrick,...

A gripping and compelling dual timeline novel about three women who joined the Navy during WWI to become yeomanettes and the impact their choices have on one of their descendants in 1968.   1918 - America is at war with Germany, and, for the first time...

The thrilling second novel of an all-new fantasy series from the legendary author behind the Shannara saga, about a human girl adapting to her place in a magical world she’s only recently discoveredIt’s been two years since Auris escaped from the...

Some five hundred years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created works of unearthly beauty. A star of Florence’s art world, he was commissioned by a member of the city’s powerful Medici family to execute a near-impossible project: to...

Finalist for The Next Big Idea Bookclub • Book of the Year Selection Behavioral Scientist and Greater Good Society“This is perhaps the richest book on belonging you’ll ever read.… The inspiration one draws from every page of this book is an enhanced...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls comes the never-before-told story of a small cadre of influential female spies in the precarious early days of the CIA—women who helped create the template for cutting-edge espionage...

The #1 international bestseller from the author of You Are Awesome and The Book of Awesome that “reveals how all of us can live happier lives” (Gretchen Rubin). What is the formula for a happy life? Neil Pasricha is a Harvard MBA, a New York...

The 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times business bestseller-now updated with "Answers to Ten Questions People Ask"We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a...

An insightful, empowering guide to making the most of your hidden strengths. Are you energized by spending time alone? In meetings, do you need to be asked for your opinions and ideas? Do you tend to notice details that other people miss? Is your ideal...

Intention is generally viewed as a certain kind of determination propelling one to succeed at all costs by never giving up on an inner picture. In this view, an attitude that combines hard work with an indefatigable drive toward excellence is the way to...

THE SELF-PUBLISHED PHENOMENON —NOW FULLY REVISED AND EXPANDED I almost didn’t publish Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It. Here I was, a CEO who’d fallen apart after his company failed, writing a book about how loving himself saved him. I thought...

Chicken Soup for the Soul is a heartwarming collection of tales that will inspire you to live your dreams. The stories demonstrate the best qualities we share as human beings: compassion, grace, forgiveness, generosity and faith and they share a...

‘The plot is the source and the soul of tragedy’In his near-contemporary account of Greek tragedy, Aristotle examines the dramatic elements of plot, character, language and spectacle that combine to produce pity and fear in the audience, and asks why we...

In this classic account of madness, Michel Foucault shows once and for all why he is one of the most distinguished European philosophers since the end of World War II. Madness and Civilization, Foucault's first book and his finest accomplishment, will...

John Rawls aims to express an essential part of the common core of the democratic tradition—justice as fairness—and to provide an alternative to utilitarianism, which had dominated the Anglo-Saxon tradition of political thought since the nineteenth...

"A loving testament to the work and reward of the best friendships, the kind where your arms can’t distinguish burden from embrace.” — People   New York Times Bestselling author Ann Patchett’s first work of nonfiction chronicling her decades-long...

"Reminding us that history is made up of infinite individual choices, Shadows of Berlin is a masterful story of survival and redemption." —Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman with the Blue Star   A captivating novel of a Berlin...

'[T]his promising, poignant debut concludes with that vital ingredient: a well-crafted twist' -- THE OBSERVER   Can Henrietta find out what happened to Annie’s sister—before it’s too late? Haunted by the past, Henrietta throws herself into a new job...