TopPicks Index
Top 5 Book Lights or Booklights for Readers
Book lights are essential for every book lover. These lights are perfect for reading while you're on the road, reading in bed, or just enjoying your individual reading in the dark. Here's are top picks for book lights.
Top 7 Collections for Fathers - About Dads
Fatherhood is about unconditional love, sacrifice, strength, and dependability. Fathers don't always have it very easy, as they work, teach, and watch the members of their family grow up. These collections offer inspirational stories about fathers and dads in literature. Read on.
Top 7 Suicidal Novels
In some novels the protagonist takes his/her own life for a variety of reasons, while in other books, the death of a character affects the direction of the plot. In Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus' suicide is a major event in the novel. But, how do these deaths affect the lives of the other characters in the story? Tragedy and death gives way to further tragic consequences... Read more about suicides in literature.
Top 10 Famous Fictional Heroines
In exploring the world of literature, these heroines come immediately to mind: Edna Pontellier, Madame Bovary, Moll Flanders, Anna Karenin, Lily Bart, Jane Eyre, Hester Prynne, Elizabeth Bennet, Daisy Miller, and Murasaki Shikibu. Other heroines include: Lucy Honeychurch, Antonia Shimerdas, Ellen Olenska, Josephine (Jo) March, and Isabel Archer. Read more about famous fictional heroines. These novels feature just a few of the many...
Top 5 The Awakening Books
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin was published in 1899, and Willa Cather called it a Creole Bovary. The book was thought to be immoral and scandalous, with Edna Pontellier committing adultery and then suicide.
Top 10 Banned Classics
Books are still being banned every day, but do you know which of the great classics have been banned? Here's a list of ten...
Top 5 Anne Bradstreet Collections
Anne Bradstreet is recognized as the first important American poet. Her poems were collected in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America and Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning. Read the poems of Anne Bradstreet.
Top 8 John Steinbeck Novels
John Steinbeck became known as an important American writer with his epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. Other early works include Tortilla Flat (1935), In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Long Valley (1938). He was also known for a profusion of short stories, nonfiction works, and more.
Top 10 Must Reads in Literature
This list is by no means all-inclusive, but it should give you an idea of a few great classics, which really are worth reading at least once. Read more about these must reads in literature, and then enjoy more works by these classic writers.
Top 7 Of Mice and Men Books
John Steinbeck's classic novel, Of Mice and Men, was first published in 1937. Despite the controversies and book banning that have surrounded the text, this story of George and Lennie in the Salinas Valley has become one of Steinbeck's most beloved works. Read more about Of Mice and Men.
Top 6 Classic Erotic Poems
Erotic poems discuss sexual love and desire, and they can be found down through literary history in cultures around the world. These collections include Egyptian love songs, Chinese classics from the Ming Dynasty, Indian love poems, and Goethe's erotic poems. Read more about these classic erotic poems.
Top 9 Coming of Age Novels
A coming-of-age story or novel is memorable because the character undergoes adventures and/or inner turmoil in his/her growth and development as a human being. Some characters come to grips with the reality of cruelty in the world--with war, violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues.
Top 10 Mystery Classics
A mystery is a work of fiction about a puzzling event or crime. Famous mystery writers include: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Read more about classic mysteries and their writers.
Top 10 Persuasion Books
Jane Austen wrote Persuasion in less than one year, just before her death. The novel was not published until after her death, in 1818. In Persuasion, Anne Elliot's love for Captain Frederick Wentworth is thwarted, though the novel ends happily. Read more about Jane Austen's novel: Persuasion.
Top 10 Beowulf Books
Written around the tenth century A.D., Beowulf is one of the greatest works of the Medieval era. It describes a Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century. Read more about Beowulf.
Top 10 Brave New World Books
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was published in 1932. This Utopian/dystopian future offers soma and other carnal pleasures, while manipulating the people into mind-numbing dependance.
Top 10 The Lord of the Rings Collections
With The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, the world was introduced to the genre of fantasy, drawn in by the magic and adventure of Middle Earth. Many who have read the The Lord of the Rings can't help but read the pages over and over again...
Top 6 Books About "Treasure Island"
Treasure Island is Robert Louis Stevenson's story about Jim Hawkins and his adventures with murderous pirates. Read about Long John Silver, and the rest of the pirate gang in this tale.
Top 10 Charles Dickens Books
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was a popular novelist in the Victorian period. With novels like Hard Times, Dickens attacked social injustices in the Industrial Revolution.
Top 7 Plays by Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams was one of the leading American dramatists of the 20th century, famous for works like The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and other works. Discover the works of Tennessee Williams.
Top 10 Northanger Abbey Books
Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey was her earliest novel, even though it wasn't published until after her death, in 1817, along with Persuasion. The novel was originally entitled Susan, but Austen renamed the heroine and later named the novel Northanger Abbey. The novel is about Catherine Morland, who falls in love with a young man from Northanger Abbey. Her lack of wealth is a problem, but not for long. Read more about Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.
Top 5 Book Stands and Book Rests
Whether you're studying for a class, reading a heavy textbook, writing a paper, or reading for pleasure, bookstands and book rests perfect tools to prop up your books and hold your place. You can also prop up your notes as you review for a test, or prepare to write a paper. Take a look.
Top 10 The Hobbit Books
With The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien introduced the world to his Middle-earth, with all the elves, wizards, orcs, trolls, spiders, wolves, Smaug, and the hobbits--small creatures with hairy feet. Meet Bilbo Baggins, and read more about Tolkien's famous work, The Hobbit.
Top 10 Studying the Bible as Literature
It doesn't matter whether you believe the Bible to be fact or a fable... It remains an important reference source in the study of literature. These books should help you in your study of the Bible as literature. Read more.
Top 1 Books About "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the famous Arthurian tale about Sir Gawain and his encounter with the Green Knight. The work was written around the 14th century by an anonymous writer. J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most renowned translators of the work. Read more about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the most widely recognized example of Arthurian romance. It's a tale of enchantment and adventure--not to be missed! Read on.