In his story of downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality, George Orwell gave us one of the most scathing satiric fables every written. As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, Animal Farm is a parable about would-be liberators everywhere. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals through the lens of our own history, we...

Relates the various activities and adventures of the members of the Pickwick Club.

Ishmael Reed's parody of slave narratives—the classical literature of the African American tradition—which redefined the neo-slave genre and launched a lucrative academic industry
Some parodies are as necessary as the books they answer. Such is the case with Flight to Canada, Ishmael Reed's scathing, offbeat response to conventional anti-slavery novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin. Though Flight to Canada has...

The “wise, wildly funny story” of a self-destructive writer’s lost weekend by a Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling author (Chicago Tribune).
A wildly successful first novel made Grady Tripp a young star, and seven years later he still hasn’t grown up. He’s now a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript,...

Eleven sparkling stories of family, love, and art from New York Times–bestselling author David Lipsky
My mother doesn’t know that I owe my father three thousand dollars.
 
From the opening line of the acclaimed title story—a Best American Short Stories selection that first appeared in the New Yorker—to the tender last scene of “Springs, 1977,” this pitch-perfect...

Anthony Trollope's 1875 novel, "The Way We Live Now", is a biting satire of the wealthy and powerful in Victorian England. Augustus Melmotte, a wealthy financier moves to London and begins to gather investors for an American railway venture. When his daughter Marie takes up with the dissolute gold-digging aristocrat Felix Carbury, Melmotte steps in to block the union. Multiple subplots involving schemes to move up in society and thwart others from...

Riley lives in TropeTown, where everyone plays stock roles in novels. Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, is sent to group therapy after going off-script. Riley knows that breaking the rules again could get him terminated, yet he feels there must be more to life than recycling the same clichés for readers' entertainment. Then he meets Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Geek Chic subtype), and falls head over heels in love. Zelda's in therapy too, along...

It was the indifferent shrug and callous inertia that this 'optimism' concealed which so angered Voltaire, who found the 'all for the best' approach a patently inadequate response to suffering, to natural disasters - such as the recent earthquakes in Lima and Lisbon - not to mention the questions of illness and man-made war. Moreover, as the rebel whose satiric genius had earned him not only international acclaim, but two stays in the Bastille, flogging...

Prosperous and socially prominent, George Babbitt appears to have everything a man could wish. But when a personal crisis forces the middle-aged real estate agent to reexamine his life, Babbitt mounts a rebellion that jeopardizes everything he values. Widely considered Sinclair Lewis' greatest novel, this satire of the American social landscape created a sensation upon its 1922 publication. Babbitt's name became an instant and enduring synonym for...

A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year!

Put an atheist in a strict Catholic school? Expect comedy, chaos, and an Inquisition. The Breakfast Club meets Saved! in debut author Katie Henry's hilarious novel about a band of misfits who set out to challenge their school, one nun at a time. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Robyn Schneider.

When Michael walks

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