"The "Fresh Air" book critic investigates the enduring power of The Great Gatsby -- "The Great American Novel we all think we've read, but really haven't." Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece...

"In this category-defying book, Katie Roiphe takes an unexpected and liberating approach to the most unavoidable of subjects: death. She examines the final days of five great writers and artists. Here is Susan Sontag, the ultimate intellectual, finding her commitment to rational thinking tested during her third bout with cancer. Here is Sigmund Freud fleeing Nazi-occupied Vienna for London only to continue the constant cigar-smoking that he knows...

"An extraordinary, path-breaking, and penetrating book on the life and work and creative inspirations of the great children's book genius Maurice Sendak, who since his death in 2012 has only grown in his stature and recognition as a major American artist, period. Polymath and master interviewer Jonathan Cott first interviewed Maurice Sendak in 1976 for Rolling Stone, just at the time when Outside Over There, the concluding and by far the strangest...

"When the very modern character of Nancy Drew first appeared in 1930, no one had a clue that she would remain a star for the next century! To this day, Nancy is still the main character in new TV shows, movies, and books. What makes her so interesting toso many generations of readers? Nancy can do it all! She's a daring teenage girl who solves mysteries, expertly drives her famous blue car, cooks like a gourmet chef, swims like a pro, and more! Since...

"Mike is a Japanese American chef and Benson is a Black day care teacher. They've been together for a few years, but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. When Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives for a visit, Mike flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together and...

"A literary history of the Federal Writers Project"--

In this memoir, the author shares her observations about her daughter as well as her own thoughts and fears about having children and growing old, in a personal account that discusses her daughter's wedding and her feelings of failure as a parent. It opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana's wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana's childhood,...

Romeo, who is a member of the house of Montague, falls in love with the beautiful Juliet, a member of the house of Capulet. The Montagues and the Capulets have been engaged in a feud for many years and as such the love between Romeo and Juliet is a forbidden one.

"In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches...