SparkNotes

Emily Brontë

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

California

History

Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, each title in the 'Sparknotes' series contains complete plot summary and analysis, key facts about the work, an analysis of the major characters, suggested essay topics, themes, motifs, and symbols, and an explanation of important quotations.

Wuthering Heights SparkNotes Literature Guide

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Ralph Ellison

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Invisible Man

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Steven D. Levitt

Stephen J. Dubner

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

The author offers his view of how the economy really works, examining issues from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing, offering a very different view on what drives the economy.

Freakonomics

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Christopher Isherwood

A Novel

"After the sudden death of his longtime lover, George must adjust to life on his own as a professor in Southern California in the early 1960s. During the course of an ordinary day, George is haunted by memories as he seeks connections with the world around him"--

A Single Man

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Andrew X. Pham

A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize
ANew York Times Notable Book of the Year
Winner of the Whiting Writers' Award
ASeattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the Year

Catfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey--a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam--made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Intertwined with an often humorous travelogue spanning a year of discovery is a memoir of war, escape, and ultimately, family secrets.

Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert; on a thousand-mile loop from Narita in South Korea to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness." In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure,Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.

Catfish and Mandala

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William Shakespeare

Offers explanatory notes on pages facing the text of the play, as well as an introduction to Shakespeare's language, life, and theater.

Macbeth

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Paulo Coelho

A Novel of Redemption

Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything -- youth and beauty, boyfriends and a loving family, a fulfilling job. But something is missing in her life. So, one cold November morning, she takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up. But she does -- at a mental hospital where she is told that she has only days to live. Inspired by events in Coelho's own life, Veronika Decides to Die questions the meaning of madness and celebrates individuals who do not fit into patterns society considers to be normal. Bold and illuminating, it is a dazzling portrait of a young woman at the crossroads of despair and liberation, and a poetic, exuberant appreciation of each day as a renewed opportunity.

Veronika Decides to Die

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Joshua Davis

Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize New York Times Best Seller Four undocumented Mexican American students, two great teachers, one robot-building contest . . . and a major motion picture In 2004, four Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They were born in Mexico but raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where they attended an underfunded public high school. No one had ever suggested to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they might amount to much—but two inspiring science teachers had convinced these impoverished, undocumented kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot. And build a robot they did. Their robot wasn't pretty, especially compared to those of the competition. They were going up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, including a team from MIT backed by a $10,000 grant from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix teenagers had scraped together less than $1,000 and built their robot out of scavenged parts. This was never a level competition—and yet, against all odds . . . they won! But this is just the beginning for these four, whose story—which became a key inspiration to the DREAMers movement—will go on to include first-generation college graduations, deportation, bean-picking in Mexico, and service in Afghanistan. Joshua Davis's Spare Parts is a story about overcoming insurmountable odds and four young men who proved they were among the most patriotic and talented Americans in this country—even as the country tried to kick them out.

Spare Parts

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Daphne Merkin

Tatiana M. Holway

Wuthering Heights

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Margaret Jull Costa

Transform your life. Rewrite your destiny. In his most personal novel to date, internationally bestselling author Paulo Coelho returns with a remarkable journey of self-discovery. Like the main character in his much-beloved The Alchemist, Paulo is facing a grave crisis of faith. As he seeks a path of spiritual renewal and growth, his only real option is to begin again—to travel, to experiment, to reconnect with people and the landscapes around him. Setting off to Africa, and then to Europe and Asia via the Trans-Siberian railroad, he initiates a journey to revitalize his energy and passion. Even so, he never expects to meet Hilal. A gifted young violinist, she is the woman Paulo loved five hundred years before—and the woman he betrayed in an act of cowardice so far-reaching that it prevents him from finding real happiness in this life. Together they will initiate a mystical voyage through time and space, traveling a path that teaches love, forgiveness, and the courage to overcome life’s inevitable challenges. Beautiful and inspiring, Aleph invites us to consider the meaning of our own personal journeys.

Aleph

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Kathleen Normington

Amy Glazer

Art, Music, Drama/Theater

Simply Acting: a Handbook for Beginning Actors

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Tonya A. Brown

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

A New Witch's Guide to History, Traditions, and Modern-Day Spells

Learn witchcraft and fine-tune your unique blend of magic with The Door to Witchcraft

Whether inciting a light curiosity or a passionate craving, witchcraft is a practice that you can adapt to fit your goals. The Door to Witchcraft shows you the wonders of magic and how you want to practice it. The book begins with an overview of its history, values, and beliefs. Once you have a solid foundation, learn how to tap into your powers and customize your magic practice. Finally, put your powers into action and start practicing spells.

Learn everything a beginner needs to know to practice magic, with:

 * An overview of witchcraft--learn what witchcraft is, including terminology, a brief history, and how it fits into the present day and your life.
 * An introduction to core belief systems and values--including nature and the environment, intuition and personal energy, and healing and helping others.
 * A guide to tap into your powers--including techniques to access your power, how to practice different methods of divination, and ways to develop psychic abilities and intuition.
 * A how-to primer on practicing witchcraft--including solitary vs. group spellwork; traditions, rituals, and ceremonies; calendars and cycles; songs, hymns, and chants; and clothing and tools.
 * A directory of spells--including love, health and healing, career, friends and family, spiritual work, and protection.

Walk through the door and into the world of witchcraft with this beginner's guide.

The Door to Witchcraft

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Sonia Nazario

The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother

An astonishing story that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about immigration reform in the United States, now updated with a new Epilogue and Afterword, photos of Enrique and his family, an author interview, and more—the definitive edition of a classic of contemporary America Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, this page-turner about the power of family is a popular text in classrooms and a touchstone for communities across the country to engage in meaningful discussions about this essential American subject. Enrique’s Journey recounts the unforgettable quest of a Honduran boy looking for his mother, eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. Braving unimaginable peril, often clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, Enrique travels through hostile worlds full of thugs, bandits, and corrupt cops. But he pushes forward, relying on his wit, courage, hope, and the kindness of strangers. As Isabel Allende writes: “This is a twenty-first-century Odyssey. If you are going to read only one nonfiction book this year, it has to be this one.” Praise for Enrique’s Journey “Magnificent . . . Enrique’s Journey is about love. It’s about family. It’s about home.”—The Washington Post Book World “[A] searing report from the immigration frontlines . . . as harrowing as it is heartbreaking.”—People (four stars) “Stunning . . . As an adventure narrative alone, Enrique’s Journey is a worthy read. . . . Nazario’s impressive piece of reporting [turns] the current immigration controversy from a political story into a personal one.”—Entertainment Weekly “Gripping and harrowing . . . a story begging to be told.”—The Christian Science Monitor “[A] prodigious feat of reporting . . . [Sonia Nazario is] amazingly thorough and intrepid.”—Newsday

Enrique's Journey

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Kirk Boyle

English

A Bedford Spotlight Reader

The Rhetoric of Humor explores questions around the central concept of humor and comedic writing: What takes place when we laugh? When might jokes be inappropriate? What is the role of humor in a democratic society? How does one write an effective comedic argument? Readings by comedians, philosophers, journalists, cartoonists, sociologists, activists and others take up these issues and more. Questions and assignments for each selection provide a range of activities for students, while the website for the Spotlight Series offers comprehensive instructor support with sample syllabi and additional teaching resources. The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series is an exciting line of single-theme readers, each featuring Bedford’s trademark care and quality. An Editorial Board of more than a dozen compositionists at schools focusing on specific themes assists in the development of the series. The readers in the series collect thoughtfully chosen readings sufficient for an entire writing course—about 35 selections—to allow instructors to provide carefully developed, high-quality instruction at an affordable price. Bedford Spotlight Readers are designed to help students make inquiries from multiple perspectives, opening up topics such as monsters, borders, subcultures, happiness, money, food, sustainability, and gender to critical analysis. The readers are flexibly arranged in thematic chapters, each focusing in depth on a different facet of the central topic.

The Rhetoric of Humor

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Miguel de Unamuno

World Languages

San Manuel Bueno Martir

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Huge Hardcover (6 to 8 lbs)

Comes with a journal 

The complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (and other stories)

Sun Tzu

Lao-Tzu

Confucius

Mencius

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

The words of the ancient Chinese sages are as timeless as they are wise.

The words of ancient Chinese philosophers have influenced other thinkers across the world for more than 2,000 years, and continue to shape our ideas today. The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy includes translations of Sun Tzu's Art of War, Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching, the teachings of the master sage Confucius, and the writings of Mencius. From insights on warfare and diplomacy to advice on how to deal with one's neighbors and colleagues, this collection of classical Eastern philosophy will provide readers with countless nuggets of wisdom.

IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Award Winner 2017!

The Art of War and Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy

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Stephen King

A NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2019 SELECTION From #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King, the most riveting and unforgettable story of kids confronting evil since It. In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.” In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute. As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King’s gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good vs. evil in a world where the good guys don’t always win.

The Institute

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Val Emmich

Steven Levenson

Benj Pasek

Justin Paul

The Novel

** INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER **USA TODAY BESTSELLERWSJ BESTSELLERINDIE BOUND BESTSELLER From the show's creators comes the groundbreaking novel inspired by the hit Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why... When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend. Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore--even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend. As Evan gets pulled deeper into their swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he's doing can't be right, but if he's helping people, how wrong can it be? No longer tangled in his once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose. And a website. He's confident. He's a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle: himself. A simple lie leads to complicated truths in this big-hearted coming-of-age story of grief, authenticity and the struggle to belong in an age of instant connectivity and profound isolation.

Dear Evan Hansen

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Christopher Golden

Both dreading and looking forward to his tenth high school reunion, Will James returns to his hometown and finds a strange, alternative universe in which realities fade and "other" memories begin to block them out.

The Boys Are Back in Town

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Richard P. Feynman

Robert B. Leighton

Matthew Sands

Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher

Learn how to think like a physicist from a Nobel laureate and "one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century" (New York Review of Books) with these six classic and beloved lessons

 
It was Richard Feynman's outrageous and scintillating method of teaching that earned him legendary status among students and professors of physics. From 1961 to 1963, Feynman delivered a series of lectures at the California Institute of Technology that revolutionized the teaching of physics around the world. Six Easy Pieces, taken from these famous Lectures on Physics, represent the most accessible material from the series.
 
In these classic lessons, Feynman introduces the general reader to the following topics: atoms, basic physics, energy, gravitation, quantum mechanics, and the relationship of physics to other topics. With his dazzling and inimitable wit, Feynman presents each discussion with a minimum of jargon. Filled with wonderful examples and clever illustrations, Six Easy Pieces is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of physics by one of the most admired and accessible physicists of modern times.
 
"If one book was all that could be passed on to the next generation of scientists it would undoubtedly have to be Six Easy Pieces."- John Gribbin, New Scientist

Six Easy Pieces

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Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Lucia Graves

The Shadow of the Wind

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Nicola Yoon

The #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist from the author of Everything, Everything is soon to be a major motion picture starring Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton! This hardcover movie tie-in edition features key movie cover art and a photo insert. Natasha: I'm a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I'm definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won't be my story. Daniel: I've always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents' high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store--for both of us. The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? *** The #1 New York Times Bestseller A National Book Award Finalist A 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor Book A New York Times Notable Book A BuzzFeed Best YA Book of the Year A POPSUGAR Best Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year A Booklist Editor's Choice A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens Recipient of the John Steptoe New Talent Award A Walter Award Honor Book "Beautifully crafted." --People "A book that is very much about the many factors that affect falling in love, as much as it is about the very act itself. . . . Fans of Yoon's first novel, Everything Everything, will find much to love--if not, more--in what is easily an even stronger follow up." --Entertainment Weekly "Transcends the limits of YA as a human story about falling in love and seeking out our futures." --POPSUGAR.com

The Sun Is Also a Star Movie Tie-In Edition

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Elios

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SparkNotes; Emily Brontë