DISCUSSION GUIDES

Introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex.

Adultery is not a typical Jane Austen theme, but when it disturbs the relatively peaceful household at Mansfield Park, it has quite unexpected results.

The diffident and much put-upon heroine Fanny Price has to struggle to cope with the results, re-examining her own feelings while enduring the cheerful amorality, old-fashioned indifference and priggish disapproval of those around her.

Now more than ever: Aldous Huxley's enduring masterwork must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit

"A masterpiece. . . . One of the most prophetic dystopian works." —Wall Street Journal 

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order—all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. 

Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as a thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites. 

#1 New
York Times Bestseller

From #1 New York Times
bestselling author Neil Gaiman, a haunting novel that explores the awesome
power of memory, friendship, and sacrifice―one of ten classic Gaiman works
repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene
Yee
"A novel about the truths—some wonderful, some terrible—that children know and adults do not.” —Time Magazine
Returning
to his childhood home to attend a funeral, a middle-aged man is drawn back to a
place once alive with monsters and magic; to a past where the impossible is all
too frighteningly real . . .


A
haunting meditation on memory, wonder, friendship, and sacrifice, The Ocean
at the End of the Lane, which was named “Book of the Year” by the UK
National Book Awards, is a groundbreaking triumph of storytelling as delicate as
a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.

S.T. is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his human owner, Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle's wild crows (i.e. ""those idiots""), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos (R). But when Big Jim's eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to think something's not quite right.

With no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis (a loyal but dimwitted dog), S.T. discovers that the neighbors are devouring one other. Humanity's extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a cowardly crow whose only knowledge of the world comes from TV-What could possibly go wrong?

Includes a Reading Group Guide.

The USA Today Bestseller

From the bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room comes a mesmerizing tale of historical fiction that asks what kind of woman could have inspired an American dynasty.

Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She's not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the woman who shares her name has vanished, and assuming her identity just might get Clara some money to send back home.

Clara must rely on resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for and an uncanny understanding of business, attributes that quickly gain her Carnegie's trust. But she still can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer. Revealing her past might ruin her future--and her family's.

With captivating insight and heart, Carnegie's Maid is a book of fascinating 19th century historical fiction. Discover the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation from ruthless industrialist to the world's first true philanthropist.

Other Bestselling Historical Fiction from Marie Benedict:

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

Lady Clementine

The Only Woman in the Room

The Other Einstein