A beloved classic since its initial publication in 1947, this vivid, insightful journal is a fitting memorial to the gifted Jewish teenager who died at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, in 1945. Born in 1929, Anne Frank received a blank diary on her...

George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision of "Negative Utopia" is timelier than ever-and its warnings more powerful. "It is probable that no other work of this generation has made us desire freedom more earnestly or loathe tyranny wi...

Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex" was one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, and remains the foundation of the feminist movement. I have read Madame de Beauvoir and the complete uncensoured version of this brill...

The Man Who Planted Trees is the tale of Elzeard Bouffier, a man who, after his son and wife die, spends his life reforesting miles of barren land in southern France. Bouffier's planting of thousands and thousands of trees results in many w...

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as the Ring is entrusted to his care. He must leave his home and make a perilous journey across the realms of Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom...

Che Guevara's amazing life story has lifted him to almost legendary status. The larger-than-life hero of the 1959 revolutionary victory that overturned the Cuban dictatorship, Che believed that revolution would also topple the imperialist g...

First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. "...

Edited by Christopher Tolkien and first published four years after his father’s death in 1973, The Silmarillion presents the epic tales of Creation and the histories of the heroes of the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth. These are the...

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig. Arguably one of the most profoundly important essays ever written on the nature and significance of "quality" and definitely a necessary anodyne to the...

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction...

If a copy of The Name of the Rose on the coffee table was a badge of intellectual superiority in 1983, Eco's second novel--also an intellectual blockbuster--should prove more accessible. This complex psychological thriller chronicles the de...

This extraordinary, massive, and mind-boggling 1,300-page book combines essays, manifestos, diaries, fairy tales, travelogues, a cycle of meditations on the contemporary city--and complex illustration--with work produced by Koolhaas' Office...

In this fanciful volume, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.), both analyzes and celebrates New York City. By suggesting the city as the site for an infinite variety of human activities...

In this wondrously lucid and engaging book, renowned neurologist Antonio Damasio demonstrates what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking. Descartes' Error takes the reader on an e...

The New Golden Rule: Community and Morality in a Democratic Society : A leading communitarian thinker, sociologist Etzioni contends Americans have overemphasized individual rights in recent years. In his searching treatise, he seeks to rest...