North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Synopsis: This is one of the earliest novels of industrial alienation, tellingly linked to the plight of 19th-century women. It tells of the relationship between Margaret Hale, a girl from the old rural south, and John Thornton, a mill owner from the new industrial north. (synopsis taken from Amazon).
Review: Although this was well written and [...]

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Date of Publication: 1843
Number of Pages: 114
Synopsis: This is a story that is well-known to almost all readers. Ebenezer Scrooge, that miserable miser, thinks that Christmas is  “humbug”. He does not see the worth in caring for his fellow men. He is visited by the ghost of his long-dead partner, Jacob Marley who informs him [...]

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

Date of Publication: 1994
Synopsis: “This long, dense novel, a bestseller in the author’s native Norway, offers a summary history of philosophy embedded in a philosophical mystery disguised as a children’s book. Sophie Amundsen is about to turn 15 when she receives a letter from one Alberto Knox, a philosopher who undertakes to educate her in [...]

The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Date of Publication: 1995
Synopsis: “A monster on the loose in New York City’s American Museum of Natural History provides the hook for this high-concept, high-energy thriller. A statue of the mad god Mbwun, a monstrous mix of man and reptile, was discovered by a Museum expedition to South America in 1987. Now, it is about [...]

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

Date of Publication: 2004, Houghton Mifflin Company
Number of Pages: 111
Synopsis: “Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in strange spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or some sketches.

The letters were from Father Christmas.
They told wonderful tales of life at [...]