Book reviews and guides

The Demon-Haunted World

Science as a Candle in the Dark Review

By Carl Sagan

A guide to separating science from superstition while keeping curiosity alive in a media saturated world.

The Devils

A Novel

By Joe Abercrombie

A secret order of monsters is sent across a magic-riddled Europe to protect a dangerous young woman and solve problems the righteous servants of the Church cannot touch.

The Dog Stars

By Peter Heller

After a pandemic leaves him living at a Colorado airfield, Hig flies the surrounding country in a 1956 Cessna until a radio transmission suggests that another future may be possible beyond his guarded perimeter.

The Dragons of Eden

Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

By Carl Sagan

Sagan ranges across brain evolution, dreams, language, animal intelligence, myth, and computing in a speculative 1977 account of how human minds may have developed.

The Eternity Cure

Blood of Eden Book 2

By Julie Kagawa

The Eternity Cure continues Blood of Eden with a vampire-ruled road story centered on dangerous alliances, loyalty, and Allie’s choices.

The Evening and the Morning

A Kingsbridge Novel

By Ken Follett

Boatbuilder Edgar, Norman noblewoman Ragna, and monk Aldred confront Bishop Wynstan while a ferry, bridge, law, and learning begin to shape early Kingsbridge.

The Fall of Arthur

An Unfinished Poem

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien's unfinished alliterative poem follows Arthur's final campaign, Mordred's betrayal, Guinevere's flight, and Lancelot's divided loyalty as the kingdom collapses.

The Fall of Gondolin

Edited by Christopher Tolkien

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Multiple versions follow Tuor's arrival in hidden Gondolin, the city's betrayal, Morgoth's assault, and the escape that carries hope toward later ages.

The Fall of Númenor

And Other Tales from the Second Age

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Brian Sibley arranges Tolkien's Second Age writings into a chronological account of Númenor, Sauron, the forging of the Rings, and the Last Alliance.

The Father Christmas Letters

Letters from Father Christmas

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Letters Tolkien created for his children recount Father Christmas's yearly mishaps with the North Polar Bear, goblins, elves, damaged presents, and life at the North Pole.

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings Book One

By J. R. R. Tolkien

The first volume of The Lord of the Rings leads readers from the Shire to ancient ruins, forging an unlikely fellowship against rising darkness.

The Fires of December

A Cosmere Novel

By Brandon Sanderson

December knows a plague threatens a kingdom sustained by rivers of colored demon blood. She travels upriver to persuade a skeptical court to act in this standalone Cosmere story narrated by Hoid.

The Forest on the Edge of Time

A Novel

By Jasmin Kirkbride

A time-travel climate novel about family, duty, and a forest positioned at the boundary between threatened worlds and possible futures.

The Forever Song

Blood of Eden Book 3

By Julie Kagawa

Allison, Kanin, and Jackal pursue Sarren across a frozen, ruined country as the plague and the trilogy's broken relationships demand an answer.

The Forever War

The Forever War, Book 1

By Joe Haldeman

Conscript William Mandella fights an interstellar war against the Taurans, but relativistic travel means that every campaign carries him farther from the Earth and culture he remembers.

The Girls Who Grew Big

A Novel

By Leila Mottley

A character driven novel about girlhood, power, class, and the emotional cost of growing up too fast.

The Great Gatsby

A Novel

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nick Carraway enters the glittering world of Jay Gatsby, whose lavish parties and carefully invented identity conceal an obsessive hope of recovering his past with Daisy Buchanan.

The Great Train Robbery

A Novel

By Michael Crichton

In Victorian London, gentleman criminal Edward Pierce organizes an elaborate plan to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train, overcoming locks, guards, keys, and the rigid assumptions of respectable society.