Ranked #1
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley
In 1773, Phillis Wheatley became the first person of African descent to publish a book of poems in the English language.... Read more
30 Mar 2020
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1hr 30mins
Ranked #2
170 Toni Morrison
170 Toni Morrison
TONI MORRISON (b. 1931) is one of the most successful and admired authors in the history of American literature. Her nov... Read more
5 Dec 2018
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1hr 6mins
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Ranked #3
83 Overrated! Top 10 Books You Don’t Need to Read
83 Overrated! Top 10 Books You Don’t Need to Read
Life is short, and books are many. How many great books have you read? How many more have you NOT read? How to choose? M... Read more
10 Mar 2017
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1hr 1min
Ranked #4
47 Hemingway vs Fitzgerald
47 Hemingway vs Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) were the pole stars of the Lost Generation, the collect... Read more
20 Jun 2016
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50mins
Ranked #5
4 Sappho
4 Sappho
Ancient Greece viewed her as Homer’s poetic equal; Plato referred to her as the “tenth muse.” As a fearless and lyrical ... Read more
23 Nov 2015
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29mins
Ranked #6
2A The Book of Job
2A The Book of Job
Why does an all-good, omnipotent God permit pain and suffering among the innocent? Jacke Wilson takes a look at the mast... Read more
29 Oct 2015
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17mins
Ranked #7
119 The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
119 The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Very few works of art have had the cultural and literary impact of J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. An imme... Read more
22 Nov 2017
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1hr 22mins
Ranked #8
98 Great Literary Feuds
98 Great Literary Feuds
What happens when writers try to get along with other writers? Sometimes it goes well – and sometimes it ends in a fistf... Read more
22 Jun 2017
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1hr 14mins
Ranked #9
142 Comedian Joe Pera Talks with Us (with Joe Pera)
142 Comedian Joe Pera Talks with Us (with Joe Pera)
Comedian Joe Pera has been hailed as one of the top "Comedians Under 30," "20 of the Most Innovative Comedians Working T... Read more
7 May 2018
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53mins
Ranked #10
George Eliot
George Eliot
Perhaps the greatest of all the many great English novelists, George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819 in Nuneaton, ... Read more
8 Apr 2019
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1hr 4mins
Ranked #11
90 Mark Twain’s Final Request
90 Mark Twain’s Final Request
In 1910, the American author Mark Twain took to his bed in his Connecticut home. Weakened by disease and no longer able ... Read more
28 Apr 2017
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52mins
Ranked #12
137 Haruki Murakami
137 Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the rare writers who combines literary admiration with widespread appeal. Host Jacke... Read more
1 Apr 2018
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1hr 5mins
Ranked #13
32 The Best Debut Novels of All Time (A Conversation with the President of the Literature Supporters’ Club)
32 The Best Debut Novels of All Time (A Conversation with the President of the Literature Supporters’ Club)
What makes a great first novel? Which do we prefer: the freshness of a new style (even if it contains mistakes), or the ... Read more
3 Mar 2016
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1hr
Ranked #14
85 Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
85 Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
In 1813, a young author named Jane Austen built on the success of her popular novel Sense and Sensibility with a new nov... Read more
27 Mar 2017
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1hr 9mins
Ranked #15
147 Leo Tolstoy
147 Leo Tolstoy
When asked to name the three greatest novels ever written, William Faulkner replied, “Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina, Anna... Read more
13 Jun 2018
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1hr 4mins
Ranked #16
111 The Americanest American – Ralph Waldo Emerson
111 The Americanest American – Ralph Waldo Emerson
In 1984, the literary scholar Harold Bloom had this to say about Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Emerson is the mind of our climat... Read more
25 Sep 2017
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1hr 5mins
Ranked #17
93 Robert Frost Finds a Friend
93 Robert Frost Finds a Friend
It’s a curious but compelling story: it starts in the years just before World War I, when struggling poet Robert Frost (... Read more
16 May 2017
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55mins
Ranked #18
169 Dostoevsky
169 Dostoevsky
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY (1821-1881) was, in the estimation of James Joyce, “the man more than any other who has created modern... Read more
28 Nov 2018
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50mins
Ranked #19
Macbeth
Macbeth
It's been called "the great Shakespearean play of stage superstition and uncanniness." It's also one of Shakespeare's fo... Read more
28 Oct 2019
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1hr 33mins
Ranked #20
102 Pablo Neruda
102 Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) lived an eventful life: from his youth in Chile, to the sensational reception of his book Twent... Read more
27 Jul 2017
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1hr 10mins