On August 11, 2014, thousands of teens and their parents eagerly purchased tickets for the long-awaited film adaptation of Lois Lowry's 1994 Newbery Award-winning novel The Giver. My teenaged son read it in junior high and loved it. I loved it too. Like Madelyn L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, Lowry's The Giver has a subterranean…
Category: Novels
Happy Bloomsday! How Will You Celebrate?
Love it or hate it, Bloomsday is the annual day of celebration for James Joyce's polarizing novel Ulysses. It takes place on June 16th each year, to mark the first day of the protagonist Leopold Bloom's journey across Dublin. To mark the occasion some Joyce fans follow the tradition of reading the novel in Edwardian garb—though…
Could This Be the Worst Book Cover of All Time?
Well, no. That title probably goes to this... Or this... Or this... However, it is possibly the worst cover of a classic novel ever published. (Wait, are you saying Henry James' 1891 novel The Turn of the Screw isn't actually about screws?!) No. It's not about screws. We'll let you be the judge: here are quite possibly…
Gabriel García Márquez Dead at 87
Celebrated Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez died today at the age of 87 after a recent hospitalization for multiple infections. His death comes two years after it was reported he was suffering from dementia. “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” ― Gabriel García Márquez…
The Giver Trailer is Here and It Looks Awesomely Creepy
Lois Lowry's Newbery Award-winning novel The Giver is coming to the big screen, and the first official trailer is out. Take a peek!
The film will star big names Jeff Bridges (as the Giver), Meryl Streep, and Katie Holmes. Newcomer Brenton Thwaites will play the lead role of Jonas, the new Receiver of…
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Zeroes and Ones and Your Odds of Writing a Best-Seller
Did you ever suspect the runaway best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey was written by robots? Well, somebody check E.L. James for vital signs because she might actually be an algorithm. Check this out: Surely a human being would die of boredom before biting a lip in print forty-three times in one novel. Actually, I'm skewing…
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The Best Book I Read Last Year
Looking for a good read to begin 2014 right? We have some recommendations for you! Here's a list of eNotes' staff members favorite picks from a year of reading. We hope it inspires you when creating your list for 2014. Clearly the editors, interns, marketing staff and others behind eNotes are a mixed bunch, with high-brow,…
New Look, Same Expert Content
Go ahead, judge us by our covers. eNotes' study guides are getting a fresh new look, thanks to incredible artist and illustrator Yumi Sakugawa. Sakugawa took 200 of our most popular titles and interpreted each in a fresh and interesting way. The end results are as enlightening as they are beautiful; not only is each…