“I think I’m afraid of being truly happy. Because whenever I get too happy, something bad always happens.” Chapter 1: Tsukuru Tazaki’s Past Tsukuru Tazaki, a 36-year-old railway […]
Russian literature
The Big Green Tent
“Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be expelled.” Part One: Childhood and Early Bonds The novel opens in post-Stalinist Moscow, introducing three boys—Ilya, Mikha, and […]
French literature
Hunting and Gathering
“Sometimes, happiness is just a matter of putting the right people together in the same place.” Chapter 1: The Unlikely Roommates The novel introduces four misfits living in […]
French literature
The Three Musketeers
“All for one, one for all!” Chapter 1: The Young D’Artagnan Leaves Home D’Artagnan, a poor but ambitious Gascon, leaves his home to join the Musketeers in Paris. […]
American literature
Charlotte’s Web
“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.” — Charlotte Chapter 1: Before Breakfast Fern Arable, an eight-year-old girl, stops her father from killing […]
American literature
Because of Winn-Dixie
“You can’t always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.” — Opal in Because of Winn-Dixie Chapter […]
American literature
Bridge to Terabithia
“It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king.” Chapter 1: Jesse Oliver Aarons, Jr. Jesse Aarons, an […]
American literature
Holes
“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs, “The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies.” While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely, Crying to […]
American literature
That Was Then, This Is Now
“That was then, this is now.” Chapter 1 Bryon Douglas, the protagonist, introduces his life in a rough neighborhood where he and his best friend, Mark, navigate adolescence. […]
American literature
Paper Towns
“It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.” Part One: The Strings The […]