Do You Teach Comparative Literature?

By: Khaled Hosseini Inside a drawer in my office desk sits a stash of manilla envelopes. Inside each are some of the letters I have collected over a span of nearly twenty years from high school students across the U.S. In these writings, the students share with me, often quite poignantly, what impact reading The

Dear Educator, Teachers from across the country have written to me in the past year, facing pressure because they teach Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. In some cases, their jobs were being threatened over their decision to bring this seminal book into their classrooms. That’s where the idea for this kit came from: to

By Camryn Banks Mónica Guzmán, author of I Never Thought of it That Way sat down with Elon News Network ahead of her lecture on Sept. 21   Photo by Max Wallace | Elon News Network Mónica Guzmán, author of Elon University’s 2023-24 Common Reading book: I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly

By: Samuel Shem With his latest novel, Our Hospital, out this month, author Samuel Shem reflects on the impact that House of God has had on doctors and medical students for over 40 years and reminds students of the essential truths of practicing medicine.  I never wanted to write a novel; it was sort of an accident.

Book bans have increased more than 1100% between 2020 and 2022.  The American Library Association (ALA) has reported an unprecedented number of book bans and “documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago.”

A Q&A Sarah Rose Cavanagh Cover design: Carol Chu. Author photo: Sharona Jacobs Photography   Statistics indicate that mental health problems like depression and anxiety have been skyrocketing among youth in recent years. The widespread isolation and disrupted learning during the pandemic years has only accelerated this crisis. The ever-present question today is, what changes can

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   April showers bring May books! Check out the new classics we’re reading to celebrate the return of sunny days and warmer weather, and let us know on social media what you’re turning to (we’re @PenguinClassics everywhere). Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska A

In How Not to Kill Yourself, Martin chronicles his multiple suicide attempts in an intimate depiction of the mindset of someone obsessed with self-destruction. He argues that, for the vast majority of suicides, an attempt does not just come out of the blue, nor is it merely a violent reaction to a particular crisis or failure but

By: Kristen Joiner “So, you’ve been a feminist and worked in human rights your whole career?” Judy Heumann asked me the first time we met to discuss the possibility of writing her memoir. “Right.” “And you never knew disability was a civil rights issue?” Since I’d already owned up to this, I nodded again. “So,

For Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, we spoke with Barcelona-based software engineer and author Angel Sola Orbaiceta, who is author of the book, Hardcore Programming for Mechanical Engineers (No Starch Press). Angel earned his degree in industrial engineering, but taught himself to code in between classes, and has worked in the software industry since graduating over

By: Chris Blattman   I’m an economist by training, but I’ve spent much of my career in political science departments and public policy schools. I even married a psychologist, and we collaborate on a lot of our research. Nowadays, my work looks a lot like sociology. In this book, I wanted to bring together decades

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   Spring has sprung at Penguin Classics HQ, and we are celebrating with a fresh bouquet of brand-new classics. Read on to see what we’re picking up this month, and let us know on social media what your favorite springtime reads are (we’re