Book Review Essay Examples and Topics

About the Author Walter Dean Myers was an African-American writer who had won many awards. He is best known for his children and young adult books. He was born on Aug 12, 1937, and later moved to New York where he died in mid-2014. In…

“Literary criticism, the reasoned consideration of literary works and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation about literature, whether or not specific works are analyzed. It is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.” Written by Fredrick C. Crews, author featured on britannica.com.And…

In “The Bluest Eye”, the author, Toni Morrison, presents in the book that the ideal beauty is having pure white skin and blue eyes. During the 1940s, two psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie K. Phipps Clarks created an experiment using dolls. They use four…

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” (Page 3). William Golding believes that human nature is inherently evil. Considering what Golding went through in World War Two, Golding has developed ideas about how cruel human nature is and how insensitive humankind can be. He…

Importance of Writing During this time period of extreme prejudice and the segregation of colors, it was hard to voice an opinion that would go against the social normality of treating blacks as inferior. Writing was a way that people were able to tell the…

From celebrity lives to multi-billion dollar companies, today’s society stresses the idea that having wealth is the essential to living a good life. Although this can be true to an extent, living a wealthy lifestyle can act as a facade for an unhappy life. This…

Violence crushes hope of fairytale ending From a very young age, children are filled with stories. Their mothers will hush them to sleep with promises of a prince charming and a happily ever after. But how much of their tales are actually true? What if…

Lucille Clifton, known for writing poems about her body, also used her poems to exemplify black heritage and self-appreciation. Clifton’s parents established her fondness of African American literature, even though they were not formally educated. A probable backbone for Clifton’s poet career would be her…

Everyone has their own ways of doing things. We are all curious on how people do things differently than us on a daily basis. In “Us and Them”, David Sedaris, author and playwriter, tells a story of a boy’s perspective of a growing interest towards…

How does television become part of our life? The televisions had changed from the symbol of high class to the most common device in our life because of the rapid growth of technology. In the article “Us and Them”, the author Sedaris highlights his attitude…

Margaret Atwood’s Lusus Naturae is a story about a girl who is outcasted by society and her family because of her genetic disorder. The first sentence caught my attention, “what could be done with me, what should be done with me?” (Atwood 240). The opening…

In the short story “Lusus Naturae” written by Margaret Atwood, a girl is disgraced by her family; treated as an outcast and being seen as a disease or a curse for her differences. The physical and mental challenges the narrator faces through the story, with…

In society today, young girls and women battle between perfecting their image fit society standards and finding their own identity in this world. These social and beautification standards have been around for centuries, leaving women to question their true identity and place in society. Margaret…

In today’s society of judgement and assimilation, many individuals who stray morality from the path of normality are often shunned for their differences. In Margaret Atwood’s ‘Lusus Naturae’, the discrimination that is placed upon those who are different can be seen through the eyes of…

Time continues to pass; and yet with each passing era humanity continually seems to be terrified, and equally fascinated, by the realm of the supernatural. Creations of literary over the centuries have plagiarised what has provided a means for indulging in this fantastical dominion and…

Karen Russell’s story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” deals with the idea of conformity and formation of identity. Collision often leads to situations of having to adapt to a new culture. This comes with some sort of needing to change, along with…

Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves,” explores the idea that culture plays a major role in the formation of identity in each individual. Culture is a synthesis of a particular group’s values beliefs and practices. Since each person’s identity…

In ‘St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,’ Karen Russell utilizes a postcolonial lens to show the consequences of colonization. The story is about girls raised by wolves, who are learning how to conform to a different environment. The readers follow the uncomfortable transformations…

In this essay, this writer will attempt to compare and contrast the topics of isolation and feelings of being an outcast that many young people feel during their journey” to adulthood. In both “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell and…

Imagine living to see your best friend die right in front of your eyes from a huge wave and everyday you thought it was your fault for something you couldn’t control. The seventh man tells the story written by author Haruki Murakuami. The story begins…

A multi-platformed writer, composing novels, poems, and essays, Sandra Cisneros whips up various pieces of literature in order to place the lives of the working class on a pedestal for all to recognize and understand. On December 20th, 1954, Sandra was born in Chicago, Illinois…

Poetry is like a protest: a constant tempo, rhythmic clapping in beat with the march, loud chanting made louder by echoes. Throughout history, poetry has been used as a powerful tool to raise your voice against social injustices. Adrienne Rich knew this well. Rich, a…

In the beginning of I, Too (1926), the speaker explains that he is of darker skin and is not accepted as an equal due to his race; however, the reader can interpret that his message is to explain that he too is America. The reader…

Man’s Search for Meaning is a book composed by Victor Frankl. He was an Austrian nervous system specialist, analysts and therapists. All the more strikingly, he was a detainee in Nazi death camp. Frankl created a strategy for logotherapy. This strategy turned into a reason…

There is nothing more compelling than the dramatic power that the villain holds over drama. In the stories of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and William Shakespeare’s play “Othello” , rhetoric proves to be…

Bullying is a real problem in society today, in the past, and will continue to be an issue in the future. Bullies are people who are either insecure about themselves, or they enjoy putting people down. Sometimes people bully in groups because it makes them…

Man, since his early existence on earth has been craving to achieve more knowledge. His quest for knowledge provokes him to achieve whatever he desires. Knowledge is one of the most powerful factors which assist man to acquire name, fame, success, power and position in…

One point that was commonly agreed upon during the Harlem Renaissance period is the idea that art is the only way to break down the seemingly unsurmountable barrier between black and white Americans. As some black Americans rose to prominence, however, they found that their…

When initially reading Life in the Iron Mills, you take note of the pain and agony that these inhabitants of the land go through in order to survive. Hugh, our character of analyzation, finds a different way of grieving instead of just drinking himself into…

“Ambition beats genius 99% of the time” ~Jay Leno. That’s why we are here to take a look at two examples of that 1%. Macbeth: the fictional character in the Shakespearian play “Macbeth”, and Pablo Escobar: the most notorious and well-known drug lord of the…

Guilt. You should have saved him… Guilt. You should have helped him… Guilt. You should have…, you should have…, you should have… Guilt is a parasite that overwhelm the person causing to not move on from the past just like the character in “The Seventh…

In ‘Remarks Concerning The Savages of North America,’ Benjamin Franklin defends the Native Americans by arguing that they were not ‘savages,’ as English Americans thought. Rather they were smart people with cultural beliefs that were just as complex and strict as of the colonists, and sometimes even…

Karen Salmansohn once said, “If you don’t pay attention to the signs, you’ll end up in the wrong direction.” Philip K. Dick is using the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to warn the people about how artificial intelligence will eventually take over the…

Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D. was written by Jonathan Swift during the later half his life as his morality was becoming stunningly clear. The poem was first written in 1731, but not published until 1939, by which time most of his famous…

As a kid, we had many books read to us throughout our childhood whether it was at school or home, but only a select handful of those children’s books stuck with us to this day. We can still recall these books today because they stood…

Since the beginning, humanity has been both animated and terrified by the movement of technology. ‘The Pedestrian,’ a short story by Ray Bradbury, happens in 2053 and pursues a man named Mr. Leonard Mead. Mr. Mead is one of a kind among of a city…

Water wells have been found to be a unique part of America’s past. They have been used in the past as a water resource to supply homes with their water. It is at the well where the children in the story “The Man in the…

When I first heard the title of a short story ‘Puppy’? I thought it was about a puppy as a reliable friend. However, some might also define a puppy as a delicious dish. Why does this one word include so many meanings? In the short…

An abandoned well. Children Playing. One man yelling. With children playing by an abandoned well, the story “The Man in the Well” written by Ira Sher, shows how cruel children can be. The kids were having a fun time and discovered a well, then soon…

Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis is a story about two people living in poverty in an industrialized town that makes iron. What I’ll be focusing on is the portrayal of the Factory town. The town itself is not in the best…

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a unique and interesting novel written by a well-known author Neil Gaiman. This novel tells the story about a middle-aged man experiencing his life with the existence of the newcomer, Ursula Monkton, while he was seven…

Indian drama in English is profoundly concerned about various social, political and cultural ills and maladies of Indian society. It dramatizes the grave problems like gender and caste discrimination, exploitation and violation of basic human rights to lower caste people. Mahesh Dattani in Seven Steps…

Merriam-Webster defines communication as a, “process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior”. However, communication extends far beyond the type of language one speaks. It effectively derives from one’s diction, syntax, and rhetoric. Being one of…

Artificial Intelligence is an advanced area of computer science that encourages the creation of intelligent machines that react and work as humans. The overall goal of artificial intelligence is to recreate technology to allow machines and computers to function and act as humans. Generally artificial…

In today’s society and in history, business owners of all vantage points have been inspired by the successful CEOs in this world and have emulated the strategies they have used. Bill Gates created and ran what is said to be one of the most successful…

In that case, are you one of the 90% who the numbers imply aren’t in a position to recognize with all the “wealthy Dad experience” shared from the publication? As a Poor Dad out of Kiyosaki’s S-quadrant – Self-employed/Small firm team, I wish to employ…

Medieval literature was a period filled with many characteristics and elements such as extended metaphors, romances, and the Church. In the Canterbury Tales, many different genres took place such as romance, beast fable, religion, and poetry. Iambic pentameter is used in the Miller’s Tale as…

Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican American writer, poet, and artist, born on December 20, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. Her book, Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories, published in 1991, reflects her upbringing of being surrounded by American influences while still being bound to her Mexican…

The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a book written by Michael Pollan and published in the year 2006. What we should eat for dinner is an outright question Michael Pollan is trying to answer in this book. To know the long term effects of modern food preservation…

Sylvia Plath was one of the most exceptionally dynamic poets of the twentieth century, fostering the confessional poetry genre. Known for her brilliantly thought-provoking poems and short stories, ironically, her most famous works were written during the most turbulent times of her life. Death presents…

In the Ocean At the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman demonstrates through child lost innocence, they can change reality into make believe as they do not have the ability to see the world for what it really is; and they still want to hold…

Many connections can be found throughout all the texts read this semester, but the one that stood out most to me was discrimination, whether it be against Native Americans, women, or Africans forced into slavery. The colonists originally depended on the Natives when first settling…

Self-loathing is not something that arises from nowhere, an outside force influence this feeling of inadequacy. This inadequacy can be birthed from personal failure or emotional abuse. It doesn’t matter how much of an impressive specimen one may be, if they are treated inferiorly, they…

Family is the most important thing in a person’s everyday life and today most people don’t realize the importance of a family and people tend to take advantage of the love and support that is right in front of them. Imbolo Mbue is an author…

The financial decisions of consumers have been a growing topic of debate in recent years; attempts to counter the consumers’ poor financial decisions have shown that the issue may not be solved just by increasing the financial literacy of the consumer. It is instead suggested…

¨Man when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.¨ (Ken Kesey) A famous quote by the main protagonist with an underlying meaning which perfectly depicts what society can do to the individual. One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey published…

Created in 1905, Mark Twain’s satirical piece The War Prayer was written in reference to the Spanish-American war to condemn the naive prayer of war success. Through euphemistic language showing irony and a tonal shift, Twain makes an appeal to logos to highlight how ignorant…

As a famous actress and activist, Susan Sarandon, once said, “When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you”. This meaning that through experience, humans can gain empathy to learn many important and beneficial lessons from…

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is considered one of her greatest writings resulting in controversy, especially when revisiting her irrational relationship with her father. “Daddy” tells the tale of Plath’s journey to escape the anguish and desolation from her father. Sylvia Plath lived a life any lower-class…

Upon first look, the poem is a mess of a dive, a dive in which the persona survives and returns to the boat; however, on a deeper level, topics such as the journey of life, discovering who one is, what their purpose is, and how…

Green Eggs and Ham is about a furry creature named Sam-I-Am who tries to convince the no-named narrator to try green eggs and ham. Throughout the book, Sam-I-Am suggests different places and locations the narrator should eat the green eggs and ham. After consistently being…

Marge Piercy is a poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 31, 1936, she won a scholarship to the University of Michigan to pursue her dreams. Later, she earned a master’s degree at the University of Northwestern. Also, she was the first…

In some Gothic Literature when women are mentioned as a character it usually has a hidden meaning such as women being hopelessly submissive, significantly absent, or presented in a negative sense. These meanings display many different effects for women through the short stories that teach…

In life we make many relationships. As humans, we rely on our social experiences to help define who we are. Our relationships with others help define who we are by invoking the fear of despondency, encouraging us to work hard, and by appreciating our values….

Richard III, a Shakespearean play based on the history of the war of the Roses which took place in England during the late 15th century, showed the political inconstancy of that era. England, as a country united for the first time under the reign of…

Zitkala-Sa, Overall known as Gertrude Bonnin, might have been remarkable Likewise a Yankton sioux who might have been a bit from claiming a time about Indians who were taught for exhaustive schools, for example, those White’s physical fill in establishment that were exceptional with oust…

After reading “Puppy” by George Saunders, Marie could be described as an almost overly-loving mother who would do anything for the people she loves. She enjoys bringing animals home to her two kids and husband even though they don’t really have the money for some…

In mid 1692, during the profundities of winter in Massachusetts Bay Colony, a social event of little adolescents in the town of Salem began acting anomalous. The young lady and niece of the local serve, Samuel Parris, declared to be pestered by subtle forces who…

The Omnivore’s Dilemma,is a nonfiction informative book by Michael Pollan. It is narrated by the author and follows him on a journey, observing and uncovering the truth about where the food we eat are from. He explores the agriculture, food industry, and lives of animals…

In the mid-1700s, religion started in America. Americans did not want to be forced to practice a specific religion. Religious freedom has played a significant role in the United States and the remaining North America. However, America wasn’t always a stronghold of religious freedom. Langston…

In Imbolo Mbue’s 2016 novel Behold the Dreamers we are presented to Cindy Edwards’s and Neni Jonga’s characters, two mothers living seemingly different lives – the former being a good looking nutritionist, described as a “woman with a rich husband” (p.29); the latter being a…

A debatable though I have after comparing and contrasting Juliet (III.ii), Friar Lawrence (III.iii), and Romeo’s (III.iii) reactions to the latter’s banishment is that love has a heavy influence on your thoughts and decisions. Romeo and Juliet have very reactions compared to Friar Lawrences’s. Juliet…

When considering real-world issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder from logotherapy’s viewpoint, individuals with PTSD have haunting, horrific thoughts and recollections of a traumatic experience. They begin to feel emotionally numb, particularly with people they were once closely connected to. PTSD was first publicly addressed…

The idea of love’s motivation takes on a nontraditional form throughout Puppy by George Saunders. The internal conflict Marie struggles with was developed as a child when her mother did not show the love for her she believed other children her age received. She tries…

Zora Neale Hurston was a writer of novels, short stories and plays that depicted African Americans living in the South. The short story “Sweat ” is about a woman who is abused and mistreated by her husband. This is a female empowerment story that shows…

“Edge” and “Barbie Doll” outline the thoughts of women struggling with depression; the poems describe the pressures women face each day in order to fit into society, the eerie feeling of isolation, as well as a feeling of being better off dead. Each poem has…

Innovation has become some portion of our every day lives in the year 2020, however innovation will turn out to be substantially more refined and solid in the more extended term, and not generally in an incredible way. Inside the short story ‘The Pedestrian,’ it…

In Zitkala-Sa’s snappy journal ‘The School Days of an Indian Girl,’ she relates how she was once taken through evangelists to a guide preparing school run by method for Quakers, and her encounters while being constrained to join in. The story is an interesting interpretation…

In most families, fathers usually take pride when receiving comments from their sons such as the term “like father like son,” which puts them in a position to follow their fathers’ footsteps. Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet, revealing his feelings on not pursuing his family…

An unreliable narrator creates multiple surprises in a story. As a reader, we tend to trust the words of the narrator but their word, at times, can be contradictory. They seem to tell lies within the story and which then shows a sense of rejection…