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Literature by Genre

Since Aristotle, man has been busy classifying things. Adam was the classification pioneer (naming the animals), but it was the Greek philosopher who turned it into an art form, an obsession, and an intellectual sport. We've had 2300 years to get better at it, and today a book isn't just a "book": it's a novel, or a treatise, or a poem, or a drama. But it isn't even just a novel, anymore—it's a satire, or historical fiction, or science fiction, or a philosophical novel, or an autobiographical collection of short stories set in a dystopian near-future.

There may be no examples of the last type, but genres (rather than being confusing, as some claim) are invaluable guides to navigating the endless stream of books that flows through our bookstores, libraries, and online distribution centers. For instance, you know just by hearing the phrase "romance novel" there won't be much quality in any section so named, and if the normal romance novel is to be shunned, you can be certain the growing field of paranormal romance fiction will be even more useless.

I will not take this opportunity to describe each and every genre we've included in our selection; that's what the sidebar is for. However, before you dismiss the genre distinctions as useless generic terminology, consider what they can do. If you've just finished a book by Jane Austen, or Tim O'Brien, or Rudyard Kipling, and want to read similar books but don't know where to start, you could start by looking at other books included in their respective genres.

Some of the genres are pretty basic. Obviously, if you want to read poetry you aren't going to look under Novels. Well, you might, but you'd be mostly out of luck. Others, like Epic & Saga, can be much more helpful for more specific searches—our Epic & Saga category includes 42 items; our Literature & Adult Fiction includes 2,397.

Most of the books found here are for older students or adults (though that doesn't mean younger readers can't enjoy most of them as well, as long as you preview and discuss each title with them). For kid-oriented reading, check out our Fiction category. The genres there are even more specific, partly because there are more obvious distinctions beween different kinds of children's literature, and partly because we've spent more time bringing in specifc titles for young readers. That in no way means we've ignored our selection for adults and high schoolers.

In fact, we're pretty proud of it. Not every book is worth reading; we've tried to limit those on our shelf to ones that are. To make it easier for you to find the sort of book you want to read, we've given most of the titles genres. Sure, it's often fun to lazily browse bookstore shelves or websites, but let's face it—somtimes you just need to find the next book that's going to provide your fiction fix, and you don't have time to research the whole broad genre that happens to be your favorite. Reader, we salute you, and offer you: Literature by Genre.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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'Tis
by Frank McCourt
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Autobiographies & Memoirs for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
1984
Signet Classics
by George Orwell
from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.20 $3.60 (3 in stock)
1984
by George Orwell
from Harcourt
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00 $11.00 (1 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen with a frontispiece by Milo Winter
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Accordion Crimes
by E. Annie Proulx
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Davy Crockett
by David Crockett, illustrated by John W. Thomason
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.40 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
2019 Reprint from SeaWolf Press
for 7th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Aeschylus I: The Oresteia (old)
The Complete Greek Tragedies
by Aeschylus (translation by Richmond Lattimore)
from University of Chicago
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: Literature (Location: ZCLE-LIT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Aeschylus' Oresteia
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus (translation by Robert Fagles)
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$14.45 $7.20 (1 in stock)
Aeschylus' Oresteian Trilogy
Penguin Classics
by Aeschylus, translated by Phillip Vellacott
from Penguin Classics
Ancient Greek Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$11.05 $5.60 (1 in stock)
Again Calls the Owl
by Margaret Craven
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Macmillan Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Macmillan
Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.40 (1 in stock)
All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
for 9th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren, edited and afterword by Noel Polk
from Mariner Books
for Adult
1947 Pulitzer Prize
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Ambassadors
by Henry James
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful
by Ben Carson with Candy Carson
from Zondervan
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
by the editors of Country Beautiful Magazine
from Country Beautiful
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
American Childhood
by Annie Dillard
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
American Claimant / Pudd'nhead Wilson
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
American Poetry
by David S. Shields
from Library of America
for 11th-Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
American Poetry
by Gay Wilson Allen, Walter B. Rideout, James K. Robinson
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
by M. K. Gandhi
from Navajivan Publishing House
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Arctic Twilight
by Samuli Paulaharju
1982 Edition from Finnish American Literary Heritage Foundation
for 7th-Adult
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Argosy of Fables
by F. T. Cooper (editor), illustrated by Paul Bransom
from Frederick A. Stokes Company
for 3rd-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$51.20 (1 in stock)
Art of the Short Story
from Pearson Education
for 10th-Adult
in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
At Bertram's Hotel
A Miss Marple Mystery #10
by Agatha Christie
from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
At the End of the Santa Fe Trail
by Sister Blandina Segale
4th Printing from Bruce Publishing Co.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Reprint from Plume Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
August 1914
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, translated by Michael Glenny
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Dover Thrift Editions
by James Weldon Johnson
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.40 $2.00 (2 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Dover Thrift Editions
by Benjamin Franklin
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$7.65 $3.60 (2 in stock)
Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge
by Calvin Coolidge
from National Notary Association
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge
by Calvin Coolidge, Edited with an Introduction by Amity Shlaes and Matthew Denhart
from ISI Books
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$29.99 $15.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Charles G. Finney
by Charles G. Finney
from Bethany House
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of William Allen White
by William Allen White
from Macmillan
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Basket of Fragments
by R. M. McCheyne
from Christian Heritage
for Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Beatrix Potter's Journal (Abridged)
by Beatrix Potter, abridged and introduced by Glen Cavaliero
from Viking Press
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Beejum Book
by Alice O. Howell
Revised
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Behind the Scenes
by Elizabeth Keckley, edited by Frances Smith Foster
from Lakeside Press
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
from Vintage Classics
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Beowulf
by Anonymous (translation by Frederick Rebsamen)
from HarperCollins
Medieval Poetic Epic for 8th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$8.49 $4.80 (3 in stock)
Beowulf
by Anonymous, translated by Douglas Wilson
from Canon Press
for 7th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$11.90 $6.40 (1 in stock)
Bernard Shaw's Plays
by George Bernard Shaw, edited by Warren S. Smith
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Best of Father Brown
by G. K. Chesterton
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.46 $4.80 (1 in stock)
Between the Lines
by Tom and Delphine Frazier
from Regent Press
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Billy Budd
Signet Classics
by Herman Melville
from Signet Classics
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.21 $2.40 (1 in stock)
Billy Budd, Sailor, and Other Stories
by Herman Melville
from Bantam Books
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.21 $2.00 (1 in stock)
Black Like Me
by John Howard Griffin & Robert Bonazzi
35th anniversary from Signet Classics
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Black Odyssey
by Mary Cable
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Slavery & the Underground Railroad (Location: HISA-19SL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Black Panther of Sivanipalli
by Kenneth Anderson
1960 printing from Rand McNally
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Blue Like Jazz
by Donald Miller
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.00 (3 in stock)
Blue Shoes and Happiness
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #7
by Alexander McCall Smith
Edition from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (2 in stock)
Bondage of the Will
by Martin Luther
from Revell Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$6.80 (1 in stock)
Bondage of the Will
by Martin Luther, translated by Henry Cole
from Feather Trail Press
for Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Book of Christmas
from Reader's Digest
for 6th-Adult
in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Book of Margery Kempe
by Margery Kempe
1st edition from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Born Free
by Joy Adamson
Anniversary from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Born to Run
by Christopher McDougall
from Vintage Books
for 9th-Adult
in Biography Anthologies (Location: BIO-ANTH)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Brave Men
by Ernie Pyle
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
from HarperCollins
Dystopian Literature for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99 $7.00 (8 in stock)
Breakfast with Bonhoeffer
by Jon Walker
from Leafwood Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in Practical Christian Living (Location: XCL-PRAC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Bruchko
by Bruce Olson
Updated from Charisma House
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table
New edition from Harvest Books
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk, illustrated by John Thompson
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Calvin, Geneva & the Reformation
by Ronald S. Wallace
from Wipf and Stock Publishers
for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Canterbury Quintet
by Geoffrey Chaucer
from Little Leaf Press
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer (edited by Kolve V.A. & Glending Olson)
2nd edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
Child's Letters to her Husband
by Helen Watterson Moody
from Doubleday, Page & Company
for Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Choices, Changes
by Joni Eareckson Tada
from Zondervan
Biography for Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Chord of Steel
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Chosen
by Chaim Potok
from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Christmas Stories
by Diana Secker Tesdell, editor
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus and His Legacy
Opposing Viewpoints Series
by Mary Ellen Jones, Editor
from Greenhaven Press
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
Civil War Hospital Sketches
by Louisa May Alcott
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.76 $2.80 (1 in stock)
Classic Slave Narratives
by Henry Louis Gates, ed.
Reissue from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.76 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Collected Poems of Robert Service
by Robert W. Service
1966 Edition from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Communist Manifesto
Penguin Classics
by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
from Penguin Classics
Political Philosophy for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.65 $4.40 (1 in stock)
Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Brothers Grimm, Josef Scharl
from Pantheon Books
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
by Ernest Hemingway
Finca Vigia Ed from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Complete Sonnets
Dover Thrift Editions
by William Shakespeare
from Dover Publications
Lyrical Poetry for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$3.83 $1.60 (2 in stock)
Conversations with Myself
by Nelson Mandela, foreword by Barack Obama
from Picador
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3rd edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Cross Creek
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Crucible, The
by Arthur Miller
from Dramatists Play Service
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Cry of the Kalahari
by Mark and Delia Owens
from Houghton Mifflin
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
5th edition from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
from Bantam Books
Drama for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.94 $2.00 (1 in stock)
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, translated by Brian Hooker
1963 Reprint from Heinemann Educational Books
Drama for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
from Spectra Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Dawn by Galilee
by Ralph Connor
from Hodder & Stoughton
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Dearest Mama
by Roger Fulford, editor
from Evans Brothers Limited
for Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller
from Penguin Putnam
American Tragedy for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.00 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Defeating the Totalitarian Lie
by Hilmar Von Campe
from HighWay
for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Diary of a Napoleanic Foot Soldier
by Jakob Walter
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.20 (1 in stock)
Discourse on Method and Related Writings
by Rene Descartes
from Penguin Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$10.20 $5.60 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Mythology
by Neil Philip
from DK Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in Diversity & Multicultural Books (Location: HISMC-MUL)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Dream Angus
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Canongate Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Dream West
by David Nevin
from Forge
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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