2023 Reading Schedule Builder

Create your reading list to tackle the best classic books in the new year, setting aside just 20 minutes a day! More info & examples →
Your Schedule

Days Remaining: 365

No books selected yet

Reset

Unsaved lists will expire in 30 days

Most Popular Genres Collections

Genres › American

The Able McLaughlins
Margaret Wilson
22 days •
ⓘ 1923 • Wully McLaughlin returns from the Civil War to his pioneer farming life in Iowa, only to find his sweetheart cold and traumatized.
Alexander's Bridge
Willa Cather
9 days •
ⓘ 1912 • Construction engineer Alexander finds himself torn between his demanding wife and enchanting former lover. The conflict threatens to collapse his self-image and work.
Alice Adams
Booth Tarkington
29 days •
ⓘ 1921 • Alice Adams, a young woman from a lower middle-class family, sets out to win the love of the wealthy Arthur Russell.
The Ambassadors
Henry James
65 days •
ⓘ 1903 • Sent to Paris to rescue a supposedly wayward son from the city's enchantments, Strether instead finds his own life transformed.
The American Claimant
Mark Twain
21 days •
ⓘ 1892 • A comedy of mistaken identifies peppered with mad scientist glimpses of DNA cloning, fax machines, and climate change.
Andy Gordon
Horatio Alger
19 days •
ⓘ 1900 • Andrew Gordon works as a janitor at the school he attends. He strives to stay honest and good-hearted despite the tricks and schemes of those around him.
Babbitt
Sinclair Lewis
44 days •
ⓘ 1922 • Businessman George F. Babbitt finds himself more in love with the trappings of his American middle-class life than his own wife. A scathing satire of a materialistic nation fixated on conformity.
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman Melville
6 days •
ⓘ 1853 • Initially an impressively hard worker in the rat race on Wall Street, a new clerk suddenly refuses all work. "I would prefer not to" becomes his constant refrain.
The Blue Hotel
Stephen Crane
4 days •
ⓘ 1898 • During a blizzard, three visitors take shelter in a hotel in Nebraska. Events soon take a violent and dark turn, however.
The Cosmic Computer
H. Beam Piper
22 days •
ⓘ 1963 • Young Conn Maxwell arrives on the planet of Poictesme from Earth with news about Merlin, the super-computer fabled to have god-like abilities.
The Crater
James Fenimore Cooper
62 days •
ⓘ 1847 • Amongst the desolate volcanic islands in the remote Pacific, shipwrecked sailors struggle to survive.
The Crux
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
20 days •
ⓘ 1910 • A group of women head west to start a boarding house for men in this important early feminist work.
Daddy-Long-Legs
Jean Webster
14 days •
ⓘ 1912 • An unknown millionaire pays for orphan Jerusha’s education with simple, yet mysterious, requirements placed upon her. Who is her shadowy benefactor?
Early Autumn
Louis Bromfield
34 days •
ⓘ 1926 • Winner of a 1927 Pulitzer Prize. Twenty years after fleeing Durham and a failed marriage, Sabine Callendar returns not defeated as expected but strong, insightful, and ready to upend society's stifling rules.
Essays
Ralph Waldo Emerson
25 days •
ⓘ 1841 • A collection of Emerson's essays, including Self-Reliance, Compensation, The Over-Soul, and The Poet.
Fanshawe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
14 days •
ⓘ 1828 • Both strapping Edwards and reclusive Fanshawe seek to win the love of Ellen, but a third mysterious suitor arrives with dark intentions. Hawthorne's first novel.
First Lensman
Edward E. Smith
36 days •
ⓘ 1950 • Given the powerful Lens by the mysterious Arisian aliens, Virgil Samms sets up an order of galactic defenders in this iconic space opera adventure.
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
16 days •
ⓘ 1925 • The Jazz Age story of lavish Long Island parties, a young mysterious millionaire, and the woman he loved. Arguably one of the greatest novels ever written, exploring themes of decadence, idealism, and the American dream.
The Headless Horseman
Mayne Reid
70 days •
ⓘ 1865 • In Texas shortly after the Mexican War, a tumultuous love triangle is rocked by murder and a ghostly specter riding across the plantations.
The House of Pride
Jack London
11 days •
ⓘ 1912 • A collection of six stories set in Hawaii.
The Insanity of Jones
Algernon Blackwood
4 days •
ⓘ 1907 • Jones is likely insane, or maybe he is indeed seeing things that no one else can...
The Inside of the Cup
Winston Churchill
57 days •
ⓘ 1913 • A preacher, thrust into town divided by class and wealth, comes to question his traditional faith and ponder the core teachings of Jesus Christ.
The Iron Heel
Jack London
37 days •
ⓘ 1908 • One of the earliest modern dystopian novels, London chronicles the oppressions of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States.
Jo's Boys
Louisa May Alcott
33 days •
ⓘ 1886 • Ten years after the events of "Little Men" Tommy, Emil, Demi, Nat, Dan, Rob, and Teddy are back - dealing with college, love, and scrapes.
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
Isabella L. Bird
23 days •
ⓘ 1879 • A travelogue of British explorer Isabella Bird's journey through Wyoming and Colorado in the late 19th century.
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
79 days •
ⓘ 1855 • A treasured collection of poetry, Whitman praises both nature and the role of humanity and the human mind. One of the central works of American poetry.
Lost Face
Jack London
15 days •
ⓘ 1910 • A collection of short stories including adventures in the Yukon and the Klondike.
The Making of Americans
Gertrude Stein
144 days •
ⓘ 1925 • A modernist novel tracing the "history of a family's progress" through three generations.
The Mutiny of the Elsinore
Jack London
49 days •
ⓘ 1914 • After the death of the captain, the crew of a ship headed around the treacherous Cape Horn is thrown into a violent conflict.
My Mortal Enemy
Willa Cather
6 days •
ⓘ 1926 • Youthful romance meet the constraints of everyday life and the poison of regret in this story of Myra and Oswald Henshawe's marriage.
A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson
7 days •
ⓘ 1682 • In the midst of King Philip's War in colonial Massachusetts, Native Americans capture Mary Rowlandson. She experiences eleven weeks with them until being released to her family.
New Hampshire
Robert Frost
10 days •
ⓘ 1923 • A treasured collection of Frost's poetry including "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", "Nothing Gold Can Stay", "Fire and Ice".
O Pioneers!
Willa Cather
29 days •
ⓘ 1913 • Swedish immigrant Alexandra struggles to keep her family farm running, and her family together, in the face of hardships, love, and loss in Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century.
The Pathfinder
James Fenimore Cooper
59 days •
ⓘ 1840 • One of Cooper's most picturesque novels, set on the Great Lakes, it finds Natty Bumppo finding his way through adventure and love.
Paul's Case
Willa Cather
3 days •
ⓘ 1905 • Pittsburgh high school student Paul dreams of escaping his middle-class life for one of culture and excitement.
A Pickle For The Knowing Ones
Timothy Dexter
3 days •
ⓘ 1802 • Written by the eccentric businessman Timothy Dexter - who once faked his own death to see how people would react - this work discusses politics, the clergy, and more. Note it includes odd spelling and capitalization.
The Pioneers
James Fenimore Cooper
55 days •
ⓘ 1823 • On the borders of the ever-advancing frontier of New York state, elements of the wild old world clash with new European-style developments.
The Pit
Frank Norris
42 days •
ⓘ 1903 • Greed and power drive a businessman to risk the futures of others as his wife is tempted to destroy their marriage.
The Plastic Age
Percy Marks
26 days •
ⓘ 1924 • The story of Hugh Carver and his experiences as a Sanford college. It'd depictions of undergrad life - including smoking, drinking, and "petting" - got the book banned and made it a best-selling novel.
The Prairie
James Fenimore Cooper
63 days •
ⓘ 1827 • Cooper's storied Trapper, trying to flee the reaches of civilization, here is caught in struggles between class, race, and family on the western plains.
The Reef
Edith Wharton
36 days •
ⓘ 1912 • An American diplomat in France seeks to rekindle a relationship with his former love, but soon is in a romantic affair with another woman.
Roughing It
Mark Twain
57 days •
ⓘ 1872 • A semi-autobiographical account of Twain's travels and adventures through the American west during the 1860s.
Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser
61 days •
ⓘ 1900 • Seeking her fortune and the realization of her American Dream, Caroline Meeber leaves her rural home for Chicago. The big city threatens to destroy both her and those around her.
Soldiers' Pay
William Faulkner
30 days •
ⓘ 1926 • A soldier horribly injured in the First World War - nearly silent and blind - returns home to a family who thought him dead and a fiancé tired of waiting.
A Son at the Front
Edith Wharton
34 days •
ⓘ 1923 • Wharton's partially autobiographical book on the devastation of WWI behind the lines.
The Spy
James Fenimore Cooper
49 days •
ⓘ 1821 • In the midst of the American Revolution, the rebels hunt down a suspected British spy who has escaped capture twice. But not all is as it seems.
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
23 days •
ⓘ 1926 • A tale of the moral bankruptcy and disillusionment of the lost generation, of the Paris nightlife and bullfighting rings of the 1920s as seen through Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley.
Tales of a Wayside Inn
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
14 days •
ⓘ 1863 • An exchange of stories at a Massachusetts inn, including the famous "Paul Revere's Ride."
This Side of Paradise
F. Scott Fitzgerald
33 days •
ⓘ 1920 • "I know myself, but that is all." The story of Amory Blaine as he navigates love, heartbreak, war, and life.
Three Hundred Years Hence
Mary Griffith
8 days •
ⓘ 1836 • A utopian science fiction novel - the first written by an American woman - depicting a futuristic world with many similarities to our present.
Tombstone
Walter Noble Burns
36 days •
ⓘ 1927 • With a dash of fact and fiction, ride through the history of Western boomtown Tombstone, its infamous characters, and the famous showdown at the O.K. Corral.
The Torrents of Spring
Ernest Hemingway
8 days •
ⓘ 1926 • A parody of the world of writers, satirizing tendencies from D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Sherwood Anderson and others that Hemingway refused to follow.
Wieland
Charles Brockden Brown
33 days •
ⓘ 1798 • An early work of American literature that spans Gothic, weird, and horror genres, the story follows the tragedy of the Wieland family through murder, spiritualism, and spontaneous combustion.
Winesburg, Ohio
Sherwood Anderson
25 days •
ⓘ 1919 • A cycle of stories set in a small pre-industrial town. The central figure is reporter George Willard who gains the confidence of the residents.
Mastodon Mastodon