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Novels that changed the world: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Many successful American authors started out as regular people who got their hands dirty and really dug into life. Sam Clemens worked on a riverboat. Louis L’Amour hitched rides on box cars to get from job to job. Steven King was a low paid teacher. John Steinbeck was a get-his-hands-dirty kind of guy. As a […]

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Novels that changed the world: Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne

Photo of the center of the Earth, taken from my phone at 2:36 pm today. Before anything is built, an artist imagines it. In no genre is this clearer than Science Fiction. Moon landing? Imagined 150 years ago. Cell phones? Star Trek figured it out in 1964. Submarines were imagined fifty years before they were […]

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Books that changed the World: A Thousand and One Arabian Nights

In the 19th century, European explores pushed out into every corner of what was then still a mysterious world. In many places, the Muslim community was closed to outsiders. Non-believes were not welcome in their holy city, Mecca. Explorer, adventurer and expert swordsman, Sir Richard Burton was by any measure a bold, brave man. He […]

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Books that Changed America (for better or worse): Gone With the Wind

GWTW was a runaway best seller. From it came arguably the greatest movie of all time. Controversy surrounding the story has grown through the years. On the plus side, it’s a dynamic tale about one of the great fiction characters of all time, Scarlet O’Hara. She is vain, selfish and deceitful. Unyielding, courageous, and wicked […]

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