Penguin

• Great Brain Is Back, The by John D. Fitzgerald (1995)

  [5/10]

  "I can only recommend The Great Brain Is Back to absolute fans of the series or people who want to say they have read every book in the series. This eighth volume certainly doesn't stand on its own, but it does let you spend just a little bit longer with these loveable characters."

• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1970)

  [8/10]

  "While the accepted Aristotelian idea of the 'tragic flaw' provides a convenient means to discuss the characters in Hamlet, none of the characters actually demonstrate the 'tragic flaw' as defined by Aristotle."

• Road to Wellville, The by T. Coraghessan Boyle (1993)

  [7/10]

  "Boyle presents the life of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg -- inventor of peanut butter and the corn flake -- at the height of his career and as the director of a famous sanitarium for biological living."

• Was: A Novel by Geoff Ryman (1992)

  [7/10]

  "Ryman retells the story of Dorothy Gael from L. Frank Baum's Oz stories, but Ryman takes a completely opposite perspective -- that one should escape from 'home', people only find happiness in childhood fantasy, and we spend our entire lives trying to overcome the tragic day when someone crushed our fantasies."

• Washington Square by Henry James (1880)

  [6/10]

  "James deals with a love affair in the wealthy class of late 19th-Century New York City."

• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1924)

  [7/10]

  "Zamyatin implies that once you have given up too much freedom, you might never recover personal freedom, even if some individuals have a vision of life outside the state."

  Average score: 6.67