I can't unlink reading for pleasure from learning, and I wonder what novels or short stories in modern English literature (no translations) are good recommendations for their wealth of poetic descriptions of places and people.

In Tony Hillerman's novel, People of Darkness, why have He's not only a white man, but a rich white man. Why would he be trusted that much? Is this plausible in some way, or is it a hole in the background of the story?

Is there an English translation of the surviving stanzas of chapter 10 of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin?

At the end of Nalo Hopkinson's novel Midnight Robber (2000), Tan-Tan, the main character, gives birth to a boy. Her friend Melonhead asks how she will name him: "Tubman." Tan-Tan surprised herself, coming out with it so quickly. She hadn't been thinking about what to call him. She smiled up a...

I apologize in advance if the details I'm about to provide are too poor or distorted by my memory. My father told me once of a short story which (if memory serves) is made up of the following plot: In the era of the wild west, some gang is attempting to rob a train. During the robbery, one of th...