Literature
Books, authors, literary analysis, and the written word
Cinderella: The World's Most Widely Distributed Fairy Tale
Cinderella (ATU 510A) has over 500 documented variants across cultures, from 9th-century China to Perrault's glass slipper to the Grimms' darker Aschenputtel.
The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats: A Grimm Tale of Predatory Disguise
This Brothers Grimm fairy tale (ATU 123) features a wolf tricking young goats with disguise, the stones-in-belly rescue motif, and direct structural parallels to Little Red Riding Hood.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Original Story vs the Popular Misconception
The original Jekyll & Hyde is NOT about split personality — Jekyll deliberately transforms via potion to indulge repressed desires. It's an addiction/Victorian repression narrative, not a mental illness story.
One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This — Omar El Akkad (2025 National Book Award)
The 2025 National Book Award winner for non-fiction by Omar El Akkad. A 208-page polemic about the gap between Western liberal ideals and the reality of complicity in atrocities, primarily through the lens of Gaza. The title — from a viral tweet El Akkad posted in October 2023 — captures the thesis: history always retroactively condemns atrocities, but in the moment, silence prevails.