Quartet: Four Masterpieces of Great Fiction

by W. Somerset Maugham

A cheesy package (tired of reading masterpieces of regular fiction?) for some interesting stories. I read exactly enough of R.C. Sherriff's screenplays to know that they were terrible. Namely, the final scenes, in which Maugham's secret intention for all the endings to be happy was finally realized.

Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

So many proverbs! Imagine how awesome it would be if you talked like that. Also, colonialism WTF.

The Master and Margarita

by Mikhail Bulgakov

Super cool. Try to find the translation I have: It is translated very directly from the original, which makes every sentence sound upside-down and backwards.

Scourge: the once and future threat of smallpox

by Jonathan B. Tucker

Interesting, and much less frightening than you would think.