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Schools are charged with instilling a lifelong love of reading in their students. When musty books written hundreds of years ago are the required reading, sometimes the opposite occurs. Some students may relish the thought of digging into Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales from the 14th century, or one of the epic Russian novels like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, but for many, those books bear little relevance to life today. Here are 10 modern American classic novels, listed in alphabetical order, which can reinvigorate a love for the classic novel.

The movies are in trouble. Hollywood has beaten a variety of challenges before, but those were different; they were external threats. This time the danger lies within the film industry itself. To remain vital as an art form, movie companies need to carefully examine the current state of the business, and how executive decisions are affecting everything from box office revenue to profitability. The American movie industry isn’t going away anytime soon, but if some of these troubling trends aren’t reversed, it could look much different in the future.

Americans have some pretty strong opinions about what no longer works in their country, whether in terms of education, government, an aging infrastructure, health care, etc. In some cases, the country’s failures have become obvious. The United States continues to do many important things very well, however. It's not perfect, but when it's at its best, no other country can come close. With that in mind, here are 10 areas where the U.S. still sets the standard for the rest of the world.

An ability to stand the test of time isn't the only measure of a great motion picture. But the list of films that have garnered high praise one year only to be virtually forgotten a few years later is a very long one indeed. Some of the best movies of the 1980s, listed in alphabetical order here, were commercial hits, and some weren't. But they all still hold up very well, several decades later. This is the third in a five-part series on the best 50 movies of the past 50 years.

There are no completely good or bad dog breeds. Every purebred dog alive today is the latest in a long line designed to be good at something, while other traits have often been neglected. And a dog's behavior is shaped primarily, of course, by its environment and individual personality. But the fact remains some dog breeds are great for families while others are clearly not. If you’re thinking about adding a new dog to your family, here are some breeds you may want to consider, or avoid, depending upon your situation.

The leaders of the Republican Party have their work cut out for them. With the U.S. House of Representatives and 29 statehouses under GOP control, it’s clear the Republicans are more than capable of winning elections on the regional level. But just one win in the popular vote for president since 1988 suggests something's no longer clicking nationally. Turning things around won't be easy, but the results of the 2012 vote make it clear what the party needs to fix.

Enough time has passed now for us to get a good read on the best movies of the 1990s. Some classics have emerged, along with fan favorites. A handful of both appear on this list. Even the Academy Awards, notorious for giving the Oscar for Best Picture to the wrong movies, got it right a few times during the decade. The below films are listed in alphabetical order. This is the second of a five-part series on the top motion pictures of the past five decades.

Cult films are the rejects. These are the movies nobody went to see when they came out, presumably because they weren't any good. They've become cult films not just because those nobodies were wrong, but also because at least some of the early audience members have since changed their minds. All of the motion pictures on this list were either released within the past 40 years or achieved their following in that period, as cult status is a distinctly modern cultural phenomenon.

Has the ship already sailed on climate change? Data clearly shows our globe continuing to warm. Temperature and other records continue to be broken, and at a record pace. Yet as the warm-up appears to gain momentum, any momentum on the policy front to stem it has slowed to a crawl, if not a halt. The reasons for this are varied, not a little complex, and as rapidly evolving as the weather itself.

Film critics may serve a valuable purpose for moviegoers, but even more helpful is hindsight — especially for critics. Not one of the motion pictures listed below as the best of the ’00s won the Oscar for Best Picture, although most were at least nominated for something. But these are the movies people are still talking about, and watching, years later. The below films are listed in alphabetical order. This is the first of a five-part series on top films of the past five decades.