Newest Study Guides
Each study guide includes essays, an in-depth chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quiz. Study guides are available in PDF format.
Each study guide includes essays, an in-depth chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quiz. Study guides are available in PDF format.
Justin Cronin developed the idea for The Passage over a three month period during which he jogged alongside his nine year old daughter Iris, who was riding her bicycle to get fit for soccer season. She felt that his previous novels were 'boring'...
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, written by Robin Sloan, was published in 2012. This takes place in a San Francisco, and the main character is Clay Jannon.
Clay knows technology, but he works in a bookstore where the customers don't even buy many...
Recently published in 2013, Sisterland is a novel that tells about identical twins, Kate and Violet, who are not identical at all. Sisterland was written by Curtis Sittenfeld, who has written a total of five highly praised novels and many short...
The Voice at 3:00 AM is a collection of poems written by Charles Simic. It was published in 2003. Charles Simic is one of the most recognized poets of modern day. He has won various awards, including the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, the Griffin...
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys tells the story of fifteen-year-old Lina whose family is deported from their home in Lithuania to a Siberian labor camp in 1941. As the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, Sepetys was inspired by her father to...
Ruta Sepetys is an American author born on November 19, 1967 in Detroit, Michigan. Although Sepetys currently makes her living as a writer, she did not even pursue a humanities field in university. She received a degree in International Finance...
Published in 2013, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? is in some ways a throwback to the epistolary novels of the past that irritate modern readers so much. Anyone who has ever read a novel told through the means of letters from one character to another...
The Beginning of Everything was written by Robyn Schneider and was published during 2013. This fictional novel tells the story of Ezra Faulkner, a star athlete turned social reject. Ezra learns how one unfortunate moment can flip one's life upside...
Laura Ruby is an American novelist known for her young-adult and children’s books. As a teenager, she was inspired to write poetry in order to express her insecurities and anxieties. This led to her studying English literature in college and later...
Fangirl is a novel aimed at young adult readers, but it is also entertaining and thought-provoking for adult readers too. It is the story of Cather Avery, whose mother left her twin sister Wren and herself when they were eight years old....
My Abandonment, written by Peter Rock, is a novel from the point of view of a kidnapped child Caroline and her journey with her "father". The novel outlines that Caroline knows nothing of the kidnapping and travels with her kidnapper who has a...
Chojun was written by Goran Powell, a bestselling author, with an intense passion for practicing karate. He holds a fifth Dan in Goju Ryu Karate and has taught karate while living in London. This historical fiction novel was published during 2012...
Recently published in 2012, An Uncommon Education is a novel written by Elizabeth Percer. Percer is highly acclaimed author who has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times and was recognized by the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation...
While Koffi Kwahulé is considered an internationally acclaimed writer, biographical information on Koffi Kwahulé himself is scant. It is known that he was born in the Ivory Coast in 1956 he studied in the major city of Abidjan. He later immigrated...
Maryse Conde is a French novelist born on February 11, 1937 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. As a child, she was the youngest of eight children and therefore turned to reading as an escape from the haste of her everyday life. After graduating from...
I'll Give You the Sun was written in 2014 by Jandy Nelson, and was published by Dial Books. It is Nelson's second book, and received great amounts of literary acclaim- the novel received the Josette Frank Award for Younger Readers in 2015, the...
The Song of the Cid is essentially the oldest Castilian epic poem that has endured. The story's protagonist is the Castilian hero El Cid, whose narrative is set in the time of the reconquest of Spain and is considered one of the most famous works...
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is a 2010 crime novel by African-American and Jewish author Walter Mosley. The novel, like much of Mosley's other work, features a black male protagonist/"hero": according to Mosley, "hardly anybody in America has...
Kate Morton had made her debut with the novel The House at Riverton in 2006, which was a great success. The young author immediately gained recognition in literary circles and was treated as a writer of big hopes. Kate Morton did not disappoint...
The Forgotten Garden was first published in July of 2008 by Allen & Unwin in Australia, and in April 2009 Atria Books in the United States. The story behind The Forgotten Garden was inspired by the author’s own family history. Morton’s...
The House at Riverton is the breakout novel of Australian novelist Kate Morton who resides in London. It was originally published in 2007 by Pan Macmillan in the United Kingdom. The novel has also been released under the alternative title The...
The Secret Keeper is a novel published in 2012 and written by Kate Morton. This novel features a young teen named Laurel as its protagonist, beginning in the 1960s in England and later ending around the beginning of the 21st century.
Morton, one...
Paula McLain is an American novelist born in 1965 in Fresno, California. As a child, she suffered the abuse of neglectful parents and therefore switched in and out of multiple foster homes. When she turned 18, she started to support herself by...
Circling the Sun was written by Paula McLain, author of New York Times and internationally bestselling novels, such as The Paris Wife. This historical fiction novel was published during 2015 by Ballantine Books.
It tells the story of an...