Newest Study Guides

The novel Moby Dick was the sixth novel published by Herman Melville, a landmark of American literature that mixed a number of literary styles including a fictional adventure story, historical detail and even scientific discussion. The story of...

Ormond; or, the Secret Witness (published in 1799), was written by Pennsylvania-born writer Charles Brockden Brown. In many ways, Ormond is a book about the ideals of the American founding. Throughout the book, Brown contends with some of the most...

Along with Iron Man (2008), Kenneth Branagh's Thor (which was released in 2011) kickstarted the behemoth we now know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film, which is based on a comic book of the same name, tells the story of Thor, the Norse...

The novel Blackouts explores queer history through the memories of two men in a mentor-mentee relationship. Juan and nene discuss their experiences as gay men and Juan tells nene about Jan Gay and the Sex Variants book that co-opted her research...

Carol Rumens is a British poet and professor whose work is informed by history, language, origins, and the magic in the mundane. Her poem “The Émigrée,” first published in the 1983 collection Star Whisper, expresses the way that nothing—even war,...

Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem is a science fiction novel that follows multiple characters, usually the scientist Wang Miao, as the people of Earth discover and confront an upcoming invasion by aliens from the planet Trisolaris.

The novel...

Romance of the Three Kingdoms was published in the 14th century. Although the novel's author is not known for certain, it is widely attributed to Luo Guanzhong, who many scholars believed lived during the Ming dynasty (much of Guanzhong's life...

Out of the Dust is a children's historical novel, written in verse, about a teenage girl and her family struggling to survive on their Oklahoma Panhandle wheat farm during the Depression.

Narrated by Billie Jo Kelby, the book's protagonist, Out of...

Cynthia’s Revels is an allegorical comedy written by Ben Jonson. First performed in 1600, it was published in printed form the next year. The work is an example of plays produced as part of the War of the Theaters. The theaters in question were...

Henry Derozio was an early 19th-century poet, teacher, and thinker who played a significant role in the Bengal Renaissance in India. Derozio was born in Kolkata in 1809 to an Indo-Portuguese father and an English mother. He was known for his...

Rarely are war films elevated into the pantheon of the best films ever made. However, Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) is widely regarded as one of the best war films ever made. The film, which starts with one of the most recognizable...

A Game at Chess is a 1624 comedy by English playwright Thomas Middleton. The play takes the form of a chess match, with characters lacking personal names and instead using chess titles, such as the White Knight and the Black King. Despite its...

In 1984, George Orwell presents his vision of dystopia, a world consisting of three massive totalitarian states constantly at war with each other and using technological advancements to keep their respective Party members and masses under careful...

Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina" was initially published in The New Yorker magazine in 1956. It is, as the title indicates, a sestina—an unrhymed verse form with French origins, in which the concluding words of each line in the poem's opening sestet...

Simon Armitage is a poet, playwright, and translator whose work often centers on relationships and a strong sense of place. His poem "Mother, Any Distance Greater Than a Single Span," originally published in the 1993 collection Book of Matches, ...

Author, journalist, and sociology professor Matthew Desmond is known for his hard-hitting expose onsystemic issues plaguing the United States and its people. In his most famous book, Evicted, Desmond explored the housing and eviction crisis in...

First published on 7th November 2023, Check & Mate is a young adult novel written by Ali Hazelwood. The novel delves into themes of resilience, love, sacrifice, and the pursuit of personal passions.

The story revolves around the life of...

Published on 4th April 2023, Divine Rivals is a young adult fantasy novel written by Rebecca Ross. In this novel, Ross transports readers into a fantastical realm where ancient gods wage a tumultuous battle for supremacy over Cambria.

Within this...

Published by Tor Books in April 2023, In the Lives of Puppets is a fantasy novel written by TJ Klune. The story delves into a dystopian world devoid of humanity where robots reign supreme. Victor Lawson, nurtured by his robotic father Giovanni in...

Hell Bent, which was published in early 2023, is the second novel in author Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House series. It picks up after the events of the events of the previous novel, Ninth House. After her teacher, Mr. Darlington is punished and...

Rebecca Yarros' Fourth Wing was published in early 2023 by Red Tower Books, which is dedicated to primarily publishing fantasy books. Fourth Wing follows the main character and protagonist, Violet Sorrengail, a young woman who has spent most of...

Emily Henry's Happy Place was published in 2023 by publisher Berkley. With every one of her novels, Henry aims to create a book that will appeal to everyone—men and women alike. Her novels are often filled with relatable themes that speak to what...

The Housemaid is a novel by Freida McFadden published in 2022. A year later it was followed by a sequel, The Housemaid’s Secret. A third entry in the series, The Housemaid is Watching, was published in 2024. The book is a thriller with many plot...