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.
"Myth" is a poem by American author Natasha Trethewey that uses an unusual structure to retell the story of Orpheus. Originally published in 2006, the poem appeared as part of her collection Native Guard, which received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for...
"Enlightenment" is a poem by American writer Natasha Trethewey that links the story of Thomas Jefferson's life to her relationship with her father. The poem was originally published as part of her 2012 poetry collection, Thrall. Trethewey was born...
Geoffrey Chaucer's The House of Fame was written sometime between 1374 and 1385, making it one of Chaucer's earliest works. Written in Middle English, The House of Fame is over 2,000 lines long and tells the story of an unnamed poet who one day...
"Incident" is a poem by America writer Natasha Trethewey that recounts an unsettling story told by a family every year. The poem was originally published as part of her 2006 collection, Native Guard, which went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for...
“Native Guard” is a sonnet sequence by American poet Natasha Trethewey about a member of the Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first Black regiments to serve in the U.S. military. The poem is from her collection of the same name, Native Guard,...
Told from a first person point of view, author Henry James' The Figure in the Carpet was published in 1896 and tells the story of a man (the unnamed narrator, who is a literary critic for a local newspaper), who meets his favorite author and pours...
Henry James wrote The Wings of the Dove in 1902. It is a novel centered around the life of heiress Milly Theale, and the way in which those around her behave when she becomes seriously ill. It is a study in human motivation, as some of Milly's...
The Europeans is a satirical short novel by American author Henry James. Initially published serially in The Atlantic Monthly, it was later published as a novel in 1878 by Macmillan Publishers and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The novel is a comedic...
The Bostonians is a satirical novel by American author Henry James initially published serially in The Century Magazine, it was later published in 1886 as a book by Macmillan Publishers. The novel tells a melancholy seriocomedy surrounding Basil...
Published in 1904, The Golden Bowl is a historical fiction novel written by American-British author Henry James. The novel explores the politics of marriage including secrets, unsaid grievances, and expectations. It has a film adaptation with the...
The Plot is a mystery thriller novel written by American novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz. It was published by Celadon Books in May 2021. The book is Korelitz’s seventh novel and made it on the New York Times Bestseller list and The Tonight Show...
The Latecomer is a contemporary fiction novel written by New York Times bestselling author Jean Hanff Korelitz. Celadon Books published the book on May 31, 2022, as the eighth novel by the author. It was reported that the book will be adapted for...
The Last Cuentista is a novel written by an American author, Donna Barba Higuera, and published in 2021. It is a science fiction, space travel dystopian novel that falls into the middle-grade age range. It is a second novel by the author, who rose...
The Committed is a historical novel by American novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen. It was published in 2021 by Grove Press as the second in a series. The novel was preceded by The Sympathizer, which was a commercial success and won the 2016 Pulitzer...
The Spanish Love Deception is a novel by Elena Armas published in February 2022 by Atria Books. It is a romantic comedic novel steeped in the trope of couples who hate at first sight and then gradually come to realize they actually love each...
Wahala is a debut novel by Nikki May, a Nigerian-British author, and it follows three Nigerian-British friends, their lives, the struggles they face, and the friendships they try to uphold. Roughly translated, the Nigerian word wahala means ...
Miles Morales is a novel written by the award-winning author Jason Reynolds, who decided to create his own version of the well-known Spider-Man world. The novel follows an African American and Hispanic boy called Miles who goes to the Brooklyn...
Zahrah the Windseeker is a fantasy novel by Nigerian writer Nnedi Okorafor published in 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Set on a fictional planet, Zahrah is a young girl born with forbidden vine dreadlocks (Dada), said to possess magical...
Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora is an anthology edited by Sheree Thomas and published in 2000. The book is a collection of short stories, novel excerpts, and short essays. As the title indicates, the...
Brown Girl in the Ring is a sci-fi novel by Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson. It was published in 1998 by Warner Aspect (now Hachette Book Group) as Hopkinson's debut novel. Set in a dystopian future, the city of Toronto has been barricaded and...
Published in 2016, Rosewater is a science fiction novel written by Nigerian-British writer Tade Thompson. Apex Publication first published it before Orbit Books acquired the rights in 2018. It is the first installment of the Wormwood trilogy...
An Unkindness of Ghosts is a sci-fi novel by American author Rivers Solomon. Published in 2017 by Akashic Books, the novel explores a society built on systemic racism in a generation ship. Inspired by the last Trans Atlantic ship to bring slaves...
The Sea of Monsters is the second book in the critically acclaimed, New York Times Bestseller series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Published in April 2006, The Sea of Monsters is a middle-grade American fantasy novel for...
"Backwards" is a poem by writer Warsan Shire about familial strife and the desire to reverse time. First published in 2011 by flipped eye publishing, the poem appeared in Shire's collection Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. Shire is a poet and...