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.
The Hoover Institution states that Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August" is "the starting point for any serious study of the First World War." It not only details the events but shows the complex connections and political relationships that led...
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen is a work of historical fiction published in 1947. It is a collection of short stories written by the Polish author Tadeusz Borowski. Borowski was a writer and journalist and started working on the...
Testament of Youth is the first book in the overall memoir of Vera Brittain, an English nurse, writer, and pacifist. It covers her earlier life from 1900-1925, working as a nurse during the First World War.
In Testament of Youth, Brittain...
Written by Spanish Nobel Prize laureate Camilo Jose Cela, The Family of Pascual Duarte is a novel revolving around "tremendismo", a style of writing which focuses on the characters' pain and suffering. Met with public backlash, the first few...
I Served the King of England is a 1971 novel written by Bohumil Hrabal. Written during a period of intense censorship, the book was not officially published until the 1980's. It remains an important piece of Czech literature, and was adapted into...
Morgan Spurlock set out to eat McDonald's food three times a day for 30 days. His choice in doing so is based on the increase in obesity in Americans which has spread to a level considered to now be an epidemic. Spurlock also wanted to find proof...
The Tain is actually the abbreviated title of the Irish legend of Tain Bo Cuailnge, or The Cattle Raid Of Cooley. It is one of the earliest and most enduring examples of Irish literature and it is considered an epic despite the fact that it is...
Love and Vertigo is a novel by Malaysian-born Australian novelist Hsu-Ming Teo. It was published in 2000 and was the recipient of the Australian Vogel's Literary Award.
The plot of Love and Vertigo revolves around a young Australian woman named...
Tik-Tok is a satirical science fiction novel published in 1983, written by renowned sci-fi author John Sladek. Sladek, who died in 2000, was known for his quirky and entertaining writing which has humor and cynicism in equal measure. Both are...
To understand Audre Lorde's poetry, one just has to be sincere. She's not writing anything incredibly profound, but she is writing the truth. Based on her own experiences, Lorde writes to dispel the lies which people tell themselves. She was a...
Vikram Chandra is an Indian-American writer born in New Delhi in 1961. In India, there was not a great deal of opportunity to break out as a writer, so he decided to pursue his bachelor’s degree at Pomona College in California. Afterward, he...
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges is a 1999 collection of short stories written by American author Nathan Englander. Englander is a writer who has published four books and won several prizes, international and local, for his excellent work. His...
David and Goliath is a non-fiction psychology book written by Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell. The book was first published on September 1, 2011. Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist born in England but lived most of his life and spent his university...
Free Love and Other Stories is an eclectic short story collection by British author Ali Smith. Published as Smith's first book in 1995, it won the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award.
Free Love and Other Stories contains 12 short stories,...
A Single Man is a novel by English-American author Christopher Isherwood written in 1964. The novel is set in Southern California during 1962 and tells the story of George, a British professor working at a university in Los Angeles. George is...
A Single Man is a movie directed by Tom Ford based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. It is told from the point of view of George, (Colin Firth), who is single for a number of reasons. He is single because he is not married...
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1958 film directed by Richard Brooks. The movie is an adaptation of the play of the same name by legendary playwright Tennessee Williams which earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. The movie met with success both...
Tobacco Road is a novel written by Erskine Caldwell. The novel was first published in 1932, set in the rural Georgia which the author knew well. It features the memorable (if not entirely pleasant) character Jeeter Lester as well as his wife, Ada,...
Originally beginning his career as a pornography writer in the 1970's, Hanif Kureishi is now an acclaimed British playwright and novelist. His stories demonstrate remarkable prose and narrative grace, with TIME naming him one of the most brilliant...
Written by prominent United States author Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain is a novel published in 1903. The book is essentially a compilation of a series of essays lyrically exploring the various aspects of the American Southwest.
The...
Le Bel Inconnu is literally translated to "The Fair Unknown" and it is a popular folk tale that has strong ties to the legends of King Arthur, telling the popular story of a young man of questionable heritage who becomes a key player in polite...
Are You Somebody is a memoir (an autobiography) written by the Irish journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain. It was first published in 1996. O'Faolain was born in 1940 and died in 2008. She started writing at a young age but this book is what made...
The Buddha in the Attic is the follow-up novel by Julie Otsuka's prize-winning novel When The Emperor Was Divine. This novel tells the story of a group of young Japanese women brought over from their home country to San Francisco as what were...
Samuel Johnson, also known as "Dr. Johnson," was born in 1709. His father, Michael Johnson, was a poor bookseller. He was born ill with tuberculosis. He faced many physical illnesses, such as being almost blind in one eye and deaf in one ear....
