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.
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England is a historical nonfiction book written by William Cronon and was first published by Hill and Wang in 1983. Cronon is a award-winning author, having won the Bancroft Prize in...
"The Black Man's Burden” is a poem written by H. T. Johnson in 1899. The poem was a retaliation to Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden” (1897).
In the poem, Johnson criticizes the subjugation of black people at the hands of their white...
Binti is a horror science fiction story written by Nnedi Okorafor and was first published in 2015 by Tor.com. It is the first in a series with the titular name.
The book follows the main protagonist, Binti, as she leaves Earth to travel...
Although now less well known than some of her contemporaries, Lady Mary Wroth was one of the great masters of the English sonnet, along with Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, and Shakespeare. Wroth is best known for her sonnet sequence Pamphilia to...
Sylvia Plath's poem "The Applicant," a satirical exploration of marriage and gender norms framed through the context of a surreal interview, originally appeared in The London Magazine before being published in Plath's 1965 collection Ariel. Though...
Harlem Hopscotch is a poem written and recorded by famed civil rights leader Dr. Maya Angelou in her spoken-word collection The Poetry of Maya Angelou (1969). The poem was later published in her anthology collection, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of...
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is the last—and best-selling—book Dr. Seuss published in his prolific career. Since its publication in 1990, the book has sold over twelve million copies, surpassing beloved classics like The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax,...
The Thief and the Dogs is a novel written by Naguib Mahfouz. The novel was published in 1961, and is seen as a political statement about the 1952 Egyptian revolution and the disappointment Mahfouz and many others felt after the revolution.
The...
Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions is a novel entailing elements of magical realism written by Daniel Wallace and first published in 1998. The book was Wallace’s sixth submission after his first five novels were rejected by publishing houses....
“The Best We Could Do” is an illustrated book that is also a memoir about the author’s life, her parents, and their migration to America to escape the Vietnam War. The memoir was inspired by the conversations the author had with her parents for...
Belfast Confetti is a collection of poetry by Ciaran Gerard Carson. It was initially published in January 1989 and later in December 1989 by Wake Forest University Press.
The collection is made up of long poems, prose, haiku, and lyrics. Born,...
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End is a book by surgeon Atul Gawande. Published in 2014 by Metropolitan Books, the book explores Gawande's profession as a surgeon and the challenges faced as he attempts to save lives. Along the...
“Before We Were Yours” is a novel inspired by true events, about a Memphis adoption organization that stole and sold children to wealthy families. The novel begins with the story about five siblings being taken away one night from their idyllic...
Written by the Dominican-American novelist Julia Alvarez, Before We Were Free is a historical fiction set in the 1960s Dominican Republic. The fictional events in the novel take place on the backdrop of the political unrest during the Trujillo...
Becoming Nicole is a non-fiction book written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt published in October 2015. The book is about the transgender girl Nicole Maines and tackles the subject of gender identity and the LGBTQ community.
...
A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr. is the biographical account of the Nobel Prize-winning economist upon which the Oscar-winning film directed by Ron Howard was based. The book was written by Sylvia Nasar, a journalism...
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction is a memoir written by David Sheff about his family’s journey through their son’s methamphetamine addiction, published in 2008. It was based on The New York Times Magazine article “My...
“Beartown” is a first novel in the series written by a famous Swedish author, Fredrik Backman. Beartown is a translation of the Swedish name of the small town, Bjornstad, where the novel is set. The novel centers around the town’s tradition in ice...
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time is a non-fiction book that explores the theory of evolution written by Jonathan Weiner. It was published in 1994 and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction the following year.
The...
"When there are many worlds you can choose the one you walk into each day." – Jacqueline Woodson
About the AuthorJacqueline Woodson, a celebrated voice in contemporary American literature, is renowned for her lyrical prose and profound exploration...
American Street is a young adult fictional novel by Ibi Zoboi. Published in 2017 by Balzer & Bray, the novel tells a powerful and evoking story about an immigrant family finding their way in the USA after leaving Haiti, only to stumble upon...
The Rosie Project was originally written as a screenplay when Graeme Simsion studied screenwriting at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia in 2006-2007. By 2008, he had completed a draft of a screenplay called The Klara Project, a romantic...
“My Papa’s Waltz,” a 1948 poem by the American writer Theodore Roethke, explores themes of familial conflict, abuse, and intergenerational masculinity through descriptions of a father and son dancing. The poem was published in 1942, but also...
How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor is the sixth book for adults in the How to Read... series by Thomas C. Foster. Foster previously wrote How to Read Literature Like a Professor (first published in 2003, and revised in 2014), followed by How...
