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.
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...
In her 2023 novel Weyward, Emilia Hart took a significant risk. Rather than telling a simple story in a single setting, she decided to follow three separate but interconnected story threads. The first story is set in the modern day, in 2019, and...
Eastbound is the 2023 English-language translation of Maylis de Kerangal’s novel Tangente vers l'est which was originally published in 2012. The direct translation of the original title would be “Tangent Toward the East” but the revised title...
North Woods is a novel by Daniel Mason published by Random House in 2023. As the title indicates, the central element of the narrative is not the character but the setting. The book focuses on the North Woods location over an extended period...
Freewater is a children's novel by Amina Luqman-Dawson which was published by Little Brown and Company in 2022. It is targeted toward middle-grade readers and tells a story about a little-known piece of slave-owning history in America. The focus...
Donna Barba Higuera's The Last Cuentista was published in October 2021 to great fanfare. A work of science fiction, The Last Cuentista follows a twelve-year-old girl named Petra Peña, who lives on an Earth beset by terrible, tragic conditions...
The Last Mapmaker is an adventure story for middle-grade readers written by Christina Soontornvat and published in 2023. Although set entirely within a fantasy world created in the mind of the author, the story has strong thematic and historical...
Kim by Rudyard Kipling was first published serially in McClure's Magazine and Cassell's Magazine. It was later published as a book by Macmillan and Co. Ltd. in October 1901. The story takes place in the late 19th century, after the Second Afghan...
“An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” is Immanuel Kant’s famous essay published in 1784. In this essay, he explains what enlightenment is, and ways to achieve it. It is one of the most debated essays on political philosophy. Kant...
"The Mountain" is a 1952 poem by Elizabeth Bishop. First published in Poetry magazine, this work was not included in any volume of poetry during Bishop's lifetime. It is written from the perspective of a speaker trying to make sense of herself and...
“To Althea, from Prison” is a poem by the English poet Richard Lovelace. It is about the poet’s experience in prison for his support of King Charles I. This occurred at a time in England when pro-royalty and pro-parliament factions were in...
Alan Gratz's Ground Zero (2021) is a young-adult historical novel about an American boy who escapes the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and an Afghan girl who tries to stop her brother from joining the Taliban. The separate...
