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.
There are as many different and varied routes on the path to becoming a best-selling novelist as there are novels, stories and plots; Caroline Kepnes' path was not the traditional, well-worn one of academia, but a slightly more glitzy affair....
Angels & Insects : Two Novellas is really quite challenging reading because of its subject matter; set in Victorian England, it tells the story of an upper class household, proper and upright on the outside but embroiled in an incestuous...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Italian Journey (published from 1816 to 1817) is Goethe's report on his travels to Italy from 1786 to 1788. Based on his diaries that he took during his long journey, Goethe spends much of the book ruminating on art,...
"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." – C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was a British writer, scholar, and Christian apologist, best known for his works on literature, theology, and philosophy. A prolific...
Nisei Daughter is the story of Monica Sone's experiences as a Japanese American in the 1920s and 1930s, growing up in Seattle, never really feeling that she fit in anywhere. It is also the story of the Japanese American experience in post-Pearl...
In the late nineteen eighties, a magazine called New Woman hit the shelves in the U.K. Less political than empowering, the magazine positioned itself as a publication for women who were confident, independent, and perfectly capable of taking care...
Archie Weller did not take a traditional route to the top of the literary tree in his native Australia, although since modern Australia is a country that was created to house criminals transported from Britain, it is actually quite fitting. After...
Although Mick Jackson's Denial (2016) was a critical success, it was a massive box office bomb. It took only $8 million against a budget of $10 million dollars. Typically, films must make two to three times their budget in order to make a profit...
Simple Recipes is a book containing eight short stories centered around different families in different circumstances. It is written by Chinese American novelist Madeleine Thien, first published in 2001 and then later republished in 2002 by...
A.M. Klein certainly had an interesting life. Born in February 1909, Klein was a poet, journalist, novelist, short story writer and lawyer. However, he is best-known for his poetry. Some of his most-famous poems include: "Out of the Pulver and the...
Nnedi Okorafor had never intended to become a writer; a talented track runner in her teens, Okorafor was a nationally-ranked athlete, and also excelled academically with a particular interest in the sciences. Her plan was to attend college on a...
That Hideous Strength is the third novel in what is known as C.S. Lewis's "Space Trilogy" (the first two being Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, respectively). These works of science fiction are notably out of keeping with the rest of...
Perelandra is the second novel in what is known as C.S. Lewis's "Space Trilogy" (the first being Out of the Silent Planet, and the conclusion being That Hideous Strength). These works of science fiction are notably out of keeping with the rest of...
G.K. Chesterton was a devout man who wrote Christian apologetics profusely; he converted to Catholicism from Anglicanism when he began to feel that the Anglican church was losing sight of its orthodoxy and relaxing its principles too much. The...
A devout Catholic, Chesterton was, by his own admission, irritated by critics who objected to his Christian apologetics writings. Chesterton wrote a great deal in defense of Christianity, the most well-known of these writings being Heretics. When...
Marcus Cicero wrote De Officiis (also known as On Obligations) in less than four weeks, in the Fall of 44 BC. It is a long that details Cicero's idea of the best way to live. The treatise is split into three separate books. Book One deals with...
The Leopard is a book written by the Italian author and social critic Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. The book, which is a chronicle of Italian history, was published in 1958 by Feltrinelli after many query-rejections. It spans over 330 pages...
John G. Avildsen's classic Rocky (1976) has inspired countless sequels and prequels and is responsible for one of the most famous sequences in cinematic history (the montage of Rocky training in Philadelphia). The film follows the eponymous Rocky...
Plutarch's Parallel Lives (first printed in Rome in 1470) is a work of tremendous quality and equally great historical importance. Although it is a very complex book, it can be easily described as a series of biographies of famous people (like...
Adapted from the James Baldwin novel of the same name, If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) is writer-director Barry Jenkins follow-up to the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight (2016). Set against the backdrop of early 1970's Harlem, New York, ...
Hamlet is director-writer-actor Kenneth Branagh's adaption of William Shakespeare's famed play of the same name. Branagh is perhaps best-known for his Shakespeare adaptions, so his involvement in the adaption of Hamlet is no surprise. Branagh's...
Born in November 1921, author Yoshiko Uchida certainly had an interesting life. During her senior year at U.C. Berkeley, Uchida was informed that she and her family -- as well as all of the Japanese Americans in the United States -- would be...
Everyman is a retrospective reflective novel about “everyman”. It is written by Philip Roth and was published in 2006 by Hougton Mifflin at 182 pages. There is an audiobook read by George Guidall which was published shortly after the written...
Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (released in 1994) is an undoubtedly interesting film. It was now-famous director Quentin Tarantino that came up with the story for the film, which revolves around two people who suffered through bad and...