Book Brief Library

Get inspired and find your next read with SuperSummary's growing library of bite-sized Book Briefs. Designed for easy browsing and discovery, each Book Brief provides a short, spoiler-free summary plus an at-a-glance snapshot of a book's mood, reviews and reception, reader profile, and other details to help you decide if a title is right for you. Explore Book Briefs alphabetically or by genre.

Looking for more comprehensive resources? Find chapter-by-chapter summaries and analyses on over 8,600 titles in our Study Guide Library, plus quick-read synopses of thousands of additional works in our Plot Summary Library

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ#
A Painful Case
James Joyce

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1914

A Painted House
John Grisham

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001

A Pair of Blue Eyes

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1873

A Pale View of Hills
Kazuo Ishiguro

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1982

A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
Rebecca Solnit

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

A Parchment of Leaves
Silas House

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999

A Paris Apartment
Michelle Gable

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

A Partial History of Lost Causes
Jennifer duBois

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

A Passage North
Anuk Arudpragasam

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A Passage to India
E. M. Forster

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1924

A Passion in the Desert
Honoré de Balzac

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1830

A Patch of Blue
Elizabeth Kata

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

A Patchwork Planet
Anne Tyler

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity
Nicholas D. Kristof , Sheryl WuDunn

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014

A Peace to End All Peace
David Fromkin

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1989

A Pearl in the Storm
Tori Murden McClure

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2009

A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain
Paul Preston

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020

A People's History of American Empire
Howard Zinn

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story
Diana Butler Bass

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play (New Press People's History)
Dave Zirin

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008

A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1980

A People's History of the World
Chris Harman

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1999

A Perfect Blood
Kim Harrison

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

A Perfect Red
Amy Butler Greenfield

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2005

A Perfect Spy
John le Carré

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1986

A Perfect Stranger
Danielle Steel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1981

A Perilous Undertaking
Deanna Raybourn

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

A Personal Matter
Kenzaburo Oe

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1964

A Personal Record
Joseph Conrad

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1912

A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Edmund Burke

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1756

A Pho Love Story
Loan Le

Fiction | Novel | Published in 2021

A Photo Finish
Elsie Silver

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A Pickpocket's Tale
Timothy J. Gilfoyle

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

A Piece of the World
Christina Baker Kline

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

A Pigeon and a Boy
Meir Shalev

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

A Pigeon's Tale
S.A. Mahan

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith
Timothy Egan

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2019

A Place at the Table
Saadia Faruqi, Laura Shovan

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020

A Place Called Freedom
Ken Follett

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995

A Place Called Home
David Ambroz

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2022

A Place for Us
Fatima Farheen Mirza

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

A Place For Us
Harriet Evans

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

A Place Like This
Steven Herrick

Fiction | Poem | YA | Published in 1998

A Place of Execution
Val McDermid

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

A Place of Greater Safety
Hilary Mantel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

A Place of Hiding (Inspector Lynley, #12)
Elizabeth George

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

A Place to Belong
Cynthia Kadohata

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006

A Place to Hang the Moon
Kate Albus

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

A Place to Stand
Jimmy Santiago Baca

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2001

A Place Where the Sea Remembers
Sandra Benitez

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993

A Plan for Escape
Adolfo Bioy Casares

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1945

A Pocket Full of Rye
Agatha Christie

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1953

A Poetry Handbook
Mary Oliver

Nonfiction | Reference/Text Book | Adult | Published in 1994

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1916

A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1989

A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World
Paul E. Miller

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

A Preface to Paradise Lost
C.S. Lewis

Nonfiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1942

A Prefect's Uncle (School Stories, #2)
P.G. Wodehouse

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1903

A Pride of Poppies
Julie Bozza, et al.

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2015

A Primate's Memoir
Robert M. Sapolsky

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001

A Princess of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1912

A Private Cathedral (Dave Robicheaux, #23)
James Lee Burke

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

A Problem from Hell
Samantha Power

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2002

A Promised Land
Barack Obama

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2020

A Promise for Spring (Heart of the Prairie #3)
Kim Vogel Sawyer

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009

A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)
Amanda Bouchet

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
E. L. Konigsburg

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1973

A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Becky Chambers

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2021

Pachinko
Min Jin Lee

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
Ian W. Toll

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2011

Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippines' Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball
Rafe Bartholomew

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010

Pacific Vortex!
Clive Cussler, Michael Pritchard

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1983

Pack Challenge
Shelly Laurenston

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Mary Roach

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

Packinghouse Daughter
Cheri Register

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1990

Pack Up the Moon
Kristan Higgins

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living
Nick Offerman

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2013

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Roddy Doyle

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1993

Page
Tamora Pierce

Fiction | Novel | Published in 2008

Pageboy: A Memoir
Elliot Page

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023

Page by Paige: A Graphic Novel
Laura Lee Gulledge

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011

Pages for You (Pages for You, #1)
Sylvia Brownrigg

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2001

Painted Scars
Neva Altaj

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

Painting the Black
Carl Deuker

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1997

Paint it Black
Janet Fitch

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

Pakistan: A Hard Country
Anatol Lieven

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2011

Palace of Stone
Shannon Hale

Fiction | Novel | Published in 2012

Palace of the Peacock (Faber Editions): 'Magnificent' - Tsitsi Dangarembga
Wilson Harris

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

Palace of Treason
Jason Matthews

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015

Palace Walk
Naguib Mahfouz

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1956

Paladin of Souls (World of the Five Gods, #2)
Lois McMaster Bujold

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

Paladin’s Grace
T. Kingfisher

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Carl Sagan

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1994

Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Katherine Anne Porter

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1939

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

Palimpsest
Gore Vidal

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1953

Palisades Park
Alan Brennert

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

Pamela
Samuel Richardson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1740

Pan
Knut Hamsun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1894

Pancakes-Paris
Claire Huchet Bishop

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1947