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

The Path Between the Seas
David McCullough

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1977

The Path of Daggers
Robert Jordan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1)
Robert A. Caro

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1982

The Patient
Michael Palmer

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000

The Patient's Secret
Loreth Anne White

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Patriarch (Bruno, Chief of Police, #8)
Martin Walker

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015

The Patriots
Sana Krasikov

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Patriot Threat
Steve Berry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015

The Patron Saint of Liars
Ann Patchett

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

The Paul Street Boys
Ferenc Molnár, Masimiliano Longo

Fiction | Novel | Published in 1906

The Pawnbroker

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

The Paying Guests
Sarah Waters

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Peach Keeper
Sarah Addison Allen

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011

The Peach Stone: Stories from Four Decades
Paul Horgan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1967

The Peacock Emporium
Jojo Moyes

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The Pearl
John Steinbeck

Fiction | Novella | YA | Published in 1947

The Pearl Sister (The Seven Sisters #4)
Lucinda Riley

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
Nadia Hashimi

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Pearl Thief
Elizabeth Wein

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

The Peasants of Languedoc
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1966

The Pecan Children
Quinn Connor

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street
Lindsay Currie

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman
Denis Thériault

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2005

The Pelican Brief
John Grisham

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

The Peloponnesian War
Donald Kagan

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

The Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The Pentagon Papers
Neil Sheehan

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1971

The Penultimate Peril
Lemony Snicket

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005

The People in the Trees
Hanya Yanagihara

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

The People of Paper
Salvador Plascencia

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The People of Sparks
Jeanne DuPrau

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2004

The People of the Abyss
Jack London

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1903

The People of the Wind
Poul Anderson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1973

The People's Platform
Astra Taylor

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014

The People vs. Alex Cross
James Patterson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The People We Keep
Allison Larkin

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Peppermint Pig
Nina Bawden

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1975

The Perennial Philosophy
Aldous Huxley

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1945

The Perfect Child
Lucinda Berry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Perfect Christmas
Debbie Macomber

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

The Perfect Couple
Elin Hilderbrand

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Perfect Escape
Suzanne Park

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020

The Perfect First
Maya Hughes

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Perfect Game
J. Sterling

Fiction | Novel | Published in 2012

The Perfect Girl
Gilly Macmillan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

The Perfect Girlfriend
Karen Hamilton

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Perfect Hope
Nora Roberts

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

The Perfect Husband
Lisa Gardner

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1997

The Perfect Marriage
Jeneva Rose

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

The Perfect Mother
Aimee Molloy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Perfect Murder (Inspector Ghote, #1)
H.R.F. Keating

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1964

The Perfect Nanny
Leïla Slimani

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

The Perfect Score
Rob Buyea

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017

The Perfect Shot
Elaine Marie Alphin

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003

The Perfect Son
Freida McFadden

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997

The Perfect Stranger
Megan Miranda

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Perfect Wife
J.P. Delaney

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida
Clarissa Goenawan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

The Perfume Collector
Kathleen Tessaro

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

The Perfumist of Paris
Alka Joshi

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

The Perilous Gard
Elizabeth Marie Pope

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1974

The Perilous Road
William O. Steele

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1958

The Periodic Table
Primo Levi

Nonfiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1975

The Peripheral
William Gibson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1999

The Persian Boy (Alexander the Great, #2)
Mary Renault

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1972

The Persian Expedition
Xenophon, Rex Warner

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 401

The Persian Pickle Club
Sandra Dallas

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1995

The Persians
Aeschylus

Fiction | Play | Adult | BCE

The Personal Librarian
Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
Josh Kaufman

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant: Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1988

The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias
Dolly Chugh

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018

The Phantom of the Opera
Gaston Leroux

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1910

The Phantom Tollbooth
Norton Juster

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1961

The Phenomenon of Man
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1955

The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study
W.E.B. Du Bois

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1899

The Philosopher's Pupil
Iris Murdoch

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1983

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1975

The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
H.L. Mencken

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1908

The Philosophy of History
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1831

The Phoenix and the Turtle
William Shakespeare

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1601

The Phoenix Crown: A Novel
Kate Quinn, Janie Chang

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

The Photographer
Didier Lefèvre, Emmanuel Guibert, Frédéric Lemercier

Nonfiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Adult | Published in 2003

The Physician (Cole Family Trilogy, #1)
Noah Gordon

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1986