Study Guide Library

Explore an ever-expanding selection of titles ranging from classic texts to contemporary works. SuperSummary Study Guides feature detailed summaries plus analyses of major themes, symbols, characters, and important quotes—all written by literature scholars and experts. Browse titles alphabetically or by genre.

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All TitlesModern FictionClassic FictionNonfictionPlaysEssaysPoetryMiddle Grade/YA
The Open Window
Saki

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1911

The Optimist's Daughter
Eudora Welty

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1969

The Orchard Keeper
Cormac McCarthy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1965

The Orchid Thief
Susan Orlean

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences
Michel Foucault

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1966

The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South
Chip Jones

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2020

Theories of Relativity
Barbara Haworth-Attard

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003

Theories of Time and Space
Natasha Trethewey

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2006

The Origin of Others
Toni Morrison

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
Friedrich Engels

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1884

The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century
Robert B. Marks

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2002

The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Thomas J. Sugrue

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1996

The Origins of Totalitarianism
Hannah Arendt

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1951

The Orphanage by the Lake
Daniel G. Miller

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

The Orphan Collector: A Heroic Novel of Survival During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
Ellen Marie Wiseman

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

The Orphan Master's Son
Adam Johnson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

The Orphan of Ellis Island
Elvira Woodruff

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1997

The Other Americans
Laila Lalami

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Other Black Girl
Zakiya Dalila Harris

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Other Boleyn Girl
Philippa Gregory

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001

The Other Einstein: A novel
Marie Benedict

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

The Other Foot
Ray Bradbury

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1951

The Other Mrs.
Mary Kubica

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

The Other Side of the Bridge
Mary Lawson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

The Other Side of the Sky
Tamim Ansary, Farah Ahmedi

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2005

The Other Side of Truth
Beverley Naidoo

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2000

The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
Andrés Reséndez

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016

The Other Two
Edith Wharton

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1904

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Wes Moore

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010

The Other Woman
Sandie Jones

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Outcasts of Poker Flat
Bret Harte

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1869

The Outside Circle
Transl. Kelly Mellings, Patti LaBoucane-Benson

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2015

The Outsider
Stephen King

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Outsiders
S. E. Hinton

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1967

The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1842

The Overcoat
Nikolai Gogol

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1842

The Overnight Guest
Heather Gudenkauf

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Overstory
Richard Powers

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
Edward Lear

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1871

The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability
Craig Hickman, Tom Smith, Roger Connors

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1994

The Pact
Jodi Picoult

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosiński

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1965

The Painted Door
Sinclair Ross

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1941

The Painted Drum
Louise Erdrich

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The Painted Veil
W. Somerset Maugham

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1925

The Painter
John Ashbery

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1955

The Pairing (The Proposition, #3)
Casey McQuiston

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020

The Palace of Illusions
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008

The Palace Thief
Ethan Canin

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1994

The Pale Horse
Agatha Christie

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
Ken Liu

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2016

The Paper Nautilus
Marianne Moore

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1961

The Paper Palace
Miranda Cowley Heller

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Paradise Problem
Christina Lauren

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Barry Schwartz

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004

The Paris Agent
Kelly Rimmer

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

The Paris Apartment
Lucy Foley

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Paris Architect
Charles Belfoure

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

The Paris Bookseller
Kerri Maher

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Paris Daughter
Kristin Harmel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

The Paris Library: A Novel
Janet Skeslien Charles

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Paris Novel
Ruth Reichl

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

The Parker Inheritance
Varian Johnson

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

The Partial Explanation
Charles Simic

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1999

The Partner
John Grisham

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1997

The Passage
Justin Cronin

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010

The Passenger
Cormac McCarthy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Passing of Grandison
Charles W. Chesnutt

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1899

The Passion
Jeanette Winterson

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Christopher Marlowe

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1599

The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession along the Rio Grande
Angela Garcia

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2010

The Patron Saint of Liars
Ann Patchett

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992

The Paying Guests
Sarah Waters

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Pearl
John Steinbeck

Fiction | Novella | YA | Published in 1947

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
Nadia Hashimi

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Pecan Man
Cassie Dandridge Selleck

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

The Pedestrian: A Fantasy in One Act
Ray Bradbury

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1951

The Pelican Brief
John Grisham

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Jeanne Birdsall

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005

The Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales
Virginia Hamilton

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Middle Grade | Published in 1985

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 We Keep
Allison Larkin

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Perfect Child
Lucinda Berry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Perfect Couple
Elin Hilderbrand

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Perfect Divorce
Jeneva Rose

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2025

The Perfect Escape
Suzanne Park

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020

The Perfect Marriage
Jeneva Rose

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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 Perfumist of Paris
Alka Joshi

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

The Perils of Indifference
Elie Wiesel

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1999

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 Persians
Aeschylus

Fiction | Play | Adult | BCE