Lindsay Straube’s Between Two Kings (2025) is the second installment in the Split or Swallow series, a romantasy saga. The novel picks up immediately after the first book’s conclusion, following protagonist Temperance “Tem” Verus. Tem is half-basilisk (a magical creature that shape shifts from human to snake) and half-human, a combination known as a “hybreed.” Now married to the formidable basilisk king, Caspen, Tem must navigate her new role as basilisk queen and learn to... Read Between Two Kings Summary

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life is a 2021 self-help book by psychologist Jordan Peterson. It is a sequel to his 2018 book 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which sold millions of copies and launched Peterson as a prominent public intellectual. As the subtitle indicates, the book provides 12 additional rules, which he describes as complementing rather than merely supplementing the original set of rules. The original book was principally concerned... Read Beyond Order Summary

“Big Blonde” is a short story written by Dorothy Parker. It was first published in 1929 in The Bookman (a prestigious New York City literary magazine) and won the O. Henry competition for the best story that same year. It was later published in Parker’s 1930 short-story collection Laments for the Living.This study guide refers to the online flipbook version of “Big Blonde.”Content Warning: The source text contains references to domestic violence, alcohol addiction, and... Read Big Blonde Summary

Big Swiss is a contemporary literary novel by Jen Beagin. Published in 2023 by Simon & Schuster, Big Swiss explores the conflux of psychology, repression, love, desire, and individual development. The novel follows the protagonist, Greta, as she engages in an inappropriate and coerced relationship with the object of her desire, a woman she refers to as Big Swiss. Greta learned about Big Swiss through her job of transcribing recordings of sexual therapy meetings for... Read Big Swiss Summary

Birthday Girl (2018) by Penelope Douglas is a racy age-gap romance for adult readers and features taboo themes and steamy sequences. The novel tells the story of 19-year-old Jordan Hadley, who, along with her boyfriend, Cole, is forced to move in with Cole’s father, the handsome and controlling Pike Lawson. As Cole drifts apart from Jordan, Jordan and Pike experience an intense attraction. Torn over his desire for the much younger woman, Pike fears that... Read Birthday Girl Summary

“Bliss” is a short story written by New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield. It was originally published in 1918 in The English Review and later republished in 1920 as a collection of short stories entitled Bliss and Other Stories. Katherine Mansfield was a contemporary of British writers such as Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando), D. H. Lawrence (Sons and Lovers, Women in Love), and James Joyce (Ulysses, Dubliners). As a Modernist story, “Bliss” focuses on the... Read Bliss Summary

Blithe Spirit is a 1941 farce written by the English playwright, composer, and actor Noël Coward. Known for his wit and style, Coward’s theatrical career lasted for nearly six decades. Blithe Spirit, one of his most popular and enduring works, was first performed in the West End, running for 1,997 performances, before transferring to Broadway for 657 performances. It was adapted into the musical High Spirits in 1964. To this day, the play continues to... Read Blithe Spirit Summary

Blood Wedding, a Spanish rural tragedy, was written by Federico Garcia Lorca in 1932 while he was director of the travelling theater company Teatro Universitario La Barraca. The play was first performed at Teatro Beatriz in Madrid in 1933 under the title Bodas de Sangre. It ran briefly in America on Broadway in 1935, where it was retitled Bitter Oleander. It was not well received; the passions and folkloric culture in the play were too... Read Blood Wedding Summary

“Blue Beard,” by 17th-century French author Charles Perrault, is a short story in the fairy tale genre that relies on symbolism and concision to address themes of Female Agency, Transgressive Knowledge, and Patriarchal Control. First published in Perrault’s 1697 book Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé, avec des Moralités (meaning Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals), “Blue Beard” was found alongside other classic fairy tales that engage with similar themes, such as “Sleeping... Read Bluebeard Summary

Bluebird, Bluebird (2017) by Texas native Attica Locke, published by Little, Brown and Company, is a 2018 Edgar and Anthony award-winning mystery novel. It was also selected as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Kirkus Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2017. The first in the Highway 59 series follows Texas Ranger Darren Mathews through the backroads of Texas in search of justice and reform... Read Bluebird, Bluebird Summary

Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No To Take Control of Your Life (1992) was written by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. Cloud and Townsend, two California-based Christian psychologists, wrote the book in response to their observations of destructive habits that accompanied a lack of personal boundaries, particularly in the Christian community. The premise of the book is rooted in what the authors call “a biblical view of boundaries” (24), the... Read Boundaries Summary

Cora Reilly’s novel Bound by Honor (2014) is a mafia romance and the first installment in the Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles series. The story follows Aria Scuderi, the daughter of a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit, who is forced into an arranged marriage with Luca Vitiello, the fearsome future head of the New York Famiglia. The union is a political maneuver designed to create peace between the rival crime families, forcing Aria to... Read Bound by Honor Summary

Brain Damage is a 2016 psychological thriller by Freida McFadden. A practicing physician specializing in brain injury, McFadden’s medical expertise informs the novel’s detailed depiction of trauma and recovery. The story follows Dr. Charlotte “Charly” McKenna, a successful dermatologist who must reconstruct her life and memories after a gunshot to the head leaves her with severe cognitive and physical impairment. As she navigates her fragmented reality, Charly realizes that the key to her attacker’s identity... Read Brain Damage Summary

Bread of Angels (2025) is the third memoir by American musician Patti Smith, following Just Kids (2010), which won the National Book Award, and M Train (2015). Best known for her 1975 debut album Horses, Smith is a poet, visual artist, and songwriter; her art addresses her interests in language, memory, and the act of witnessing. Bread of Angels, which was released on November 4, the anniversary of Smith’s husband Fred “Sonic” Smith’s death and... Read Bread of Angels Summary

Bride is a novel by Ali Hazelwood (2024). While five other novels feature STEM-related relationships between men and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, including The Love Hypothesis (2021), Love on the Brain (2022), and Love, Theoretically (2023), Bride is Hazelwood’s first foray into paranormal romance. Misery Lark, a Vampyre, is forced to keep an old alliance between the Vampyres and Weres by marrying Lowe Moreland, the handsome alpha of the Weres... Read Bride Summary

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak is a young adult literary novel following the lives of the Dunbar boys, five brothers who live alone following the death of their mother and abandonment by their father. The novel follows a non-linear narrative that jumps between different characters, decades, and backstories to provide a comprehensive overview of why Clay, the fourth Dunbar brother, leaves home to help their father build a bridge years after having been deserted... Read Bridge of Clay Summary

Published in 2012, Bringing Up Bébé (and its bullet-point counterpart Bébé Day by Day) is a nonfiction, sociological exploration of the differences between French and American styles of parenting, and what makes French parenting so successful. Pamela Druckerman is an American journalist and writer who moved to Paris and discovered a drastically different approach to raising children that caused her to reframe Parenting as a Social Construct. Navigating Motherhood in a New Place proved its own... Read Bringing Up Bébé Summary

Bring Up the Bodies (2012) is a Tudor-era historical novel by British writer Hilary Mantel. It is the second novel in a trilogy depicting the life and career of Thomas Cromwell, a 16th-century English politician and advisor to King Henry VIII. Bring Up the Bodies followed Wolf Hall (2009) and preceded The Mirror and The Light (2020). It received significant critical acclaim and was awarded the 2012 Man Booker Prize. BBC produced a television adaptation... Read Bring Up The Bodies Summary

Broken Country is a literary novel by Clare Leslie Hall that was published in 2025. It is the North American debut for the author, who previously published two thrillers in the UK and Germany under the name Clare Empson. Set in the UK, primarily in the rural village of Hemston, North Dorset, Broken Country spans decades as it follows Beth Johnson, who is caught between her enduring connection to Gabriel Wolfe, the privileged son of... Read Broken Country Summary

Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman is a memoir authored by model, actress, and entrepreneur Brooke Shields (with Rachel Bertsche). She writes for an audience of middle-aged women and reflects on the ways her relationships with herself, her work, and her friends and family changed as she entered midlife. Shields critiques the gendered ageism that impacts everything from social interactions to women’s healthcare, using examples from her... Read Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old Summary