Book Summaries & Writing Lessons for Authors

Browse book summaries and analysis from editors with writing lessons, story structure insights, and craft takeaways.

2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey
By Arthur C. Clarke
2666
2666
By Roberto Bolaño
A Brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time
By Stephen Hawking
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess
A Doll's House
A Doll's House
By Henrik Ibsen
A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms
By Ernest Hemingway
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
By Rebecca Solnit
A Grain of Wheat
A Grain of Wheat
By Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
A Passage to India
A Passage to India
By E. M. Forster
A People's History of the United States
A People's History of the United States
By Howard Zinn
A People's Tragedy
A People's Tragedy
By Orlando Figes
A Personal Matter
A Personal Matter
By Kenzaburō Ōe
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
By James Joyce
A Short History of Nearly Everything
A Short History of Nearly Everything
By Bill Bryson
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
By Charles Dickens
A Wizard of Earthsea
A Wizard of Earthsea
By Ursula K. Le Guin
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain
Ain't I a Woman
Ain't I a Woman
By Bell Hooks
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
By Ron Chernow
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
By Erich Maria Remarque
All the Devils Are Here
All the Devils Are Here
By Bethany McLean
Americanah
Americanah
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An Immense World
An Immense World
By Ed Yong
And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
By Agatha Christie
Angela's Ashes
Angela's Ashes
By Frank McCourt
Animal Farm
Animal Farm
By George Orwell
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy
Annals of the Former World
Annals of the Former World
By John McPhee
Antifragile
Antifragile
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
As I Lay Dying
As I Lay Dying
By William Faulkner
Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits
By James Clear
Awakenings
Awakenings
By Oliver Sacks
Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers
By Stephen E. Ambrose
Becoming
Becoming
By Michelle Obama
Behave
Behave
By Robert M. Sapolsky
Being Mortal
Being Mortal
By Atul Gawande
Beloved
Beloved
By Toni Morrison
Berlin: the Downfall 1945
Berlin: the Downfall 1945
By Antony Beevor
Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me
By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black Boy
Black Boy
By Richard Wright
Black Hawk Down
Black Hawk Down
By Mark Bowden
Blood Meridian
Blood Meridian
By Cormac McCarthy
Bloodlands
Bloodlands
By Timothy Snyder
Born a Crime
Born a Crime
By Trevor Noah
Brave New World
Brave New World
By Aldous Huxley
Buddenbrooks
Buddenbrooks
By Thomas Mann
Candide
Candide
By Voltaire
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
By Thomas Piketty
Casino Royale
Casino Royale
By Ian Fleming
Caste
Caste
By Isabel Wilkerson
Catastrophe 1914
Catastrophe 1914
By Max Hastings
Citizens
Citizens
By Simon Schama
Collapse
Collapse
By Jared Diamond
Cosmos
Cosmos
By Carl Sagan
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Daring Greatly
Daring Greatly
By Brené Brown
Discipline and Punish
Discipline and Punish
By Michel Foucault
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
By Philip K. Dick
Do No Harm
Do No Harm
By Henry Marsh
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago
By Boris Pasternak
Dominion
Dominion
By Tom Holland
Don Quixote
Don Quixote
By Miguel de Cervantes
Dracula
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber
By Cao Xueqin
Dreams from My Father
Dreams from My Father
By Barack Obama
Dune
Dune
By Frank Herbert
Educated
Educated
By Tara Westover
Effi Briest
Effi Briest
By Theodor Fontane
Eichmann in Jerusalem
Eichmann in Jerusalem
By Hannah Arendt
Fathers and Sons
Fathers and Sons
By Ivan Turgenev
Faust
Faust
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust, Part Two
Faust, Part Two
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ficciones
Ficciones
By Jorge Luis Borges
For Whom the Bell Tolls
For Whom the Bell Tolls
By Ernest Hemingway
Foundation
Foundation
By Isaac Asimov
Founding Brothers
Founding Brothers
By Joseph J. Ellis
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
By Mary Shelley
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Go Tell It on the Mountain
By James Baldwin
Great Expectations
Great Expectations
By Charles Dickens
Gulag
Gulag
By Anne Applebaum
Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
By Jonathan Swift
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel
By Jared Diamond
Half of a Yellow Sun
Half of a Yellow Sun
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Hamlet
Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
By Joseph Conrad
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
By John Hersey
Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia
By George Orwell
Homegoing
Homegoing
By Yaa Gyasi
Homo Deus
Homo Deus
By Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Faber
Homo Faber
By Max Frisch
Hopscotch
Hopscotch
By Julio Cortázar
How to Change Your Mind
How to Change Your Mind
By Michael Pollan
How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Win Friends and Influence People
By Dale Carnegie
Howards End
Howards End
By E. M. Forster
I Am Malala
I Am Malala
By Malala Yousafzai
I Contain Multitudes
I Contain Multitudes
By Ed Yong
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
By Maya Angelou
I'll Be Gone in the Dark
I'll Be Gone in the Dark
By Michelle McNamara
If on a winter's night a traveler
If on a winter's night a traveler
By Italo Calvino
If This Is a Man
If This Is a Man
By Primo Levi
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
By Truman Capote
Inferno
Inferno
By Dante Alighieri
Inferno
Inferno
By Max Hastings
Infinite Jest
Infinite Jest
By David Foster Wallace
Into the Wild
Into the Wild
By Jon Krakauer
Into Thin Air
Into Thin Air
By Jon Krakauer
Invisible Cities
Invisible Cities
By Italo Calvino
Invisible Man
Invisible Man
By Ralph Ellison
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
By Anne Applebaum
Ivan's War
Ivan's War
By Catherine Merridale
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Brontë
John Adams
John Adams
By David McCullough
Journey to the West
Journey to the West
By Wu Cheng'en
Just Mercy
Just Mercy
By Bryan Stevenson
Kafka on the Shore
Kafka on the Shore
By Haruki Murakami
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
By David Grann
Kindred
Kindred
By Octavia E. Butler
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover
By D. H. Lawrence
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci
By Walter Isaacson
Les Misérables
Les Misérables
By Victor Hugo
Little Women
Little Women
By Louisa May Alcott
Lolita
Lolita
By Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
By William Golding
Lords of Finance
Lords of Finance
By Liaquat Ahamed
Love in the Time of Cholera
Love in the Time of Cholera
By Gabriel García Márquez
Macbeth
Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary
By Gustave Flaubert
Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning
By Viktor E. Frankl
Manufacturing Consent
Manufacturing Consent
By Noam Chomsky
Medea
Medea
By Euripides
Men Explain Things to Me
Men Explain Things to Me
By Rebecca Solnit
Middlemarch
Middlemarch
By George Eliot
Midnight's Children
Midnight's Children
By Salman Rushdie
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
By Herman Melville
Moneyball
Moneyball
By Michael Lewis
Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway
By Virginia Woolf
My Ántonia
My Ántonia
By Willa Cather
My Brilliant Friend
My Brilliant Friend
By Elena Ferrante
My Name Is Red
My Name Is Red
By Orhan Pamuk
Nausea
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Neuromancer
Neuromancer
By William Gibson
Never Let Me Go
Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Night
Night
By Elie Wiesel
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
By George Orwell
No Longer Human
No Longer Human
By Osamu Dazai
Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood
By Haruki Murakami
Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex
By Sophocles
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck
On Intersectionality
On Intersectionality
By Kimberlé Crenshaw
On Photography
On Photography
By Susan Sontag
On the Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species
By Charles Darwin
On Tyranny
On Tyranny
By Timothy Snyder
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
By Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One Hundred Years of Solitude
One Hundred Years of Solitude
By Gabriel García Márquez
Orientalism
Orientalism
By Edward W. Said
Originals
Originals
By Adam Grant
Oryx and Crake
Oryx and Crake
By Margaret Atwood
Outliers
Outliers
By Malcolm Gladwell
Palace Walk
Palace Walk
By Naguib Mahfouz
Pale Fire
Pale Fire
By Vladimir Nabokov
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower
By Octavia E. Butler
Père Goriot
Père Goriot
By Honoré de Balzac
Perfume
Perfume
By Patrick Süskind
Peter the Great: His Life and World
Peter the Great: His Life and World
By Robert K. Massie
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
By Annie Dillard
Pompeii
Pompeii
By Mary Beard
Postwar
Postwar
By Tony Judt
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen
Quiet
Quiet
By Susan Cain
Regarding the Pain of Others
Regarding the Pain of Others
By Susan Sontag
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
By Daniel Defoe
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
By Luo Guanzhong
Rubicon
Rubicon
By Tom Holland
Sapiens
Sapiens
By Yuval Noah Harari
Savage Inequalities
Savage Inequalities
By Jonathan Kozol
Season of Migration to the North
Season of Migration to the North
By Tayeb Salih
Siddhartha
Siddhartha
By Hermann Hesse
Silent Spring
Silent Spring
By Rachel Carson
Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five
By Kurt Vonnegut
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
By Joan Didion
Snow Crash
Snow Crash
By Neal Stephenson
Solaris
Solaris
By Stanisław Lem
Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon
By Toni Morrison
Sons and Lovers
Sons and Lovers
By D. H. Lawrence
SPQR
SPQR
By Mary Beard
Stalingrad
Stalingrad
By Antony Beevor
Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf
By Hermann Hesse
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
By Walter Isaacson
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Swann's Way
Swann's Way
By Marcel Proust
Team of Rivals
Team of Rivals
By Doris Kearns Goodwin
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
By Thomas Hardy
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
By Stephen R. Covey
The Age of Innocence
The Age of Innocence
By Edith Wharton
The Ascent of Money
The Ascent of Money
By Niall Ferguson
The Big Short
The Big Short
By Michael Lewis
The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep
By Raymond Chandler
The Black Swan
The Black Swan
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov
By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu
By H. P. Lovecraft
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
By Geoffrey Chaucer
The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye
By J. D. Salinger
The Checklist Manifesto
The Checklist Manifesto
By Atul Gawande
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
By Anton Chekhov
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
By Samuel P. Huntington
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas
The Death of Artemio Cruz
The Death of Artemio Cruz
By Carlos Fuentes
The Decameron
The Decameron
By Giovanni Boccaccio
The Devil in the White City
The Devil in the White City
By Erik Larson
The Diary of a Young Girl
The Diary of a Young Girl
By Anne Frank
The Diversity of Life
The Diversity of Life
By Edward O. Wilson
The Doors of Perception
The Doors of Perception
By Aldous Huxley
The Double Helix
The Double Helix
By James D. Watson
The Elegant Universe
The Elegant Universe
By Brian Greene
The Emperor of All Maladies
The Emperor of All Maladies
By Siddhartha Mukherjee
The End of History and the Last Man
The End of History and the Last Man
By Francis Fukuyama
The Executioner's Song
The Executioner's Song
By Norman Mailer
The Face of Battle
The Face of Battle
By John Keegan
The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique
By Betty Friedan
The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time
By James Baldwin
The Gene
The Gene
By Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle
By Jeannette Walls
The God of Small Things
The God of Small Things
By Arundhati Roy
The Good War
The Good War
By Studs Terkel
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
By John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great War and Modern Memory
The Great War and Modern Memory
By Paul Fussell
The Guns of August
The Guns of August
By Barbara W. Tuchman
The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale
By Margaret Atwood
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
By Douglas Adams
The Hobbit
The Hobbit
By J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
By Arthur Conan Doyle
The House of the Spirits
The House of the Spirits
By Isabel Allende
The Iliad
The Iliad
By Homer
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
By Rebecca Skloot
The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
By Ursula K. Le Guin
The Liars' Club
The Liars' Club
By Mary Karr
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
By Laurence Sterne
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
By C. S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
By J. R. R. Tolkien
The Magic Mountain
The Magic Mountain
By Thomas Mann
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
By Richard Rhodes
The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon
By Dashiell Hammett
The Man in the High Castle
The Man in the High Castle
By Philip K. Dick
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
By Oliver Sacks
The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita
By Mikhail Bulgakov
The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis
By Franz Kafka
The Miracle of Mindfulness
The Miracle of Mindfulness
By Thich Nhat Hanh
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
By Agatha Christie
The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose
By Umberto Eco
The Namesake
The Namesake
By Jhumpa Lahiri
The New Jim Crow
The New Jim Crow
By Michelle Alexander
The Odyssey
The Odyssey
By Homer
The Omnivore's Dilemma
The Omnivore's Dilemma
By Michael Pollan
The Orchid Thief
The Orchid Thief
By Susan Orlean
The Origins of Totalitarianism
The Origins of Totalitarianism
By Hannah Arendt
The Perfect Storm
The Perfect Storm
By Sebastian Junger
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray
By Oscar Wilde
The Pity of War
The Pity of War
By Niall Ferguson
The Portrait of a Lady
The Portrait of a Lady
By Henry James
The Power Broker
The Power Broker
By Robert A. Caro
The Power of Habit
The Power of Habit
By Charles Duhigg
The Red and the Black
The Red and the Black
By Stendhal
The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day
By Kazuo Ishiguro
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
By William L. Shirer
The Road
The Road
By Cormac McCarthy
The Road to Serfdom
The Road to Serfdom
By Friedrich Hayek
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
By Salman Rushdie
The Savage Detectives
The Savage Detectives
By Roberto Bolaño
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Second Sex
The Second Sex
By Simone de Beauvoir
The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene
By Richard Dawkins
The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine
By Naomi Klein
The Song of the Dodo
The Song of the Dodo
By David Quammen
The Souls of Black Folk
The Souls of Black Folk
By W. E. B. du Bois
The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury
By William Faulkner
The Sparrow
The Sparrow
By Mary Doria Russell
The Stranger
The Stranger
By Albert Camus
The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises
By Ernest Hemingway
The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji
By Murasaki Shikibu
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley
By Patricia Highsmith
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
By Yukio Mishima
The Third Reich in Power
The Third Reich in Power
By Richard J. Evans
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers
By Alexandre Dumas
The Three-Body Problem
The Three-Body Problem
By Cixin Liu
The Time Machine
The Time Machine
By H. G. Wells
The Time of the Hero
The Time of the Hero
By Mario Vargas Llosa
The Tin Drum
The Tin Drum
By Günter Grass
The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point
By Malcolm Gladwell
The Trial
The Trial
By Franz Kafka
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
By Milan Kundera
The Unwomanly Face of War
The Unwomanly Face of War
By Svetlana Alexievich
The Visit
The Visit
By Friedrich Dürrenmatt
The Wager
The Wager
By David Grann
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
By H. G. Wells
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Warmth of Other Suns
By Isabel Wilkerson
The Whisperers
The Whisperers
By Orlando Figes
The Will to Meaning
The Will to Meaning
By Viktor E. Frankl
The Year of Magical Thinking
The Year of Magical Thinking
By Joan Didion
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate
By Robert A. Caro
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Their Eyes Were Watching God
By Zora Neale Hurston
These Truths
These Truths
By Jill Lepore
Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart
By Chinua Achebe
Think Again
Think Again
By Adam Grant
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking, Fast and Slow
By Daniel Kahneman
This Changes Everything
This Changes Everything
By Naomi Klein
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
By John le Carré
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse
To the Lighthouse
By Virginia Woolf
Too Big to Fail
Too Big to Fail
By Andrew Ross Sorkin
Treasure Island
Treasure Island
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Truman
Truman
By David McCullough
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
By Jules Verne
Ulysses
Ulysses
By James Joyce
Unbroken
Unbroken
By Laura Hillenbrand
Understanding Power
Understanding Power
By Noam Chomsky
Voices from Chernobyl
Voices from Chernobyl
By Svetlana Alexievich
Walking with the Wind
Walking with the Wind
By John Lewis
War
War
By Sebastian Junger
War and Peace
War and Peace
By Leo Tolstoy
Washington: a Life
Washington: a Life
By Ron Chernow
What Is History?
What Is History?
By E. H. Carr
When Breath Becomes Air
When Breath Becomes Air
By Paul Kalanithi
Women, Race, and Class
Women, Race, and Class
By Angela Y. Davis
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
By Emily Brontë

Book Summaries & Writing Lessons for Authors

2001: A Space Odyssey

2666

A Brief History of Time

A Clockwork Orange

A Doll's House

A Farewell to Arms

A Field Guide to Getting Lost

A Grain of Wheat

A Passage to India

A People's History of the United States

A People's Tragedy

A Personal Matter

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

A Short History of Nearly Everything

A Tale of Two Cities

A Wizard of Earthsea

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Ain't I a Woman

Alexander Hamilton

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

All Quiet on the Western Front

All the Devils Are Here

Americanah

An Immense World

And Then There Were None

Angela's Ashes

Animal Farm

Anna Karenina

Annals of the Former World

Antifragile

As I Lay Dying

Atomic Habits

Awakenings

Band of Brothers

Becoming

Behave

Being Mortal

Beloved

Berlin: the Downfall 1945

Between the World and Me

Black Boy

Black Hawk Down

Blood Meridian

Bloodlands

Born a Crime

Brave New World

Buddenbrooks

Candide

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Casino Royale

Caste

Catastrophe 1914

Citizens

Collapse

Cosmos

Crime and Punishment

Daring Greatly

Discipline and Punish

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do No Harm

Doctor Zhivago

Dominion

Don Quixote

Dracula

Dream of the Red Chamber

Dreams from My Father

Dune

Educated

Effi Briest

Eichmann in Jerusalem

Fathers and Sons

Faust

Faust, Part Two

Ficciones

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Foundation

Founding Brothers

Frankenstein

Go Tell It on the Mountain