Book Brief Library

Get inspired and find your next read with SuperSumary'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

ALPHABETICAL

The Castafiore Emerald (Tintin #21)
Hergé

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1975

The Castaways (Nantucket, #2)
Elin Hilderbrand

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009

The Castle
Franz Kafka

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1926

The Castle in the Attic
Elizabeth Winthrop

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1985

The Castle of Llyr
Lloyd Alexander

Fiction | Novel | Published in 2006

The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1764

The Castle of the Carpathians
Jules Verne

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001

The Casual Vacancy
J. K. Rowling

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

The Catastrophist
Ronan Bennett

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
Paula Danziger

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1974

The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1951

The Catcher Was a Spy
Nicholas Dawidoff

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 1994

The Categories
Aristotle

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004

The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, #1)
Anne Perry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss

Fiction | Novel | Early Reader Picture Book | Published in 1957

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest (Newford, #18)
Charles de Lint

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013

The Cat's Table
Michael Ondaatje

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011

The Cat That Walked by Himself: And Other Stories
Rudyard Kipling

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2010

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
Lilian Jackson Braun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

The Cat Who Saved Books
Louise Heal Kawai, Sōsuke Natsukawa

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Cat Who Saw Red (Cat Who... #4)
Lilian Jackson Braun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1986

The Cat Who Went to Heaven
Elizabeth Coatsworth

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1990

The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Bertolt Brecht

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1944

The Cavern of Death
Allen Grove

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The Caves of Steel
Isaac Asimov

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1953

The Cave Twins
Lucy Fitch Perkins

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009

The Cay
Theodore Taylor

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1969

The Celebrants
Steven Rowley

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
Anonymous

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1949

The Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993

The Cellar
Natasha Preston

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014

The Cellist of Sarajevo
Steven Galloway

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008

The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore
W.B. Yeats

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2011

The Cement Garden
Ian McEwan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1978

The Cemetery Boys
Heather Brewer, Z Brewer

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015

The Cenci
Antonin Artaud

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1935

The Centaur
John Updike

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1963

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
Elyn R. Saks

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2007

The Center of the Cyclone: Looking into Inner Space
John C. Lilly

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007

The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding
Sarah Burns

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2011

The Centre
Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

The Century of the Gene
Evelyn Fox Keller

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2002

The Chain
Adrian McKinty

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Chairs
Eugène Ionesco

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1998

The Chalice of the Gods
Rick Riordan

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2023

The Chalk Man
C. J. Tudor, C.J. Tudor

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Chalk Pit
Elly Griffiths

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Challenge
Danielle Steel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Challenger Launch Decision
Diane Vaughan

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1996

The Chamber
John Grisham

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994

The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel
Kati Marton

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2021

The Chaneysville Incident
David Bradley

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1981

The Change
Kirsten Miller

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Changeling
Thomas Middleton, William Rowley

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1622

The Changeling: A Novel
Victor Lavalle

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Changeling (The Broken Land, #1)
Sean Williams

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

The Changeover
Margaret Mahy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Thomas Keneally

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1972

The Chaos of Standing Still
Jessica Brody

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

The Chaos of Stars
Kiersten White

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013

The Chaperone
Laura Moriarty

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

The Charioteer
Mary Renault

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

The Charlemagne Pursuit
Steve Berry

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008

The Charm Offensive
Alison Cochrun

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

The Charm School
Nelson DeMille

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001

The Charterhouse of Parma
Marie-Henri Beyle

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1839

The Chase
Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Chase (Briar U, #1)
Elle Kennedy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Château
Paul Goldberg

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

The Chatham School Affair
Thomas H. Cook

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

The Cheat Sheet
Sarah Adams

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Atul Gawande

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009

The Cheerleaders
Kara Thomas

Fiction | Novel | Published in 2018

The Chef (Caleb Rooney #1)
James Patterson, Max DiLallo

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Chemist
Stephenie Meyer

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Chemistry of Death
Simon Beckett

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

The Chemistry of Tears
Peter Carey

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1904

The Chessmen (Lewis Trilogy, #3)
Peter May

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

The Chessmen of Mars (Barsoom #5)
Edgar Rice Burroughs

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2005

The Chestnut Man
Søren Sveistrup, Caroline Waight

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

The Chicken Sisters
K.J. Dell'Antonia

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
Jennifer Ryan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Child
Fiona Barton

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Child Finder (Naomi Cottle, #1)
Rene Denfeld

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

The Childhood of Jesus
J.M. Coetzee

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

The Child in Time
Ian McEwan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1987

The Children
Ann Leary

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016

The Children Act
Ian McEwan

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

The Children of Cherry Tree Farm
Enid Blyton

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1972