Bookcaps Study Guides: 229 books

Paris was a Mecca for artists in the early 20th century. Anyone who wrote, sculpted, acted, drew, painted, composed, or philosophized was drawn to the bustling, European city. World War I was over, and the future, which had been so uncertain for Europe, now seemed bright.  For nearly...

  Ayn Rand is one of the most polarizing authors of the 20th century. Best known for novels “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” which used characters intent on exercising their individualism over conformity, Rand became a pop philosopher in the 1950s. Her work upholds the virtues of a philosophy that she and Nathaniel Branden called Objectivism. 

You may not know the name Joy Mangano, but you probably know her mop--the Miracle Mop to be more exact. This book is the story of how Mangano built a QVC empire. The book explores her early days as an inventor through her later success on HSN; along the way it touches on the business strategies...

Hundreds of movies and thousands of books have been written about the heroes of World War II. For dozens of years, however, few people knew about one of the greatest heroes of the war—a mild-mannered, eccentric mathematician from the University of Cambridge. This man, an undeniable genius...

Born in what was then still considered the American West, educated in the Ivy Halls of the Northeast, and repatriated as an English subject in 1927, Thomas Stearns Eliot today stands as one of the most important figures in the whole history of English literature. His signature works include poetry...

For thousands of years, the story of Noah has been one of the greatest epics ever wrote. This compelling book looks into the Biblical story from an historical standpoint. It looks at what the ark would have looked like, what society looked like, and the several archaeological quests to discover the...

Aretha Franklin has recorded 39 studio albums, had 20 number-one R&B singles, 44 Grammy nominations and 18 wins. It’s a career that’s legendary. Franklin was not a groundbreaker. She just did what she does better and longer than anyone else. She recorded her first major label album...

Few authors achieve fame in their lifetime and then have that fame compound and grow long after their death. Fewer still spend much of their lives harboring resentment for the work that made them famous. Such was the case for Alan Alexander Milne.  Long before he wrote Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne...

In Hollywood, the world of the spying is a glamorous male driven world full of gadgets and fast cars. But real life isn't Hollywood. It takes more than a bit of charm and whiskey to steal secrets…it takes skill. And skill is often a task left up to a woman! The ten female spies profiled in...

In 2005 the British Broadcasting Corporation sponsored a program to find the greatest painting in Britain. Any painting hanging in a British art gallery was eligible to become The Greatest Painting in Britain, whether it was created by an Englishman or not. After every work of art in the country...

  For over 100 years, L. Frank Baum's clazzic fantasy series "The Wizard of Oz" has inspired films, books, and even fan clubs. Despite the success of the series, not a lot has been written about the author: L. Frank Baum.

Charles Bukowski didn't write about high society or the life most people will never live; he wrote about the ordinary man--the ones you are more likely to see living next to you than glamorized on TV. He wrote what he knew and he wrote it well. Bukowski knew Los Angeles—women—the drudgery of work—and...

Few famous humans came into the world under such humble circumstances as Abraham Lincoln on February 12, 1809. But it may very well be that the humble and unassuming life he lived actually served to shape him into the solid, moral, honest, decent, hard-working adult that he became. What were those...