Essays

A deeply moving and insightful collection of personal essays from number-one best-selling author John Green, adapted from his critically acclaimed podcast....

What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question....

Known as the ‘four horsemen’ of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of the 21st century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging....

What does it mean to feel truly alive? Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living....

One of America's greatest living literary legends invites you think for yourself in this compelling narrative of manipulation, power, and the human condition.

The great insights of the Stoics are spread over a wide range of ancient sources. This book brings them all together for the first time. It systematically presents what the various Stoic philosophers said on every important topic, accompanied by an eloquent commentary that is clear and concise....

From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Lincoln in the Bardo, a literary masterclass on how to become both a better writer and reader, on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about how to live....

What could be a more tempting Christmas gift than a compendium of David Sedaris' best stories, selected by the author himself? From a spectacular career spanning almost three decades, these stories have become modern classics and are now for the first time collected in one volume....

Many think that Marian leads a glitzy life of limos, television, and showbiz parties - but she would argue that she spends the majority of her life writing alone, wearing her PJs....

In this inspiring masterpiece, best-selling author Susan Cain shows the power of 'bittersweetness'—a tendency towards sorrow and longing, an acute awareness of passing time and a piercing joy when beholding beauty....

A collection of insightful and uproariously funny non-fiction by the bestselling author of INFINITE JEST—one of the most acclaimed and adventurous writers of our time.

For over 40 years, Christopher Hitchens has proclaimed truth where others have spun falsehood and written, with passionate commitment, on matters that others fear to broach. This volume of essays encompasses Hitchens's writing over the past decade on politics, literature and religion....

The collection of 10 absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter....

In Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know, Colm Tóibín turns his incisive gaze to three of Ireland's greatest writers, Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats and James Joyce, and their earliest influences: their fathers....

When society seems to demand confidence and certainty, how much courage does it take to admit doubt, especially self-doubt? In this personal essay, one of Australia's most respected journalists argues in favour of a doubtful mind....

In essays that have been published by the New York Times, MTV, and Pitchfork, among others—Abdurraqib uses music and culture as a lens through which to view our world so that we might better understand ourselves, and in so doing proves himself a bellwether for our times....

This collection of true narratives reflects the dynamism and diversity of nurses who provide the first vital line of patient care....

An irresistible collection of essays and memoir from the internationally best-selling, Women’s Prize-winning author of The Dutch House....

As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother....

A remarkable, defiant work of radical acceptance from celebrated author Yiyun Li as she considers the loss of her son James.

Twelve early pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of Joan Didion....

Henry David Thoreau’s Walking is a profound meditation on nature, freedom, and self-discovery. Originally published in 1862, this classic essay explores the philosophy of walking as both a physical and spiritual act.

Wonderbook has become the definitive guide to writing science fiction and fantasy by offering an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism....

In Dharma Artha Kama Moksha, Devdutt Pattanaik uses his unique understanding of mythology to provide an accessible and lucid guide to the Hindu way of thinking, with short essays that are crisp expositions of important concepts.

In the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents....

“There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged. My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.” There is no good way to say this—because words fall short. It takes only an instant for death to become fact, “a single point in a timeline.” Living now on this single point, Li turns to thinking and reasoning and searching for words that might hold a place for James.

もうあかんくなったら、読んでください　家族が終わりそうなので、あなたに頼みたいことがあります。母・ひろ実の大手術を機に、家族の日常が一変する。

元朝日新聞の記者が定年後，バルセロナで豆腐店を開業した．修業の日々，異国での苦労，新しい出会いと交流，ヨーロッパから見た日本の姿──ジャーナリストならではの洞察力で，「蛮勇」のカミさんと二人三脚の日々を綴った小気味よいエッセイ．

"Government, like Circe, turns men into swine," David Mamet writes in his latest political tour de force. Prepare to be challenged, enlightened, and entertained by The Disenlightenment as Mamet dissects the modern world with enthusiasm, wisdom, and lots of references to movies about the mafia. Once a stalwart of liberal thought, Mamet now turns his penetrating gaze on the cultural milieu that nurtured his artistic growth, revealing how America's elites have twisted our institutions into tools of manipulation.

The sport of surfing has a mystique and allure that has transformed many of these icons into mythical figures. Surfer Stories brings them together in one definitive collection that will appeal to those who surf and those who don’t!

The Person Sitting in Darkness by Mark Twain is a searing political satire that exposes the hypocrisy and brutality of imperialism at the turn of the 20th century. With his signature wit and razor-sharp critique, Twain challenges the moral justifications used by Western powers—especially the United States—in their global conquests.

Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. Inspired by the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Tóibín found a writer who would be a lifelong companion and exemplar.

Un retrato perspicaz y atrevido de la masculinidad contemporánea. Cualquier feminista que haya dialogado ante el público sobre las frustraciones y los lastres innatos a la aventura de ser mujer habrá tenido que enfrentarse alguna vez a la pregunta: «¿Y los hombres qué?». Y si la feminista en cuestión lleva años intentando convencer a ese público de que las preocupaciones de ambos sexos son cosas muy distintas, su respuesta automática, muy probablemente, habrá sido algo como: «¿Por qué me sacan este tema? ¡Yo soy feminista! ¡Mi especialidad son las mujeres! No me ocupo de… los otros».

Viviendo en los límites de nuestra percepción ordinaria, los musgos son un elemento común del mundo natural, que sin embargo suele pasar desapercibido. Reserva de musgo es una fascinante mezcla de ciencia y reflexión personal que invita a los lectores a explorar y aprender de la vida elegante y sencilla de los musgos.

Desde mediados del siglo XX, la esperanza de vida ha aumentado en occidente de veinte a treinta años, lo que equivale a toda una existencia en el siglo XVII. Así pues, al llegar a los cincuenta años, experimentamos una suerte de suspensión entre la madurez y la vejez, un intervalo en el que la brevedad de la vida realmente comienza, mientras nos planteamos las grandes cuestiones de nuestra condición.

A deeply insightful take on how hate and insecurity can be intertwined, and an endearing love letter to the natural world, ‘On the Purpose of Hating’ is one of the most renowned essays from the brilliant mind of William Hazlitt. In ‘On the Purpose of Hating’, Hazlitt explores the complexities of hatred. He compellingly argues that hatred can have a self-destructive edge, and can do just as much harm to the person who harbours it as the subject of it. At its heart, hatred is merely a coping mechanism to manage our own shortcomings.

What happens when beauty intersects with horror? In her newest nonfiction collection, Jehanne Dubrow interrogates the ethical questions that arise when we aestheticize atrocity. The daughter of US diplomats, she weaves memories of growing up overseas among narratives centered on art objects created while working under oppressive regimes.

In sixteen wholly original essays that blend memoir, cultural criticism, investigative journalism, and a dash of fanfiction, Walker places her own experiences within the larger context of the pressing and underdiscussed aspects of contemporary American womanhood that make up daily life. She explores the allure and violence of assimilating into white womanhood in all its hegemonic glory, exposes the ways in which the truth of trans women's reproductive healthcare is erased in favor of reactionary narratives, and considers how our agency is stripped from us—purely on account of our bodies.

« Mes grands-parents ont grandi à l’Est de l’Europe, dans des pays de grands froids. Ils ont connu le chaos, les persécutions et l’exil. Plus qu’un désir, une fascination, la France fut pour eux une intuition. Même si tout cela m’est inconnu, cela ne m’est pas étranger. Je porte en moi leurs racines et aujourd’hui, sans que je les convoque, elles se rappellent à moi. ».

In What Water Holds, a series of lyrical essays first shared at Oregon’s FisherPoets Gathering, Tele examines questions of equity, identity, community, the changing climate, and sustainability with loving, detailed attention, revealing the complexities within their many shades of gray.