Essays

David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all....

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation - and humor - toward middle age and mortality....

James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil-rights movement with his eloquent manifesto....

Number-one best-selling author John Green presents a deeply moving and insightful collection of personal essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast....

David Sedaris’s best stories and essays, spanning his remarkable career - as selected and read by the author himself. Featuring fresh and classic recordings, including a new essay and an interview exclusive to the audiobook....

One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought....

A collection of confessions from women around the world, Want is a revelatory, sensational and game-changing exploration of women’s sexuality that asks, and answers: How do women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous?

The best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia focuses on "minor geniuses" and idiosyncratic behavior to illuminate the ways all of us organize experience in this "delightful" (Bloomberg News) collection of writings from The New Yorker....

The Memory Palace is a collection of tiny, crystalline historical tales that come across like luminous short fiction, and, like Nate DiMeo’s acclaimed podcast of the same name, conjure lost moments and forgotten figures who are calling out across time to be remembered.

Celebrated, iconic, and indispensable, Joan Didion’s first work of nonfiction, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, is considered a watershed moment in American writing. First published in 1968, the collection was critically praised as one of the “best prose written in this country.”

An extraordinary work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights

In this surprising essay, international bestselling humor writer David Sedaris shares the rewards of a book tour and his devoted readers’ worst-kept secrets....

How to Be Alone is a must-listen for anyone whose childhood still feels unresolved, who spends more time pretending to have friends online than feeling close to anyone in real life, who tries to have genuine, deep conversations in a roomful of people who'd rather you not....

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....

In I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying, Youngmi jokes through the retelling of her childhood as an offbeat biracial kid in Saipan, a place next to a place that Americans might know. She jokes through her difficult adolescence where she must parent her own parents.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States....

In ten brilliantly written chapters, Stephen King delivers one colorful observation after another about the great stories, books, and films that comprise the horror genre—from Frankenstein and Dracula to The Exorcist, The Twilight Zone, and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.

From New York Times bestselling author Ross Gay comes an intimate and electrifying collection of essays about the joy that comes from connection.

In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality.

“Any story that starts will also end.” As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth in these wise essays that afford a fresh and intimate look into her mind and heart....

First published in 1979, Joan Didion's The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era—through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it.

The author of Bel Canto turns to nonfiction in a moving chronicle of her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy....

Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights is a genre-defying collection of essays that record the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often overlook in our busy lives....

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures....

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 this engaging and erudite essay, critically acclaimed writer Julian Barnes explores what is involved when we change our minds: about words, about politics, about books; about memories, age and time.

Since her canonical 2017 essay “On Liking Women,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Andrea Long Chu has established herself as a public intellectual straight out of the 1960s. With devastating wit and polemical clarity, she defies the imperative to leave politics out of art, instead modeling how the left might brave the culture wars without throwing in with the cynics and doomsayers. Authority brings together Chu’s critical work across a wide range of media—novels, television, theater, video games—as well as an acclaimed tetralogy of literary essays first published in n+1.

Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth is an experiment in interiority written in the pandemic studio. Something of a companion piece to 2009’s Bluets, Pathemata merges a pain diary chronicling a decade of jaw pain with dreams and dailies, eventually blurring the lines between embodied, unconscious, and everyday life.

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is a timeless and thought-provoking exploration of the relationship between women and creativity. Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cambridge University in 1928, this seminal work blends sharp wit, eloquence, and intellectual rigor to examine the systemic barriers that have historically denied women the opportunity to achieve their artistic potential.

Black literature is perhaps the most powerful, polarizing force in the modern American zeitgeist. Today—as Black novels draw authoritarian ire, as Black memoirs shape public debates, as Black polemics inspire protest petitions—it’s more important than ever to highlight the places that center these stories: Black bookstores. Traversing teeming metropolises and tiny towns, Prose to the People explores a these spaces, chronicling these Black bookstore's past and present lives.

A world in perfect balance—so claims Emerson in Compensation, an essay that pulses with quiet defiance and deep assurance. No gain without loss, no misstep without lesson, no fortune without its hidden tax. It is neither fate nor blind justice but a living rhythm, an invisible hand that rights every scale, even when human eyes fail to see. Emerson does not preach; he unfolds. The idea seeps in, settles, challenges. His words are not doctrine but a lens—through which prosperity and misfortune reveal themselves as two faces of the same coin.

Step back to 1929 with Is Sex Necessary?, a satirical spoof on the era’s obsession with psychoanalysis and forbidden topics. E.B. White and James Thurber, masters of wit, deliver a faux-scientific treatise on the “mysteries” of sex, skewering outdated gender roles and societal norms with sharp humor. This audiobook, narrated by a modern voice, offers a glimpse into a time capsule, complete with its absurd theories and delightfully dry satire. Prepare for a tongue-in-cheek romp through the absurdities of human behavior and a humorous reflection of a bygone era.

なんだか「だいじょうぶ」な気持ちになる本。近くにいる人を見つめて抱きしめる日々こそが、世界を慈しむことだって確信した。

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, emphasizing the importance of immersing oneself in the wild, untamed beauty of the natural world. Thoreau argues that walking is not merely a pastime but a way to achieve a deeper connection with the land, free from societal constraints and distractions.

"Auch der Mutigste von uns hat nur selten den Mut zu dem, was er eigentlich weiß ..."(Friedrich Nietzsche: Götzendämmerung)Eine heitere Psychologie bedarf des unverstellten Blickes, der "fröhlichen Wissenschaft", der offenen phänomenologischen Schau. Auch wenn man bei einigem in diesem Buch, wie z.B. den Ausführungen über das Bild des Sokrates, zurückschrecken mag, die Einforderung Nietzsches des unbedingt freien Blicks steht - bis heute - spannungsvoll im Raum."Ich mißtraue allen Systematikern und gehe ihnen aus dem Weg. Der Wille zum System ist ein Mangel an Rechtschaffenheit.

仕事、成功、世の中、自分、死の圧倒的現実を、静かに説き明かす対談！「やりたいことっていうのは仕事じゃねえよ」「死んでんのかな、ほんとに」―養老孟司

Silvia Pareschi è per i lettori italiani la ‘voce’ di autori come Jonathan Franzen ed Ernest Hemingway. Da molti anni racconta in incontri pubblici e in corsi professionali le regole e le pratiche della traduzione e, da ultimo, si è fatta portavoce delle istanze dei traduttori letterari nel dibattito sull’uso dell’intelligenza artificiale nei mestieri creativi.

Jonathan Paul is a 26-year-old Trinbagonian author currently living in San Francisco, California. Born and raised on the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, he grew up thoroughly enjoying the creative and performing arts: writing essays, performing poetry, acting, and playing the alto saxophone. He left Trinidad and Tobago with an Open Scholarship for his performance in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations and attended Amherst College where he double majored in Mathematics and Psychology.

By 1617, Donne had done it all. After being an MP, lawyer, womaniser, soldier, diplomat, father to twelve children by a secret wife, and the greatest poet of his age, he settled into the priesthood. Shortly thereafter, his wife died, prompting him to write a defence of suicide in God's eyes. She was soon followed by his 18 year old daughter died. Then Donne fell gravely ill. Physicians were called, but none could agree on what to do. It seemed certain that he would die.

«Somos seres entretejidos de relatos, bordados con hilos de voces, de historia, de filosofía y de ciencia, de leyes y leyendas. Por eso, la lectura seguirá cuidándonos si cuidamos de ella. No puede desaparecer lo que nos salva. Los libros nos recuerdan, serenos y siempre dispuestos a desplegarse ante nuestros ojos, que la salud de las palabras enraíza en las editoriales, en las librerías, en los círculos de lecturas compartidas, en las bibliotecas, en las escuelas. Es allí donde imaginamos el futuro que nos une».

En Ramón López Velarde. La lumbre inmóvil —selección y epílogo de Marco Antonio Campos−, José Emilio Pacheco realiza una lectura de la obra del autor de La suave Patria, una disección única de su quehacer poético. Con apenas treinta y tres años, Ramón López Velarde (1888-1921) murió de neumonía luego de una caminata nocturna por las calles de la Ciudad de México. Con él se cierra una etapa de la poesía mexicana que encuentra su esplendor en los cruentos años revolucionarios. No es posible saber si en el futuro se le seguirá leyendo.

Doris Dörrie ist eine Wohnende wider Willen. Nie wollte sie sich niederlassen, fest einrichten, Wurzeln schlagen, aber wie andere wohnen, hat sie immer schon fasziniert. In Kalifornien geht sie zu Hausbesichtigungen, nur um sich andere Leben in anderen Räumen auszumalen. Auf ihren unzähligen Reisen nach Japan, Mexiko, Marokko, Amerika und Südeuropa sieht sie, wie eng das Wohnen an die jeweilige Kultur geknüpft ist. Und bei ihrer Arbeit als Filmemacherin wird sie zur Expertin für das Erschaffen künstlicher Wohnwelten.

Современная классика, проникновенное лирико-философское эссе, одна из 100 лучших научно-популярных книг всех времен по версии журнала Modern Library, незаменимая книга на полке любого филолога — и это все Горько-сладкий эрос Энн Карсон. Дебютная работа, которая почти мгновенно сделала из Энн Карсон одну из ведущих исследовательниц Античности, впервые выходит на русском языке!

Das Lob der Torheit ist in Form einer Rede der personifizierten Torheit geschrieben, die ihre eigene Bedeutung und die Vorteile ihrer Existenz preist. Die Torheit spricht direkt zu den Lesern und argumentiert, dass sie in allen Bereichen des menschlichen Lebens präsent und notwendig ist. Sie lobt die Torheit in verschiedenen sozialen, politischen und religiösen Kontexten und kritisiert dabei indirekt die Missstände und Heuchelei der Gesellschaft.

Nesta coletânea de ensaios, Afonso Cruz revela sua faceta de leitor. Estão aqui relatos históricos, curiosidades literárias, reflexões e memórias pessoais, sempre com a leitura como centro. Kafka, os gregos, Mario Quintana, um leitor presidiário, poetas árabes, o próprio avô — através do diálogo com diversas obras, diferentes escritores e também com leitores, eis aqui uma celebração, uma homenagem ao viciante ato de ler.