Essay Collections

"A collection of essays in which the author discusses the small and large things that delight him"-- Provided by publisher.

Jo Ann Beard, one of the most influential writers in America, illuminates the complexities of the human condition in this career-spanning collection.

Throughout history, it has been those brave enough to puncture the prevailing groupthink who have propelled society forward. But they are in shockingly short supply today. In this collection of original essays, Brendan O'Neill remakes the case for heresy - and commits a few heresies of his own al...

"In the 1980s there was a kind of magic to the mixtape. They could be anything its creator wanted. The mixtape was like a letter, but it was also a personal soundtrack. You wanted it to say something about you - to express in some abstract way how you felt about the world, life, hopes, dreams and...

The dazzling essays of the beloved, subversive Chinese writer Wang Xiaobo, a continual bestseller in China, now in English for the first time. Wang Xiaobo made his name as a novelist but his essays, too, have become ongoing bestsellers in China since their publication in the 1990s. Bringing toget...

"Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) is, of course, best known as the author of Little Women (1868). But she was also a noted essayist who wrote on a wide range of subjects, including her father's failed utopian commune, the benefits of an unmarried life, and her experience as a young woman sent to wor...

The stand-up comedian presents a funny collection of essays on being a mom that explores themes like "geriatric" motherhood, parenting in an environmental panic, fear and love, and conflicting advice on raising children.

As 2022 unfolded, we saw power manifest in its various guises: Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; the COVID pandemic and its international disruptions continued to shape lives globally and abortion laws changed monumentally in the US.

'The first time around these pieces were not widely heard or read. A roomful of festival-goers in Sydney or Penang or Ballarat could well have heard me hold forth on the subject of Enid Blyton, say, or kissing, it's true, and a few of my newspaper articles - my feuilletons, as I'm calling them - ...

Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? How can we live on our planet? Is it true? And is it fair? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism? In over 50 pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humou...

"Ten days after calling off her wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to study the whooping crane. She realized she'd been trapped by her own narratives about love, ones that looked like other people's. But what if there were room for a different kind of story? New definitions of love? In this...

"In the spirit of works by Jia Tolentino and Anne Helen Peterson, a smart and incisive essay collection centered on the fashion industry--its history, its importance, why we wear what we wear, and why it matters--from Elle Magazine's fashion features director"-- Provided by publisher.

"Perfect for fans of Samantha Irby and Trick Mirror, a funny, whip-smart collection of personal essays exploring the intersection of queerness, relationships, pop culture, the internet, and identity, introducing one of the most undeniably original new voices today. Jill Gutowitz's life-for better...

How the lives of great literary characters can help us live a richer and more meaningful life, written by an eminent psychoanalyst and Professor of English Literature. What can Alice in Wonderland teach us about childhood? Could reading Conversations with Friends guide us through first love? Does...

In 2020, Claire Luchette in O, The Oprah Magazine described the beloved Italian novelist, Elena Ferrante, as 'an oracle among authors'. Here, in these four crisp essays, Ferrante offers a rare look at the origins of her literary powers. She writes about her influences, her struggles and her forma...

From A Long Long Way, his Booker shortlisted novel about the Irish soldiers who fought for Britain during the First World War to his Donal McCann starring hit-play, The Steward of Christendom; from his first Costa Book of the Year novel The Secret Scripture to his second, Days Without End, a deca...

Thoughtful and affirming, this collection of essays about the joys and struggles of being alone illuminates an experience that is rarely openly discussed.

People everywhere have found themselves faced with a global pandemic, during which we have learned to cope with sickness and all that accompanies it: isolation, immunity, loss of control, and recovery. Yet while no longer taboo, illness remains an unpopular theme in literature. In her essay, On B...

With both drollness and acuity, Sally Olds takes us into worlds we may not have ever visited before. In these sometimes alien spaces she explores and reports on everyday intimacies and vulnerabilities. This book is about working and not working, hating work and needing to work, intimacy and techn...

I have come to see that I am an argumentative person who is frequently convinced that my angle, my take, on a matter, is the right one. This kind of delusional self-belief is not rewarded in many other spheres of social life, so I write essays. There is a Turkish saying that one's home is not whe...