Book reviews & excerpts from exceptional essay collections.

Essays

Recommended books found: 37

The Book of Birds

A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss

by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris

Hardcover: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the best-selling authors of The Lost Words, a dazzling celebration of endangered birds.

The Land and Its People

Essays

by David Sedaris

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

In this new collection, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend, in essays that are "among the best of his career" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

On Morrison

by Namwali Serpell

Hardcover: Feb 2026

Critics' Consensus:

An illuminating, electrifying exploration of the work of Toni Morrison by an award-winning novelist and Harvard professor.

One Aladdin Two Lamps

by Jeanette Winterson

Hardcover: Jan 2026

Critics' Consensus:

"One of the most daring and inventive writers of our time" (Elle) weaves together memoir, manifesto, and a feminist reimagining of One Thousand and One Nights in this impassioned exploration of the power of reading.

Alligator Tears

A Memoir in Essays

by Edgar Gomez

Hardcover: Feb 2025

Critics' Consensus:

A darkly comic memoir-in-essays about the scam of the American Dream and doing whatever it takes to survive in the Sunshine State—from the award-winning author of High-Risk Homosexual.

I Just Keep Talking

A Life in Essays

by Nell Irvin Painter

Hardcover: Apr 2024

Critics' Consensus:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The History of White People and Old in Art School, a finalist for the NBCC Award, comes a comprehensive new collection of essays spanning art, politics, and the legacy of racism that shapes American ...

Somehow

Thoughts on Love

by Anne Lamott

Hardcover: Apr 2024

Critics' Consensus:

From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow, a joyful celebration of love

A Map of Future Ruins

On Borders and Belonging

by Lauren Markham

Hardcover: Feb 2024

Critics' Consensus:

A mesmerizing, trailblazing synthesis of reporting, history, memoir, and essay.

Transient and Strange

Notes on the Science of Life

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Hardcover: Jan 2024

Critics' Consensus:

An astonishing debut from the beloved NPR science correspondent: intimate essays about the intersection of science and everyday life.

How Far the Light Reaches

A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

by Sabrina Imbler

Hardcover: Dec 2022 | Paperback: Jan 2024

Critics' Consensus:

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments.

Portable Magic

A History of Books and Their Readers

by Emma Smith

Hardcover: Nov 2022

Critics' Consensus:

A history of one of humankind's most resilient and influential technologies over the past millennium—the book.

How to Read Now

Essays

by Elaine Castillo

Hardcover: Jul 2022

Critics' Consensus:

An exploration and polemic that redefines the power and potential for reading by a novelist whose "prose is as good as it gets" (NPR) and who has "a real voice: vernacular and fluid, with a take-no-prisoners edge" (Kirkus).

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