Book reviews & excerpts from exceptional essay collections.

Essays

Recommended books found: 33

Page 1 of 2

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).

Crossing the River

Seven Stories That Saved My Life, A Memoir

by Carol Smith

Hardcover: May 2021 | Paperback: May 2022

Critics' Consensus:

A powerful exploration of grief following the death of the author's son that combines memoir, reportage, and lessons in how to heal.

Serious Face

Essays

by Jon Mooallem

Hardcover: May 2022

Critics' Consensus:

From the discovery of the author's face in a century-old photograph to a triple-amputee hospice director working at the border of life and death, here are thirteen hopeful, heartbreaking, and profound essays from "one of the most intelligent, ...

An Inventory of Losses

by Judith Schalansky

Hardcover: Dec 2020 | Paperback: Nov 2021

Critics' Consensus:

Each disparate object described in this book - a Caspar David Friedrich painting, a species of tiger, a villa in Rome, a Greek love poem, an island in the Pacific - shares a common fate: it no longer exists, except as the dead end of a paper trail.

Deep Creek

Finding Hope in the High Country

by Pam Houston

Hardcover: Jan 2019 | Paperback: Jan 2020

Critics' Consensus:

"How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us."

The reviewer of each book decides which categories it belongs in - but we're only human, mistakes happen. If you see a book that you think is in the wrong place, tell us!

Recently Viewed

No books viewed yet

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
by Clare Leslie Hall

Members Recommend

Who Said...

A library is a temple unabridged with priceless treasure...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia

  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

W the C A the M W P

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.