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Books like The best American essays of the century
A sweeping, deeply felt mosaic of the twentieth century, told through the brilliant minds that witnessed it. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The best American essays of the century.
- contemplative
- nostalgic
- provocative
- immersive
- 01
The Norton anthology of African American literature
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay
An expansive, authoritative journey through the rich and diverse landscape of African American literary history.
- 02
Consider the lobster, and other essays
David Foster Wallace · 2005
A dizzying, hyper-articulate plunge into the absurdities and moral anxieties of modern American life.
- 03
Lectures on Literature. Austen, Dickens, Flaubert, Stevenson, Proust, Kafka, Joyce
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
An authoritative, scholarly exploration of the craft of fiction through the lens of classic 19th and 20th-century literature.
- 04
The Norton Anthology of English Literature
Meyer Howard Abrams
A monumental, guided expedition through a thousand years of literary history, bound together by thin, crinkling pages and scholarly devotion.
- 05
Short stories
Francis Scott Fitzgerald
A glittering, bittersweet plunge into the champagne-soaked highs and melancholic hangovers of the Jazz Age.
- 06
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
David Foster Wallace · 2001
A dizzying, darkly hilarious plunge into the neurotic, self-justifying minds of profoundly alienated people.
- 07
Introducción a la literatura norteamericana
Jorge Luis Borges
A brilliant, idiosyncratic guide leads you through the foundational myths and monuments of American letters.
- 08
Reasons to live
Amy Hempel · 1985
A masterclass in saying everything by saying almost nothing, wrapping profound grief in sharp, brittle wit.
- 09
Bradbury Stories
Ray Bradbury
A kaleidoscopic journey through twilight midwestern towns and distant Martian landscapes, fueled by poetic wonder and creeping dread.
- 10
James Patterson by James Patterson
James Patterson
A rapid-fire, anecdotal journey through the making of a publishing empire, told with the punchy momentum of a commercial thriller.
- 11
How to Be Alone
Jonathan Franzen
A sharp, introspective defense of reading, privacy, and the quiet spaces of the mind in an increasingly noisy world.
- 12
Poems
Mary Oliver · 1992
A quiet, luminous invitation to step outside, pay attention, and find your place in the family of things.
