Essays

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Paperback)

By Hanif Abdurraqib, Eve L. Ewing (Foreword by)

$16.99

ISBN: 9781937512651

Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON

Published: Two Dollar Radio - November 7th, 2017

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Like the music he writes about, Hanif Abdurraqib's essay collection is by turns novel and nostalgic, euphoric and poignant, contemplative and raw. A moving examination of the way pop culture ties into the current state of our nation--and how it affects us on a personal level.

 

Kate

The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks (Paperback)

By Terry Tempest Williams

$20.00

ISBN: 9781250132147

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Published: Picador - July 3rd, 2017

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Tempest Williams is one of my favorite writers (and a fellow Utahn!), and she's at her finest in this collection of essays on America's National Parks. They are personal and political, informative and immediate, a reflection on our messy relationship with wild spaces that's by turns heartbreaking and uplifting. If you're looking for a book to inspire you to get outside this summer, this is the one!

A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause (Paperback)

By Shawn Wen

$17.95

ISBN: 9781941411483

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Published: Sarabande Books - July 11th, 2017

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I’m going to say something and you’ll think I’m making this up by I assure you I’m not. Ready? If you read this book you will be moved by descriptions of Marcel Marceau’s acts. Part meditation, part lyrical interpretation, part biography, Wan’s extended consideration of the world’s greatest mime is beautiful weird, like a photograph of a really leggy insect on a sharply outlined twig against a crisp woodland backdrop.

Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History (Hardcover)

By Camille T. Dungy

$25.95
It's Complicated--Contact Us for More Information

ISBN: 9780393253757

Published: W. W. Norton & Company - June 13th, 2017

An absolutely brilliant essay collection covering race, motherhood, career, travel, and more. I don't usually take the time to appreciate individual lines in a book, but the sentences here had me stopping to savor each one.

Calamities (Paperback)

By Renee Gladman

$18.00

ISBN: 9781940696270

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Published: Wave Books - September 6th, 2016

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Gladman is one of our most exciting and innovative writers, stretching the boundaries of every genre and style she attempts. Calamities is a collection of short essays about everything from navigating the trivialities of daily life to the very nature of narrative and writing.  

Josh

Against Everything: Essays (Hardcover)

By Mark Greif

$28.95
It's Complicated--Contact Us for More Information

ISBN: 9781101871157

Published: Pantheon - September 6th, 2016

I seldom encounter academic cultural criticism. If the purpose of cultural criticism is inform/outrage/irritate/excite us, and academia's function too often seems to bewilder one with jargon, the two are uneasily conflated. Greif resists such a division, and his essays give us the rare treat of clear writing--a sign of clear thinking--probing deeply into issues about which there is much talk, but rarely enough thought. Clever, articulate, and insightful: the kind of voice you wish appeared in every social conversation.

Matthew

Why I Don't Write Children's Literature (Paperback)

By Gary Soto

Not Available

ISBN: 9781611687118

Availability: Out of Print

Published: Foreedge - March 3rd, 2015

A collection of essays from the poet and (former) children's novelist on everything from hellstrip gardening to finding beauty in word choice.

Sarah

 

The Art of Flight (Paperback)

By Sergio Pitol, George Henson (Translator), Enrique Vila-Matas (Introduction by)

$15.95

ISBN: 9781941920060

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Published: Deep Vellum Publishing - March 17th, 2015

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A meditation on travel, literature, writing, politics and culture, The Art of Flight is the long overdue introduction of one of the great living Mexican writers to American readers. Part memoir, part travelogue, part something else, this book is a must for writers and others interested in creativity or thoughtful considerations of ways of being. Also great for fans of The Empathy Exams, The Argonauts, and, oddly, Knaussgaard's My Struggle.

Josh

 

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage: A Reese's Book Club Pick (Paperback)

By Ann Patchett

$18.00

ISBN: 9780062236685

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Published: Harper Perennial - October 7th, 2014

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An incisive collection of essays from the acclaimed author of Bel Canto. Seemingly disparate pieces come together in a nuanced exploration of the reading, writing, and empathetic life. Read for inspiration, reflection, and Patchett's luminous prose.

Rebecca

The Empathy Exams: Essays (Paperback)

By Leslie Jamison

$16.00

ISBN: 9781555976712

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Published: Graywolf Press - April 1st, 2014

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Jamison asks one question over and over in The Empathy Exams. She asks it of young doctors, ultrarunners, John Agee, Joan Didion, a man who punched her, a man in jail, a woman who believes fibers grow out of her skin. She asks them all, herself, and you: how can we be people with each other? Through her brilliant essays, equal parts head and heart, she leads us closer to answering her own impossible question.

Josh