Joan Didion, Slouching Toward Bethlehem or The White Album (Slouching is taught a lot in university classes–Her writing was that groundbreaking.)
On Immunity by Eula Biss We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (FUNNY) Shrill by Lindy West –funny, but whip smart The Encylopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness by Rebecca Solnit James Baldwin
Anthologies: The Art of the Personal Essay by Philip Lopate is also taught a lot Best American Essays of the Century (the 20th, not this century) Edited by Joyce Carol Oates The Best American Essays comes out annually in the fall. There are also special topical editions–Sports, science writing, food writing, etc.
Anne Rivers Siddons has a great essay collection.
Thank you.
Why I Am Not a Christian and other essays by Bertrand Russell.
Thank you.
Currently reading a sample of The Displaced due for release in April and it’s great
A room of one’s own by Virginia Woolf
Thank you.
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13529055-mortality?from_search=true
Thank you.
Howard’s End is on the Landing by Susan Hill, To Make a Praire by Maxine Kumin
Thank you.
You Play The Girl by Carina Chocano. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carina-chocano/you-play-the-girl/
Any books by David Sedaris, maybe start with Me Talk Pretty One Day.
I’ve read a few of his. I think his are more like memoirs?
Thank you.
B. J. Novak it’s a great book. ?
I liked this book too, but it’s actually short stories rather than essays.
Thank you.
I don’t know if it counts as an essay but the Narrative of Frederick Douglass is beautifully written and inspiring.
Thank you.
I read Great American Essays each year.
I have 2017. ?
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace ?
Thank you.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again by DFW is a lot of fun, too.
The Fire This Time edited by Jesmyn Ward
Thank you.
Lives of a Cell and the Medusa and the Snail by Lewis Thomas. First Person Rural, Second Person Rural and Third Oerson Rural by Noel Perrin.
Thank you.
Bad Feminist, Furiously Happy, People I Want To Punch In The Throat
Thank you. I did read “ Furiously happy”….?
I feel bad about my neck by Nora Ephron
Thank you.
@Susan I am a big fan of essays, too.
This I believe. Essays from the NPR radio series
Thank you.
David Foster Wallace essays
Thank you.
Check out the essays by authors Annie Dillard and Barbara Kingsolver (both write mostly about the natural world). Also Joan Didion—more about culture.
Thank you.
George Orwell. All of his essays—Why I Write, Burmese Days, Shooting an Elephant, and more—are excellent.
Thank you.
You’re welcome!
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
Thank you.
Joan Didion, Slouching Toward Bethlehem or The White Album (Slouching is taught a lot in university classes–Her writing was that groundbreaking.)
On Immunity by Eula Biss
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (FUNNY)
Shrill by Lindy West –funny, but whip smart
The Encylopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness by Rebecca Solnit
James Baldwin
Anthologies:
The Art of the Personal Essay by Philip Lopate is also taught a lot
Best American Essays of the Century (the 20th, not this century) Edited by Joyce Carol Oates
The Best American Essays comes out annually in the fall. There are also special topical editions–Sports, science writing, food writing, etc.
Thank you.