Essays

His fiction is known to be some of the most terrifying in the genre of supernatural horror, but Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction book may be even scarier. Drawing on philosophy, literature, neuroscience, and other fields of study, Ligotti takes the penetrating lens of his imagination and turns it on his audience, causing them to grapple with the brutal reality that they are living a meaningless nightmare, and anyone who feels otherwise is simply acting out an optimistic fallacy.

“Food and travel are natural companions,” writes guest editor Padma Lakshmi. From this pairing comes “the possibility of seeing anew, of examining how we make and assign meaning.” The essays in this year’s Best American Food and Travel Writing circle the world—from Dakar in Senegal, to Michoacán in south-central Mexico, to the Camino de Santiago in Spain—and deepen our understanding of our place in it.

Award-winning environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in the previous year. ” The selections in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 reveal a trying year for our planet—from the Lahaina wildfire tragedy to the lush Amazon jungle slowly turning to savanna—while also celebrating the earth’s beautiful and mysterious ways—from the largest beaver dam on earth to the heroic innovation to prevent birds from crashing into Chicago’s expanse of glass buildings.

“Imparting some piece of yourself—any part—is arduous and warrants some kind of commendation,” writes guest editor Wesley Morris in his introduction. Both personal and personable, the essayists in this volume use their own vulnerability to guide listeners on excursions that unfold on uncomfortable edges. From contemplating the nuances of memory to exploring the complexities of family, romance, gender identity, illness, and death, Morris’s selection of essays presents a roundup of the thinkers who masterfully grapple with the issues of our time.

Un relato asombroso de un incendio forestal colosal y una exploración panorámica de la relación rápidamente cambiante entre el fuego y la humanidad. En mayo de 2016, Fort McMurray, el centro neurálgico de la industria petrolera canadiense y el mayor proveedor extranjero de Estados Unidos, fue arrasado por un incendio forestal. La catástrofe, valorada en miles de millones de dólares, derritió vehículos, convirtió barrios enteros en bombas incendiarias y expulsó a 88.000 personas de sus hogares en una sola tarde.

Why do humans have a horror of skeletons? Is this aversion justified? What does it signify? Such are the animating questions of this essay by G. K. Chesterton, who acts as a witty defendant for humanity’s hidden form.

A remarkable compilation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s reflections on love and its transformative power—a stellar addition to Dr. King’s archives published exclusively by HarperCollins.

“A Room of One’s Own” is one of Virginia Woolf’s most influential works and a cornerstone of the feminist movement. In this brilliant essay, Woolf explores the limitations faced by women in the early 20th century, using captivating prose and the poetic style characteristic of a novelist. She compellingly argues that the lack of financial independence and a private space are key barriers preventing women from fully developing their literary talents

Brilliant and uncompromising, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America is essential listening. This new edition of award-winning author Kiese Laymon’s first work of nonfiction looks inward, drawing heavily on the author and his family’s experiences, while simultaneously examining the world—Mississippi, the South, the United States—that has shaped their lives. With subjects that range from an interview with his mother to reflections on Ole Miss football, Outkast, and the labor of Black women, these thirteen insightful essays highlight Laymon’s profound love of language.

The great fantasy writer Lord Dunsany wrote very little in the way of fantasy after the onset of the First World War. This was partly because he was busy, having volunteered in 1915 and becoming a Captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Derry. However, the reality of the world bore in on our hero at this time, and it is not difficult to imagine that his heart moved to more serious concerns. Dunsany’s days of high fantasy, it seems, ended with the emergence of civil unrest in his nation.

累計５０万部突破！「やめてみた」シリーズのわたなべぽん最新刊。防災、お金、健康、そして住まいのこと。コロナ禍をきっかけに考えた、人生後半、これからも楽しく生きるための準備あれこれ。

【韓国の働く女性を中心に圧倒的共感！】エッセイスト、映画雑誌記者、ラジオパーソナリティ…

★韓国で10万部のベストセラー詩集、ついに日本上陸！★日韓累計80万部突破の大ベストセラー『花を見るように君を見る』著者最新刊は未発表新作詩集★人気ドラマ『ロマンスは別冊付録』（イ・ジョンソク×イ・ナヨン主演）劇中で使用され大反響！

¿Qué hace un escritor cuando no escribe? ¿Qué hace un escritor con resaca, o cuando una mujer espléndida lo invita a un trago durante un cóctel literario, o cuando ve dormir a su hijo, o cuando está solo en un cuarto de hotel? ¿De qué manera el magma formado por un accidente de bus, una película cursi y un premio literario transforman a un poeta desconocido en un escritor a quien reconocen hasta en el mall? ¿Cómo nace y cuán inconmovible es la vocación de alguien que escribe? Cuando Leila Guerriero recibió el encargo de hacer una antología de los textos que Pedro Mairal había publicado en distintos medios de comunicación, fue despiadada.

The pieces in this collection capture the feeling of being buffeted by great gusts of middle-aged longing. What began as one woman’s quarrel with Buddhism, especially its doctrine of non-attachment, morphs into a larger question: What’s the right way to love a person or a thing? With voluptuous detail and rigorous self-interrogation, Jennifer Brice looks for answers in family lore, personal experience, conversations with friends, and beloved books.

Die „Reiseblätter“ bestehen ausschließlich aus Briefen Goethes, in welchen er Freunden, Sympathisanten, Geistesverwandten und anderen nahestehenden Menschen seine Gedanken mitteilt. Da Goethes Intellekt sich gerne und ausgiebig mit interdisziplinären Gegenständen auseinandersetzte, wird der geneigte Zuhörer mit Themen aus Wissenschaft, Kunst, Kultur, Politik und Gesellschaft konfrontiert, in welchen das persönliche Verständnis und Verhältnis des Autors dazu im Vordergrund steht.

Desde los zulos, obra que la misma autora denomina como híbrida, entre la crónica y la autoficción, es una recopilación de ensayos en donde aborda variadas temáticas como el racismo, la opresión, el clasismo, la invisibilización de las mujeres, la transfobia, la crítica y exposición de diversas teorías de los feminismos, entre otras conversaciones trascendentales para cuestionar nuestra actualidad, esta vez desde las periferias, dándole voz a espacios poco vislumbrados en la literatura.

Imagine having the entire Jewish people over for dinner—and hosting a raucous, creative, riveting debate about their collective future. Jewish Priorities offers, for the first time, a wide-ranging, ambitious, and genuinely "pan-Jewish" conversation. Encompassing more than sixty top authors from around the Jewish world—Israelis and Diaspora writers; younger influencers and veteran opinion leaders; rabbinic and communal leaders, journalists and scholars, and literary and cultural figures, ranging from secular to ultra-Orthodox—each contributor offers a different priority for the Jewish people.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Alarms and Discursions and enjoy GK Chesterton's prolific writing.

A wonderful and whimsical collection of short essays on everything from sketching on brown paper and building toy theatres to the nature of Englishness and faith.

Born on the West Coast, the son of Bronx-born parents, Steve Wasserman is a generalist and public intellectual but is perhaps less well known as a cultural essayist and social critic of the first rank. In thirty splendid essays, originally published in such diverse publications as The New Republic and The Nation, The American Conservative and The Progressive, The Village Voice and The Economist, Wasserman delivers a riveting account of the awakening of an empathetic sensibility and a lively mind.

Karl Kraus gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Aphoristiker deutscher Sprache. Ob berühmte Schriftsteller oder die Presse - nichts und niemand wurde von der gnadenlosen Kritik seiner Feder verschont. Bekannte Künstler wie Stefan Zweig, Georg Trakl, Thomas Mann und andere zollten ihm Respekt, aber die Zahl seiner Feinde in Kunst und Gesellschaft war enorm. Als Vorleser hinterließ er aufgrund seiner Sprachgewalt und Persönlichkeit angeblich einen äußerst außergewöhnlichen Eindruck.

家族も、健康な心もすべて失ったどん底の僕。そんな人生を変えてくれたのは、一匹の保護猫だった……。

Water, Water Everywhere by Milton Kaletsky, narrated as an audiobook by Mike Vendetti reflects on the fundamental role of water in supporting and sustaining life on Earth. It emphasizes water's unique chemical properties, particularly its ability to dissolve substances, which is crucial for biological processes. The narrative traces the origins of life in the oceans millions of years ago, highlighting that even as organisms adapted to land, water remained essential for their development and survival.

Karl Kraus gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Aphoristiker deutscher Sprache. Ob berühmte Schriftsteller oder die Presse - nichts und niemand wurde von der Kritik seiner Feder verschont. Bekannte Künstler wie Stefan Zweig, Georg Trakl, Thomas Mann und andere zollten ihm Respekt, aber die Zahl seiner Feinde in Kunst und Gesellschaft war enorm. Als Vorleser hinterließ er aufgrund seiner Sprachgewalt und Persönlichkeit angeblich einen äußerst außergewöhnlichen Eindruck.