Book Riot's 100 Must-Read Essay Collections

1.
We Should All Be Feminists
We Should All Be Feminists 4.40 avg rating β€” 320,714 ratings
2.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Slouching Towards Bethlehem 4.19 avg rating β€” 78,728 ratings
3.
Bad Feminist
Bad Feminist 3.92 avg rating β€” 117,712 ratings
4.
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Me Talk Pretty One Day 4.01 avg rating β€” 714,079 ratings
5.
The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time 4.55 avg rating β€” 115,131 ratings
6.
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader 4.10 avg rating β€” 13,933 ratings
7.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? 3.86 avg rating β€” 509,670 ratings
8.
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings
Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings 4.44 avg rating β€” 33,252 ratings
9.
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
A Field Guide to Getting Lost 3.91 avg rating β€” 20,201 ratings
10.
Notes of a Native Son
Notes of a Native Son 4.37 avg rating β€” 23,277 ratings
11.
The White Album
The White Album 4.03 avg rating β€” 47,326 ratings
12.
I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman 3.74 avg rating β€” 84,663 ratings
13.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches 4.53 avg rating β€” 39,721 ratings
14.
The Souls of Black Folk
The Souls of Black Folk 4.31 avg rating β€” 44,282 ratings
15.
Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing
Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing 3.42 avg rating β€” 10,422 ratings
16.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts 3.73 avg rating β€” 33,274 ratings
17.
Broken Republic: Three Essays
Broken Republic: Three Essays 4.06 avg rating β€” 1,103 ratings
18.
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays 4.18 avg rating β€” 52,972 ratings
19.
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays 3.83 avg rating β€” 6,109 ratings
20.
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric 4.26 avg rating β€” 6,089 ratings
21.
In Praise of Shadows
In Praise of Shadows 4.01 avg rating β€” 28,536 ratings
22.
On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Selected Prose 1966-1978
On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Selected Prose 1966-1978 4.36 avg rating β€” 1,133 ratings
23.
The Pillow Book
The Pillow Book 4.02 avg rating β€” 9,588 ratings
24.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments 4.14 avg rating β€” 52,658 ratings
25.
Against Interpretation and Other Essays
Against Interpretation and Other Essays 4.14 avg rating β€” 9,995 ratings
26.
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present 4.20 avg rating β€” 2,372 ratings
27.
Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London
Discontent and Its Civilizations: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London 3.85 avg rating β€” 2,179 ratings
28.
The Common Reader
The Common Reader 4.11 avg rating β€” 1,927 ratings
29.
Essays After Eighty
Essays After Eighty 4.12 avg rating β€” 1,687 ratings
30.
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America 4.32 avg rating β€” 5,812 ratings
31.
The Empathy Exams
The Empathy Exams 3.67 avg rating β€” 15,588 ratings
32.
I Was Told There'd Be Cake: Essays
I Was Told There'd Be Cake: Essays 3.47 avg rating β€” 41,649 ratings
33.
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories 3.85 avg rating β€” 51,303 ratings
34.
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage 4.01 avg rating β€” 38,353 ratings
35.
White Girls
White Girls 3.87 avg rating β€” 4,182 ratings
36.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar 4.15 avg rating β€” 137,866 ratings
36.
The Givenness of Things: Essays
The Givenness of Things: Essays 3.96 avg rating β€” 1,433 ratings
38.
The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion
The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion 3.74 avg rating β€” 5,470 ratings
39.
The Writing Life
The Writing Life 3.98 avg rating β€” 18,001 ratings
40.
Trash
Trash 4.11 avg rating β€” 5,498 ratings
41.
Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Self-Reliance and Other Essays 4.12 avg rating β€” 20,165 ratings
42.
Findings
Findings 4.17 avg rating β€” 1,731 ratings
42.
The Folded Clock: A Diary
The Folded Clock: A Diary 3.70 avg rating β€” 3,781 ratings
44.
Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers
Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers 3.97 avg rating β€” 737 ratings
45.
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose 4.29 avg rating β€” 8,251 ratings
46.
Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures
Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures 4.43 avg rating β€” 2,953 ratings
47.
Meditations from a Movable Chair: Essays
Meditations from a Movable Chair: Essays 4.16 avg rating β€” 635 ratings
48.
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" 3.29 avg rating β€” 134,380 ratings
48.
On Beauty and Being Just
On Beauty and Being Just 3.65 avg rating β€” 1,651 ratings
50.
Passions of the Mind: Selected Writings
Passions of the Mind: Selected Writings 3.81 avg rating β€” 143 ratings
51.
Notes from No Man's Land
Notes from No Man's Land
by: Eula Biss
4.18 avg rating β€” 3,798 ratings
52.
Paris to the Moon
Paris to the Moon 3.75 avg rating β€” 15,348 ratings
53.
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination 4.32 avg rating β€” 7,355 ratings
53.
Pulphead
Pulphead really liked it 4.00 avg rating β€” 7,971 ratings
55.
Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books
Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books 4.04 avg rating β€” 1,424 ratings
56.
Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints: Essays
Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints: Essays 4.21 avg rating β€” 361 ratings
56.
We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think: Selected Essays
We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think: Selected Essays 4.08 avg rating β€” 39 ratings
58.
The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination
The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination 4.34 avg rating β€” 2,738 ratings
59.
Vermeer in Bosnia: Selected Writings
Vermeer in Bosnia: Selected Writings 4.17 avg rating β€” 284 ratings
60.
When I Was a Child I Read Books
When I Was a Child I Read Books 3.87 avg rating β€” 2,821 ratings
61.
What Does it Mean to be White in America?: Breaking the White Code of Silence, A Collection of Personal Narratives (2LP EXPLORATIONS IN DIVERSITY)
What Does it Mean to be White in America?: Breaking the White Code of Silence, A Collection of Personal Narratives (2LP EXPLORATIONS IN DIVERSITY) 3.77 avg rating β€” 22 ratings
61.
Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays
Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays 3.77 avg rating β€” 656 ratings
63.
Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere
Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere 3.81 avg rating β€” 836 ratings
64.
American Romances: Essays
American Romances: Essays 4.17 avg rating β€” 89 ratings
64.
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center 4.45 avg rating β€” 8,771 ratings
64.
Possible Side Effects
Possible Side Effects 3.99 avg rating β€” 48,056 ratings
67.
Art & Ardor: Essays
Art & Ardor: Essays 3.97 avg rating β€” 66 ratings
67.
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity 4.27 avg rating β€” 8,772 ratings
67.
Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional
Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional 3.59 avg rating β€” 7,416 ratings
70.
The Best American Essays of the Century
The Best American Essays of the Century 4.15 avg rating β€” 1,048 ratings
71.
Book of Days: Personal Essays
Book of Days: Personal Essays 3.24 avg rating β€” 127 ratings
72.
The Boys of My Youth
The Boys of My Youth 4.12 avg rating β€” 5,771 ratings
73.
The Braindead Megaphone
The Braindead Megaphone 3.97 avg rating β€” 5,575 ratings
74.
A Collection of Essays
A Collection of Essays 4.30 avg rating β€” 7,963 ratings
75.
The Crack-Up
The Crack-Up 3.90 avg rating β€” 3,717 ratings
76.
Dreaming Of Hitler
Dreaming Of Hitler 3.44 avg rating β€” 63 ratings
77.
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō
Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō 3.86 avg rating β€” 2,614 ratings
78.
Essays of Elia and Last Essays of Elia
Essays of Elia and Last Essays of Elia 3.87 avg rating β€” 324 ratings
79.
I Just Lately Started Buying Wings: Missives from the Other Side of Silence
I Just Lately Started Buying Wings: Missives from the Other Side of Silence 3.87 avg rating β€” 129 ratings
80.
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction 3.81 avg rating β€” 698 ratings
81.
Karaoke Culture
Karaoke Culture 3.83 avg rating β€” 183 ratings
82.
Living, Thinking, Looking: Essays
Living, Thinking, Looking: Essays 3.91 avg rating β€” 945 ratings
83.
Loitering: New & Collected Essays
Loitering: New & Collected Essays 4.02 avg rating β€” 1,465 ratings
84.
Lunch with a Bigot: The Writer in the World
Lunch with a Bigot: The Writer in the World 4.01 avg rating β€” 77 ratings
85.
Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation
Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation 3.75 avg rating β€” 781 ratings
86.
Meatless Days
Meatless Days 3.47 avg rating β€” 706 ratings
87.
Meaty
Meaty 3.88 avg rating β€” 16,853 ratings
88.
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood 3.72 avg rating β€” 1,980 ratings
89.
Multiply/Divide: On the American Real and Surreal
Multiply/Divide: On the American Real and Surreal 3.84 avg rating β€” 137 ratings
90.
My 1980s & Other Essays
My 1980s & Other Essays 3.74 avg rating β€” 458 ratings
91.
Once I Was Cool: Personal Essays
Once I Was Cool: Personal Essays 4.20 avg rating β€” 800 ratings
92.
100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater
100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater 4.04 avg rating β€” 1,846 ratings
93.
On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored: Psychoanalytic Essays on the Unexamined Life
On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored: Psychoanalytic Essays on the Unexamined Life 3.75 avg rating β€” 779 ratings
94.
Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews
Otherwise Known as the Human Condition: Selected Essays and Reviews 3.81 avg rating β€” 686 ratings
95.
A Place to Live
A Place to Live 3.96 avg rating β€” 395 ratings
96.
Selected Essays Of Michel De Montaigne
Selected Essays Of Michel De Montaigne 4.07 avg rating β€” 2,448 ratings
97.
Shadow and Act
Shadow and Act 4.11 avg rating β€” 628 ratings
98.
Sidewalks
Sidewalks 3.95 avg rating β€” 2,772 ratings
99.
The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber
The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber 3.81 avg rating β€” 643 ratings
100.
The Story About the Story: Great Writers Explore Great Literature
The Story About the Story: Great Writers Explore Great Literature 4.07 avg rating β€” 42 ratings
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