Essays

Great minds share their sharpest observations and most compelling arguments through the intimate art of the essay, exploring everything from creativity and culture to philosophy and the peculiarities of modern life. Whether wrestling with life's biggest questions or finding profound meaning in everyday moments, these carefully crafted pieces invite readers to see the world through fresh eyes.

Essays Book Summaries

Life at the Bottom Summary

Life at the Bottom

The Worldview That Makes the Underclass

by Theodore Dalrymple 2001 284 pages

The Art of Stillness Summary

The Art of Stillness

Adventures in Going Nowhere

by Pico Iyer 2014 96 pages

How Fiction Works Summary

How Fiction Works

by James Wood 2008 265 pages

Literary Criticism

Books About Books

On the Shortness of Life Summary

On the Shortness of Life

Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It

by Seneca 106 pages

by Noam Chomsky 2012 128 pages

What We Believe But Cannot Prove Summary

What We Believe But Cannot Prove

Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty

by John Brockman 2005 252 pages

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Summary

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

A Low Culture Manifesto

by Chuck Klosterman 2003 272 pages

Sister Outsider Summary

Sister Outsider

Essays and Speeches

by Audre Lorde 1984 190 pages

Self-Knowledge Summary

by The School of Life 2018 93 pages

Between Barack and a Hard Place Summary

Between Barack and a Hard Place

Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

by Tim Wise 2009 159 pages

Star Wars and Philosophy Summary

Star Wars and Philosophy

More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine

by William Irwin 2005 227 pages

Ursula K. Le Guin Summary

Ursula K. Le Guin

Conversations on Writing

by Ursula K. Le Guin 2018 138 pages

Books About Books

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity Summary

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

by Carlo M. Cipolla 1976 96 pages

Letters to a Young Poet Summary

Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 80 pages

A Man Without a Country Summary

A Man Without a Country

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 2005 145 pages

How to Live Summary

A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

by Sarah Bakewell 2010 387 pages

The Creative Writing Coursebook Summary

The Creative Writing Coursebook

Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction and Poetry

by Andrew Motion 2001 391 pages

The Doctor and the Saint Summary

The Doctor and the Saint

The Ambedkar - Gandhi Debate

by Arundhati Roy 2017 184 pages

Speech Acts Summary

An Essay in the Philosophy of Language

by John Rogers Searle 1969 203 pages

Decolonial Daughter Summary

Decolonial Daughter

Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son

by Lesley-Ann Brown 2018 231 pages

Palm Sunday Summary

An Autobiographical Collage

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1981 300 pages

Listen, Little Man! Summary

Listen, Little Man!

by Wilhelm Reich 1946 144 pages

Four Hundred Souls Summary

Four Hundred Souls

A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

by Ibram X. Kendi 2021 504 pages

A Simpler Life Summary

by The School of Life 2022 216 pages

My Body Summary

by Emily Ratajkowski 2021 239 pages

Letter to My Daughter Summary

Letter to My Daughter

by Maya Angelou 1987 192 pages

What Is Your Dangerous Idea? Summary

What Is Your Dangerous Idea?

Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable

by John Brockman 2006 301 pages

Dialogues and Essays Summary

Dialogues and Essays

by Seneca 304 pages

Feminism for the 99% Summary

Feminism for the 99%

by Cinzia Arruzza 2019 85 pages

Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone Summary

Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone

by Astra Taylor 2019 368 pages

Gaza in Crisis Summary

Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians

by Noam Chomsky 2010 240 pages

What Young India Wants Summary

What Young India Wants

by Chetan Bhagat 2012 181 pages

Indian Literature

Can't We All Disagree More Constructively? Summary

Can't We All Disagree More Constructively?

from The Righteous Mind (Kindle Single)

by Jonathan Haidt 2016 73 pages

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays Summary

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays

What Worked for Them Can Help You Get into the College of Your Choice

by Harvard Crimson 2005 192 pages

The Greatest Summary

The Quest for Sporting Perfection

by Matthew Syed 2017 304 pages

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams Summary

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams

Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts

by Sylvia Plath 1977 336 pages

A Short Guide to a Happy Life Summary

A Short Guide to a Happy Life

by Anna Quindlen 2000 50 pages

Anna Karenina Fix Summary

Anna Karenina Fix

Life Lessons from Russian Literature

by Viv Groskop 2019 224 pages

Books About Books

Every Song Ever Summary

Every Song Ever

Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty

by Ben Ratliff 2016 272 pages

How to Tell When We Will Die Summary

How to Tell When We Will Die

On Pain, Disability, and Doom

by Johanna Hedva 2024 384 pages

Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again Summary

Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again

Women and Desire in the Age of Consent

by Katherine Angel 2021 160 pages

The 1619 Project Summary

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

by Nikole Hannah-Jones 2019 590 pages

What My Mother and I Don't Talk About Summary

What My Mother and I Don't Talk About

Fifteen Writers Break the Silence

by Michele Filgate 2019 288 pages

Nobody Knows My Name Summary

Nobody Knows My Name

by James Baldwin 1961 242 pages

The Writing Life Summary

The Writing Life

by Annie Dillard 1989 111 pages

I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet Summary

I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet

Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

by Shauna Niequist 2022 240 pages

On the Brink of Everything Summary

On the Brink of Everything

Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old

by Parker J. Palmer 2018 198 pages

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul Summary

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul

101 Stories of Life, Love and Learning

by Jack Canfield 1997 353 pages

Custodians of Wonder Summary

Custodians of Wonder

Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive

by Eliot Stein 2024 336 pages

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now Summary

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

by Maya Angelou 1993 144 pages

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