In 2015, Esquire published a list of “80 Books Every Man Should Read.” It wasn’t our best moment. The list claimed to be “completely biased” and it was indeed so. We’ve received criticism from every corner of the internet and we deserved it. Only one title (Hard to Find a Good Man) was written by a woman, and less than ten were written by men of color. It was also quite a boring set.
In 2016, we published a new, improved list: “80 Books Everyone Should Read”, selected by eight female luminaries of literature, including Michiko Kakutani, Roxane Gay and Lauren Groff. It was a good list: surprising, dynamic and inclusive. But this spring, when we started planning Esquire.com’s first-ever Summer Fiction Week (a digital spin on the summer reading issues we released in the 1980s), we asked ourselves: Shouldn’t we just fix ourselves?
So we decided to go back to the literary Dome of Thunder and publish a new iteration of 80 books that every human should read. Our editors gathered at our New York office to nominate hundreds of elections, and then tossed them into these 80 noteworthy accolades. From fiction to non-fiction and poetry, from Nobel laureates to forgotten geniuses, this list covers a wide range of forms, writers, and literary history. These books will change you, challenge you and most of all keep you entertained.
No doubt some of you will have reservations about what we have chosen and what we have overlooked. We are excited about it and we want to hear from you. This list is a reflection of the hearts and minds of the people who made it. Think of it as a time capsule. Chances are, in the next six years, another group of loving, diligent readers will emerge and surpass us.
And now, in alphabetical order by authors, there are 80 books every man should read.
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Few images in literary history are more ubiquitous, more recognizable – and terrifying, more relevant today than ever – than the red-hooded handmaids of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel. Set in New England after a totalitarian patriarchal theological state overthrew the US government, this dystopian story tells the story of Offred, a woman belonging to the class of maidservants: the only fertile woman in society assigned to the most powerful men in order to give birth to her children. As the militant, fanatical regime of the Handy Tale increasingly resembles our America today, where reproductive rights are actively taken away by the highest court in the country, Atwood’s novel is a thunderous, stern plea for the world to wake up – and a reminder that resistance will always go on. – Lauren Krance
Fire next time – James Baldwin
This book contains two of the most fundamental essays about race in America side by side: My Dungeon Shook and Down at the Cross. Their influence is so great that you can feel a kind of déja vu reading them. Baldwin addresses his nephew in the first, writing: “This innocent country put you in a ghetto where he was actually going to die.” These words seem so impeccable now that it’s hard to imagine the world before he wrote them, yet they seem as reverberant as ever. Follow the fire next time with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 open letter to his son, Between the World and Me, but be sure to read Baldwin first. —Kelly Stout
Women’s Cleaning Handbook, Lucia Berlin
“Forgotten Genius” or “America’s Best Kept Secret” are words sometimes used by writers to describe another writer who never received the recognition they deserved. Lucia Berlin is such a writer. Forty-three short stories in this collection, written in twenty-seven years, were published as a collection in 2015, eleven years after her death. The settings of laundries and doctors’ offices in Berlin may be bland, but the action taking place there is really cunning. In one of the stories, a dentist without a door separating the workplace from the waiting room waves patients with a drill while working. In another, the character gives the narrator the keys to his apartment and tells her that if he does not see her on the scheduled wash day, it means she is dead and could she find her body? The narrator says it’s a terrible thing to ask someone, the more so now that they have to keep doing the laundry on the same day. Like any good story, Berlin is alive, insightful, and written with unwavering clarity. – Kevin McDonnell
Swollen contracts and superagents were not there in 1969 when Jim Bouton wrote Ball Four, which begins with the author, a 1969 Seattle Pilots apprentice thrower, who plans to sweeten his $ 22,000 contract pool. In this story, one of the first in the sports world, Bouton gives us a fun and well-written account of what happens to the diamond after the tarpaulin has been wound up in the goal area. Given what we know today about the men who play our national entertainment, Bouton’s tales of baseball’s Annies (groupies), greenies (amphetamines), and squad-breaking curfew players can seem as peculiar and antiquated as the number of zeros in the game. his contract. But Bouton’s memories are worth every dollar. – Kevin McDonnell
It never rains at Tiger Stadium – John Ed Bradley
John Ed Bradley was the initial offensive line for the LSU Tigers in the late 1970s. For the son of a Louisiana football coach, life couldn’t be much better. Bradley had a talent for the NFL but wanted to become a writer. At The Washington Post in the 1980s, he made a name for himself as a gifted reporter and an even better stylist; He also contributed smart, in-depth magazine articles for Esquire and Sports Illustrated. Then, starting with Tupelo Nights, he released seven heartbreaking, carefully crafted novels. In Never Rains at Tiger Stadium, Bradley returns to his time playing for the LSU Tigers. It’s a disarmingly emotional story without self-indulgence. How do you cope with life after starring at 19? Bradley is ruthless and honest with himself, and unfailingly polite and generous when describing others. Melancholy without contemplation, reflection and restraint, “It never rains at Tiger Stadium” is a work of beauty through and through. —Alex Belth
Mamby mentality by Kobe Bryant
We’ve heard stories of Bryant’s intense work habits and witnessed the results on the basketball court. But reading how he approaches the game of basketball step by step is inspirational read. While The Mamba Mentality details Bryant’s approach to being the best basketball player, his intention to be the best also enters his life off the pitch. Choose this one to be amazed by Bryant’s deep curiosity about life and a chosen calling. —Darryl Robertson
Kindred is a master class in the ability to speak speculative fiction to the present day. This is the story of Dana, a black woman from Los Angeles around 1976 who is brutally transported back in time to a pre-Civil War plantation where her ancestors have been enslaved. Each time she makes her way through the past and present, Dana’s stay on the plantation becomes longer and more dangerous, forcing her to confront the macabre legacy of slavery, misogyny, and white supremacy. As Harlan Ellison once said, “Kindred is that rare magical artifact … a novel to be revisited over and over again.” Almost like time travel, we keep coming back to it. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Power Broker – Robert A. Caro
If you’ve ever cursed how long it takes to get back to New York after a weekend out of town, boy, we’ve got a book for you. This is the story of New York told by the life of the power-hungry park director from mid-century (!) Robert Moses. This guy fought everybody and literally and figuratively made his way through the city in the 20th century. I know it’s a long time, but be glad we didn’t give you a thousand parts of Caro’s biography on the life of Lyndon Baines Johnson. —Kelly Stout
The godfather of American short stories turns out to be as gracious and warm in his epistolary as he is stormy and ruthless in his fiction. His humor is also in full swing. In one of his letters to friends, Cheever writes in the voice of his dog, which, driving to New Hampshire in the back seat of his family Dodge, complains that the “old man” is not letting him pee from Massachusetts. In another, Cheever writes that he is going to the Four Seasons for family quarrels because it’s cheaper than La Côte Basque. Beautifully edited by his son Benjamin, these letters will not remove the curtain from Cheever’s writing process, nor give any insight into his alcoholism or bisexuality. But they will reveal a writer who cared deeply for his family, was grateful to his benefactors, and nurtured a lost art of writing letters. – Kevin McDonnell
A friend who once ended up with the notoriously crunchy UC Santa Cruz once told me half-jokingly that copies of Be Here Now were included in the school’s welcome pack. While New Age guru Ram Dassa’s easy-to-digest spiritual epic has served as a gateway for generations to learn about Eastern philosophy, yoga, and the benefits of LSD, this volume has also had a profound impact on pop culture and technology. Steve Jobs cited Be Here Now as having a profound influence upon him after reading it as a freshman at Reid College. By browsing the pages, it’s easy to see what the impact is. Consider the casual second chapter, which is essentially a collection of illustrations combined with a free verse and how it is spiritually similar to the intuitive operating system present on the iPhones and Macs we use today. —Daniel Dumas
Collected Poems by Emilia Dickinson
Though Emily Dickinson’s biographies make her life seem small, confined to one secluded bedroom for three decades, her inner life was limitless. Recent research suggests that Dickinson was not a virgin old maid portrayed by the literary canon – rather, she led a quiet, transgressive life, avoiding the local sewing factory, avoiding marriage, and abandoning organized religion. Yet it was in her poetry that Dickinson was the most transgressive, full of formal audacity and the electric, accessible end of feeling. Dickinson is shedding American English like rubber, using the powerful economy of plain language to investigate the wonders of nature and the mysteries of the self. Some of her poems are in circulation so frequently that they desensitize us to their power, but if you look at them with a fresh eye – you really see them – their gifts are deep. This is Dickinson’s superpower: somehow a poem like “Hope is a Feather Thing” remains a tonic to our American malaise, still appealing to us for centuries. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Slouching towards Bethlehem – Joan Didion
An alternate title for this essay collection: Joan Didion Starter Pack. This is the legendary writer’s first collection, but it’s the one with all the hits: Sex, Murder, John Wayne and Getting Out of New York. —Kelly Stout
Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
When a literary work can cover the themes of revenge, justice, forgiveness, and mercy, as well as detail historical events, there is a good chance that the story will charm millions of readers. This book is the Count of Monte Cristo. But aside from the convoluted plot for revenge, Dumas also focuses on France’s corrupt financial and political world. With the seething political corruption in this universal story, The Count of Monte Cristo tells us why it’s important to be fully aware of Clarence Thomas – I mean the people we put in office. —Darryl Robertson
Nickel and Dim – Barbara Ehrenreich
Poverty is nothing like what politicians describe – especially the architects of the welfare reform of the 1990s, whose rhetoric of ‘just get a job’ made Ehrenreich wonder if just finding a job could actually work. (Spoiler: that doesn’t work well.) The trouble with books on poverty is that they are often either too painful or too thick to cut through, but it’s none and a role model for many. see how difficult it is ”the books that followed. It’s a book about politics disguised as a series of gambits to make life bearable. —Kelly Stout
A visit of a squad of thugs – Jennifer Egan
Egan’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel consists of 13 overlapping stories that stretch from the noisy San Francisco punk scene of the 1980s to the turn of the New York millennium, and then into the near future in which both global warming and addiction to technology is ubiquitous. Forward! While Egan stated that Goon Squad’s unusual structure was heavily inspired by the non-linear Pulp Fiction script, he is pioneering some truly groundbreaking storytelling techniques, including an entire chapter written in PowerPoint. In the hands of a less skilled writer, such a thing may seem like a trick, but Egan skillfully uses this unconventional framework to explore themes of happiness, love, longing, and the inexorable nature of time. —Daniel Dumas
Infinite Country – Patricia Engel
Avid Reader Press / Simon & amp; Schuster
Engel’s short but voluminous novel, which begins with the unforgettable escape of a young girl from a Catholic correctional school, gives voice to three generations of a Colombian family torn apart by man-made borders. When Elena and Mauro relocate their children to the United States, the cruelty of the deportation destroys their family, but never the bond. Brilliantly interwoven with Andean myths and the bitter realities of a documentless life, Infinite Country tells a breathtaking story of unimaginable prices paid for a better life. This is also true of the complex inner world of immigration, from deep questions about identity to the daily pain of longing for a lost homeland. —Adrienne Westenfeld
My brilliant friend – Elena Ferrante
The first of Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels has it all: betrayal, violence, crowd, muscle cars, cannolis and loads of sex, all set in a poor, violent neighborhood of Naples, Italy in the 1950s. It opens when the narrator’s longtime friend mysteriously disappears, and nothing becomes less shocking. Extra twist: Ferrante is a famous recluse known to only speak to fans and the press through her legendary English translator, Ann Goldstein. —Kelly Stout
This side of paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
We condemned Fitzgerald’s first novel to a life in the shadow of his better-received brother, five years his junior, The Great Gatsby. The latter, a boiling portrait of the burgeoning jazz age, is an almost perfect piece of American fiction. In his debut, however meandering and youthful, Fitzgerald exposes his fascination with themes of origin and wealth – topics that dominated Gatsby and engulfed its author, both artistically and personally, throughout his life. Fitzgerald’s protagonist and the self-proclaimed “cynical idealist” Amora Blaine, a young midwestern high-end man, travels to the East to attend Princeton – as does its creator. Amory seeks a romantic fulfillment as she navigates the social excesses of the jazz age. This side of paradise is a less powerful novel and does not confront the American condition as well as Gatsby, but it is worth reading, if only to see the green shoots of extraordinary talent. – Kevin McDonnell
You only live twice – Ian Fleming
I’m a bit ashamed to admit, despite having been a James Bond fan all my life, that I’ve only read one of Ian Fleming’s novels cover to cover. You Only Live Twice is the last story published during the writer’s lifetime. It’s full of sparse, blunt prose and unshakable dialogue that make all of Bond’s books great, mindless reading on the beach. In You Only Live, Twice Bond went busted, largely due to regret for his late wife and his wonderful drinking habits. He took off duty 00 and sent to Japan on a pseudo-diplomatic mission. There he was asked to throw out the fantastically named Dr. Guntram Shatterhand, who in fact (surprise, surprise) turns out to be his worst enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. An adventure ensues. You Only Live Twice has a much different storyline than its movie adaptation, but reassuringly, it features the most ridiculous part of the movie: an attempt to disguise Bond as a deaf Japanese miner. – Nick Sullivan
Gardner’s concise masterpiece about the unhappy life of a boxer pair in Stockton, California is often considered the best boxing novel ever written, but it’s more than a sentimental sports book. This grim, touching portrayal of California’s desperate rural life is written in lean, frugal prose that Strunk and White would be proud of. It’s so closed it’s a perfect job. No wonder Gardner never wrote another book. —Alex Belth
Collected Poems by Jacek Gilbert
Jack Gilbert worked as a steelworker and exterminator before entering the literary scene in 1962, when his first collection of poetry was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. “Who is this Jack Gilbert who creates neat poems of such raw knowledge, such electrifying silence?” Esquire asked. The talented and handsome Gilbert appeared in Esquire, Vogue and Glamor, but at the height of his rising fame he turned his back on everything to live a modest and forgotten life in Europe. Then followed a career of long silence, with new collections appearing every twenty years or so. But poems! Clear and eye-catching, joyful and transcendent, without sentiment, Gilbert’s poems about love, longing and regret are always attuned to the miracle and brutality of the world. As poet Linda Gregg once said about her ex-partner, “All Jack wanted to know was that he was awake.” We wake up reading his poems. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Personal memories of Ulysses S. Grant
At the end of his life, afflicted with a painful cancer of the throat, Ulysses S. Grant accomplished a monumental feat of writing memoirs for months at the urging of his publisher Mark Twain – racing against time and completing the manuscript. just a few days before he died. The two-volume work was a literary sensation; has sold 300,000 copies direct from the press and has been in print ever since. This is an extraordinary autobiography: a straightforward, direct, unpainted story about a complicated life in the center of the most shocking and turbulent period in our country’s history. The enchanted Ta-Nahisi Coates blogged about his experience reading Grant’s diary and concluded simply: “Grant is great for me and I’m sick of counting points.” —John Kenney
Where would we be without Dune, the grandfather of modern science fiction? The world’s best-selling science fiction novel of all time paved the way for Alien, Blade Runner, Star Wars, and countless other cultural plots. Set thousands of years into the future in an intergalactic feudal society, this is the epic tale of Paul Atreides, a teenager whose goal is a potential messiah to lead a battle-torn planet into a brave new future. After reading Dune, you will note its long shadow in popular culture and carry its stoic wisdom for decades to come. One chestnut we love: “The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be lived.” —Adrienne Westenfeld
The will to change: men, masculinity and love, with bells
In this groundbreaking discovery of the devastating effect of patriarchy on the male psyche, Haki describes an endemic pattern of “mental self-mutilation” that forces men to lead a life of spiritual sterility when they lose touch with love, self-expression, and self-awareness. hooks solve common male fears of intimacy and loss of status while encouraging men to enrich and share their inner life. Take it from us: this book can just change your life. After all, as Hooks writes: “Every time a single man dares to cross patriarchal boundaries to love, the lives of women, men and children fundamentally change for the better.” —Adrienne Westenfeld
The People’s History of the Supreme Court, Peter Irons
In this massive endeavor, Irons starts with the 1787 Constitutional Convention and guides us through a convincing analysis of SCOTUS decisions, both groundbreaking and lesser known, that would shape the country and its courts forever. Irons examines court rulings on religious tolerance, civil rights, freedom of speech, and labor relations. Each case is framed by a discussion about the mood in the country, the economic climate and the wars that he fought – both abroad and at home. The history of the people ends with the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood against Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey. Writing about this decision, Irons notes that “SCOTUS ‘future affairs will largely depend on changes to its staff.” Read what the Supreme Court was like before it became a de facto legislative body with an “original” majority bought by donors. – Kevin McDonnell
Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
How would you react if you found out that your former boss, to whom you devoted a large part of your life, was a Nazi sympathizer? If you’re Stevens, the protagonist of The Remains of the Day, you’re going on a trip and you are chewing all the time. The novel feels like a long conversation with a friend who usually doesn’t say much, after which neither you nor he will ever be the same. —Kelly Stout
Love Songs by W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
This is the best novel I have read in a long time. That’s a lot to unpack, but still concise. Love Songs by W.E.B. Du Bois is an intergenerational feminist-womanist novel about the autonomy of women. A novel featuring W.E.B. The title Du Bois, of course, deals with education, class and colorism. One of the novel’s many gifts is Jefferson’s ability to turn microhistory into a story about today’s family, further illustrating how the laws and customs of previous generations affect women and men in 2022. —Darryl Robertson
From one American master comes a groundbreaking book that ushered in decades of pale imitations: The Son of Jesus, a gleaming stick of dynamite tossed into the literary firmament. In this short, luminous novel in stories we meet a man known only as Fuckhead, sometimes a homeless and sometimes under-employed drug addict who stumbles the path to redemption accompanied by lost souls. Joyful in tone, studded with dazzling moments of transcendent beauty, The Son of Jesus is an unforgettable book – one that you will spend your entire life wishing you could read anew for the first time. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Don’t say anything – Patrick Radden Keefe
Even if you are logged in remotely, you know that Patrick Radden Keefe is an extraordinary investigative journalist, able to find a trace between even the tiniest specks of dirt. But his usual talent for storytelling doesn’t get enough recognition. And nowhere is better than here when he discovers bitter troubles in Northern Ireland through the secret of the murder of one woman. – Madison Vain
I know you were expecting to see The Life of Keith Richards. A great book. You will learn a lot if you choose to read this: How to Layer Your Acoustic Guitar; value of defects; how to win a knife fight. It’s inspiring. But this autobiography of the leader of the Red Hot Chili Peppers does something better. Sure, it’s still sex, drugs, and rock n ‘roll awesome. It’s fun and there are women. But it’s also a frightening, disturbing look at what our stars are asking for and how little help there is when they fall. Anthony Kiedis faces his tormented youth and the horrors of the road. – Madison Vain
King has written dozens of simple hits, but none distills his unique gift of macabre and generous spirit as pure as IT. Set in the fictional city of Derry, Maine, this rider follows the chilling adventures of the Losers Club, a self-proclaimed group of underage misfits who join forces to defeat a sadistic killer clown disguised as their worst nightmares. It has shocked and scared generations of readers, but it’s not the creature trait that keeps us coming back – it’s the king’s deep, steadfast humanity. Time and again, the losers stand up for courage, kindness and inclusiveness, even when they are knee-deep in an adult mire of prejudice and abuse. 1,138 pages is an intimidating task, but trust us – this powerful tale of memory, lasting trauma and the irremovable ties between children is a true magnum opus for King. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Kirino, a literary superstar from his native Japan, made a splash on the American coast with Out, her nervous black comedy about a group of unlucky women in Tokyo. When a bento factory worker strangles her dead husband, three female colleagues gather around her to dispose of the body and cover up the murder. The local crime syndicate attracts attention and offers women additional opportunities; soon relations between the women turn sour, and detectives are on their way. A literary page-turn and a biting commentary on Japan’s social subclasses at the same time, Out masterfully explores the psychology of women on the edge. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
It’s 1977: Reno comes to New York from the city of Nevada that gave it its name. He meets the quarrelsome heir of an Italian tire and motorcycle manufacturer. They become a couple. Reno wants to be an artist. She comes into contact with people who can help her achieve this goal. He races on motorcycles for the team belonging to the family of the Italian heir. Breaks the world speed record. He goes to Italy, where there is considerable social unrest and political unrest. He is gassed with tears during the demonstration. She catches a boy kissing his cousin. He takes off and mingles with the Red Army Brigade, which kidnapped the heir’s brother. It’s not easy to pack it all into one novel, and it’s almost impossible for it to be as consistent and controlled as Kushner does. – Kevin McDonnell
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Kushner’s groundbreaking masterpiece is a juggernaut of American drama. Angels in America, which takes place in the final years of Reagan’s reign as a distinct group of New Yorkers on issues of identity and morality, is arguably the definitive work on the age of AIDS. Almost three decades after the first bow on Broadway, the play continues to portray the divisions in American life with astonishing clarity, but also reflects the age-old quest to live up to the highest ideals of love, justice and progress for our nation. Read it for unparalleled insight into the American century. —Adrienne Westenfeld
The spy who came from the cold, John le Carré
John le Carré is not for everyone, but if he is for you, he will be for you for the rest of your life. This is the most famous of his novels about the British spy apparatus of the Cold War, “Circus”. To be taken by the fire every night, preferably in the rain, with a glass of something brown in your hand and a faithful hound at your feet. —Kelly Stout
When someone describes something as a “multi-generation family saga,” they usually instinctively add it to their reading list and avoid it. I do not recommend you to do this with this novel. It begins in a fishing village during the pre-Japanese occupation of Korea and ends in 1989 in New York. You will become so attached to this family that the end will come with a blow. —Kelly Stout
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
The sensational story of Le Guin’s first contact opens on the planet Gethen, where the Earth-born emissary Genly Ai is sent to mediate an interplanetary alliance. Ambition Gethenians live without gender, which means they have developed a world without war in which children are raised together. Ai’s inability to transcend her own misogyny and homophobia threatens his mission, threatens his life, and his growing connection to the disgraced exile. In this visionary work of radical imagination, Le Guin explores the world beyond the limits of gender and sex and takes us to the heights of love without limits. Don’t call yourself a science fiction fan until you read this. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Gift Time, Patrick Leigh Fermor
“Gift Time” is reminiscent of an unforgettable journey from 1933. Clever if somewhat of a failure at school (and reluctant to an enticing military career), 18-year-old Patrick Leigh Fermor has set out to embrace the world by walking from London to Istanbul. Leigh Fermor trudged up the Rhine and down the Danube, fascinated by history, geography, art and architecture, but above all by the lives of the people he met along the way, the enormous jigsaw puzzle of European identities that could not adapt to the convenient boundaries set by the peace treaties. During World War II, Leigh Fermor became a national hero in Greece after parachuting in Crete and the capture of the commander of the German occupation forces. But his greatest achievement remains the trilogy he began with The Time of the Gifts, which only follows the first third of his journeys. If it is a vision of a world that will soon disappear, first in World War II and then in the Cold War, the humanity with which it all encompasses and documents it – in one of the finest prose in English – makes it a fascinating education even now. – Nick Sullivan
Every man has to read Elmore’s novel “The Dutch” by Leonard, and there is plenty to choose from. Since Leonard has been so consistently good for so long, nothing wrong could be done with Unknown Man # 89, Stick, LaBrava, Freaky Deaky (Leonard’s personal favorite), Get Shorty or Maximum Bob. But our choice is the 1989 thriller Killshot, which captures Leonard near his peak and offers a sly, affectionate image of marriage. For the tough guy writer, Leonard has written great female roles such as Karen Sisko in Out of Sight, Mickey Dawson in The Switch, and Jackie Burke in Rum Punch. Add Carmen Colson from Killshot to the list. Perceptive, energetic and playful, Killshot is a playful, indelible portrait of a marriage. —Alex Belth
A river, Norman Maclean, runs through it
You don’t have to love fly fishing or Montana to appreciate the meditative powers that bind men in Maclean’s 1976 novel (along with two other short stories). Novelist Pete Dexter once said that the title story “filled holes in me that had been prepared for so long that I stopped noticing they were there.” Maclean, a longtime professor of Shakespeare at the University of Chicago, was encouraged by his children to write this book. Released at the age of 73, it has survived as an American classic. —Alex Belth
Few historical novels can match the astonishing heights of Wolf Hall, the first volume of Mantel’s monumental trilogy of the same name. Mantel follows the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s mysterious and mythologized aide, who designed the English Reformation, meddled in many of the king’s marriages, and died by public beheading on Henry’s fifth wedding day. Told in a grand scale of story and the demanding details of a contemporary novel, Wolf Hall is an ambitious portrayal of a changing world, a mercury monarch and a complex man pulling strings. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Who would have thought that Marx’s funniest brother was the one who never spoke? Good God, what a life. This incredibly entertaining, exhilarating book tells the story of Harpo Marx’s utterly improbable journey from childhood wandering the streets and pool halls of Manhattan’s East Side to entering show business by traversing the country in the noisy world of vaudeville, and then to fame on Broadway and Hollywood. the most famous acts in the history of comedy. In the meantime, he learned to play the harp, smuggled secrets from the Soviet Union, and became a permanent member of the Algonquin Round Table alongside such luminaries as Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott. Not bad for dropping out of second grade. —John Kenney
If you’ve ever come dangerously close to romanticizing the Bush Era in the Trump Years, go straight to the nearest bookstore and get a copy of it. There is no clearer description of the years after 9/11 than this inherent history of the US torture program. —Kelly Stout
All the nice horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Road and No Country for old men may be better known, but none of McCarthy’s other novels rivals All Pretty Horses, an elegiac epic of beauty, violence, and a vanishing world. The first volume of McCarthy’s Border Trilogy tells the story of 16-year-old John Grady Cole, the last in a long line of Texas ranchers. When Grady is displaced over the sale of his family home, he travels to Mexico to find a job as a cowboy for hire, and then finds himself in a doomed affair with the rancher’s daughter. Told in McCarthy’s amazing cascading phrases, this blood-pumping western is both a coming-of-age story and an elegy of a lost lifestyle. —Adrienne Westenfeld
The key to Melville’s masterpiece is to return to it when you no longer need to read it. Because, first of all, the class sucks the life out of it, but also because when you are 35 and live a small life, only then are you prepared to embrace this most peculiar of America’s great novels. The story of the one-legged captain, his quest for revenge, and the crew paying the price for his obsession, is so emotional, so entertaining (I bet you didn’t expect it), so full of enduring truth that although it happens on a whaling ship 150 years ago, it’s about your life, now, today. The book lands in the soul like a load of depth. —John Kenney
In 1985, at just 28 years old, Lorrie Moore published a collection of stories that had plagued American students for decades. The collection was a self-help, now held in classrooms everywhere as the gold standard of what stories can be and can be. These nine bore eyes focus on women living in New York – women with unfaithful boyfriends, shitty mothers and pointless pursuits. On paper, these stories may seem simple – in one, a woman suspects her husband of infidelity; in another, another woman struggles with terminal cancer – but in practice, the stories are multi-leaved, interspersed with comedy and tragedy. Together, they create a bittersweet collection that is appreciated over time. Told with gallows humor and amazing verbal acrobatics, these stories of making up and breaking up deepen with age. Generations of young writers have tried to imitate Moore, but as Self-Help proves, she has no peers. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Bluest eye – Toni Morrison
Morrison’s visionary first novel is the painful story of Pecola Breedlove, a battered and unloved black girl pregnant with her father who suffers in her rural Ohio town. Pecola desperately wants blue eyes, convinced that conventional white beauty is the ticket to a better life, but soon her mind is colonized to the brink of madness. The Bluest Eye proves what Oprah Winfrey once said about Morrison: “She is our conscience, she is our seer, she is our truth teller.” Saturated with sadness and delight, the novel remains an indelible study of trauma, shame and internalized racism. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Damnation of Black by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
The narrative of black men and women being monsters is as old as America. Using the ideas that black men are dangerous criminals in stark contrast to the white working class, Muhammad shows how these ideas continue to influence social policy and city development. The Condemnation of Blackness is perhaps the most thorough book connecting black men with the idea of crime. —Darryl Robertson
The things they were carrying, Tim O’Brien
Before The Things They Carried strengthened Tim O’Brien as a prominent voice in American charts, he had already become an important chronicler of the Vietnam War in If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home and Going After Cacciato, winner of the National Book Award . The things they wore were a collection of unrelated stories (half of which originally appeared in Esquire) often more interested in storytelling, how we remember and write about the war, rather than the Vietnam War itself. Poetic, philosophical and unshakable. —Alex Belth
In There, There, his instant classic about indigenous city dwellers living and dying in Oakland, California, Tommy Orange opened the canon of foreclosure, augmenting American fiction with a burning, poetic view of a world that many of us know tragically little about. Twelve characters en route to Big Oakland Powwow have reasons of their own to participate, such as money and importance; meanwhile one teenager is still googling “what does it mean to be a real Indian?” finds a tense sense of belonging. There, There, we were introduced to the luminous voice of Orange, heralding an extraordinary career in the American magazine. —Adrienne Westenfeld
There are probably still quite a few people who aren’t aware that before the Coen Brothers movie, before the John Wayne movie, True Grit was a book. And Lord, what a book. Mattie Ross, the narrator of this short, hardboiled western noir, is one of the most distinctive, natural, fun and downright interesting voices on all American charts. The language itself is so lively and fun that I would have been reading Portis if he had written Ikea’s instructions. The tale of young Mattie’s relentless pursuit of her father’s murderer, accompanied by a stubborn, one-eyed US marshal and a Texas commando, is a thrilling adventure story that can also serve as an insightful study of the American hero. No respect for Joel and Ethan. —John Kenney
Roth at his most understated and arguably most appealing. It is not a long book, but it is neither light nor frivolous. Written in a simple style, with the less brilliance of Roth, who usually bruises, Patrimony is an unforgettable account of Roth’s relationship with his father during the last years of the old man’s life. Extremely delicate and even deep. —Alex Belth
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Kate Elizabeth Russell’s “My Dark Vanessa” dominated conversations in the literary world when she landed in early 2020 – and for good reason. The book that turns your stomach tells the story of 15-year-old Vanessa Wye’s relationship with her adorable forty-five-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane, as they jump back and forth between adolescence and adulthood. In adulthood, after another former Strane student accuses him of sexual abuse, Vanessa is forced to reflect on her own experiences with a teacher who remains part of her life, and by doing so could potentially completely redefine herself and her youth. Dark, evocative, and irresistible, My Dark Vanessa plunges into the sticky (and key) nuances of abuse, power dynamics, agency, victimhood, and personality, forcing the reader to do the same. – Lauren Krance
Salter’s impressionistic masterpiece focuses on a Westchester couple whose marriage falls apart over the decades in the mid-century. You will be shocked by their slow tragedy and then warmed to the core with many scenes of leisurely candlelit dinners, complete with flowing wine and rustic victuals. In dense, luminous sentences, Salter paints a crystalline portrait of life’s inherent beauty in order to deconstruct it through his piercing illustration of the bittersweet passage of time. “There is no full life,” he writes. “There are only fragments. We were born to have nothing, that it would flow through our hands. ” This rhapsody novel by the American master, in which nothing and everything happens somehow, is read once in a lifetime. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of Oglalas by Mari Sandoz
Of all the famous names of the American West, one stands out: Crazy Horse, the most respected leader of the Indian Plains, the man who led the last bands of the Free Lakota against the relentless raids of settlers and the American army who defeated Custer in the Little Big Horn. Fortunately for all of us, in the 1930s the great Nebraska writer and historian Mari Sandoz searched the archives and tracked down the last remaining Native Americans who knew the Lakota leader, collecting firsthand witnesses and putting together the amazing life of the man who stood face impossible adversities and never give up. The resulting biography is an overlooked American masterpiece, told in lyrical cadences and captivating imagery that perfectly evoke the lost civilization of the plains that Sandoz brought to life. Crazy Horse emerges as that rare thing, a true hero, an incorruptible leader in a corrupt world, a freedom fighter for people who need it so badly. —John Kenney
Lincoln at Bardo, George Saunders
Though long known as one of America’s great writers, the first novel by George Saunders has entered an illustrious writing career over the decades. It provides a thoughtful study of Abraham Lincoln through a collage of first-hand and second-hand accounts, as well as a hilarious and tearful journey into a supernatural abyss known as the bardo, courtesy of the president’s late son. Structurally adventurous and deeply poignant, Lincoln in the Bardo is both a national ghost story and a personal story, as well as a great American novel for the ages. —Adrienne Westenfeld
As transgender Americans face new heights of violence and discrimination, it is more important than ever that men understand what is happening. In this cornerstone of 21st century transfeminism, Serano, a transgender woman, reveals the myriad ways in which trans women have been stereotyped and disregarded in popular culture. Serano questions the hypersexuality of transgender women and combines transphobia with misogyny, while refuting dangerous and deeply entrenched cultural untruths about femininity as weakness and passivity. Her insightful analysis builds a captivating manifesto of a new framework for gender and sexuality: rooted in inclusiveness and empowerment, designed to embrace femininity in all its various forms. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Sometimes a place is better perceived by those who emigrated to it than by those who were born there. This is the London of White Teeth, a city of macap watched by three generations by three families from three different cultures. Focusing on two unlikely buddies from World War II, White Teeth tracks the overlapping fortunes of their descendants as they strive to balance the pressure of their new country with the traditions of their heritage. Told in a polyphonic, multi-threaded narrative that has unfolded over the decades, White Teeth is a stunning vortex with Dickensian panache designed to tell nothing other than the history of contemporary multicultural Britain. It’s a dazzling act of narrative confidence, and Smith carries it out with confidence. —Adrienne Westenfeld
On the pain of others – Susan Sontag
This is not a joyous frolic, but thankfully it is just an essay and it comes down to the point, answering a question that Virginia Woolf once asked: “How are we going to prevent a war?” After reading it, you’ll wonder how you’ve ever looked at war photography before. —Kelly Stout
Steinbeck’s greatest work is how Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid meets the Book of Genesis. It’s both macabre as hell (there’s a rough scene of homemade abortion, as well as a paternal beating for a pulp that will come back to you in flashback) and beautiful as hell (you can try it, but you probably won’t appreciate Central California Valley without reading this book). It will make you feel as human as possible. —Kelly Stout
We will be reading this debut novel from 2020 for a very long time. Set in the townhouses of Glasgow in the 1980s, in such a difficult and painful time and place as never before, this is the story of a boy, Shuggie, who fights for his life with his troubled and alcoholic mother, even though he remains seemingly unaware of aspects of his own identity. that make him stand out. The characters speak a sharp glasweg dialect that somehow emphasizes the sharpness and severity of their beleaguered life and brings the book home. The inevitability of what will eventually happen is redeemed only by the power of love and faithfulness that never cease between mother and son, no matter what. —John Kenney
Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
It’s hard to imagine a world without The Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien’s vast opus magnum popularized the fantasy genre, stimulated the counterculture movement and evolved into a global pop culture phenomenon. Any man wishing to be culturally savvy should read this series, but don’t confuse this suggestion with ordinary homework. Accept what it is: the gift of passing into an amazing new world, from us to you. How lucky you are to be lost for the first time in these moving, masterfully crafted epics about the struggle between good and evil, the delicate balance of death and immortality, and the addictive dangers of power. —Adrienne Westenfeld
It is unfortunate that old Leo chose a female name for the title of this masterpiece and a stronger sounding War and Peace for his inferior (you’ve heard) novel, as we suspect that men have been discouraged by this since the 1870s. It’s a pity because Anna Karenina is probably the best book ever written. You are in this book, as are your best friend, your daddy, your boss, your enemy, the girl you loved for the first time, and your neighbor. You will laugh, you will cry, and it will not be as difficult as War and Peace. For best results, we recommend a Richard Peavar and Larissa Volokhonsky translation. —Kelly Stout
In 1921, Jean Toomer moved from his home in Washington to Sparta, Georgia, where he took a job as director of a black agricultural and industrial school. He returned with a series of lyrical sketches of life in the Black Countryside, which he later turned into his novel Cane. Toomer’s painting is masterful: “a soft glow arose and spread a fan across the low-hanging skies,” “soda bottles, five fingers full of light are moved around.” Its heroes are energetic, robust and richly drawn, and at the same time so impressionistic that they almost float off the page. As a novel, Cane’s structure is unconventional; some even describe it as experimental. Its sections are divided into poetry, spiritualism and working songs. There is no doubt that Toomer has broken with tradition. But this work is the predecessor to the more famous modernist literature that will follow. – Kevin McDonnell
Sometimes I wonder if men understand how much harassment women face regularly. I didn’t do that until I read Sex Object. Valenti describes the normality of adult men showing her private parts and squirting on her clothes, as well as verbal abuse she encountered while traveling to and from school in New York City. It asks important questions about the toll that sexism and harassment take on women. With the US government making disgusting decisions about women’s bodies, Sex Object is now more relevant than ever. This is a must-read for every man. —Darryl Robertson
People are complicated people. Not everyone recognizes their individual contradictions, but Tyson’s Undisputed Truth is one of the most brutally honest memories I have read. Tyson not only questions his decision making, but tries to understand his self-defeating decisions. He finally finds solutions. Thanks to this, he overcomes shocking obstacles, which gives him a legacy beyond the boxing ring. —Darryl Robertson
Uninhabitable Land by David Wallace-Wells
“It’s worse, much worse than you think,” begins Silent Spring 2020, and it’s not getting much happier since then. Wallace-Wells is not doing us a ton of favors because he is very specific about the horrors that await us when climate change is ruining our world, but he does: He puts it all in one place. When you’re done, you’ll at least feel like you’ve mastered the apocalypse, and this is the first step to saving ourselves. —Kelly Stout
Beautiful Ruins, 2013 Pulitzer Winner Jess Walter seems to be about many things at once: Hollywood’s absurdity, celebrity pitfalls, the fun side of cannibalism. (Seriously, there’s a fantastic chapter on Donner Party.) But after reading it again and again, I think it’s all about human desire. Some heroes want professional success, others seek to alleviate mental wounds. Much of the novel takes place on the Italian coast in the early 1960s and focuses on Pasquale Tursi, a young man working in his family’s charming, run-down hotel. He wants something too: the beautiful American actress Dee Moray, who escapes from the legendary, troubled production of Cleopatra. Before they can be together, fate intervenes, separating them between the ocean of time and the real ocean. It takes decades (and help from incredible sources) for them to unite, but when they do unite, it’s clear what Walter was trying to tell us: crazy, impulsive love can cool down over time, but it never ceases to burn so brightly. —Daniel Dumas
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
“You look up the highway and it is straight for miles, walking at you with a black line running down to you and you, black, slippery and tarry, glistening against the white plate, and the warmth dazzles from the white plate to only black. the line was clear, approaching you with the groan of the tires, and if you don’t stop staring at that line and take a few deep breaths and hit yourself hard on the back of your neck, you will be hypnotized. Thus opens the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren, whose words are both an introduction and a warning to the reader. It is a truly hypnotic novel about the synthesis of the American demagogue – about revenge and betrayal, behind-the-scenes alliances, dynastic families and the secrets that burn it all. – Kevin McDonnell
Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Life is short – try to enjoy it. Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes will teach you this. —Kelly Stout
In Vile Bodies, Waugh used his razor-sharp eye to mock Bright Young Things: the privileged, witty young sons and daughters of British Blue Blood society who came of age between two world wars, blissfully ignorant of their recent past or imminent future – and laser focused on their own entertainment . The only cloud on their horizon was the desperate need to secure more cash from benefactors or parents to lead their doomed, hedonistic lifestyle. Published in 1930 long before the clouds of war began to pile up, Vile Bodies proves that there has always been a relatively useless but oddly showy sector of society that will fascinate other mortals, promoted by a media system that wants to draw from them profits. Almost 100 years later, this may have been the case for the TikTok generation. – Nick Sullivan
Yes, it’s a children’s book. But read it again: read it to your children, read it for yourself. It starts with one of the best first lines in the English language – “Where’s Dad going with that ax?” – and from that moment on, the stakes increase. E.B. White tells a simple story of life, death, and growing up that somehow matters, moves, and makes sense to you regardless of your age. —John Kenney
Grass Leaves by Walt Whitman
During the American Civil War, Walt Whitman volunteered as a nurse at military hospitals. He has been caring for sick Americans ever since, and copies of his poetry were distributed to workers during the Great Depression and to soldiers during World War II. Its crowning glory is Leaves of Grass, a casual ballad with nothing but an American everyman and national character. Described by Whitman friend and fellow transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson as “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has ever brought,” Leaves of Grass is an electric, exuberant masterpiece. In the foreword, Whitman wrote, “The proof for a poet is that his country is absorbing him as tenderly as he has absorbed it.” Walt, it’s fair to say that this feeling is mutual. ”- Adrienne Westenfeld
Brothers and Guardians – John Edgar Wideman
Brothers and Keepers is Wideman’s heartbreaking memory of his brother John, who was imprisoned for participating in a failed heist. It is a complicated family history – what was said and what was left unsaid. “Privacy was a bridge between you and the rest of the family,” writes Wideman. “But you had to learn to control the traffic. It was necessary to keep order, to resist the temptation to cry a wolf. Privacy in our family was a birthright, a union card granted with family membership. The card said you were one of us, but it also confirmed your separateness, your duty to keep to yourself most of what made you separate. An unforgettable, irreplaceable American story. —Alex Belth
Destined to become an American classic, Caste is an astonishing book that strikes like righteous lightning. Wilkerson argues that in America, race is a caste system similar to what we saw in India or Nazi Germany. Through engaging stories of real Americans, famous and unknown, it highlights the cruel logic of the caste as well as its high costs in both private and civic life. Reading the caste is like watching the Matrix: Once you absorb its thunderous wisdom, you will never view American life the same way again. —Adrienne Westenfeld
The Fast and the Dead – Joy Williams
In this spiky novel by the master of form, three motherless teenagers set off into the desert. Bound by a joint loss, they spend a strange summer together, visiting a taxidermy museum and volunteering at an abandoned nursing home. Together, these girls move across a dry landscape where the dead will not remain dead – like the vengeful ghost of one of the girls’ deceased mother, determined to torture her widower, or a stroke survivor who finds love in a monkey’s vivisection. One teenager speaks of “wanting a wild glow” – and the Fast and the Dead achieves exactly that. In this predatory Noirian masterpiece, full of violence and depth, Williams tells a cheerful parable about American neuroses. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Curiosity is one of the themes underlying Richard Wright’s diary, The Black Boy. Wright’s inquisitiveness anchors his desire for education, questions the roots of racism, and questions authority. Today, America continues to grapple with all of this. Wright’s Self-Study shows the power of curiosity and how acting on inquisitiveness gives power to ideas. —Darryl Robertson
Red in the bone by Jacqueline Woodson
One of our most empathetic writers focuses wholeheartedly on an intergenerational Brooklyn story about two families from different social classes who are forever tied to teenage pregnancies. Lyrical, dreamy and compassionate to its heroes, Red at the Bone explores the forces that separate us and the ties that bind Woodson’s extreme feelings. With the ferocity of Toni Morrison and the verve of Betty Smith, Red at the Bone is a quintessentially American tale of a struggle tormented by our nation’s racist history – and of young lovers who dare to imagine a different future. —Adrienne Westenfeld
The book is even more relevant now than it was first published in 1965. The story of Malcolm X’s extraordinary life – his early days in Boston and Harlem, his conversion to Islam in prison, and his promotion to leadership in the Nation of Islam and the wider movement – is essential to anyone trying to deal with the constant scourge of racial injustice. But the book’s eloquence, its ability to inspire, is largely due to Malcolm X’s insistence on his innate dignity in a world that seems determined at every turn to deny it. —John Kenney
The People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
For the most part, America’s history has been romanticized. The creation of our country is almost always told as an impressive story. Beginning with Christopher Columbus – and drawing on primary sources – Zinn gives a voiceless voice, shedding light on lesser-known men and women in America. He also uses this work to show how unrepresented Americans have been the catalysts for change. Many scholars argue that Zinn’s ideas come from the far left, but hold that People’s History of the United States plays a pivotal role in the study of American history. —Darryl Robertson
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Who is the richest author?
Frequently asked questions about the richest writers J. See the article : Why is travel so hard and what could make it better?.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, is the richest writer in the world, with a net worth of one billion dollars.
Which writer is a billionaire? Fifty points to Gryffindor! Author J.K. Rowling, the magic mind behind Harry Potter, turned 50 on Friday, and her reign as the queen of literature is stronger than ever.
Who was the highest paid author in 2020?
The best-paid writers in the world On the same subject : Music for general social fatigue: that’s why Ed Sheeran sells so much.
- Rick Riordan ($ 11 million) …
- Danielle Steel ($ 11 million) …
- EL James ($ 11.5 million) …
- Paula Hawkins ($ 13 million) …
- Nora Roberts ($ 14 million) …
- John Grisham ($ 14 million) …
- Stephen King ($ 15 million) …
- Dan Brown ($ 20 million)
Who is the highest paid author in history?
Highest paid authors in the world 2019: J. To see also : Top 10 best books of 2022 EW.com.K. Rowling is back on top with $ 92 million.
What is the 1 best selling book 2022?
| Ranking from the beginning of the year | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | It ends with us | Simon & amp; Schuster |
| 2 | Atomic habits | Group of USA penguins |
| 3 | Truth | Hachette Book Group |
| 4 | Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo | Simon & amp; Schuster |
What is the 1st best-selling book of 2022? Book bestsellers for 2022
- # 1. Atomic Habits: an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. …
- # 2. It ends with us: the novel (1) …
- # 3. Where the Crawdads sing. …
- # 4. Truth. …
- # 5. Reminders of Him: a novel. …
- # 6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel. …
- 7. Ugly love: a novel. …
- # 8.
What is the #1 best-selling book 2021?
2021 has been a pretty good year for author Dave Pilkey. His children’s book “Dog Man: Mothering Heights” USA TODAY is not only the best-selling book of the year in the USA TODAY, but also followed the lead with four more of his Top 100 books in 2021, more than any other author.
How old is the Bible?
The first Bible stories were passed on orally and only later written by various authors. Most biblical scholars consider Genesis to be the first book written. This happened around 1450 B.C.E. until 1400 BC So maybe about 3,400 years ago.
How old are Adam and Eve? They used these variations to create a more reliable molecular clock and found that Adam lived between 120,000 and 156,000 years ago. A comparable analysis of the same male mtDNA sequences suggests that Eve lived between 99,000 and 148,000 years ago1.
Which is older the Quran or the Holy Bible?
Knowing that the versions written in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament actually precede the Koran, Christians believe that the Koran is derived directly or indirectly from earlier material. Muslims understand the Koran as knowledge from Almighty God.
Who originally wrote the Bible?
About the Book For thousands of years, the prophet Moses was considered the sole author of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch.
Can one book change your life?
Books can be incredibly powerful. They have the ability to suck us in, take us on adventures, and influence the way we think. They can teach us, move us, give us new perspectives and help shape us. And the most powerful change our lives forever.
