By Pamela Paul
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

The editor of The New York Times Book Review takes a look at life before the internet and how many of the fundamental human experiences we need have disappeared and how nearly every aspect of modern life has been changed.

By Pamela Redmond Satran

Featuring essays from celebrities and prominent women, a guide drawn from a list that "Glamour" published fifteen years ago presents the must-haves and must-knows for women who have reached the milestone of turning thirty.

By Maria Shriver and the Alzheimer's Association

Offers the latest research about the disease, proposals on ways to support both the patient and caregiver, and essays written by patients, family members, and caregivers about living with the disease.

By Peter Orner
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

A collection of essays on reading explores the author’s life as a child, partner, and parent.

By America Ferrera

From an award—winning actress and political activist comes a vibrant and varied collection of first person accounts from prominent figures—including Lin–Manuel Miranda, Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, Roxane Gay and many more—about the experience of growing up between cultures.

By Charles Glass

Analyzes the American expatriate experience in Nazi-occupied Paris, drawing on the personal writings and correspondences of a range of individuals to reveal the challenges they faced and the risks many took to support the Resistance.

By John Green
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu - on a five-star scale. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection that includes both beloved essays and all-new pieces exclusive to the book.

By Oliver W. Sacks

“Profiles seven neurological patients, including a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome and an artist whose color sense is destroyed in an accident... (From the Publisher).”

By Stefan Kiesbye

Provides essays with varying opinions on social networking sites, discussing their effects on social skills, connection with bullying, and potential use by stalkers and sexual predators.

By Christopher Hitchens

A collection of the noted author's essays includes his early writings on civil rights, Vietnam, and international incidents, as well as columns on the Clintons, the Catholic Church, Mother Theresa, radical Islam, and an array of reflections on politics.

By Kurt Vonnegut

Armageddon in Retrospect – Kurt Vonnegut Jr. include such pieces as an essay on the destruction of Dresden, a story about the first-meal fantasies of three soldiers, and a meditation on the impossibility of shielding children from the temptations of violence.

By Bill Bryson
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“With his signature wit, charm, and seemingly limitless knowledge, Bill Bryson takes us on a room-by-room tour through his own house, using each room as a jumping off point into the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted … (From the Publisher).”

By Roxane Gay

A cultural examination of the ways in which the media influences self-perception, and discusses how society still needs to do better.

By Peter Englund

A narrative history of World War I explores its impact on everyday men and women, drawing on diaries and letters by twenty individuals from various countries to present an international mosaic of perspectives.

By Sarah Silverman
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

From the outrageously filthy and oddly innocent comedienne who has her own show on Comedy Central comes a memoir that is at once personal, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny and includes humorous essays, embarrassing photos, mortifying childhood diary entries and truly humiliating e-mails to and from her comedian friends.

By Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr.

Gathered in this book are the most recent insights into lives of African-Americans - slave and free - in the antebellum South from leading scholars in the fields of history, folklore, anthropology, material culture, and archaeology.

By Lisa Scottoline

From the New York Times – Bestselling writing team comes a hilarious new collection of essays that observe life from a mother/daughter perspective.

By Cathi Hanauer

Original essays by contemporary women of all ages consider what they have learned in the past twenty years of their lives, in a collection that addresses such topics as careers, sex, motherhood, self-esteem, power, and relationships.

By Nancy Pearl

Provides reading recommendations for one hundred twenty travel destinations, and includes memoirs, fiction, travel writings, and famous international authors.

By Tina Fey
Recommended By Megan Kass, Systems Manager, Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk, Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director, Amy B., Children's Librarian

Actress Tina Fey recounts her life, sharing how she managed to fulfill her dream of one day becoming a comedian on television and discussing her childhood, marriage, career, and views on beauty, politics, motherhood, and relationships.

By Helen Ellis
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

The bestselling author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code returns with a collection of comic essays that reflect on the middle–aged experience of modern women, with characters such as fifty–year–old new moms and garage sale swindlers.

By Andrew Blauner

A tapestry of stories about the complex and unique relationship that exists between brothers. In this book, some of our finest authors take an unvarnished look at how brothers admire and admonish, revere and revile, connect and compete, love and war with each other. With hearts and minds wide open, and, in some cases, with laugh-out-loud humor, the writers tackle a topic that is as old as the Bible and yet has been, heretofore, overlooked.

By Michael Dirda
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

A latest volume of writings by the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and Washington Post columnist shares personal essays on diverse topics ranging from literary pets and cursive writing to book inscriptions and the pleasures of science-fiction conventions.

By Chuck Klosterman
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Explores the idea that today's mainstream beliefs about the world are fundamentally incorrect, drawing on original interviews with intellectuals and experts to consider how music, sports, literature, and other present–day conventions may be perceived in future centuries.

By David Sedaris
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

A latest collection of personal essays by the best-selling author of Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls and Me Talk Pretty One Day shares even more revealing and intimate memories from his upbringing and family life.

By Nell Lake

A tribute to the millions of Americans who serve as caregivers to ill and aging family members traces the author's support group experiences with individuals who have worked through personal and financial hardships to provide for loved ones.

By Bob Greene
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

“Examines the quintessentially American way of life, from the heroics of a small-town policeman to the wisdom of Frank Sinatra on his last tour to Minnesota’s Mall of America (From the Publisher).”

By Jack Canfield

Gathers stories of true love, courtship, commitment, intimacy, family life, love at first sight, and enduring marriages.

By Las Comadres para las Americas

Essays reveal how friendships with other females have helped twelve Latina authors get through difficult times and explore the important relationships that exist between women.

By Jim Gaffigan
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

The popular comedian shares his misadventures as an unlikely father of five, from his formative years in a large Irish-Catholic family, to his middle-of-the-night diaper-changing foibles, to his struggles to lull tyrannical tots to sleep.

By David Grann

Whether he’s reporting on the infiltration of the murderous Aryan Brotherhood into the U.S. prison system, tracking down a chameleon con artist in Europe, or riding in a cyclone- tossed skiff with a scientist hunting the elusive giant squid, David Grann revels in telling stories that explore the nature of obsession and that piece together true and unforgettable mysteries.

By Mary Oliver
Recommended By Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services

A selection of new and favorite poems by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Primitive celebrates the canine companions who have enriched her world, exploring how they have accompanied her walks, inspired her work and served as life guides. 

By Donald Hall

A former poet laureate presents a new collection of essays delivering a gloriously unexpected view from the vantage point of very old age.

By Jonathan Franzen

"Presents a collection of essays and speeches that consider the human and literary themes that have shaped the author's life, exploring such topics as the suicide of David Foster Wallace, and the ways in which technology has changed how people express love (From the Publisher)."

By Cathy Guisewite
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

The award-winning creator of the iconic Cathy comic strip presents an illustrated first collection of whimsical, wise and honest essays about being a woman in what she lovingly terms, "the panini generation."

By Jim Gaffigan
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

Celebrates the comedian’s offbeat love affair with American junk foods, sharing his observations about such topics as unappetizing coconut water, the essential nature of pretzel bread, and the deliciousness of bacon cheeseburgers.

By Elena Ferrante

The author addresses such subjects as her choice to remain anonymous, her literary inspirations, Italian politics and culture and the role of the writer in modern society. A brilliant collection of occasional writings, interviews and letters.

By Don Borchert
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

The author recounts his experiences working as an assistant librarian in a public library in suburban Los Angeles, as he encounters patrons who range from bored latchkey kids left there for the afternoon, to rowdy teenagers, to Internet-obsessed adults, to drug-dealers.

By Amy Schumer
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

An uproarious collection of no-holds-barred personal essays by the Emmy Award-winning comedian reflects on her raucous childhood antics, her hard-won rise in the entertainment industry and her struggles to maintain the courage to approach the world in unstintingly honest ways.

By David Rakoff
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“Presents a whimsical defense of pessimism that intersperses accounts of the author’s own experiences with wry observations on universal absurdities and injustices (From the Publisher).”

By David Sedaris

The best–selling author offers a new collection of satirical and humorous essays that chronicle his own life and ordinary moments that turn beautifully absurd, including how he coped with the pandemic, his thoughts on becoming an orphan in his seventh decade, and the battle–scarred America he discovered when he resumed touring.

By Tom Wolfe

Explores topics including the sexual mores of teenagers, the impact of genetics and neuroscience on human identity, and the workings of TV's magazine-show sting operations.

By Terry Tempest Williams
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

To honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Williams writes a literary celebration of our national parks, what they mean to us, and what we mean to them. Through twelve carefully chosen parks, Williams creates a series of lyrical portraits that illuminate the unique grandeur of each place while delving into what it means to shape a landscape with its own evolutionary history into something of our own making. Part memoir, part natural history, and part social critique, The Hour of Land is a meditation and manifesto on why wild lands matter to the soul of America. Our national parks stand at the intersection of humanity and wildness, and there’s no one better than Williams to guide us there. Beautifully illustrated, with evocative black-and-white images by some of our finest photographers, The Hour of Land will be a collector’s item as well as a seminal work of environmental writing and criticism about some of America’s most treasured landmarks.

By Sloane Crosley

A new anthology of personal writings shares the author’s whimsical observations of such locales as Paris, Portugal, and Alaska as well as her more experienced understandings of her home and relationships in New York.

By Judea and Ruth Pearl, ed.

Inspired by the final words of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, a collection of personal essays, reflections, theological statements, reminiscences, and stories expresses what being Jewish means to the book’s many contributors. 

By Nora Ephron
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

A collection of essays offers a humorous look at the ups and downs of being a woman of a certain age, discussing the tribulations of maintenance and trying to stop the clock, menopause, and empty nests.

By Samantha Bee
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“Humorous essays from the most senior correspondent on "The Daily Show" discuss her past life in Canada, her unusual career history, and her point of view on a variety of subjects (From the Publisher).”

By Abbi Jacobson
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

Presents a humorous and poignant collection about love, loss, work, comedy, and figuring out who you really are when you thought you already knew.

By Lisa Scottoline
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

A lighthearted collection of stories by the mother-and-daughter team features tales of drunk-shopping online, smell-dating, taking a hiatus from men, and other takes on the trials and triumphs of modern life.

By Nora Ephron
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk

"Nora Ephron returns taking a cool, hard, hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten (From the Publisher)."