6 must-read philosophy books like Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

Cover of Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

Having and Being Had

By: Eula Biss

3.83

Format: 324 pages, Hardcover

"My adult life can be divided into two distinct parts," Eula Biss writes, "the time before I owned …

"Art unmakes the world made by work."

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

"Not having money is time consuming. There are hours spent at laundromats, hours at bus stops, hours at free clinics, hours at thrift stores, hours on the phone with the bank or the credit card company or the phone company over some fee, some little charge, some mistake"

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

"Why is water so often a metaphor for money? Perhaps because we like to believe that our economic system is naturally occurring, not man-made. Maybe the movement of money feels inevitable if you imagine it as water, with only blameless gravity participating in the accumulation of wealth."

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

"Some people choose their precarity - evidence that precarity is not just a condition of our time, but a response to it. The precariat includes people who have forgone stable employment and retirement savings for temp work and travel and an uncertain future. Their very existence is unsettling, suggesting, as it does, that there might be something worth more than security."

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

If you liked the philosophy plot in Having and Being Had by Eula Biss , here is a list of 6 books like this:

1. The Empathy Exams: Essays

By: Leslie Jamison

4.00

Format: 256 pages, Paperback

From personal loss to phantom diseases, The Empathy Examsis a bold and brilliant collection; winner… read more

Similar categories in Leslie Jamison's The Empathy Exams: Essays book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • essays
Cover of Splinters by Leslie Jamison

2. Splinters

By: Leslie Jamison

3.86

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams comes the riveti… read more

Similar categories in Leslie Jamison's Splinters book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

3. Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

By: Claire Dederer

3.79

Format: 257 pages, Hardcover

From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, … read more

Similar categories in Claire Dederer's Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Biography used to be something you sought out, yearned for, actively pursued. Now it falls on your head all day long."

-Claire Dederer, Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

Cover of How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

4. How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

By: Sabrina Imbler

4.12

Format: 263 pages, Hardcover

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journal… read more

Similar categories in Sabrina Imbler's How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • essays
  • audiobook
"But when I think about ponds infested with gallon-big goldfish, I feel a kind of triumph. I see something that no one expected to live not just alive but impossibly flourishing, and no longer alone. …"

-Sabrina Imbler, How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Cover of All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld

5. All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess

By: Becca Rothfeld

3.76

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

An acclaimed debut author's glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in culture in favor of… read more

Similar categories in Becca Rothfeld's All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • philosophy
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
Cover of Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba

6. Creep: Accusations and Confessions

By: Myriam Gurba

4.37

Format: 331 pages, Kindle Edition

A ruthless and razor-sharp essay collection that tackles the pervasive, creeping oppression and tox… read more

Similar categories in Myriam Gurba's Creep: Accusations and Confessions book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Embedded within these systems of family, friendship, and community, these creepy men may appear harmless, their evil obscured by a benign collective presence, a fog of sorts. This softness swaddles a…"

-Myriam Gurba, Creep: Accusations and Confessions

Cover of Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon

7. Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen

By: Suzanne Scanlon

4.22

Format: 368 pages, Paperback

A raw and masterful memoir about becoming a woman and going mad—and doing both at once.   When Su… read more

Similar categories in Suzanne Scanlon's Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • audiobook
"Only in retrospect might I say I loved it there. I didn't love it. It became familiar. I got used to it. I became dependent upon it. This is not love."

-Suzanne Scanlon, Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen

"I became a writer because I believe in that part of me who is not limited by age or gender or time or disability - yet still I am afraid to say it. Yes, I was ill."

-Suzanne Scanlon, Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen

"I myself have internalized the self-loathing that at times can make me feel ashamed to be writing this book. But I also believe that, as my heroes have shown me, this is where a writer must go."

-Suzanne Scanlon, Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen

"What if, instead of being diagnosed—being called mentally ill—what if I had been able to receive care for its own sake. To be in distress, to ask for care, to receive it. What if there were space in …"

-Suzanne Scanlon, Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen

Cover of Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

8. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

By: Naomi Klein

4.22

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self―a double who was almost you a… read more

Similar categories in Naomi Klein's Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • sociology
  • audiobook
"Our role here on earth is not simply to maximize the advantage in our lives. It’s to maximize (protect, regenerate) all of life. We are here not just to make sure we as individuals survive, but to ma…"

-Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

"A state of shock is what happens to us- individually or as a society- when we experience a sudden and unprecedented event for which we do not yet have adequate explanation. At its essence, a shock is…"

-Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World

Cover of All Fours by Miranda July

9. All Fours

By: Miranda July

3.81

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times–bestselling author of The First Bad Man returns with an irreverently sexy, tende… read more

Similar categories in Miranda July's All Fours book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • audiobook
  • contemporary
"But maybe the road split between: a life spent longing vs. a life that was continually surprising"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"Maybe we shouldn't do that," Jordi said. "Flatten ourselves like that. Erratic doesn't have to mean crazy or irresponsible. Shouldn't we be normalizing change?"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"I guess any calling, no mater what it is, is a kind of unresolved ache," I said, giving in to knowing more than him. "It's a problem that you can't fix, but there is some relief in knowing you will c…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

"For me lying created just the right amount of problems and what you saw was just one of my four or five faces- each real, each with different needs. The only dangerous lie was one that asked me to co…"

-Miranda July, All Fours

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

10. Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves… read more

Similar categories in Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • audiobook
  • contemporary
Cover of The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

11. The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

By: Amanda Montell

3.54

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blen… read more

Similar categories in Amanda Montell's The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • sociology
  • audiobook
"While magical thinking is an age-old quirk, overthinking feels distinct to the modern era—a product of our innate superstitions clashing with information overload, mass loneliness, and a capitalistic…"

-Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

"Information transmission research suggests that folks with higher anxiety are quicker to engage with, and slower to disengage from, negative information; so "as a trait and state," anxiety itself per…"

-Amanda Montell, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

Cover of Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

12. Biography of X

By: Catherine Lacey

3.85

Format: 416 pages, Hardcover

From one of our fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and secrets of a not… read more

Similar categories in Catherine Lacey's Biography of X book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • audiobook
  • contemporary
"One of the armed guards smiled and said, “God bless,"

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

"Who can say who I are, how many I are, which I is the most I of my I’s?"

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

"She could not hurt me. I had no more space, at the time, to hold any new hurts."

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

"She kept losing track of the people she loved, and losing track of herself along with them."

-Catherine Lacey, Biography of X

Cover of Parade by Rachel Cusk

13. Parade

By: Rachel Cusk

3.70

Format: 198 pages, Hardcover

From the exhilarating mind of Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline trilogy, Parade disturbs and defin… read more

Similar categories in Rachel Cusk's Parade book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • audiobook
  • contemporary
"He knew that [his work] embodied change, and he wasn’t interested in change. He was interested in the fragments that change leaves behind in its storming passage toward the future."

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

"Not to be understood is effectively to be silenced, but not understanding can in its turn legitimise that silence, can illuminate one’s own unknowability. Art is the pact of individuals denying socie…"

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

"Sanity and insanity were not opposites but rather were the two faces of inanimate matter, the point at which the existence of consciousness can get no further in breaking down the existence of substa…"

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

"The impulse to have a child is very often a response to the woman’s own childhood, as though her childhood has left her incomplete, or has taken a part of her that she is driven to find again. The st…"

-Rachel Cusk, Parade

Cover of Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains by Alexa  Hagerty

14. Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains

By: Alexa Hagerty

4.47

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

An anthropologist working with forensic teams and victims' families to investigate crimes against h… read more

Similar categories in Alexa Hagerty's Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • audiobook
Cover of Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing

15. Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

By: Olivia Laing

4.01

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

“One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction” (Harper’s Bazaar) explores the role of art in th… read more

Similar categories in Olivia Laing's Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • contemporary
  • audiobook
"Empathy is not something that happens to us when we read Dickens. It’s work. What art does is provide material with which to think: new registers, new spaces. After that, friend, it’s up to you."

-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

"The Argonauts is about these small, miraculous domestic dramas, and the acts of readjustment and care that they require, but it is also a reconsideration of what the institutions established around s…"

-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

"Fiction can do that: can make a space for reflecting, for generating novel ways of responding and reacting to lies and guns and walls alike. The mere act of cracking open a book, Smith thinks, is cre…"

-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

"These narratives are interesting in and of themselves, but Nelson isn’t just airing her feelings out. She’s bent on using these experiences as ways of prying the culture open, of investigating what i…"

-Olivia Laing, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

Cover of Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

16. Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

By: Kyle Chayka

3.68

Format: 290 pages, Kindle Edition

A history and investigation of a world ruled by algorithms, which determine the shape of culture it… read more

Similar categories in Kyle Chayka's Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • nonfiction
  • sociology
  • audiobook
Cover of No Judgment: Essays by Lauren Oyler

17. No Judgment: Essays

By: Lauren Oyler

3.30

Format: 288 pages, Kindle Edition

From the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new piece… read more

Similar categories in Lauren Oyler's No Judgment: Essays book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"I’m told I should smoke more weed, which I don’t like, or else “do something nice for yourself,"

-Lauren Oyler, No Judgment: Essays

Cover of On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint by Maggie Nelson

18. On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

By: Maggie Nelson

4.01

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

Named a Most Anticipated/Best Book of the Month NPR * USA Today * Time * Washington Post * Vulture… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Nelson's On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Nothing stays avant-garde forever; you have to keep moving."

-Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

"As we think, we might remember that it matters not only with whom and what we choose to think; it also matters what spirit we choose to think with."

-Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

"This is one of the things I’ve learned about happiness: when you feel it, it’s good to say so. That way, if and when you say later in depression or despair, “I’ve just never been happy,"

-Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

"The reparative turn, as applied to art, is in many ways a continuation of the orthopedic aesthetic, with the difference being that the twentieth-century model imagined the audience as numb, constrict…"

-Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

Cover of Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

19. Having and Being Had

By: Eula Biss

3.83

Format: 324 pages, Hardcover

"My adult life can be divided into two distinct parts," Eula Biss writes, "the time before I owned … read more

Similar categories in Eula Biss's Having and Being Had book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • biography memoir
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • contemporary
  • economics
  • sociology
  • audiobook
"Art unmakes the world made by work."

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

"Not having money is time consuming. There are hours spent at laundromats, hours at bus stops, hours at free clinics, hours at thrift stores, hours on the phone with the bank or the credit card compan…"

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

"Why is water so often a metaphor for money? Perhaps because we like to believe that our economic system is naturally occurring, not man-made. Maybe the movement of money feels inevitable if you imagi…"

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

"Some people choose their precarity - evidence that precarity is not just a condition of our time, but a response to it. The precariat includes people who have forgone stable employment and retirement…"

-Eula Biss, Having and Being Had

Cover of Like Love: Essays and Conversations by Maggie Nelson

20. Like Love: Essays and Conversations

By: Maggie Nelson

3.76

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A career-spanning collection of inspiring, revelrous essays about art and artists Like Love is a… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Nelson's Like Love: Essays and Conversations book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

21. Housemates

By: Emma Copley Eisenberg

3.66

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in a fractured America in this sp… read more

Similar categories in Emma Copley Eisenberg's Housemates book and Eula Biss's Having and Being Had

  • audiobook
  • contemporary
"Teaching? When it’s good? A marvel. A fucking miracle. They live, and then they turn to you to tell you about it."

-Emma Copley Eisenberg, Housemates

8 Top contemporary books like Having and Being Had by Eula Biss

Transform Your Habits

All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess

Becca Rothfeld

3.76

Transform Your Habits

All Fours

Miranda July

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Martyr!

Kaveh Akbar

4.24

Transform Your Habits

Biography of X

Catherine Lacey

3.85

View all the books

21 best-selling fiction books like Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Transform Your Habits

Perfume & Pain

Anna Dorn

4.06

Transform Your Habits

All Fours

Miranda July

3.81

Transform Your Habits

Exhibit

R.O. Kwon

3.24

Transform Your Habits

Margo's Got Money Troubles

Rufi Thorpe

3.97

View all the books

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