15 best-selling essays books like The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Cover of The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

By: Ross Gay

4.28

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy is back with a new c…

"I've completed another year of delights. Or maybe I should say another year of delights has completed me."

-Ross Gay, The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

"I've completed another year of delights. Or maybe I should say another year of delights has completed me."

-Ross Gay, The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

If you liked the essays plot in The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay , here is a list of 15 books like this:

1. How Literature Saved My Life

By: David Shields

4.05

Format: 12 pages, Hardcover

Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of li… read more

Similar categories in David Shields's How Literature Saved My Life book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

Cover of The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing

2. The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise

By: Olivia Laing

4.07

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual pla… read more

Similar categories in Olivia Laing's The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • nature
  • audiobook
"One of the operations by which capitalism perpetuates itself is displacement, the determined and absolute separation of the product from the site of production, so that when we buy petrol or peat fro…"

-Olivia Laing, The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise

Cover of The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

3. The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

By: Margaret Renkl

4.37

Format: 270 pages, Hardcover

From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a “h… read more

Similar categories in Margaret Renkl's The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

4. Let Us Descend

By: Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congres… read more

Similar categories in Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • audiobook
"You must leap. You must do as your people did. You must sink in order to rise."

-Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend

Cover of Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

5. Grief Is for People

By: Sloane Crosley

3.91

Format: 208 pages, Hardcover

Following the death of her closest friend, Sloane Crosley explores multiple kinds of loss in this d… read more

Similar categories in Sloane Crosley's Grief Is for People book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Grief is for people, not things."

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

"Suicide is a tax on human consciousness."

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

"How will he know you loved him," she asks, "unless you try to destroy yourself?"

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

"Pictures should be of what you see, not of what the world sees when it sees you."

-Sloane Crosley, Grief Is for People

Cover of James by Percival Everett

6. James

By: Percival Everett

4.54

Format: 303 pages, Hardcover

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more

Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • audiobook
Cover of Somehow: Thoughts on Love by Anne Lamott

7. Somehow: Thoughts on Love

By: Anne Lamott

3.95

Format: 204 pages, Hardcover

From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow , a joyful celebration of lo… read more

Similar categories in Anne Lamott's Somehow: Thoughts on Love book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"I don’t know"

-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love

"…nobody in isolation becomes who they were designed to be."

-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love

"Sometimes it all just sucks, as Jesus says somewhere in the Gospels (although off the top of my head I can’t recall chapter and verse."

-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love

"When I first got sober, a man told me that upon waking every morning, instead of reciting the standard flowery recovery prayer, he said, “Whatever,“ and at night when he turned off his lights to go t…"

-Anne Lamott, Somehow: Thoughts on Love

Cover of North Woods by Daniel       Mason

8. North Woods

By: Daniel Mason

4.15

Format: 372 pages, Hardcover

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more

Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James   McBride

9. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By: James McBride

4.00

Format: 385 pages, Hardcover

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more

Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

10. Wandering Stars

By: Tommy Orange

3.89

Format: 315 pages, Hardcover

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more

Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • audiobook
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"

-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars

Cover of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

11. 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 Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • audiobook
Cover of The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

12. The Vaster Wilds

By: Lauren Groff

3.77

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited g… read more

Similar categories in Lauren Groff's The Vaster Wilds book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • nature
  • audiobook
"For what is a girl but a vessel made to hold the desires of men."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"O put the memory away, girl, she told herself sternly. For the sorrow could eat you entire."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"And humans were not made to be always alone; humans survive only in the company of other humans."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

"Against the resistance of other minds, one's thoughts are pulled out of their comfortable shapes, and true thinking begins."

-Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

Cover of Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed

13. Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

By: Shannon Reed

3.71

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile and Thurber… read more

Similar categories in Shannon Reed's Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I think, therefore, I cry..."

-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

"Life is so much better with books than without."

-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

"But reading! That I could do. When I read, I felt smart."

-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

"The act of reading makes me feel safe. Not the book itself--but the exercise of running my eyes over the words. The translation from symbol into meaning. The direct, pleasant diction of the voice ins…"

-Shannon Reed, Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

Cover of The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

14. The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

By: Ross Gay

4.28

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

The New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy is back with a new c… read more

Similar categories in Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • biography memoir
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • adult
  • nature
  • audiobook
"I've completed another year of delights. Or maybe I should say another year of delights has completed me."

-Ross Gay, The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

Cover of So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan

15. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

By: Claire Keegan

3.99

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

Librarian's Note: This is the entry for the short story collection. Please don't combine it with th… read more

Similar categories in Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • short stories
  • adult
"You know what is at the heart of misogyny? When it comes down to it?’ ‘So I’m a misogynist now?’ ‘It’s simply about not giving,’ she said."

-Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men

Cover of The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center by Rhaina Cohen

16. The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center

By: Rhaina Cohen

3.95

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Why do we place romantic partnership on a pedestal? What do we lose when we expect one person to me… read more

Similar categories in Rhaina Cohen's The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • audiobook
Cover of Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business by Roxane Gay

17. Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business

By: Roxane Gay

4.01

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

From beloved and bestselling author Roxane Gay, “a strikingly fresh cultural critic” (Washington Po… read more

Similar categories in Roxane Gay's Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

18. Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

By: Christian Cooper

4.25

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Central Park birder Christian Cooper takes us beyond the viral video th… read more

Similar categories in Christian Cooper's Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • nature
  • audiobook
"Nor did I know back then that McCartney had written the song as an ode to Black women ("bird" being British slang for a pretty girl) at the pivotal moment of the civil rights struggle. That would onl…"

-Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

"Writing a memoir is akin to taking off one's clothes in public, and as I learned years ago in the amateur strip contest as Darren and the go-go boys cheered me on, success at such an endeavor can onl…"

-Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

"Beginning around 1910, The Great Migration saw some 6 million black people surge Northward, out of the states of the former Confederacy, spurred by the same thing that lies behind the yearly migratio…"

-Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

"What makes birding such a phenomenon? Why not "mammaling" or insecting? Certainly those pursuits have their adherents, as the thousands who visit Africa on safari or who catalog butterflies can attes…"

-Christian Cooper, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

Cover of You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie  Smith

19. You Could Make This Place Beautiful

By: Maggie Smith

4.08

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Smith's You Could Make This Place Beautiful book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • adult
  • audiobook
"At our wedding, our college creative writing professor read a poem—John Ciardi’s “Most Like an Arch This Marriage."

-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

"How I picture it: We are all nesting dolls, carrying the earlier iterations of ourselves inside. We carry the past inside us. We take ourselves–all of our selves–wherever we go. Inside forty-somethin…"

-Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Cover of There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

20. There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.40

Format: 352 pages, Hardcover

A poignant, personal reflection on basketball, talent and allegiance, and of course, LeBron James—f… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"Heartbreak itself is a primary color. Stagnant without a series of secondary colors to activate it. Longing is an activator."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

"With enough repetition, anything can become a religion. It doesn’t matter if it works or not, it simply matters if a person returns."

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

"It is a strange miracle to be able to trace your own aging, your own mortality through someone who's living alongside you, someone who has survived eras at the same time as you have in some of the sa…"

-Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

Cover of 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg

21. 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round

By: Jami Attenberg

4.22

Format: 272 pages, Hardcover

Inspired by Jami Attenberg’s wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this writer’s gui… read more

Similar categories in Jami Attenberg's 1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
Cover of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy

22. Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden

By: Camille T. Dungy

4.19

Format: 321 pages, Hardcover

A seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Boo… read more

Similar categories in Camille T. Dungy's Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • nonfiction
  • memoir
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver

23. Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver

By: Mary Oliver

4.52

Format: 6 pages, Audible Audio

A celebration of the beloved, award-winning poet Mary Oliver, narrated by actress and activist Soph… read more

Similar categories in Mary Oliver's Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • nature
  • audiobook
Cover of This Is the Honey by Kwame Alexander

24. This Is the Honey

By: Kwame Alexander

4.47

Format: 448 pages, Hardcover

A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising… read more

Similar categories in Kwame Alexander's This Is the Honey book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas

25. Congratulations, the Best is Over!

By: R. Eric Thomas

4.07

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

The beloved bestselling author of Here for It presents a collection of heartening, thoughtful, and … read more

Similar categories in R. Eric Thomas's Congratulations, the Best is Over! book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • audiobook
"If I'm not heading toward a place where I can feel joy, then hope in the present has nothing to hold on to."

-R. Eric Thomas, Congratulations, the Best is Over!

Cover of You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World by Ada Limon

26. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World

By: Ada Limon

4.11

Format: 176 pages, Hardcover

Published association  with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate o… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • nature
Cover of Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

27. Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees

By: Aimee Nezhukumatathil

4.12

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders, a lyrical book of short essays abou… read more

Similar categories in Aimee Nezhukumatathil's Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • short stories
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances by Kwame Alexander

28. Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances

By: Kwame Alexander

4.04

Format: 240 pages, Hardcover

This powerful memoir from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist features poet… read more

Similar categories in Kwame Alexander's Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • biography memoir
  • nonfiction
  • essays
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I want them to know that banning a book is like banning a hug and THAT is a dismal storm no should be left behind in"

-Kwame Alexander, Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Letters, Recipes, and Remembrances

Cover of Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair by Christian Wiman

29. Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair

By: Christian Wiman

4.14

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

Christian Wiman braids poetry, memoir, and criticism to create an inspired, career-defining work. … read more

Similar categories in Christian Wiman's Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • memoir
  • philosophy
  • nonfiction
  • essays
Cover of Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them by Tess Taylor

30. Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them

By: Tess Taylor

4.09

Format: 200 pages, Hardcover

This beautiful poetry anthology offers a warm, inviting selection of poems from a wide range of voi… read more

Similar categories in Tess Taylor's Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • nature
Cover of What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill

31. What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World

By: Prentis Hemphill

4.54

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover

From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to … read more

Similar categories in Prentis Hemphill's What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World book and Ross Gay's The Book of (More) Delights: Essays

  • nonfiction
  • audiobook

16 best-selling adult books like The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

Transform Your Habits

Let Us Descend

Jesmyn Ward

3.70

Transform Your Habits

North Woods

Daniel Mason

4.15

Transform Your Habits

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

James McBride

4.00

Transform Your Habits

Wandering Stars

Tommy Orange

3.89

View all the books

18 must-read audiobook books like The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Transform Your Habits

After Annie

Anna Quindlen

4.03

Transform Your Habits

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Margaret Renkl

4.37

Transform Your Habits

James

Percival Everett

4.54

Transform Your Habits

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Amy Tan

4.14

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