Facebook Pixel
Lists Trending New
Start free trial

Essays

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

Essays Book Summaries

We're Going to Need More Wine Summary
We're Going to Need More Wine
Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True
by Gabrielle Union 2017 272 pages
4.19
35k+ ratings
Memoir
Biography
Essays
Draft No. 4 Summary
Draft No. 4
On the Writing Process
by John McPhee 2017 208 pages
4.09
3k+ ratings
Writing
Essays
Memoir
Women & Power Summary
Women & Power
A Manifesto
by Mary Beard 2017 126 pages
4.03
35k+ ratings
Feminism
History
Essays
The Anna Karenina Fix Summary
The Anna Karenina Fix
Life Lessons from Russian Literature
by Viv Groskop 2018 224 pages
3.97
1k+ ratings
Russia
Books About Books
Memoir
On the Brink of Everything Summary
On the Brink of Everything
Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old
by Parker J. Palmer 2018 216 pages
4.05
1k+ ratings
Spirituality
Memoir
Philosophy
This Will Make You Smarter Summary
This Will Make You Smarter
New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking (Edge Question Series)
by John Brockman 2012 448 pages
3.79
6k+ ratings
Science
Psychology
Self Help
Listen, Little Man! Summary
Listen, Little Man!
by Wilhelm Reich 2013 144 pages
3.98
8k+ ratings
Philosophy
Psychology
Politics
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel Summary
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
by Alexander Chee 2018 288 pages
4.39
11k+ ratings
Essays
Memoir
Writing
Standpoints Summary
Standpoints
10 Old Ideas In a New World
by Svend Brinkmann 2018 160 pages
3.77
500+ ratings
Philosophy
Psychology
Danish
The Power of the Powerless Summary
The Power of the Powerless
by Vaclav Havel 2018 160 pages
4.21
3k+ ratings
Politics
Philosophy
History
Feminism for the 99% Summary
Feminism for the 99%
A Manifesto
by Cinzia Arruzza 2019 96 pages
4.03
7k+ ratings
Feminism
Politics
Philosophy
How to Do Nothing Summary
How to Do Nothing
Resisting the Attention Economy
by Jenny Odell 2019 256 pages
3.68
51k+ ratings
Self Help
Philosophy
Psychology
India Positive Summary
India Positive
New Essays and Selected Columns
by Chetan Bhagat 2019 224 pages
3.6
100+ ratings
Essays
India
Diagnosis Summary
Diagnosis
Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries
by Lisa Sanders 2019 320 pages
4.01
3k+ ratings
Medicine
Science
Medical
Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy Summary
Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy
Curiouser and Curiouser
by William Irwin 2009 240 pages
4.12
1k+ ratings
Philosophy
Essays
Literary Criticism
Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring) Summary
Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring)
by Christopher Hitchens 2009 160 pages
4.13
12k+ ratings
Philosophy
Politics
Essays
Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings (Oxford World's Classics) Summary
Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings (Oxford World's Classics)
by Thomas Paine 2009 544 pages
4.01
100+ ratings
Politics
Philosophy
History
Travels With Epicurus Summary
Travels With Epicurus
by Daniel Klein 2012 192 pages
3.81
3k+ ratings
Philosophy
Travel
Greece
The Essential Smart Football Summary
The Essential Smart Football
by Chris B. Brown 2012 154 pages
4.01
1k+ ratings
Sports
Football
Essays
Modern Love, Revised and Updated Summary
Modern Love, Revised and Updated
True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption
by Daniel Jones 2019 304 pages
4.2
12k+ ratings
Romance
Essays
Short Stories
Bowie's Bookshelf Summary
Bowie's Bookshelf
The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie's Life
by John O'Connell 2019 320 pages
3.73
1k+ ratings
Music
Biography
Books About Books
Mad Men and Philosophy Summary
Mad Men and Philosophy
Nothing Is as It Seems
by Rod Carveth & James B. South & William Irwin 2010 272 pages
3.57
500+ ratings
Philosophy
Essays
Tv
Arguing with Zombies Summary
Arguing with Zombies
Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future
by Paul Krugman 2020 464 pages
3.86
2k+ ratings
Economics
Politics
Business
The Longing for Less Summary
The Longing for Less
Living with Minimalism
by Kyle Chayka 2020 272 pages
3.48
1k+ ratings
Art
Philosophy
Design
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity Summary
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
The International Bestseller
by Carlo M. Cipolla 2019 96 pages
3.86
8k+ ratings
Philosophy
Psychology
Humor
We Need New Stories Summary
We Need New Stories
by Nesrine Malik 2019 304 pages
4.03
500+ ratings
Politics
Feminism
Essays
The Return of the Russian Leviathan (New Russian Thought) Summary
The Return of the Russian Leviathan (New Russian Thought)
by Sergei Medvedev 2019 140 pages
4.07
100+ ratings
Russia
Politics
History
Eloquent Rage Summary
Eloquent Rage
A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
by Brittney Cooper 2018 288 pages
4.39
13k+ ratings
Feminism
Race
Essays
On Tyranny Summary
On Tyranny
Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder 2017 130 pages
4.19
64k+ ratings
History
Philosophy
Essays
Aftershocks of Disaster Summary
Aftershocks of Disaster
Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm
by Yarimar Bonilla 2019 441 pages
4.3
100+ ratings
History
Politics
Social Justice
I Used to Be Charming Summary
I Used to Be Charming
The Rest of Eve Babitz (New York Review Books Classics)
by Eve Babitz 2019 424 pages
4.16
1k+ ratings
Essays
Memoir
Short Stories
Hood Feminism Summary
Hood Feminism
Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
by Mikki Kendall 2020 288 pages
4.38
53k+ ratings
Feminism
Race
Social Justice
Star Wars and Philosophy Summary
Star Wars and Philosophy
More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 12)
by Kevin S. Decker 2005 252 pages
4.04
1k+ ratings
Philosophy
Star Wars
Pop Culture
Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius Summary
Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius
Part One from What the Dog Saw
by Malcolm Gladwell 2009 130 pages
3.95
500+ ratings
Psychology
Business
Self Help
What the Dog Saw Summary
What the Dog Saw
And Other Adventures
by Malcolm Gladwell 2009 433 pages
3.85
100k+ ratings
Psychology
Business
Essays
The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy Summary
The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy
Hogwarts for Muggles
by J. K William 2010 304 pages
4.37
7k+ ratings
Philosophy
Psychology
Essays
Can't We All Disagree More Constructively? Summary
Can't We All Disagree More Constructively?
From The Righteous Mind (Kindle Single) (A Vintage Short)
by Jonathan Haidt 2016 73 pages
4.1
100+ ratings
Politics
Psychology
Philosophy
Braiding Sweetgrass Summary
Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer 2013 320 pages
4.54
100k+ ratings
Science
Nature
Memoir
Cassandra Speaks Summary
Cassandra Speaks
When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes
by Elizabeth Lesser 2020 304 pages
4.07
4k+ ratings
Feminism
History
Essays
This Explains Everything Summary
This Explains Everything
Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works (Edge Question Series)
by John Brockman 2013 432 pages
3.66
2k+ ratings
Science
Philosophy
Psychology
Between Barack and a Hard Place Summary
Between Barack and a Hard Place
Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama
by Tim Wise 2009 159 pages
4.15
500+ ratings
Race
Politics
Anti Racist
What If This Were Enough? Summary
What If This Were Enough?
Essays
by Heather Havrilesky 2018 240 pages
3.65
3k+ ratings
Essays
Self Help
Memoir
Telling True Stories Summary
Telling True Stories
A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University
by Mark William Wendy Louise 2007 317 pages
4.08
1k+ ratings
Writing
Journalism
Essays
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs Summary
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
A Low Culture Manifesto
by Chuck Klosterman 2003 256 pages
3.74
71k+ ratings
Essays
Humor
Pop Culture
Batman and Philosophy Summary
Batman and Philosophy
The Dark Knight of the Soul (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Book 9)
by Mark D. White 2009 306 pages
3.76
2k+ ratings
Philosophy
Batman
Comics
The Undiscovered Self Summary
The Undiscovered Self
With Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams (Jung Extracts, 31)
by C. G. Jung 2010 160 pages
4.29
500+ ratings
Psychology
Philosophy
Science
The Gervais Principle Summary
The Gervais Principle
The Complete Series, with a Bonus Essay on Office Space (Ribbonfarm Roughs Book 2)
by Venkatesh Rao 2013 144 pages
3.59
14k+ ratings
Philosophy
Essays
Humor
Seven Brief Lessons On Physics Summary
Seven Brief Lessons On Physics
by Carlo Rovelli 2015 96 pages
3.98
59k+ ratings
Science
Physics
Philosophy
In Praise of Idleness Summary
In Praise of Idleness
by Bertrand Russell
4.04
6k+ ratings
Philosophy
Essays
Politics
The Conquest of Happiness (Routledge Classics) Summary
The Conquest of Happiness (Routledge Classics)
by Bertrand Russell 1976 200 pages
4.02
14k+ ratings
Philosophy
Psychology
Self Help
Create a free account to unlock:
Bookmarks – save your favorite books
History – revisit books later
Ratings – rate books & see your ratings
Unlock unlimited listening
Your first week's on us!
Today: Get Instant Access
Listen to full summaries of 73,530 books. That's 12,000+ hours of audio!
Day 4: Trial Reminder
We'll send you a notification that your trial is ending soon.
Day 7: Your subscription begins
You'll be charged on Nov 22,
cancel anytime before.
Compare Features Free Pro
Read full text summaries
Summaries are free to read for everyone
Listen to summaries
12,000+ hours of audio
 —
Unlimited Bookmarks
Free users are limited to 10
 —
Unlimited History
Free users are limited to 10
 —
What our users say
30,000+ readers
“...I can 10x the number of books I can read...”
“...exceptionally accurate, engaging, and beautifully presented...”
“...better than any amazon review when I'm making a book-buying decision...”
Save 62%
Yearly
$119.88 $44.99/yr
$3.75/mo
Monthly
$9.99/mo
Try Free & Unlock
7 days free, then $44.99/year. Cancel anytime.
Settings
Appearance