Recommendations based on A Tale of Love and Darknessby Amos Oz

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The World of Yesterday

    by Stefan Zweig
    Autobiography of a Jewish writer, describing the intellectual and social life of fin de siècle Europe.

    The World of Yesterday, mailed to his publisher a few days before Stefan Zweig took his life in 1942, has become a classic of the memoir genre. Originally titled “Three Lives,” the memoir describes ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients

    by Irvin D. Yalom
    A guide to the principles of psychotherapy, exploring the relationship between therapist and patient.

    Acclaimed author and renowned psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom distills thirty-five years of psychotherapy wisdom into one brilliant volume. The culmination of master psychiatrist Dr. Irvin D. Yalom’s ... (Barnes & Noble)

  3. The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss

    by Edmund de Waal
    A journey through time, tracing the history of a family's collection of art and their struggles with loss.

    The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost ... (Goodreads)

  4. The Shadow of the Sun

    by Ryszard Kapuściński
    An epic account of a journey through Africa, navigating the continent's diverse cultures and politics.

    In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence ... (Goodreads)

  5. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

    by Simon Sebag Montefiore
    A biography of Joseph Stalin, exploring his rise to power and the inner workings of his regime.

    Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781400076789 This widely acclaimed biography provides a vivid and riveting account of Stalin and his courtiers—killers, fanatics, women, and children—during the ... (Goodreads)

  6. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction

    by Michel Foucault
    Examination of the power dynamics and social constructions of sexual behavior.

    Michel Foucault offers an iconoclastic exploration of why we feel compelled to continually analyze and discuss sex, and of the social and mental mechanisms of power that cause us to direct the ... (Goodreads)

  7. The Origins of Totalitarianism

    by Hannah Arendt
    Analysis of the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe, and their consequences for the modern world.

    Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism ... (Goodreads)

  8. War's Unwomanly Face

    by Svetlana Alexievich
    An exploration of the lives of Soviet women who served in World War II.

    This book is a confession, a document and a record of people's memory. More than 200 women speak in it, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. More than ... (Goodreads)

  9. Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

    by Svetlana Alexievich
    A compilation of personal accounts from the last years of the Soviet Union.

    From the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, comes the first English translation of her latest work, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984

    by Riad Sattouf
    A graphic memoir of a boy growing up in Syria, Libya, and France, navigating cultural differences and political upheaval.

    The Arab of the Future begins in France, where Riad Sattouf is born in 1978. He describes himself as a “perfect” little boy with "platinum-blonde hair" and “bright puppy-dog eyes.” Riad is the eldest ... (Wikipedia)

  11. If This Is a Man • The Truce

    by Primo Levi
    A memoir of Primo Levi's time in Auschwitz and his journey home. The Truce follows his travels through war-torn Europe.

    'With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly ... (Goodreads)

  12. Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

    by Irvin D. Yalom
    Exploration of psychotherapy and the human condition, through stories of therapy sessions.

    The collection of ten absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. In recounting his ... (Goodreads)

  13. The Complete Maus

    by Art Spiegelman
    A graphic novel depicting a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and his son's journey to understand the past.

    On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

    by Oliver Sacks
    A collection of case studies, illustrating extraordinary neurological phenomena.

    If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the ... (Goodreads)

  15. The Power of Art

    by Simon Schama
    Exploration of the ways in which art has shaped the world, from antiquity to the present.

    "Great art has dreadful manners," Simon Schama observes wryly at the start of his epic and explosive exploration of the power, and whole point, of art. "The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool ... (Goodreads)

  16. Meditations

    by Marcus Aurelius
    Reflections on Stoic philosophy, exploring the nature of existence and how to live life.

    Written in Greek by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual ... (Goodreads)

  17. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

    by David Foster Wallace
    Collection of essays and arguments, exploring the absurdities of contemporary culture.

    In this exuberantly praised book — a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Songlines

    by Bruce Chatwin
    A mix of travelogue, memoir, and fiction exploring the Aboriginal concept of songlines and their connection to the land.

    In this extraordinary book, Bruce Chatwin has adapted a literary form common until the eighteenth century though rare in ours; a story of ideas in which two companions, traveling and talking ... (Goodreads)

  19. Out of Africa

    by Isak Dinesen
    Memoir of a Danish author's life in Kenya, exploring nature and culture.

    'Out of Africa' is Isak Dinesen's memoir of her years in Africa, from 1914 to 1931, on a four-thousand-acre coffee plantation in the hills near Nairobi. She had come to Kenya from Denmark with her ... (Goodreads)

  20. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

    by Haruki Murakami
    Reflections of a runner, exploring the physical and mental challenges of the sport.

    In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such ... (Goodreads)

  21. On the Move: A Life

    by Oliver Sacks
    An autobiography of the life and career of neurologist and author, Oliver Sacks.

    When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: “Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far.” It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. ... (Goodreads)

  22. Tao Te Ching

    by Lao Tzu
    A collection of wise sayings and reflections on the nature of existence.

    A lucid translation of the well-known Taoist classic by a leading scholar-now in a Shambhala Pocket Library edition. Written more than two thousand years ago, the Tao Teh Ching , or -The Classic of ... (Goodreads)

  23. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

    by Anthony Bourdain
    A humorous and unflinching account of life in restaurant kitchens, exploring the culture and camaraderie of the culinary world.

    A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute ... (Goodreads)

  24. Mortality

    by Christopher Hitchens
    Reflections on the inevitability of death, drawing on personal and philosophical insights.

    On June 8, 2010, while on a book tour for his bestselling memoir, Hitch-22 , Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would ... (Barnes & Noble)

  25. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

    by Robert K. Massie
    A biography of Catherine the Great, the powerful and controversial Empress of Russia, who transformed her country and left a lasting legacy.

    “[A] tale of power, perseverance and passion . . . a great story in the hands of a master storyteller.”—,The Wall Street Journal, The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and ... (Barnes & Noble)

  26. Gorgias

    by Plato
    Philosophical dialogue on the nature of justice and power of rhetoric.

    Taking the form of a dialogue between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus and Callicles, GORGIAS debates perennial questions about the nature of government and those who aspire to public office. Are high moral ... (Goodreads)

  27. Just Kids

    by Patti Smith
    Chronicles of two young artists in New York City, finding friendship and inspiration in each other.

    In Just Kids , Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal ... (Goodreads)

  28. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

    by Bart D. Ehrman
    A historical analysis of the New Testament, exploring the discrepancies and alterations made by scribes and theologians throughout history.

    For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand––and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman ... (Goodreads)

  29. Survival in Auschwitz

    by Primo Levi
    True story of a man's struggle to survive in a Nazi concentration camp.

    The true and harrowing account of Primo Levi’s experience at the German concentration camp of Auschwitz and his miraculous survival; hailed by The Times Literary Supplement as a “true work of art, ... (Goodreads)

  30. The Story of Art

    by E.H. Gombrich
    Comprehensive overview of art history, from prehistoric to modern times.

    The Story of Art, one of the most famous and popular books on art ever written, has been a world bestseller for over four decades. Attracted by the simplicity and clarity of his writing, readers of ... (Goodreads)