Recommendations based on The Wild Irisby Louise Glück

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

  1. New and Selected Poems, Volume One

    by Mary Oliver
    A collection of nature-inspired poetry exploring life, death, and love.

    Features previously published and new poems that explore the natural world and how it is connected to human beings and spirituality. ... (Goodreads)

  2. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

    by Malcolm X
    A gripping account of one man's transformation from criminal to civil rights leader.

    Alternate cover for ISBN 9780345350688 Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his ... (Goodreads)

  3. Citizen: An American Lyric

    by Claudia Rankine
    Poetic exploration of racial injustice, highlighting the everyday experiences of racism.

    A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting ... (Goodreads)

  4. Letters to a Young Poet

    by Rainer Maria Rilke
    Uplifting and inspiring words of wisdom, encouraging a young poet to find his own artistic voice.

    In 1903, a student at a military academy sent some of his verses to a well-known Austrian poet, requesting an assessment of their value. The older artist, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), replied to ... (Goodreads)

  5. The Elements of Style

    by William Strunk Jr.
    A practical guide to written English, providing guidance on grammar and style.

    This style manual offers practical advice on improving writing skills. Throughout, the emphasis is on promoting a plain English style. This little book can help you communicate more effectively by ... (Goodreads)

  6. 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)

  7. Walden & Civil Disobedience

    by Henry David Thoreau
    A philosophical exploration of solitude, nature and civil disobedience.

    Henry David Thoreau's masterwork, Walden , is a collection of his reflections on life and society. His simple but profound musings—as well as Civil Disobedience , his protest against the government's ... (Goodreads)

  8. The Argonauts

    by Maggie Nelson
    A personal exploration of gender, sexuality, and love, weaving together memoir, criticism, and philosophy.

    An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family. Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, ... (Goodreads)

  9. My Life on the Road

    by Gloria Steinem
    Steinem's memoir of her travels as a feminist activist, sharing stories of the people and experiences that shaped her life and work.

    Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Hidden Life of Trees: what they feel, how they communicate : discoveries from a secret world

    by Peter Wohlleben
    An exploration of the complex relationships between trees and the environment.

    A, New York Times, bestseller,, With more than 2 million copies sold worldwide, this beautifully-written book journeys deep into the forest to uncover the fascinating—and surprisingly moving—hidden ... (Barnes & Noble)

  11. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

    by Frederick Douglass
    Memoir of a former slave's journey to freedom and his struggle for human rights.

    Born a slave circa1818 (slaves weren't told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published ... (Goodreads)

  12. The Year of Magical Thinking

    by Joan Didion
    A woman's reflections on life and death after the sudden loss of her husband.

    'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.' From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of ... (Goodreads)

  13. Speak, Memory

    by Vladimir Nabokov
    Autobiographical journey exploring the intimate memories of author's past.

    This is an older alternate cover edition for ISBN 0141183225/ 9780141183220. A newer edition may be found here . From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies ... (Goodreads)

  14. Bluets

    by Maggie Nelson
    A lyrical exploration of love, loss, and grief, expressed through memories and reflections.

    Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color... A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as ... (Goodreads)

  15. 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)

  16. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

    by Bessel van der Kolk
    Examining the physical, psychological and emotional effects of trauma, and how to heal.

    A pioneering researcher and one of the world’s foremost experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for healing. Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful ... (Goodreads)

  17. Race Matters

    by Cornel West
    A critique of the structures of racism and prejudice in society and how they shape our lives.

    In this essay collection, many of which have previously appeared in journals, West, the director of Afro-American studies at Princeton & author of several books, addresses a number of issues of ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

    by Andrew Solomon
    Exhaustive exploration of depression, its causes, and its effects on individuals and society.

    With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, award-winning author Andrew Solomon takes the reader on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most pervasive of family secrets. ... (Goodreads)

  19. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools

    by Jonathan Kozol
    An exposé of the disparities in America's public education system and its effects on children.

    National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol presents his shocking account of the American educational system in this stunning "New York Times" bestseller, which has sold more than 250,000 ... (Goodreads)

  20. A Moveable Feast

    by Ernest Hemingway
    A memoir of Hemingway's life in 1920s Paris, exploring its rich bohemian culture.

    Hemingway's memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the twenties are deeply personal, warmly affectionate, and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, ... (Goodreads)

  21. Notes of a Native Son

    by James Baldwin
    A collection of essays exploring the complexities of race, identity, and society in America through the lens of Baldwin's personal experiences.

    Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic. His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Woman Warrior

    by Maxine Hong Kingston
    A personal memoir of identity and culture, told through Chinese mythology and folklore.

    The book is divided into five interconnected chapters, which read like short stories. In the first part of this chapter, the narrator is recounting how her mother once told her the story of the ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Ways of Seeing

    by John Berger
    A critical analysis of visual culture and how it shapes our perception of the world. It challenges traditional ways of seeing and encourages a new perspective.

    John Berger’s Classic Text on Art John Berger's Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC ... (Goodreads)

  24. Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free

    by Héctor Tobar
    True story of 33 miners trapped in a Chilean mine and their miraculous rescue.

    When the San Jos mine collapsed outside of Copiap, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. Across the globe, we ... (Goodreads)

  25. Between the World and Me

    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.

    “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)

  26. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

    by Nadia Bolz-Weber
    An exploration of faith, grace, and redemption through the stories of ordinary people.

    What if that person you've been trying to avoid is your best shot at grace today?,...And what if that's the point?, In Accidental Saints, New York Times best-selling au­thor Nadia Bolz-Weber invites ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

    by Anne Fadiman
    Exploring the cultural divide between the Hmong people and the medical establishment.

    Lia Lee was born in 1982 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, ... (Goodreads)

  28. Selected Poems

    by Emily Dickinson
    Collection of poems exploring various themes of life, death, and the nature of reality.

    Although Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 2,000 poems, only a handful were ever published in her lifetime, and those anonymously. Today, she is recognized as one of the most important American poets of ... (Barnes & Noble)

  29. In Patagonia

    by Bruce Chatwin
    A journey through the far reaches of Patagonia, exploring its culture and history.

    An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, ... (Goodreads)

  30. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

    by Robin Wall Kimmerer
    An exploration of the reciprocal relationship between humans and nature, utilizing both Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge.

    As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals ... (Goodreads)