EX LIBRIS EB

Michiko Kakutani

• Publisher: William Collins
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780008421953
• eBook ISBN: 9780008421960
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

From 'the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world' (Vanity Fair) comes an inspiring and beautifully illustrated selection of the life-changing books that none of us should miss

'Why do we love books so much?'

For legendary literary critic Michiko Kakutani, books have always been an escape and a sanctuary, the characters of some novels feeling so real to her childhood self that she worried they might leap out of the pages at night if she left the book cover open. In Ex Libris, she offers a personal selection of over 100 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with passionate essays on why each has had a profound effect on her life.

From Homer's The Odyssey to The Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, Ex Libris covers a rich and vast range of classics, old and new, that will help build a well-rounded reader and citizen of the world. With gorgeous illustrations by lettering artist Dana Tanamachi that evoke vintage bookplates leafed between Kakutani's inspiring essays, Ex Libris points us to our next great read – and proves an unmissable reminder of why we fell in love with reading in the first place.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Americanah by CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
• The Light of the World by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
• Muhammad Ali Books
• Experience by MARTIN AMIS
• Winesburg, Ohio by SHERWOOD ANDERSON
• The Origins of Totalitarianism by HANNAH ARENDT
• The Handmaid’s Tale by MARGARET ATWOOD
• Collected Poems by W. H. AUDEN
• Continental Drift by RUSSELL BANKS
• Books by SAUL BELLOW
• The Image by DANIEL J. BOORSTIN
• Ficciones by JORGE LUIS BORGES
• The Moth Presents: All These Wonders,edited by CATHERINE BURNS
• The Plague by ALBERT CAMUS
• The Passage of Power by ROBERT A. CARO
• Pursuits of Happiness by STANLEY CAVELL
• Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by ROZ CHAST
• Books by BRUCE CHATWIN
• The Sleepwalkers by CHRISTOPHER CLARK
• Books About Foreign Policy and the World
• Brother, I’m Dying by EDWIDGE DANTICAT
• Underworld by DON DELILLO
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by JUNOT DíAZ
• Books by JOAN DIDION
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by DAVE EGGERS
• The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by DEBORAH EISENBERG
• The Waste Land by T. S. ELIOT
• Books by JOSEPH J. ELLIS
• The Founders on American Democracy
• Invisible Man by RALPH ELLISON
• As I Lay Dying by WILLIAM FAULKNER
• The Neapolitan Quartet by ELENA FERRANTE
• Books by DAVID FINKEL
• Books About 9/11 and the War on Terror
• The Great Gatsby by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
• Gould’s Book of Fish by RICHARD FLANAGAN
• The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1830–1857 by GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
• Sinatra! The Song Is You by WILL FRIEDWALD
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ
• The Idea Factory by JON GERTNER
• The Peripheral by WILLIAM GIBSON
• The Examined Life by STEPHEN GROSZ
• Seabiscuit by LAURA HILLENBRAND
• The Paranoid Style in American Politics by RICHARD HOFSTADTER
• The Odyssey by HOMER
• Lab Girl by HOPE JAHREN
• The Liars’ Club by MARY KARR
• A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches by MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
• On Writing by STEPHEN KING
• The Woman Warrior by MAXINE HONG KINGSTON
• The Language of the Third Reich by VICTOR KLEMPERER
• Books About Democracy and Tyranny
• The Sixth Extinction by ELIZABETH KOLBERT
• The Namesake by JHUMPA LAHIRI
• Books by JARON LANIER
• A Wrinkle in Time by MADELEINE L’ENGLE
• ABRAHAM LINCOLN Books
• Arctic Dreams by BARRY LOPEZ
• Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by CORMAC MCCARTHY
• Atonement by IAN MCEWAN
• Moby-Dick by HERMAN MELVILLE
• A Gate at the Stairs by LORRIE MOORE
• Books by TONI MORRISON
• Books by VLADIMIR NABOKOV
• Reading Lolita in Tehran by AZAR NAFISI
• A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. NAIPAUL
• Born a Crime by TREVOR NOAH
• Books by BARACK OBAMA
• There There by TOMMY ORANGE
• 1984 by GEORGE ORWELL
• The Moviegoer by WALKER PERCY
• Mason & Dixon by THOMAS PYNCHON
• Life by KEITH RICHARDS WITH JAMES FOX
• A Life of Picasso by JOHN RICHARDSON
• Books About Work and Vocation
• Housekeeping by MARILYNNE ROBINSON
• American Pastoral by PHILIP ROTH
• The Harry Potter Novels by J. K. ROWLING
• Books by SALMAN RUSHDIE
• Books by OLIVER SACKS
• Where the Wild Things Are by MAURICE SENDAK
• Books by DR. SEUSS
• The Plays of William Shakespeare
• Frankenstein by MARY SHELLEY
• Little Failure by GARY SHTEYNGART
• White Teeth by ZADIE SMITH
• My Beloved World by SONIA SOTOMAYOR
• The Palm at the End of the Mind by WALLACE STEVENS
• The Goldfinch by DONNA TARTT
• Democracy in America by ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. TOLKIEN
• The Letters of Vincent van Gogh by VINCENT VAN GOGH
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by OCEAN VUONG
• The Poetry of Derek Walcott, 1948–2013 by DEREK WALCOTT
• Infinite Jest by DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
• All the King’s Men by ROBERT PENN WARREN
• Educated by TARA WESTOVER
• The Underground Railroad by COLSON WHITEHEAD
• The World of Yesterday by STEFAN ZWEIG
• About the Publisher