Essays Winner: Trick Mirror
"Back in 2017, Jia Tolentino declared the personal essay dead. But two years is an eternity online, and the medium Tolentino decried as sensationalist clickbait is now thriving with humanity and intellectual rigor. Is it a coincidence that today’s most provocative essayists are women—especially women whose skin, bodies, and minds have historically been sidelined?
This year brought fascinating collections from Esmé Weijun Wang, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and Lindy West, each spoken in the writer's own voice. These incisive explorations of mental illness, beauty, gender, and politics establish an authoritative canon that resonates even louder together. The final work of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison was one of the most precious gifts of 2019, with the added polish of Bahni Turpin’s delivery.
As for Tolentino, no one dissects our exhausting and Extremely Online
era faster or with such electric relatability. From divine encounters with drugs to scammer culture and the distracting refractions of self the Internet spits back at us, Trick Mirror is about as blistering a refute to Tolentino’s proclamation as you can find. Fans may be clamoring for a novel, but her essays are an essential answer to our times." —Kat, Audible Editor
Best of Essays: Four More
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Thick
- And Other Essays
- By: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Narrated by: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,742
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,494
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,474
Smart, humorous, and strikingly original essays by one of “America’s most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism of our time.” (Rebecca Traister) In these eight piercing explorations on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom - award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed - embraces her venerated role as a purveyor of wit, wisdom, and Black Twitter snark about all that is right and much that is wrong with this thing we call society.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A different perspective
- By ANNE on 08-13-19
-
The Witches Are Coming
- By: Lindy West
- Narrated by: Lindy West
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,157
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,884
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,872
From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: This is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In The Witches Are Coming, firebrand author of the New York Times best-selling memoir and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series Shrill Lindy West turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt? Fine. You've got one.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Starts strong then wanders
- By Dawn on 01-09-20
-
The Collected Schizophrenias
- Essays
- By: Esmé Weijun Wang
- Narrated by: Esmé Weijun Wang
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 897
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 797
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 787
An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Narration way too slow
- By Diane on 04-27-19
-
The Source of Self-Regard
- Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
Arguably the most celebrated and revered writer of our time now gives us a new nonfiction collection - a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Refreshing thoughts
- By Amazon Customer on 04-02-19
-
Thick
- And Other Essays
- By: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Narrated by: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,742
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,494
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,474
Smart, humorous, and strikingly original essays by one of “America’s most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism of our time.” (Rebecca Traister) In these eight piercing explorations on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom - award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed - embraces her venerated role as a purveyor of wit, wisdom, and Black Twitter snark about all that is right and much that is wrong with this thing we call society.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A different perspective
- By ANNE on 08-13-19
-
The Witches Are Coming
- By: Lindy West
- Narrated by: Lindy West
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,157
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,884
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,872
From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: This is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In The Witches Are Coming, firebrand author of the New York Times best-selling memoir and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series Shrill Lindy West turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt? Fine. You've got one.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Starts strong then wanders
- By Dawn on 01-09-20
-
The Collected Schizophrenias
- Essays
- By: Esmé Weijun Wang
- Narrated by: Esmé Weijun Wang
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 897
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 797
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 787
An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Narration way too slow
- By Diane on 04-27-19
-
The Source of Self-Regard
- Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
Arguably the most celebrated and revered writer of our time now gives us a new nonfiction collection - a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Refreshing thoughts
- By Amazon Customer on 04-02-19