Beautiful Essays

Paris Review contributor Katy Kelleher explores our obsession with gorgeous things, unveiling the fraught histories of makeup, flowers, perfume, silk, and other beautiful objects. In these dazzling and deeply researched essays, Katy Kelleher blends science, history, and memoir to uncover the dark underbellies of our favorite goods.

Join Leslie Means, founder of the popular website Her View From Home, as she weaves together a powerful, emotional collection of essays from women of all ages and stages. These real-life, straight-to-the-heart stories will make you laugh, cry, and nod along. No two mothers are alike. No two experiences in motherhood mirror each other. But something powerful happens when our stories come together: they speak love, worth, value, and beauty. They take the undefinable experience of motherhood and give it shape and substance and strength. They speak to us all.

Let It All Be Beautiful is a collection of 45 essays and energy practices designed to awaken the natural, authentic, and magnetic energy within all of us. Blending memoir, poetry, and lists with intentional practices, this book invites you to see yourself in your full glory. Whether you’re longing to feel more radiant, searching for healing, or motivated to become more mindful, this book will meet you where you are, celebrate everything you exude, and walk alongside you as you find your way home.

In Search of a Beautiful Freedom brings together the best work from Farah Jasmine Griffin's rich forays on music, Black feminism, literature, the crises of Hurricane Katrina and COVID-19, and the Black artists she esteems. She moves from evoking the haunting strength of Odetta and the rise of soprano popular singers in the 1970s to the forging of a Black women's literary renaissance and the politics of Malcolm X through the lens of Black feminism.

This selection of essays by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) demonstrate the varied power of his genius. Compiled from his lecture tours, newspaper articles, essays and epigrams, these writings show that beneath his trademark wit and love of paradox, Oscar Wilde was an original and remarkably modern writer.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

Life doesn’t come with a map—just scars, memories, and the occasional bad idea. In this raw and reflective collection of essays, a man looks back on the people who shaped him, the places that changed him, and the moments that wouldn’t let him go. From Bronx alleyways to Thai backstreets, through heartbreak, absurdity, and unexpected grace—these stories linger like smoke and stay like scars.

1+1=1 ... losing our identities Being in love ... is a totally different way of experiencing life. Being in love ... is amazing. But … love is not for everyone. Yes ... Not any of us can understand and accept the illogical rules of love. And ... the truth is ... we are afraid of getting lost ... of losing our souls ... our identities ... our minds. I was in love. ... not only one time. I dare to write about love ... cause i was into that ... heaven ... but unfortunately the emotional balance made me feel ... the hell too. Love is ... duality. I've felt it. I've strongly felt it. And I've ...

Walking Chickens in the Rain: Embracing the Chaos of Life is a wildly relatable, laugh-out-loud, heartwarming collection of essays for anyone who’s ever tried to hold it all together while everything—chickens included—ran wildly off-script. With wit, warmth, and muddy boots, Annie Rowen invites you into a life less filtered, full of flying feathers, sideways plans, and accidental wisdom. Whether she’s chasing a hen across the driveway in slippers or finding meaning in the cluck of an unimpressed bird, Annie reminds us that life doesn’t have to be tidy to be beautiful. This is not ...

Analyzing my own writings … i’ve realized that i was writing lots of books with love essays, but i was afraid of using the word … sex. Most probably i was not writing about it … at all … which is indeed a nonsense, cause the things are very well interconnected. Today … i look around myself … analyzing again and again … the connection between woman and man … trying to understand the meaning … studying the purpose of the connection … and realize that many of us see in that … a therapy … a way of healing ourselves. Well … analyzing more …i’ve came to the ...

Disconnect ... connect ... disconnect again ... re connect ... seen as a circle of life. I try to understand life. But ... it's probably an illusory desire. Most probably ... the real truth is that i want to know how can i totally disconnect from all what means negativity. Totally disconnect from .... unhappiness ... and all what makes me feel ... depressed. .... my anger, my frustrations, my envy, my jealousy, my .... all this large spectrum of negative feelings and emotions. And ... i keep meditating. I keep ... exploring. I pretend i want to know what this universe is ... but all i want ...

Love poetry , which can be sent to the person of your dreams, on Valentine's Day, or any other day of the year. When you want to express yourself, there's no time like the present. Some of these are pure and simple direct love poems, some are declarations, where the writer is trying to convince someone to change his/her life, and better the dream. They can be combined or used on their own. You might find a little bit of yourself in some of these poems. Who amongst us has not wished for someone to turn their way and recognize all they had to offer. With a cup of tea, these poems go down to ...

The book is trying to define the beautiful and the dark side from a man and a woman, that are in love of each other, but not as theory ... but as a result of analyzing facts that are happening on the timeline of the love story. It’s a book about a fairy tale, with 2 lovely characters that are not understanding, but also are not accepting that the meaning of an abstract love ... or an imposible story is to enjoy only the beauty of what is going on. The 2 people from the essays get lost so many times, that not even the people around them can’t see if the story itself is real or not. But ...

The book “The beautiful illusion of being in love” is a collection of writings with what is love about. Starting from the philosophical idea that everything we see in life is just an illusion, the book is defining the concept of love in the same way. But the illusion itself is also named “beautiful”. Falling in love is an experience, that any human being must see, with it’s own soul. It can be a beautiful experience, an illusion or a beautiful illusion. The book is more like a collection of poems, but the writer is not knowing to write poetry, but only essays. Trying to define ...

I had no idea about the fact that life is a lot related with the energies beyond ourselves. The ones generated by our ideas, thoughts, feelings ... and in fact all is in our heart ... or mind. I was not aware of the influences came from this side ... not even thinking for a second that soon ... all these energies will be metamorphosed into ... dominance. And i continued my life like that for years. ... having no idea what the nonsense is. Believing ... it's real ... ... and also that its appearance on the scene of life... it's normal. ... us not being able to do anything against that. There...

Experiencing a path that takes us to nowhere … it’s not useless. We should understand and accept that not the destination is important … cause life has no real destination. …but what it is really important is maybe the experience itself. Good … bad … however it is … it all has the meaning to reveal to us the dance of energies beyond the scene of reality… making us aware that all is … energy. Into the end … maybe there is only one conclusion … but i hate saying it. Well … we could chose to connect just on the beautiful vibrations of life … and totally ignore ...

Have you even asked yourself why so many people in this world are living an unhappy life?! But what about you?! Are you a happy person ... or not?! And if not ... have you ever thought why?! Is just a simple question, same as you would ask yourself why you don’t know skying ... if you never took lessons for that?! You see ... truth be told ... in school we’ve learnt lots of things, including complicated math formulas, languages that we will never use in life, chemistry issues that will not serve us with nothing etc etc ... but no one ever bothered to teach us at least a short list with ...

Together with my friends Paul and Brian, talking about the philosophy of life and the paths that we should follow ... trying to find ideas for a beautiful reality ... we came to the conclusion that the human being needs kind of a vibe amplifier that should be around all the time. The 3 of us are now over 40 and even if many wrote me asking if Paul and Brian really exist or they are just my imaginary friends ... i smile each time when i read that question, understanding that the 2 of them are somehow my reflection ... of my thoughts, actions, desires and everything defines me. Paul is the ...

I was meditating over a list of tips and tricks that could help us improve our lives ... and i think the main trick we should have in mind is just ... try to not control anything at all. Only play on the stage of our own lives ... and even being surrounded by so, so many energy forces ... we should embrace all of them ... no matter if they are positive and negative. We should somehow dance with those energies and enjoy the dance itself, which actually means accept everything happens, even if it happens for a reason difficult to be understood now. You see, we have lots of options in life, ...