Readlists
A readlist is like a playlist for books. Enjoy.
America, what is it? The French weigh in.
As much as Americans like to talk about ourselves, we also like to read about ourselves. Fortunately, the French seem to love writing about us. This is a list of books about Americans from French writers.
Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
This one is a classic for a reason. In the 1800s, de Tocqueville came over from France and traveled around and kind of marveled. What made a big impression was a nation capable of civic engagement and cooperation. People joined associations, believed in equality, and helped each other out. Religion was intertwined with it all. Democracy in America highlights the upsides of the little republic and the possibilities for problems.
J Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters From an American Farmer (1782)
Less assigned than Democracy in America, this book came first and also made a big impression. It’s a series of letters by Crevecouer, written from himself as a fictional farmer, to a fictional English gentleman. This book marvels at the way in which the indigent of all Europe could come to America and become something better. Here’s a sample from “What is an American?” Crevecoeur writes: “Men are like plants; the goodness and flavour of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment. Here you will find but few crimes; these have acquired as yet no root among us.” Read the letters here.
Jean Cocteau, Letter to the Americans (1949)
Jean Cocteau was a French avant-garde poet and playwright. In 1949, he spent two weeks in New York and then got going with this on his way home. Essentially, it’s a handful of observations, beginning “Americans…” with some really interesting prose to follow. Here’s a sample: “Americans, Human dignity is at stake. Be what you are. A people who preserved their childhood. A people young and honest. A people in whom the lifeblood circulates.” It only gets more interesting. The somewhat poetic, somewhat philosophical, somewhat observational passages make quite good reading and are an interesting reflection from the middle of the “American century.”
Jean Baudrillard, America (1986)
Baudrillard was one of the most significant postmodern philosophers and his slim volume on America is somewhat similar to Cocteau’s. It alternates between concrete observation with relatively straightforward thoughts and sentences that require reflection. For example: “America is a giant hologram, in the sense that information concerning the whole is contained in each of its elements. Take the tiniest little place in the desert, any old street in a Midwestern town, a parking lot, a Californian house, a Burger King or a Studebaker, and you have the whole of the US–South, North, East or West.” This is a really enjoyable short read with a fascinating outsider perspective. You may also find out if the US is more simulacrum or simulation.
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice
A Father’s Day Readlist
This readlist from Grace Mackey is all about books that involve dads. You won’t get any new issues if you click through, just books.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Austen is known for her clever, witty characters, and Mr. Bennet does some of her best work in this area. Austen doesn’t write perfect characters— Mr. Bennet’s role in the celebrated romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy is far from perfect. While accusations of laziness and passivity may be warranted, no one can deny that his genuine friendship and deep love for Elizabeth warms the reader’s heart.
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Steinbeck begins this novel with a broken image of fatherhood. Cyrus Trask is a manipulative bully who unabashedly favors his son Charles over Adam. Adam Trask never forgets it. In an effort to break a generational cycle, Adam tries to raise his twin sons with the gentleness and truth that Cyrus lacked. He has moments of both failure and victory, and the reader is invited on the fatherhood journey.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
In his lessons about justice, empathy, and humility in this book, Atticus Finch makes an impression not only on the book’s fictional community, but on America. His philosophy for parenting is timeless: respect and befriend your children.
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
For Jean Valjean, fatherhood is the path to redemption, and his route to spiritual and physical liberation. He becomes Cosette’s guardian after 19 years in prison. While raising her, he learns the meaning of sacrifice, responsibility, and love.
Compiled by Grace Mackey
The Past is a Foreign Country: a readlist in honor of Carlo Ginzburg
Books that help us understand how little we understand the people of the past.
“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.” That line comes from The Go-Between by LP Hartley. Hardly any historians have read the book, but they have all used the line.
Historians tend to side with Hannah Arendt, human nature may be whatever it is, but the “human condition” is what is shaped by our environment and that definitely changes over time. The people of the past are not just like us without cellphones, they saw the world very differently. There are things they found funny that we find horrifying. Some didn’t even appreciate humor. This readlist is all about books that help us understand that the human condition isn’t the same in every time and place.
This readlist is in honor of Carlo Ginzburg, a historian who led the way in microhistory and who also really helped readers see how foreign the past could be.
Carol Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1976)
This book is considered an all-time classic of cultural history and microhistory. It’s all about a miller, Menocchio, who never really amounted to much in the eyes of the world. But he did get in trouble for heresy and the inquisition records reveal his surprising worldview. Among other things, he thought the world was formed much like how cheese is formed from milk. The Cheese and the Worms documents the persistence of non-Christian beliefs in Europe but it also demonstrates how much of the peasant worldview and folk tradition we really never think about or study very much, because we’re often so focused on the words and ideas of people higher up the social ladder or who are writing the kind of books that end up in the canon.
Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1966)
While we are on Ginzburg, this is another famous work he wrote. This one is pretty well-described in the subtitle. What Ginzburg does really well is demonstrate how normal people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw themselves as participants in a spiritual world. That participation looked right and good to many of them, even while it looked like witchcraft to much of the church. Not every scholar liked Ginzburg’s interpretation of the Benandanti as keeping alive earlier fertility cults, but this work drew attention to religious beliefs of the time and further demonstrated the value of church archives.
Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History (1984)
It’s no secret that Orange Blossom Ordinary adores Robert Darnton. We’ve even done an interview with him. He’s written many great books, but The Great Cat Massacre is absolutely a classic of cultural history and one of the best books for understanding that the people of the past thought differently. It really involves a cat massacre, carried out by apprentices who remembered it as one of the best moments of their lives. The book also explains how people could be moved to tears reading Rousseau and more. I use this book in my classes and it is entertaining and educative.
Angela Bourke, The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story (1999)
Bridget Cleary was one of the last people to be killed for being a changeling. When was it that her husband (perhaps) became convinced that she had been switched with a fairy? 1895. Not as long ago as you’d think. Now, even in 1895, people thought her husband was more of a murderer than a believer, but the story and the trial revealed the presence and power of beliefs in fairies and traditional cures and much more, including the status of women. The book really gets into all the angles.
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2008)
We are familiar with the idea of a “good death” being important to the Greeks and Romans. It was also very important to Americans during the Civil War. In fact, there was almost a prescribed way in which someone ought to die, including Christian repentance and hope. This book will help you understand the Civil War in a new way and it will also lead you to ponder the way our present-day culture approaches death.
David Kertzer, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (1998)
This work of history is about an event in 1858. Back then, in Italy, some Jewish families sometimes hired Christians for domestic help. And sometimes, when a baby looked like it might die, a Christian nurse might baptize it on the sly, to save its soul. And occasionally, the child would recover. In this case, that nurse also told a priest and then it was decided that the baby had to be removed from the family. After all, how could a Jewish family raise a Christian child? That probably sounds crazy to you (it did to his family), but this book explains why some people thought that was reasonable in 1858. That makes this book another great example of a work that can familiarize you with the unfamiliarity of the past.
Greg Dening, Islands and Beaches: Discourse on a Silent Land, Marquesas 1774-1880 (1980)
This book often makes an appearance on this website, because it’s a great book. Reading about the Marquesan culture of the past reminds you how differently people from different times and places can view the world. But Islands and Beaches goes even further, because the book documents how change came so suddenly and disruptively to the Marquesas that it made its own culture foreign to its own people in a very short period of time. (If you’re a big fiction reader, you may get a taste of the transformation by reading Melville’s Typee (1846) and then reading Jack London’s The Cruise of the Snark (1911), which documents his visit to the Marquesas and his inability to find the world Melville described because it had already expired.)
--Elizabeth Stice
There’s more to Jack London than Alaska
London’s tales of Alaska and the Yukon are unparalleled, but they are not the only worlds he wrote about. This is an introduction to some of his other titles and topics.
John Barleycorn (1913)
If you didn’t know, “John Barleycorn” is a nickname for alcohol. This is an autobiographical work of fiction by Jack London, recounting his adventurous life and his gradual descent into alcoholism. Learn about his thrilling early days as an oyster pirate and how he went from a boy with a taste for candy to a man who could not turn down a cocktail. The passages are entertaining and also exhibit the power of social pressures.
The Sea Wolf (1904)
This is the tale of a privileged young man (Humphrey Van Weyden) who accidentally ends up on a working ship, under the heel of a harsh, Social Darwinian captain (Wolf Larsen) who is determined to make a real man of him. Wills and philosophies are tested (especially Nietzsche and Schopenhauer). It will make you never want to end up on a working ship by accident.
Martin Eden (1909)
This is a work of fiction that is loosely based on London’s own life. It is the story of a young man falling in love with learning, falling in love with a girl, becoming a writer, and working manual labor while striving for success as an author. It gives great insight into London’s own experiences and the social and working conditions of his time. It’s a sad tale of success. It deserves to be read alongside works like Look Homeward, Angel and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
The Iron Heel (1908)
This is not Jack London’s best work, but it is interesting. He had many socialist convictions and believed that society and its class structure could not go unchanged forever. The Iron Heel is dystopian science fiction set in the future, concerning a socialist mass movement. You get fighting in the streets, calls to action, and a few personalities that could use a bit more development.
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice
Balzac basics
Honoré de Balzac was one of the greatest French writers of all time. He wrote over 100 novels, where should you begin?
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a remarkable French author. He wrote a series of works that he called The Human Comedy, attempting to portray all of French society, at every level, in every place. The series includes 91 finished works and nearly 50 unfinished. Where to begin? This readlist is here to help.
Père Goriot is one of Balzac’s most famous and important novels. It’s a tale of an elderly father and his daughters, it’s also a tale of social climbing and social transformations, and it’s set during the Bourbon Restoration. This novel has capitalism, crime, corruption, and some very well-written, interesting characters. If you only read one thing by Balzac, you should probably make it this one.
Les Chouans is a historical novel, set in Brittany during a 1799 counter-revolutionary uprising. Of course, there’s a love story, but it’s also Balzac’s chance to glamorize the royalists and take us outside of Paris. It presents a perspective you’ll otherwise probably never catch.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes was recently re-issued by NYRB classics. This one is a real wild ride, with all kinds of indulgence and raciness and inappropriate behavior. According to the NYRB: “The Girl with the Golden Eyes is one of the most memorable and fantastic episodes in Balzac's Human Comedy—its dark vision of Paris and human sexuality an inspiration to Oscar Wilde in Salomé and to Marcel Proust, whose Baron de Charlus praises its author for his knowledge ‘even of those passions which the rest of the world ignores, or studies only to castigate them.’”
The Country Doctoris probably not on many lists of recommended Balzac, but it’s very interesting nonetheless. It’s a terribly didactic tale about a doctor who transforms a country hamlet for the better. But it expresses a perspective on how to bring about change that Balzac also explores in The Wrong Side of Paris and it includes a few references to pseudo-scientific thinking that help explain the appeal of eugenics at that time and later.
The Magic Skin is a little bit what it sounds like. A young man finds a magic ass’s skin that grants his wishes. So far, so good. Unfortunately, every desire granted shortens the skin and the young man’s life. This one stands out for the use of the fantastical in portraying something very real about the kind of economic and social situation described in his other books.
Cousin Bette is another one that many people recommend. Bette is an unmarried, middle-aged woman and she is out to destroy her extended family. This one has all of the rich detail and description we associate with Balzac, provokes meditation on morality, and has been adapted for film and television.
The Unknown Masterpiece is technically not a novel. It’s quite short, but very interesting. It is all about an obsessive artist working on a beautiful masterpiece, but his obsession with perfection is destroying both himself and the work.
Some other interesting information: Balzac was no friend of the Revolution, he was all about King and Crown. This comes through in the novels. He’s also a legend for his coffee consumption, which apparently could amount to 50 cups a day.
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice
Wartime journalism
Some of our best accounts of war come from journalists, who took their notebooks and typewriters into the thick of things. This list is an introduction to some classic works of wartime journalism.
Ernie Pyle, Here is Your War (1943) There was no greater American World War II correspondent than Ernie Pyle. His syndicated column brought the war home to Americans and his ability to integrate in real, normal American soldiers made people feel like their own sons were being cared for—people would send him letters, asking him to look someone up for them. He did it all courageously and honestly. This is one of the books that came out of his wartime writing, all about the conflict in North Africa.
James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II Ernie Pyle is not nearly appreciated enough in America today. His ability to be the reassuring voice for almost all of America during the war was a result of his skill as a writer and the depth of understanding he had of life. Tobin’s book is a good account of Pyle’s life, not an easy one, what he meant to Americans during the war, and what the war took out of him.
Martha Gellhorn, The Face of War Hemingway fans know Gellhorn as one of Hemingway’s wives, but she was and is a respected war correspondent in her own right. That’s arguably one reason she and Hemingway didn’t work out. This book shows you why she’s so revered and offers some insights into the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that deserves more attention.
A.J. Liebling, World War II Writings (Library of America) You may not think of New Yorker contributors as being war writing types, but you’d be wrong. Library of America put together this collection of Liebling’s wartime writings, considered by many to be some of the best the country has to offer.
Sebastian Junger, War Most of this list is from the mid-twentieth century, but arguably the best journalist for the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is Junger. He’s also the man behind the film about American soldiers in Afghanistan, Restrepo. You should also check out his documentary The Last Patrol, about GWOT veterans coping with their experiences, through making a very long hike. (You may know Junger as the author of The Perfect Storm.)
Yes, these are all Americans! Who is your favorite war correspondent from somewhere else?
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice
Spiritual Autobiographies
For centuries, we’ve been turning to spiritual autobiographies to learn how to live. This list is an introduction to some classics in the genre.
Seven-Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton is a great writer with a very interesting life story. This book covers his childhood and questing youth, his friendships and interests, and his eventual conversion to Catholicism. It’s beautiful and offers insights into the first half of the twentieth century.
The Story of My Experiments With Truth, Gandhi
This book covers Gandhi’s entire life, from his early legal studies in England, to his life in South Africa, to his apotheosis in India. It explores politics, print culture, and his intensifying sense of his own religious identity.
A Confession, Leo Tolstoy
He was a writer with a tremendous amount of conventional success, but Tolstoy was an unconventional figure in many ways. This book explores his religious convictions and his distinctive approach to Christianity and living in community with others.
Confessions, St. Augustine
This book is not only a classic of the Christian faith, it’s a classic of the genre. Augustine narrates his life, his experiences, and his changing convictions. It also offers insights in the world of Rome.
Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott
Many religious books seem to center on saints and people who are entirely unrelatable. Traveling Mercies is a contemporary Christian journey written in a way that reminds you of a conversation with a friend who has some hard-won wisdom.
Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
This book changed the life of Gerry Lopez, the famous surfer. It’s an introduction to yoga and the yogi.
The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day
This is an autobiography by one of the few American women considered a potential saint. Learn about her life story, her journey to belief, and the Catholic Worker movement.
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice
Books About Popular (Or Unpopular Music)
This is a list of books all about music, put together by our own musician, Joel Harold Tannenbaum.
Sam Sweet, Hadley Lee Lightcap, All Night Menu Books (2017)
This quiet, ethereal biography of a quiet, ethereal band is perhaps the best book about indie guitar music ever written. Once forgotten, 1990s “slowcore” pioneers Acetone are forgotten no longer thanks in part to writer and self-styled L.A. historian Sam Sweet’s compassionate but unflinching—and unfailingly subtle—reconstruction of the band’s life and times.
Jarett Kobek, Do Everything Wrong!: XXXTentacion Against the World, We Heard You Like Books (2018)
Florida rapper Janseh Onfroy, known professionally as XXXTentacion, led a short, hard, and disturbingly violent life. During that life, he revolutionized hip-hop (whether for better or worse is a thorny question). Pundits, music critics, and the news media were spectacularly ill-equipped to understand or explain XXXTentacion’s life, death, music, or his extraordinary popularity. Jarett Kobek’s book has some fascinating (and withering) insights as to why that might have been the case, delivered with the I Hate The Internet author’s signature clarity and searing wit.
Dylan Jones, Wichita Lineman: Searching for the Sun in the World’s Greatest Unfinished Song, Faber Social (2019)
“Wichita Lineman” is a weird song. Composed by songwriting legend Jimmy Webb, its telegraph-mimicking riff is as instantly recognizable as it is incongruous with the rest of the song. Its lyrics—told from the perspective of a telephone line repairman eavesdropping on the object of his affections—are downright Hitchcockian. Weirdest of all, it was a massive hit for country legend Glen Campbell upon its release in 1968. For most people who care about these sorts of things, the brilliance of “Wichita Lineman” is self-evident, but best of luck explaining why. British journalist Dylan Jones tries anyway, and encounters some fascinating characters along the way.
Nige Tassell, Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? An Indie Odyssey, Nine Eight Books (2022)
For a certain type of music listener, “C86”(the name of a cassette compilation issued by New Music Express) is a code word. It evokes a lost world of witty, shambolic, and very British bands, doing pretty much everything themselves and writing brilliant pop songs while they could barely tune their guitars–like punk, really, but with less bravado and more sweaters. Tassell does a great job of celebrating the compilation while also demythologizing it. Some C86ers went on to become quite famous, while others disappeared quietly back into the mists of everyday life. He tracked down quite a few of them for this book. Readers should be grateful.
Fiona McQuarrie, Fountains of Wayne, J-Card Press (2025)
Finally, a biography of Fountains of Wayne, the legendary nerds who made five incredible studio albums of cerebral, funny, self-effacing and compassionate pop music between 1996 and 2011. Their big single, “Stacy’s Mom” was a double-edged sword, providing them with the resources to tour the world, but leaving in its wake a permanent misunderstanding of what the band was about. To make matters worse, bassist/co-songwriter Adam Schlesinger’s death from COVID in 2020 has cast a permanent pall of sadness over the band’s story. I can’t say I love every aspect of McQuarrie’s attempt: It’s polite when it should probe, a bit credulous when it should be a bit skeptical, and it takes “no” for an answer when it should pester. (And why, for that matter, did the surviving band members decline to participate?) But I love finding out new things about Fountains of Wayne. I love that someone made the attempt, and I hope there will be more attempts in the near future.
Compiled by Joel Harold Tannenbaum
American Animals
America is blessed to have many iconic animals, even many with a metaphysical significance. This list is an introduction to some interesting books about some of our iconic North American animals.
Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac
Aldo Leopold was a great twentieth-century writer and conservationist and this book is very much in the Wendell Berry vein, observing and appreciating his environment. There are passages describing the birds on his property and the changing of the seasons. It emphasizes that we should each have a sense of a “land ethic,” but you won’t feel preached at.
Steven Rinella, American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
Steven Rinella has written multiple books and he’s a poster boy for American hunting (and his own show, MeatEater). This book is all about the history of the buffalo and its place in our country, along with some actual buffalo encounters. You will come away more intrigued by the buffalo than you already probably are (after all, who isn’t?).
Dan Flores, Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History
This book is what it sounds like, stories of coyotes and analysis of what they are and what they mean to us. Some of the most interesting passages involve Native American coyote stories. You’ll also find out why they’re everywhere in America right now and why they likely always will be. No roadrunner propaganda in this book.
Dan Flores, American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains
This one also includes buffalo, but so much more. When we think of the Great Plains we likely don’t think of it as the kind of place you’d take a safari, but this book may change your perspective on that.
John McPhee, The Founding Fish
If you haven’t read anything by John McPhee, you’re missing out. Easily one of the best and most interesting writers for the general audience, this book is all about shad. Yes, really. Shad. It’s a good example of what great writing can do and a meditation on a relationship between a fish and a country. From history to lore to his own fishing adventures, you’ll enjoy reading along with McPhee and learning about shad (really).
Nate Blakeslee, American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
If the buffalo has a rival for icon status in America, it may be the wolf. We once hated them, now most of us want them back, and managing their return has been complicated. This book looks at their reintroduction and many of the human and wolf personalities involved in the Yellowstone reintroduction. You may have a favorite wolf after you read it.
BONUS: This Patagonia Films video “Range Rider” is all about keeping an eye on wolves and the complications involved. And this podcast from The Rest is History is all about beavers.
Compiled by Elizabeth Stice