Ross Gay's 6 favorite works with powerful and inspiring stories
The author and poet recommends works by Toni Morrison, Rebecca Solnit, and more
![Ross Gay.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/x326vKRHKaESVrYWvBSsca-415-80.jpg)
Ross Gay is the author of the best-selling essay collection The Book of Delights and the award-winning poetry collection Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. His new book of essays, Inciting Joy, explores the power of pursuing shared pleasures.
Benito Cereno by Herman Melville (1855)
Melville's novella, ostensibly about an insurrection of enslaved Africans, is equally a story about well-meaning liberal Americans who can't tell their asses from their elbows but sure think they can. As sophisticated a use of perspective, and irony, as I've ever read. Buy it here.
The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison (2017)
Beloved is one of my very favorite books, as is Morrison's slim book of literary criticism, Playing in the Dark. But her best book for this moment may be her next-to-last work, The Origin of Others, which considers how we invent "others," to whom we feel we can do anything — how we're all susceptible to doing it, and how we're doing it right now. Buy it here.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman (2019)
A historical consideration of young Black women living in Philadelphia and New York between the 1890s and the 1940s. Hartman shows, through amazing and intense archival research, how these young women invented all kinds of radical modes of life infrequently attributed to them. It's almost a poem, and one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Buy it here.
Soccer in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano (1995)
I'm not a soccer person, but this is one of the best sports books I have ever read. It's effectively a history of men's soccer — offered in brief vignettes, some of them only a paragraph or two long — from the perspective of one of our great, incisive, searing writers on empire. Buy it here.
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (2005)
In this lyrical book, Solnit considers the virtues, the necessities even, of being lost. A book I often share with writing students, and return to again and again for sustaining guidance on how to be a writer, and how to be a person. Buy it here.
Fatheralong by John Edgar Wideman (1994)
Fatheralong, a prequel of sorts to Wideman's astonishing Writing to Save a Life, follows a trip Wideman took with his father, with whom he had a complicated relationship, to South Carolina. If you're interested in relationships between fathers and sons, by one of our very best writers, you might love it. Buy it here.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Peng Shepherd's 6 favorite works with themes of magical realism
Feature The author recommends works by Susanna Clarke, George Saunders, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Laura van den Berg's 6 favorite books with hidden secrets
Feature The author recommends works by Patricia Lockwood, Gillian Flynn, and more
By The Week US Published
-
26 of America's most unexpectedly banned books
In Depth From 'Harriet the Spy' to 'Little Red Riding Hood,' these books have all fallen afoul of censors
By The Week Staff Published
-
Conn Iggulden recommends 6 unforgettable books with historical themes
Feature The British author recommends works by Patrick O'Brian, Richard Dawkins, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Five books chosen by Nina Stibbe
Feature The author recommends works by David Sedaris, Alba de Céspedes and more
By The Week UK Published
-
Julia Phillips' 6 favorite books that explore the beauty and brutality of life
Feature The Novelist recommends works by Alice Walker, Colson Whitehead, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Joseph Earl Thomas's 6 favorite books that tackle social issues
Feature The author recommends works by Fernanda Melchor, Adania Shibli, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Ivy Pochoda's 6 favorite books that explore the dark side of human nature
Feature The thriller writer recommends works by Cormac McCarthy, Rachel Kushner, and more
By The Week Staff Published