Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani shares 100
personal, thought-provoking essays about books that have mattered to her
and that help illuminate the world we live in today--with beautiful
illustrations throughout.
"A book tailormade for bibliophiles."--Oprah Winfrey
**
"An ebullient celebration of books and reading."--Publishers Weekly
(starred review)**
In the introduction to her new collection of essays, Ex Libris 100+
Books to Read and Reread, Michiko Kakutani writes: "In a world riven by
political and social divisions, literature can connect people across
time zones and zip codes, across cultures and religions, national
boundaries and historical eras. It can give us an understanding of lives
very different from our own, and a sense of the shared joys and losses
of human experience."
Readers will discover novels and memoirs by some of the most gifted
writers working today; favorite classics worth reading or rereading; and
nonfiction works, both old and new, that illuminate our social and
political landscape and some of today's most pressing issues, from
climate change to medicine to the consequences of digital innovation.
There are essential works in American history (The Federalist Papers,
The Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.); books that
address timely cultural dynamics (Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth
Extinction, Daniel J. Boorstin's The Image, Margaret Atwood's The
Handmaid's Tale); classics of children's literature (the Harry Potter
novels, Where the Wild Things Are); and novels by acclaimed
contemporary writers like Don DeLillo, William Gibson, Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie, and Ian McEwan.
With richly detailed illustrations by lettering artist Dana Tanamachi
that evoke vintage bookplates, Ex Libris is an impassioned reminder of
why reading matters more than ever.
