Books like

Books like The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction

12 books with a reading profile close to The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman. Deep; a moderate read.

  1. 1 Desert Solitaire

    Desert Solitaire

    by Edward Abbey

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    Edward Abbey recounts his seasons as a seasonal ranger at Arches National Monument in the late 1950s.

  2. 2 The Solitaire Mystery

    The Solitaire Mystery

    by Jostein Gaarder

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    Hans Thomas travels with his father from Norway to Greece to find his long-lost mother.

  3. 3 Three Daughters of Eve

    Three Daughters of Eve

    by Elif Shafak

    philosophy, narrative

    Peri is an Istanbul housewife in her thirties, married with a child, who is at a dinner party when a mugger takes her bag and she chases him.

  4. 4 The Dharma Bums

    The Dharma Bums

    by Jack Kerouac

    philosophy, narrative

    Ray Smith, a fictionalized version of Kerouac, navigates the contrast between urban jazz parties and the solitude of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

  5. 5 Women Talking

    Women Talking

    by Miriam Toews

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    Based on real events in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, this novel centers on eight Mennonite women meeting secretly in a hayloft.

  6. 6 The Children Act

    The Children Act

    by Ian McEwan

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    High Court judge Fiona Maye presides over the Family Division in London, where she adjudicates cases involving medical ethics and religious freedom.

  7. 7 The Elegance of the Hedgehog

    The Elegance of the Hedgehog

    by Muriel Barbery

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    Set in a luxury Parisian apartment building, the story follows Renée Michel, a fifty-four-year-old concierge who hides her deep knowledge of Kant, Tolstoy, and art behind a facade of working-class dullness.

  8. 8 The Witch of Portobello

    The Witch of Portobello

    by Paulo Coelho

    philosophy, narrative

    Athena is a woman born in Romania to a Roma mother, adopted as a baby by a Lebanese couple, and raised partly in Beirut and later in London.

  9. 9 Soumission

    Soumission

    by Michel Houellebecq

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    Set in a near-future France, the narrative follows François, a lonely academic specializing in the works of Joris-Karl Huysmans.

  10. 10 The Zahir

    The Zahir

    by Paulo Coelho

    philosophy, narrative

    Esther, a war correspondent, is married to a celebrated novelist, the narrator, who is living comfortably in Paris.

  11. 11 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

    Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

    by Annie Dillard

    Also deep · philosophy, narrative

    Annie Dillard uses her home in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley as an observatory to document the biological mechanics of the natural world.

  12. 12 Daytripper

    Daytripper

    by Fábio Moon

    philosophy, narrative

    Brás de Oliva Domingos writes obituaries for a Brazilian newspaper while living in the shadow of his famous novelist father.

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