Books like

Books like Upstream: Selected Essays

12 books with a reading profile close to Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver. Inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.

1

Call Us What We Carry

by Amanda Gorman

Also inward-looking · inspirational, literary

In this collection, Amanda Gorman documents the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and American history.
2

Manuscript Found in Accra

by Paulo Coelho

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

In the year 1099, the people of Jerusalem gather in the city's square on the eve of an invasion by crusaders, and a wise Greek called the Copt invites them to share their thoughts.
3

Sea Prayer

by Khaled Hosseini

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

Written as a letter from a father to his sleeping son, this short narrative poem describes a family waiting on a dark beach to board a boat.
4

A Thousand Mornings: Poems

by Mary Oliver

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

In this collection, Mary Oliver focuses her attention on the marshes and shoreline of Provincetown, Massachusetts.
5

Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

by Mary Oliver

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

Devotions serves as a definitive roadmap of Mary Oliver’s fifty-year career, beginning with her debut in 1963 and extending through her final collections.
6

Hippie

by Paulo Coelho

Also contemplative · inspirational, literary

Drawing from his own youth, Paulo Coelho recounts the experiences of Paulo, a young man with long hair seeking deeper meaning beyond the mainstream culture of 1970.
7

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death

by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor-in-chief of French Elle, suffered a massive stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome.
8

The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

Shel Silverstein’s parable follows the lifelong relationship between a young boy and an apple tree.
9

The Essential Rumi

by Coleman Barks

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

Coleman Barks translates the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic’s Persian verses into contemporary English free verse.
10

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

by Fredrik Backman

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

An aging mathematician sits on a park bench that exists inside his mind, struggling to retain his memories as dementia begins to erase his world.
11

Gratitude

by Oliver Sacks

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

In this collection of four essays written during the final years of his life, neurologist Oliver Sacks reflects on his terminal cancer diagnosis and the process of aging.
12

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

by Paul Kalanithi

Also inward-looking and contemplative · inspirational, literary

Paul Kalanithi was a neurosurgical resident nearing the end of his decade-long training when he was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer.

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