BVBook Verdict

If you liked

Books like Plein Ciel

Loved Plein Ciel by Danielle Steel? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from essays, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.

10 books · ranked

  1. 1

    Slouching Towards Bethlehem

    Joan Didion · 1968 · Essays

    Sharp, cool essays on 1960s America; the book that set the standard for the personal essay.

  2. 2

    The Fire Next Time

    James Baldwin · 1963 · Essays

    Two searing essays on race, faith and America; as urgent now as when they were written.

  3. 3

    Louise Bourgeois

    Louise Bourgeois · 1981 · Essays

    Though known primarily for her sculpture, Louise Bourgeois has displayed a lifelong passion for drawing and considers it to be essential to her oeuvre. This exceptional book is the first to combine ov

  4. 4

    Consider the Lobster

    David Foster Wallace · 2005 · Essays

    Restless, footnote-laden essays on everything from tennis to ethics; brilliant and exhausting in the best way.

  5. 5

    Conformity and conflict

    James P. Spradley · 1971 · Essays

    ""Seeks to teach students the importance of culture and its influence on human life. By including examples of Western, North American cultures, the text makes cultural understanding and comparison mor

  6. 6

    Our bodies, ourselves

    Boston Women's Health Book Collective · 1971 · Essays

    Discusses the many roles of women and the choices open to them. Includes detailed treatment of feminine hygiene.

  7. 7

    De Proust a Camus

    André Maurois · 1963 · Essays

    This book is the ideal introduction to modern French literature.

  8. 8

    Men Explain Things to Me

    Rebecca Solnit · 2014 · Essays

    The essay collection that helped popularise a now-famous idea; sharp feminist criticism.

  9. 9

    Historias de cronopios y de famas

    Julio Cortázar · 1962 · Essays

    "The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions a

  10. 10

    A Grief Observed

    C. S. Lewis · 1961 · Essays

    Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the mid

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