Books like This is water by David Foster Wallace

A series of spiritual exercises for leading a meaningful life, 2,000 years old and still relevant today.

Candide: A Tale of Conviviality and Optimism in a Wretched World

Infinite J Explores how entertainment shapes human life, set in an addict’s halfway house and a tennis academy, with a deeply flawed family navigating happiness in modern America.

On new thought.

A motivational guide for movie stars, focusing on their personal growth and life lessons.

David Brooks examines the shift from external accolades to internal virtues, using historical leaders to show how humility, self‑discipline, and moral depth guide true character and life fulfillment.

The Pale King follows IRS employees at the Peoria, Illinois, Regional Examination Center as they navigate the absurdities of bureaucracy in a sharp, observational narrative.

Jacob Needleman explores why humans repeatedly fail to live up to their moral values, examining psychology, history, and religion to uncover the root of our ethical shortcomings and offering practical steps toward genuine moral growth.

RELIGION: GENERAL. Bushido is the chivalric code of moral principles that the Samurai followed. Influenced by Confucianism, Shinto and Zen Buddhism, it tempers the violence of a warrior with wisdom and serenity. This book has become influential among military and corporate leaders looking for ways to manage their people and overcome their opponents. Beautifully produced in traditional Chinese binding and with a timeless design, this book includes the classic Inazo text with a new introduction.

A moral manifesto that forces us to reconsider a world divided between the West and the Rest, Us and Them. We have grown accustomed in this anxious, post-9/11 era to constructing a world fissured by warring creeds and cultures. Much of humanity now seems separated by chasms of incomprehension. Kwame Anthony Appiah's landmark new work challenges the separatist doctrines espoused in books such as Samuel P. Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations," Reviving the ancient philosophy of "Cosmopolitanism," a school of thought that dates to the Cynics of the fourth century bce, Appiah traces its influence on the ethical legacies of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Kant's dream of a "league of nations," and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In doing so, Appiah shows how Western intellectuals and leaders, on both the left and the right, have wildly exaggerated the power of difference--and neglected the power of one. One world. One species. Challenging years of received wisdom, "Cosmopolitanism" is a resounding work of philosophy and global culture. About the series: Issues of Our Time: "Aware of the competition for the attention of readers, W. W. Norton & Company and I have created the "Issues of Our Time" as a lucid series of highly readable books through which some of today's most thoughtful intellectuals seek to challenge the general reader to reexamine received truths and grapple with powerful trends that are shaping the world in which we live. The series launches with Anthony Appiah, Alan Dershowitz, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as the first of an illustrious group who will tackle some of the most plangent and central issues defining our society today throughbooks that deal with such issues as sexual and racial identities, the economics of the developing world, and the concept of citizenship in a truly globalized twenty-first-century world culture. Above all else, these books are designed to be read and enjoyed."--Henry Louis Gates Jr., W. E. B. DuBois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University