12 Books Like Submission

I am not frightened by Cthulhu, the tentacled monsters waiting in the depths of outer space or the ocean. I am mesmerized by them. Lovecraft, often labeled a horror writer, is one of the greatest literary fantasists. His imagination is boundless, and he is as adept at describing strange new environments as he is at evoking a sense of cosmic dread.

This classic novel combines Lovecraft’s signature monsters with an incredible dreamlike atmosphere that grips you and does not let you go. When you stand at the summit of the Mountains of Madness and glimpse what lies on the other side, you are torn between fear and fascination. For me, at least, fascination always wins.   

Being a great fan of Dostoevsky, I have reread all of his books but by far the most often—Demons. In 2020 only I have read it as many as three times while working on a special annotated Serbian edition of the novel that I have published myself.

I love it for many reasons, perhaps most importantly because it is a book full of ingenious paradoxes. It is, at the same time, Dostoevsky’s most tragic and most comical novel… Besides, the way the novel originated is in itself a superb story…

I love the opening quote in this book. I’ve never, ever forgotten it since I turned the first page. It’s a quote from Dante’s Inferno: “Midway through life’s journey, I found myself lost in a dark wood, having lost the way.”

That’s exactly where I found myself when I started reading this book. Like millions of other people, I was lost when I found it. I was looking for someone or something–wiser than me–to help me recognize that what I was going through in early midlife is actually a very normal, perhaps essential part of life’s journey.

This was my third or fourth time reading this book. It's obviously a favorite of mine that I come back to every few years. I love the post apocalyptic world building and how humanity has made progress in some areas yet regressed in so many more. A sober warning on messing with gene manipulation and the cycles of nature.

This book should be required reading for anyone who plans to die—or knows someone who will.

Gawande pulls no punches about how we’ve turned aging and dying into a medical problem instead of a human experience. We chase every possible treatment, be it for ourselves or (worse) for our loved ones, even when it strips away dignity, joy, and choice.

The book has reframed how I view end-of-life care and made me realize that longevity doesn’t necessarily equate to quality of life. If my parents are in their nineties and want to eat bacon and a milkshake, I’ll hand them the salt shaker and straw myself.

What I love most is how practical it is. Gawande blends research, personal stories, and brutal honesty to show how we can live—and die—on our own terms. It’s compassionate without being sentimental, medical without being sterile.

Read it if: you’re a leader, caregiver, or… show more.

Sightseeing is a contemporary short story collection that would appeal to any reader who appreciates great writing, beautiful imagery, finely sketched characters, and sensitive exploration of human relations.

I loved it because Rattawut Lapcharoensap is a Thai-American author whose depictions of both cultures ring true and whose Thai characters are not shy about sharing their opinions about farangs.

Though the focus is always on the personal and interpersonal, these stories have an underlying current of social commentary that touches on issues as wide-ranging as traffic safety, public health, prostitution, tourism, and animal welfare.

I read this sultry and disturbing Thailand adventure story in one sitting. It transported me away from my out-of-work actor troubles that rainy day in London and took me to a beautiful and terrifying dreamscape, diving ever deeper into the backpacker protagonist’s murky quest. I can still picture the cut-glass water, the huts… the shark. I still feel the heat, the sting of mosquitoes, and the tang of blood.

I found it extraordinarily gripping, moody, and menacing. The speed at which the unexpected twists unfolded was mind-blowing.

I felt I needed to include one title about Thailand’s endlessly discussed, sordid sex industry. Houellebecq’s acidic 2004 novel takes the country’s massive sleaze trade head-on, crammed with self-loathing observations of its male protagonist, his world eventually smashed to pieces by a terrorist attack and a heart-breaking ending in the country’s Gomorra-by-the-sea beach resort Pattaya. Audacious, cynical, yet nonetheless filled with humanity, and there’s plenty of sex, Viagra, fun, and despair as well. Platform puts all other fiction covering the country’s exploitative underbelly to shame. 

The British author and cultural chronicler Philip Cornwel-Smith has called Bangkok his home for a quarter century, and his book “Very Thai,” published in 2005, has become the standard go-to work for inquiries on all aspects of popular Thai culture. Now, his follow-up “Very Bangkok,” a 350-page ode of love to the city published just before COVID-19 made international travel impossible, has become the face of Thailand in an international exhibition devoted to global cities.

In sections entitled “Senses,” “Heart” and “Face,” Cornwel-Smith’s new book explores and explains myriad urban tales, myths, facts and contradictions that make up the personality of the Thai capital, accompanied by the author’s vivid color photographs. No foreign or Thai writer has published a book that comes close to providing as erudite and intimate portrait of the capital.

I often feel like fiction "does" loneliness far better than nonfiction. This is because loneliness is so abstract and messy and the way that it is "lived" is often depicted more realistically in fiction.

I loved Michel Houllebecq’s novel because it’s a painfully beautiful portrayal of the ways that loneliness manifests in modern lives. The characters are achingly lonely in so many ways, and you can see yourself refracted in them as a contemporary human being.