Here are 78 books that The Land and Its People fans have personally recommended if you like
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Probably Alan Bennett's last set of diaries and it didn't disappoint. He's like a cross between Victoria Wood and David Sedaris. Had me laughing out loud at many entries.
Poignant, funny, contemplative, personal, and political: Alan Bennett's fourth collection of diaries is the latest installment in a singular record of a singular life.
20 September. Have a notion for a radio series―Awkward Conversations.
Enough Said is Alan Bennett's fourth collection of diaries and prose. Covering the turbulent years of 2016 to 2024, the diaries take us through lockdown, Brexit, the reign of Johnson, the rise of Trump, and the death of the Queen. In between, we take the train with him back and forth to Yorkshire; celebrate the herons, the newts, and the street fairs; and lament the scarcity…
Think how tough it is to reach adulthood in today's complicated world. Now imagine doing so in front of a global audience. That's what growing up in show business is like. Every youthful mistake laid bare for all to see. Malefactors looking to ensnare the naive at any turn. Each…
'Both moving and hilarious' Spectator, Books of the Year
'A tale of gloriously eccentric British pensioners. Aitken rivals Alan Bennett in the ear he has for an eavesdropped remark ... boy, can he write.' Daily Mail, Book of the Week
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE ACCLAIMED A CHIP SHOP IN POZNAN.
One millennial, six coach trips, one big generation gap.
When Ben Aitken learnt that his gran had enjoyed a four-night holiday including four three-course dinners, four cooked breakfasts, four games of bingo, a pair of excursions, sixteen pints of lager and luxury return coach travel, all for a hundred…
As a great-great-great-great-grandchild of Irish immigrants, I come from a long, proud line of alcoholics, especially on my mother’s side. My childhood was a masterclass in chaos: family scream-fests, flung insults, and someone cracking a joke while dodging a punch. It was painful, yes, but also absurd and often hilarious. That’s where my dark wit comes from. Razor-sharp humor was how we made it out alive. It becomes a lens you’re trained to observe the world through since you were a wee lad. I’ve always been drawn to stories where grief and laughter sit at the same table, clinking pints. Satire and absurdity aren’t interests for me. They’re muscle memory.
Amazing title aside, I love David Sedaris because he makes discomfort feel like a private joke you’re lucky enough to overhear. The way he writes about insecurity, awkwardness, and deeply flawed family life struck something real in me. His humor sneaks up on you, often in the middle of a sentence you weren’t prepared to laugh at.
What I admire most is how he never tries to impress. His voice is honest, a little absurd, and somehow both cynical and strangely tender. I didn’t just laugh; I felt understood. Sedaris showed me that writing can be honest without being sentimental, funny without being safe, and deeply human without needing a resolution.
A new collection from David Sedaris is cause for jubilation. His recent move to Paris has inspired hilarious pieces, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, about his attempts to learn French. His family is another inspiration. You Cant Kill the Rooster is a portrait of his brother who talks incessant hip-hop slang to his bewildered father. And no one hones a finer fury in response to such modern annoyances as restaurant meals presented in ludicrous towers and cashiers with 6-inch fingernails. Compared by The New Yorker to Twain and Hawthorne, Sedaris has become one of our best-loved authors. Sedaris is…
Think how tough it is to reach adulthood in today's complicated world. Now imagine doing so in front of a global audience. That's what growing up in show business is like. Every youthful mistake laid bare for all to see. Malefactors looking to ensnare the naive at any turn. Each…
I inherited an offbeat sense of humor from my mother, who encouraged me to create stories about outrageous subjects, like cats doing “people things.” I’m grateful to have made a living writing about such things, as well as observations about my own humorous experiences in essays, calendars, and books. I’ve always looked to other funny creatives for inspiration, and the books on my list reflect some of my favorites.
I’m instantly hooked by an essay that’s irreverently funny but has a heart. David lives in his head and overanalyzes his life’s experiences. As an overthinker, I relate. I’ve always found humor in my own or others’ neuroses, and some of my best friendships are those in which we compare obsessions and funny/awkward experiences. I feel like I’m with a friend when I read his essays.
David Sedaris plays in the snow with his sisters. He goes on vacation with his family. He gets a job selling drinks. He attends his brother's wedding. He mops his sister's floor. He gives directions to a lost traveler. He eats a hamburger. He has his blood sugar tested. It all sounds so normal, doesn't it? In his newest collection of essays, David Sedaris lifts the corner of ordinary life, revealing the absurdity teeming below its surface. His world is alive with obscure desires and hidden motives -- a world where forgiveness is automatic and an argument can be the…
I was born in South Korea and moved to The United States when I was three years old. I grew up in Detroit where I was often the only yellow face in school. The trauma of trying to fit in played a significant role in my adult life. I have thought about writing a memoir for years. Several family members asked me not to name them. I decided to tell my truth through brief snapshots of a feeling or event. This way, I could show my journey from my perspective as I learned to walk between two opposing cultures. Observations Through Yellow Glasses: A Memoir Through Poems is the result.
For forty years, David Sedaris kept a diary filled with his successes, failures, overheard conversations, and secrets confessed by strangers. He adds humor to his memories which is a wonderful change from the traditional memoir. Even a boring day can make us laugh. This is the first of two volumes and is the better of the two.
One of the most anticipated books of 2017: Boston Globe, New York Times Book Review, New York's "Vulture", The Week, Bustle, BookRiot
An NPR Best Book of 2017
An AV Club Favorite Book of 2017 A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2017
A Goodreads Choice Awards nominee
David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making.
For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for…
I only discovered David Sedaris' writings a couple of years ago, and already, I have pretty much read everything this man has scribbled. I love how he can take the tiniest moments, like a hotel elevator ride, and then blow it up into a hilarious life lesson.
His family sits at the center of his creative fodder, and his observations on life, death, and love are laugh-out-loud funny. This book is more than just a collection of essays; it is an artfully threaded story of the unique and sometimes complicated love he has for his family.
'Sedaris is the premier observer of our world and its weirdnesses' ADAM KAY
'Funnier and more heartbreaking than pretty much anything out there' HADLEY FREEMAN, GUARDIAN
'The brilliance of David Sedaris' writing is that his very essence, his aura, seeps through the pages of his books like an intoxication cloud' ALAN CUMMING, NEW YORK TIMES
'The funniest writer alive today' JONATHAN ROSS
'An incredibly funny and sometimes moving meditation on love, death and family life' SUNDAY TIMES
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the…
I inherited an offbeat sense of humor from my mother, who encouraged me to create stories about outrageous subjects, like cats doing “people things.” I’m grateful to have made a living writing about such things, as well as observations about my own humorous experiences in essays, calendars, and books. I’ve always looked to other funny creatives for inspiration, and the books on my list reflect some of my favorites.
I love the rawness of Samantha Irby’s writing—she says it like it is. When I read her essays, I’m peeking in on her uncensored thoughts about the mundane, which are unrefined, real, and hysterical to me. Like many of us, I enjoy reading/hearing someone not trying to “polish a turd.”
While reading her book, my mind equally thinks: "I CANNOT believe she just wrote that” and “Tell me MORE.”
'Irby might be our great bard of quarantine.' New York Times
In this painfully funny collection, Samantha Irby captures powerful emotional truths while chronicling the rubbish bin she calls her life. From an ill-fated pilgrimage to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes to awkward sexual encounters to the world's first completely honest job application, and more, sometimes you just have to laugh, even when your life is permanently pear-shaped.
'I cannot remember the last time I was so moved by a book. As close to perfect as an essay collection can get.' Roxane Gay 'Hilarious. I love it.' Candice…
Do you trust anyone without a sense of humor? Neither do I. I’ve always had an odd sense of humor. Laughter is good for the soul. I don’t know if I’m an expert, but I’ve certainly spent decades watching and reading comedies. And while I love writing serious and dark fiction, something cute and funny now and then feels like a nice balance. My personal taste runs from slapstick to standup to snappy scenes and witty dialog. I like smart humor, and because I had the wittiest dad, I can even appreciate a well-done dad joke.
I could potentially recommend any of Sedaris’ early works. Pick one, you won’t regret it.
Sedaris has a way of taking our most mundane lives and making them hilarious. His style can be best described as memoirs meet standup comedy. We’ve all had those weird, awkward family moments. Sedaris does a great job of making them funny. Warning: people tend to look at you rather oddly and give you space when you listen to the audiobook while out walking alone.
David Sedaris's remarkable ability to uncover the hilarious absurdity teeming just below the surface of everyday life is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this new book of stories. Sedaris proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life - the etiquette of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a fellow passenger or how to soundproof your windows with LP covers against neurotic songbirds - to the most deeply resonant human truths. Taking in the parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law's leg, an encounter with a dingo and the purchase of…
I’m passionate about this theme because I grew up inside the kind of silence most people never see—the kind shaped by responsibility, fear, love, and the need to stay strong before you’re old enough to understand why. I’ve lived through the quiet wounds, the invisible burdens, and the unspoken grief that shaped every part of me. Stories like these make people like me feel less alone. They remind us that survival has its own language, and that the things we carry silently are worth naming. I write about quiet pain because it’s the world I came from, and the world I learned to rise out of.
I loved this book because it captures childhood in the rawest way—messy, painful, confusing, and resilient.
Walls writes about instability and survival with such clarity that I found myself nodding through entire chapters. I related deeply to the burden of growing up too fast and learning how to take care of people before you ever learned how to take care of yourself.
What moved me most was the love within the chaos—the complicated, contradictory love between parent and child that shapes you long after you’ve grown. It reminded me that you can carry pain and tenderness at the same time, and both can be true.
Now a major motion picture starring Brie Larson, Naomi Watts and Woody Harrelson.
This is a startling memoir of a successful journalist's journey from the deserted and dusty mining towns of the American Southwest, to an antique filled apartment on Park Avenue. Jeanette Walls narrates her nomadic and adventurous childhood with her dreaming, 'brilliant' but alcoholic parents.
At the age of seventeen she escapes on a Greyhound bus to New York with her older sister; her younger siblings follow later. After pursuing the education and civilisation her parents sought to escape, Jeanette eventually succeeds in her quest for the 'mundane,…
The central theme connecting the books on my list is the idea that our personal growth comes from creativity, straight talk, and honest reflection. All of these books are first-person accounts, which gives them credibility and authority, and they are quite inspiring. They encourage bravery, curiosity, resilience, and healing.
I wrote Morning Leaves as a way of processing the loss of my younger sister. I leaned into creativity and writing as a way of clarifying my thoughts, prioritizing, and ultimately healing from the grief. This collection of books taught me to trust my instincts, nurture my creative impulses, and find a path to joy.
This is one of the clearest books I’ve read on creativity.
Elizabeth Gilbert encourages both curiosity and discipline in writing. She also talks about the importance of timing and being ready to capture ideas when they come. Fear and self-doubt are always around, but one must be receptive and ready when the muse appears.
She tells great stories, which makes the book particularly fun and readable.
Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration from Elizabeth Gilbert's books for years. Now, this beloved author shares her wisdom and unique understanding of creativity, shattering the perceptions of mystery and suffering that surround the process - and showing us all just how easy it can be. By sharing stories from her own life, as well as those from her friends and the people that have inspired her, Elizabeth Gilbert challenges us to embrace our curiosity, tackle what we most love and face down what we most fear. Whether you long to write a book, create…
