Here are 2 books that The World As I Found It fans have personally recommended if you like The World As I Found It. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Invisible Man

Michael Sheldon Author Of The Violet Crow

From Michael's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Photographer Bird watcher Skeptical optimist

Michael's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Michael Sheldon Why Michael loves this book

Invisible Man is a classic that, somehow, I never got around to reading until this year. The story line is Dickensian, to a point. In Ellison's telling, the young man on his own makes his way to the city and meets unscrupulous characters at every turning. But he never meets the wonderful woman or mysterious benefactor who makes everything OK at the end. Instead, we find the narrator living "underground" having deliberately made himself "invisible," but promising to re-emerge. So what is Ellison’s invisibility? Many current reviews online say that invisibility is imposed on the narrator (who stands for all black people) by whites who are racist. Ellison's position is actually more complex. While there's no lack of white-on-black racism in the novel, the narrator receives some of his roughest treatment from the hypocritical Dr. Bledsoe and gang leader Ras the Destroyer, who are black. For the narrator, everyone he…

By Ralph Ellison ,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked Invisible Man as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this deeply compelling novel and epic milestone of American literature, a nameless narrator tells his story from the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. 

He describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," before retreating amid violence and confusion.

Originally published in 1952 as the first novel by a then unknown author, it remained on the bestseller list for…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood

Michael Sheldon Author Of The Violet Crow

From Michael's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Photographer Bird watcher Skeptical optimist

Michael's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Michael Sheldon Why Michael loves this book

Best known for his work in the theater and movies, David Mamet is also a fabulous essayist. Whether the subject is religion (The Wicked Son), politics (Recessional), or his current Hollywood tell-all, Everywhere an Oink Oink, the writing's always taut and the ideas incisive—with a sensibility that ranges from subtle cynicism to wildly funny. In Everywhere an Oink Oink, Mamet seems omniscient: he knows everybody, has seen every film and can tell you all the inside gossip. The chapters are short, standalone essays, illustrated with his own cartoons. Whether you love Hollywood or hate it, this book is worth reading.

By David Mamet ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Everywhere an Oink Oink as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and director David Mamet shares his "smart, addictive, hilarious, and insightful" (Breitbart) tales from his four decades in Hollywood where he worked with some of the biggest names in movies.

David Mamet went to Hollywood on top-a super successful playwright summoned west in 1980 to write a vehicle for Jack Nicholson. He arrived just in time to meet the luminaries of old Hollywood and revel in the friendship of giants like Paul Newman, Mike Nichols, Bob Evans, and Sue Mengers. Over the next forty years, Mamet wrote dozens of scripts, was fired off dozens of movies, and…


Book cover of Invisible Man
Book cover of Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood

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