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Best Literary Collections Books

A tight literary collections shortlist - built for quick decisions, not endless scrolling.

Last refreshed 2026-02-27. We keep tuning this list as new titles land and reader interest shifts.

  1. The Pilgrimage

    1. The Pilgrimage

    Paulo Coelho, Julia Sanches
    The Pilgrimage: Paperback – September 2, 2008
  2. The Exiles

    2. The Exiles

    Christina Baker Kline
    The Exiles: A Novel
  3. Mary Jane

    3. Mary Jane

    Jessica Anya Blau
    Mary Jane: A Novel
  4. Letters to a Young Poet

    4. Letters to a Young Poet

    Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Mitchell
    Letters to a Young Poet: Mass Market Paperback – October 12, 1986
  5. Letters to Milena

    5. Letters to Milena

    Franz Kafka, Philip Boehm
    Letters to Milena: Paperback – November 3, 2015
  6. Girlhood

    6. Girlhood

    Melissa Febos
    Girlhood: Hardcover – March 30, 2021
  7. Sitting Pretty

    7. Sitting Pretty

    Rebekah Taussig
    Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body
  8. When We Were The Kennedys

    8. When We Were The Kennedys

    Monica Wood
    When We Were The Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine
  9. This House Of Sky

    9. This House Of Sky

    Ivan Doig
    This House Of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind
  10. Small Wonder

    10. Small Wonder

    Barbara Kingsolver
    Small Wonder: Essays
  11. American Like Me

    11. American Like Me

    America Ferrera
    American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures
  12. My Life with Bob

    12. My Life with Bob

    Pamela Paul
    My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues
  13. Whiskey Tender

    13. Whiskey Tender

    Deborah Taffa, Deborah Jackson Taffa
    Whiskey Tender: A Memoir
  14. Time Was Soft There

    14. Time Was Soft There

    Jeremy Mercer
    Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.
  15. Where I Come From

    15. Where I Come From

    Rick Bragg
    Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South
  16. The Portable Nietzsche

    16. The Portable Nietzsche

    Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Kaufmann
    The Portable Nietzsche: Paperback – January 27, 1977
  17. Prisons We Choose to Live Inside

    17. Prisons We Choose to Live Inside

    Doris Lessing
    Prisons We Choose to Live Inside: Paperback – October 14, 1987
  18. The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

    18. The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

    Wallace Stevens, Chris Beyers
    The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens: The Corrected Edition
  19. Madness, Rack, and Honey

    19. Madness, Rack, and Honey

    Mary Ruefle
    Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures
  20. The Selected Works of Audre Lorde

    20. The Selected Works of Audre Lorde

    Audre Lorde, Roxane Gay
    The Selected Works of Audre Lorde: Paperback – September 8, 2020
  21. Mud Sweeter than Honey

    21. Mud Sweeter than Honey

    Margo Rejmer, Zosia Krasodomska-Jones
    Mud Sweeter than Honey: Voices of Communist Albania
  22. 100 Years Of The Best American Short Stories

    22. 100 Years Of The Best American Short Stories

    Lorrie Moore, Heidi Pitlor
    100 Years Of The Best American Short Stories: Hardcover – October 6, 2015
  23. I Want to Burn This Place Down

    23. I Want to Burn This Place Down

    Maris Kreizman
    I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays
  24. On Stories

    24. On Stories

    C. S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis
    On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature

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