Here are several suggestions for recent nonfiction and fiction titles (from the past couple years) that could fit your course, organized by type and tone:
Recent Nonfiction (2022–2024)
1. The Good Enough Life by Avram Alpert (2022)
A powerful meditation on the cult of excellence and how striving for greatness can undermine well-being. Alpert argues for a more communal, sustainable, and modest ideal—resonant with Epicurean and Buddhist themes.
2. Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya (2022)
A gentle but probing book on how confronting pain, failure, and mortality can deepen our understanding of happiness and meaning. Combines analytic clarity with personal reflection.
3. On Getting Better by Adam Gopnik (2023)
A humanistic, essayistic take on self-improvement and fulfillment from the New Yorker writer. It’s literary, stylish, and rich in cultural reference—very teachable and engaging.
4. This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom by Martin Hägglund (2020, paperback 2021)
Not brand new, but gaining traction. A deep and ambitious work of existential philosophy, arguing that real value—and real happiness—only makes sense if we accept the finitude of life. Good counterpoint to Stoicism or religious traditions.
5. The Joy of Saying No by Natalie Lue (2023)
A practical yet philosophically grounded take on boundaries and self-worth. It might pair well with Burkeman's 4000 Weeks in its focus on time, values, and attention.
Fiction (Recent, Thematically Relevant)
1. The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (2021)
While historical, this novel explores the inner lives of formerly enslaved people and their quest for dignity, freedom, and—ultimately—joy. A deep ethical and emotional read.
2. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022)
A story of creative friendship, love, and the meaning of life through the lens of game design. Philosophical questions about identity, purpose, mortality, and happiness run throughout.
3. Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (2023)
A suspenseful family drama centered on communication, neurodivergence, and the philosophical idea that happiness isn’t always what it seems. Explores subjectivity and the ethics of care.
4. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (2021)
A semi-magical, Buddhist-inflected meditation on grief, noise, books, and sanity. Engages questions about inner peace and the nature of meaning, with deep compassion and inventiveness.
5. Search by Michelle Huneven (2022)
A satirical yet earnest novel about a Unitarian church’s search for a new minister—and the search for happiness, meaning, and community that animates its quirky congregation.
Would you like suggestions for pairing any of these with your current list (e.g., as a complement or contrast to Pigliucci or Rowlands)? Also: would you be interested in more global or non-Western perspectives on happiness, or even poetry?
You said:
ChatGPT said:
Excellent! Here are some thoughtful pairings and contrasts for your current list, followed by global/non-Western perspectives and a few poetic/lyrical additions that could enrich the course.
Pairings & Contrasts with Pigliucci and Rowlands
1. With Beyond Stoicism
Pigliucci & co. advocate a contemporary “cognitive” approach to flourishing grounded in virtue ethics. You might pair or contrast that with:
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Life Is Hard by Kieran Setiya
Setiya shares Stoic themes (suffering, resilience) but rejects Stoicism's detachment. He promotes engagement with emotional life and imperfect flourishing. Great for class debates: Should we aim for apatheia or connection? -
This Life by Martin Hägglund
Hägglund critiques Stoicism’s indifference to loss and offers a secular, mortalist ethics of commitment. It’s denser, but even excerpts could stir deep reflection. -
The Art of Solitude by Stephen Batchelor (2020)
A Buddhist-leaning alternative to Stoicism, embracing impermanence and mindful solitude. Could complement Stoicism with a gentler, more meditative angle.
2. With The Philosopher and the Wolf / The Word of Dog by Mark Rowlands
Rowlands gives us a phenomenological and emotional take on meaning—especially through animals.
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The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Magical realism and Buddhist-inflected compassion echo Rowlands’s themes of suffering, voice, and interconnection. Would resonate especially with students drawn to animal ethics or non-human sentience. -
Search by Michelle Huneven
Explores spirituality and happiness through a community lens, not a solitary or animal one. Might serve as an implicit contrast to Rowlands's more private, existential solitude.
Global / Non-Western Perspectives
1. The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu (2016, still fresh)
Deeply conversational, humorous, and insightful—combines Buddhist and Christian traditions on cultivating joy through compassion, gratitude, and connection.
2. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles (2017, still popular)
Presents a distinctly Japanese take on purpose and happiness—could spark great conversation on cultural conceptions of the good life.
3. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler
A classic and accessible East-meets-West blend of Buddhist and psychological insight.
4. Happy by Derren Brown (2016, UK-based)
Offers a British skepticism of self-help combined with Stoic/Buddhist themes. Great companion to Pigliucci—same terrain, different tone.
Poetic & Lyrical Additions
1. The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón (2022)
Limón, the U.S. Poet Laureate, explores love, pain, nature, and presence with startling clarity and tenderness. Her poems can open up classroom discussion on momentary joy and enduring hope.
2. Devotions by Mary Oliver (or Felicity, A Thousand Mornings)
If you're not already using Oliver, she's the gold standard for poetic reflection on happiness through simplicity, nature, and mindfulness.
3. Inciting Joy by Ross Gay (2022)
Lyrical essays about joy born from sorrow, shared struggle, and connection. Very teachable, with an almost Jamesian belief in the redemptive powers of life.
4. The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 110 Poets on the Divine (2022, ed. Kaveh Akbar)
Offers a pluralistic, global lens on happiness, hope, longing, and transcendence—great for final reflections or student-chosen readings.
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