Books like The Snow Leopard

01

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer · Biography

Into the Wild is Jon Krakauer's account of Christopher McCandless, a twenty-four-year-old who graduated from Emory University in 1990, gave his savings to charity, abandoned his car and possessions, and spent two years drifting through the American West before hitchhiking into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992.

Both dig into wilderness.

02

Into Thin Air

Jon Krakauer · Memoir

Into Thin Air is Jon Krakauer's firsthand account of the May 1996 Everest expedition that killed eight climbers in a single afternoon.

A kindred memoir read.

03

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed · Memoir

Wild is Cheryl Strayed's account of hiking 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone in 1995 at twenty-six, with no prior backpacking experience and a pack so heavy she could barely lift it.

Both dig into grief.

04

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

A kindred memoir read.

05

A Grief Observed

C. S. Lewis · Memoir

A Grief Observed is C.

Both dig into grief.

06

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Dave Eggers · Memoir

Dave Eggers's debut memoir about losing both parents to cancer within five weeks and raising his younger brother Toph while trying to start a literary magazine in San Francisco in the mid-1990s arrived in 2000 with unusual self-consciousness about its own nature.

Both dig into grief.

07

Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner · Memoir

Crying in H Mart is Michelle Zauner's memoir of her mother's death from cancer and the loss it made her confront: not just of a parent but of the Korean half of her identity.

Both dig into grief.

08

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Lori Gottlieb · Memoir

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist who, after a sudden and shattering breakup, found herself in therapy of her own.

Both dig into grief.

09

Spare

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex · Memoir

Spare is Prince Harry's account of his life from childhood through his decision to step back from senior royal duties in 2020.

Both dig into grief.

10

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit

Michael Finkel · Memoir

In 1986, a twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight drove into the woods of central Maine, abandoned his car, and walked into the forest.

Both dig into wilderness.

11

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion · Memoir

Joan Didion's account of the year following the sudden death of her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, is the most rigorous and unflinching memoir of grief in American literature.

Both dig into grief.

12

A Fatal Grace

Louise Penny · Mystery

A Fatal Grace is the second novel in Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, set in the fictional Quebec village of Three Pines.

Both dig into grief.