Literary Hub
Literary Hub
  • Craft and Criticism
    • Literary Criticism
    • Craft and Advice
    • In Conversation
    • On Translation
  • Fiction and Poetry
    • Short Story
    • From the Novel
    • Poem
  • News and Culture
    • History
    • Science
    • Politics
    • Biography
    • Memoir
    • Food
    • Technology
    • Bookstores and Libraries
    • Film and TV
    • Travel
    • Music
    • Art and Photography
    • The Hub
    • Style
    • Design
    • Sports
  • BUY A HAT
  • Lit Hub Radio
    • The Lit Hub Podcast
    • Awakeners
    • Fiction/Non/Fiction
    • The Critic and Her Publics
    • Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
    • Memoir Nation
    • Beyond the Page
    • First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
    • Thresholds
    • The Cosmic Library
    • Culture Schlock
  • Reading Lists
    • The Best of the Decade
  • Book Marks
    • Best Reviewed Books
  • CrimeReads
    • True Crime
    • The Daily Thrill
  • Log In
  • Craft and Criticism
  • Fiction and Poetry
  • News and Culture
  • Lit Hub Radio
  • Reading Lists
  • Book Marks
  • CrimeReads
  • Log In
Six Very Depressing Books That Might Just Cheer You Up

Six Very Depressing Books That Might Just Cheer You Up

Rabih Alameddine Recommends Gerbrand Bakker, Hans Fallada, Leo Tolstoy, and More

By Rabih Alameddine | September 2, 2025

Rabih Alameddine Recommends the Best (Short) Books He Read in 2022

Rabih Alameddine Recommends the Best (Short) Books He Read in 2022

One of Our Very Favorite Lit Hub Traditions

By Rabih Alameddine | December 16, 2022

“One Rapper’s Dreams of FBI Stardom”

“One Rapper’s Dreams of FBI Stardom”

A New Short Story by Rabih Alameddine From the Anthology Small Odysseys

By Rabih Alameddine | March 25, 2022

Rabih Alameddine Asks His MFA Students for <em>Their</em> Favorite Novels of the Year

Rabih Alameddine Asks His MFA Students for Their Favorite Novels of the Year

Students Weigh in on Their Favorite Titles

By Rabih Alameddine | December 17, 2021

Rabih Alameddine's Year in Reading: Poetry Edition

Rabih Alameddine's Year in Reading: Poetry Edition

"You know that I hate end-of-year lists..."

By Rabih Alameddine | December 17, 2020

Rabih Alameddine Recommends Some Gay Books You Might Not Have Known Were Gay

Rabih Alameddine Recommends Some Gay Books You Might Not Have Known Were Gay

Happy Pride, Everyone

By Rabih Alameddine | June 26, 2020

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

  • The Rest of Our Lives
  • Call Me Ishmaelle
  • This Is Where the Serpent Lives
  • Lost Lambs
  • Winter: The Story of a Season
  • The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else's Game
  • Departure(s)
  • Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China
  • The Flower Bearers
  • Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood

How to Bartend

By Rabih Alameddine | April 8, 2020

Rabih Alameddine: The Oddest Books I Read This Year

By Rabih Alameddine | December 19, 2019

Rabih Alameddine: The Novels I Loved This Year

By Rabih Alameddine | December 14, 2018

    • 5 Novels with Perfectly Unsympathetic ProtagonistsJanuary 29, 2026 by Sophie Hannah
    • Adriane Leigh on Why We Are Living in the Age of the Unreliable NarratorJanuary 29, 2026 by Adriane Leigh
    • The Greatest Muckrakers of the Progressive EraJanuary 29, 2026 by Rob Osler
    • The Rest of Our Lives
    • The Best Reviewed Books of the Month
    • "Poignant Tender The final line of em The Rest of Our Lives em is by…"
  • Literary Hub

    Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature


    Masthead

    About

    Sign Up For Our Newsletters

    How to Pitch Lit Hub

    Advertisers: Contact Us

    Privacy Policy

    Support Lit Hub - Become A Member