| 2023 | Humanly Possible | Barack Obama's Favorite Books source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Favorite Books | |
| 2023 | Humanly Possible | New York Times 100 Notable Books source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Nonfiction | |
| 2023 | Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope | Publishers Weekly Best Books source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Nonfiction | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café | Kirkus Prize source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Finalist · Nonfiction | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails With Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others | Chicago Public Library Best of the Best source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Best Books | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café | The Guardian Best Books of the Year source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Biography and memoir | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café | Kirkus Best Books of the Year source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Nonfiction | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café | New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Nonfiction | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café | New York Times 100 Notable Books source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Nonfiction | |
| 2016 | At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails | The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Nonfiction | |
| 2010 | How To Live: Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer | National Book Critics Circle Awards source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Winner · Biography | |
| 2010 | How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer | Costa Book Awards source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Shortlist · Biography | |
| 2010 | How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer | Amazon Editors' Best Books of the Year source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Top 100 | |
| 2010 | How To Live, Or, a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer | Library Journal Best Books source ↗ (opens in a new tab) | Selection · Top Ten | |