Bakewell’s book, oriented around a number of existential questions in Michel Montaigne’s writings, is an extremely powerful way of understanding philosophy’s practical, personal and potentially transformative power. Bakewell’s blend of philosophical meditation, historical survey, and intelligent self-help counteracts philosophy’s bad reputation of being divorced from the history and affairs of the world. If you want to think through philosophy at its most inspiring and essentially helpful, you should read this book.