How Much of These Hills is Gold, C. Pam Zhang: In my opinion, a contemporary classic. Weaves Chinese myth with stories of the American Gold Rush. Beautiful prose and valuable takeaways re: family, truth, and gender.
A Little Devil in America: Notes on Black Performance, Hanif Abdurraqib: Essay upon essay of mind-plowing poetics and storytelling. Hanif’s version of Baldwin’s Devil Finds Work. A wide swath of topics from blackface to spades to magic.
Writers & Lovers, Lily King: Came to me at the exact right (or wrong?) time, just when my father passed away. A keenly-observed novel about grief and persona that is something like if SweetbittermetNormal People.
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee: Inspired me to get over myself and just start writing again. The essay on roses absolutely floored me.
Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, Saidiya Hartman: Hard to stomach, but necessary. Foundational for the way I am thinking about neo-slave narratives and speculative historical fiction.
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness, Kristen Radtke: The minute I read this, I added it to the syllabus for my class on women in isolation. Part graphic novel, part longform essay, part research paper, and wholly extraordinary.
The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening, Jennifer Lynn Stoever: This one’s just for me. The burning core at the center of my reading list and the inspiration and model for my scholarship.
The Street, Ann Petry: Read it because of the book above, but an absolute banger of a book. Devastating ending. Would be extraordinary taught alongside Native Son.
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin: This book has everything. Polyamory. Earth-bending. An alien creature frozen inside a giant piece of rock in the middle of the ocean. Love this woman, love seeing Blackness-as-default in sci-fi novels.
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel: You read it in high school for a good reason. A true exemplar of the genre and a fascinating way to teach non-chronological storytelling.
rest below the cut
Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab
Brothers & Keepers, John Edgar Wideman
Bunk: The True Story of Hoaxes, Hucksters, Humbug, Plagiarists, Forgeries, and Phonies, Kevin Young
Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo
House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas
Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Tomi Adeyemi
Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, the Archive, Mary Ann Doane
An American Sunrise, Joy Harjo
Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing, Ben Blatt
Rule of Wolves, Leigh Bardugo
The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan
Savage Preservation: The Ethnographic Origins of Modern Media Technology, Brian Hochman
The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin
The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin
People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice & Virtue, Mackenzi Lee
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Legendborn, Tracy Deonn
Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, Christina Lauren
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music, Nina Sun Eidsheim
One Last Stop, Casey McQuiston
One to Watch, Kate Stayman-London
Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories, Elizabeth Freeman
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
Echo and Narcissus: Women’s Voices in Classical Hollywood Cinema, Amy Lawrence
An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole
It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover
Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, Safiya Noble
Listening in: Radio and the American Imagination, Susan J. Douglass
How to Fail at Flirting, Denise Williams
The Flat-Share, Beth O'Leary
Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952, Michele Hilmes
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud
Have you spent every free moment of your time for the past month playing Elden Ring and still need MORE? Well, we’ve got you covered. Swipe for some YA reading recs chock full of fantasy, dead things, monsters, gaming, and more.
Currently reading The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue. I am around 100 pages in, and so far I am really enjoying it. There is something to be said about reading a story about the influenza pandemic while we are going through the coronavirus pandemic ourselves, but that does make the story more impactful. Perhaps the fact that I my parents are doctors, and I myself have volunteered at the hospital has something to do with it. It’s definitely a book that is resonating with me deeply.
I have a huge admiration for Julia, who seems to be a great nurse, and has the makings to be a great doctor one day! Is that something that might be set up to happen in the future? I guess I will have to keep reading and find out!
We all have books which we started reading, but for one reason or another, didn’t manage to get through. These are some of mine. These are books I either started reading, but never got around to finishing, as well as soon books I just really want to read this month, but because I have so many unfinished books, I am a bit hesitant to start new ones!
What book are on your unfinished stack? The ones you *do* want to get back to at some point?
“I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. Listen to me. I am your echo. I would rather break the world than lose you”
Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, becomes something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Except the discovery of their bond would mean the death of each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win. That’s how war works, right?
Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.
This book has found it’s place in my top ten books of 2021. What can I say about this book, which makes for a good review, rather than just a long gush fest? Let’s try, shall we?
Well first of all, it’s sci-fi, but that’s not what the book is really about. It’s a love story, but also more than that. Not your typical enemies to lovers story, it’s a tale of how two agents have formed a bond with each other, which spans across time and space. It is a relatively short book, only 198 pages long, but it definitely manages to do the story justice. I found it to be fulfilling, and enjoyable. The writing was poetic, without being pretentious.
While I enjoyed the sci-fi element of the story, I did struggle a bit to fully get my head around the world building. But Blue and Red’s love story was such a strong anchor, that I would still give this book 5 stars ⭐️
10/10 does not mean I found no fault within the book, it just means I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Map: Collected and Last Poems of Wisława Szymborska: 10/10 The Cynicism found in poems and break from other poetic conventions is refreshing and enjoyable
Persuasion by Jane Austen: 7/10 Might be your cup of tea if you prefer real books, I found it pedestrian, and much prefer the stories of the Brontë sisters
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway: Unread
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: 10/10 Meant to be found ironic in the way that it is an inversion of the classic Hero’s Journey of Greek Mythology (specifically that of The Odyssey)
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles: 5/10 While the symbolism in it is apparent and lends itself to deeper interpretations, there is no other subtlety present in the play, largely as a result of the genre
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: 10/10 Kafkaesque is timeless and unbeatable in its exposition of problems with the modern way of living and in the very thought process we behold
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: Unread
Short Stories by Flannery O’Connor: 10/10 Liberal use of symbolism and metaphors lends itself to a far richer interpretation, the cynicism expressed in the short stories is refreshing
Update!
I have finished Things Fall Apart
I give this a 10/10. It was not what I expected. I definetly feel like there is an overwhelming amount of American and European literature out there, but I haven’t seen much African literature (whether it be because of language barrier, or I am just looking in the wrong place). I found that the way the book was written (focusing on Umuofia as a whole rather than any one specific character) allowed the reader to understand the narrative from multiple perspectives. If anyone has any book recommendations which provide an African view rather than a European or American one I would love to hear them! I am looking to expand my literary horizons.
Happy Thursday everyone! It’s officially ‘curl up next to the fire with a good book’ season here in the northern hemisphere, and with some people lucky enough to have time off of school or work for the holiday season, they’ll need some books to read.
I’d love everyone to give a recommendation (or two, or three) of the next book people should read and why! Make sure to include author and genre so people know what they’re getting into! This won’t be the last time I do one of these book rec type questions, so don’t worry if you can’t fit all your favorites in this time.
All you have to do is reblog, comment, or send an ask with your book recommendations! Anyone and everyone is free to participate.
Ooo! I can’t wait to go through the other notes and get some more books to read (as if I need more books to read)!
I would recommend basically anything by Robin Hobb. Her Realm of the Elderlings books are fantasy at its finest. To start at the beginning, you read the Farseer Trilogy which starts with Assassin’s Apprentice. It’s the story of an individual, but also of dragons and prophets and people and relationships and love. There are a lot of books in that universe now (I think 16?) but nine are my favorites: a trilogy of trilogies about Fitzchivalry Farseer.
I also highly highly recommend Kate Elliot’s Crossroads Trilogy, which starts with Spirit Gate. I picked the first two books up randomly from a used bookstore and suffered before getting my hands on the third and finally finishing reading the trilogy. (I tell you so you won’t make my mistake.) The world Elliott builds is strange and beautiful and vast but the stories are personal and human. And there are giant eagles. (Thank me later.)
Since my first post about classics, I have managed to accumulate quite a hefty list of favourites that I completely adore, so I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to share some of them with you. You have probably heard about most of these books but if you haven’t read them yet, I will try to convince you to do so What is your favourite classic?
Want to understand the history of Israel and Palestine? Two of the region’s most prominent writers compile a list of books every American should read to gain a nuanced, deeper understanding of the region’s history, future, and contending narratives.
Wondering what to read over the Jewish High Holidays starting next week? Check out this year’s 10 Awesome Books for the 10 Days of Awe recommended by the Jewish Book Council!
As Diwali is here, we have made this Diwali Special book recommendations list. And to go with the Diwali vibe we have recommended best books in Indian Mythology.
Can someone please recommend me some good femdom mangas, cause I can’t find any anymore!!! It’s really a shame that there are hardly any femdom mangas, really!! I hope one day femdom mangas get the same amount of content as bl<33
Want to see my favorite books from this year? Up now on the #blog!
#bookrec #yearinreview #favoritebooks
Hello and welcome to the reading wrap-up for this year! I know in previous years I separated books by category, but this time I will simply list off all my favorites from this year. It is largely fantasy, but there are also some graphic novels, manga, and a nonfiction thrown in there.
And as always, a reminder that just because I didn’t mention a book on this list, it does not mean I didn’t…
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