Recommendations of things: BOOKS

Feeling stuck? Perhaps the right book is what you need for some inspo

Below are some books I recommend for anyone who needs inspiration. This is a very-not-exhaustive list that I intend to keep adding to as I think of books, but to get us started…

Novel

  • All Fours, Miranda July

  • The Safekeep, Yael Van der Wouden

  • The Country Life, Rachel Cusk

  • Martyr! Kaveh Akbar

  • The Friend, Sigrid Nunez

  • What Are You Going Through? Sigrid Nunez

  • The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty

  • Outline, Rachel Cusk

  • Independence Day, Richard Ford

  • White Noise, Don Delillo

    ….Lots of others, etc.

Novel - Subgenre: Dark / Wit

  • Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh

  • The Idiot, Elif Batuman

Novel - Subgenre: Really f*cking beautiful writing

  • On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong

  • In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje

  • Veronica, Mary Gaitskill

  • The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante

Novel - Subgenre: Sensual-sexual

  • Normal People, Sally Rooney

  • Veronica, Mary Gaitskill

Novel - Subgenre: California

  • Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje

  • The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner

Memoir

  • Reading the Waves, Lidia Yuknavitch (Feb ‘25)

  • I Would Meet You Anywhere, Susan Kiyo Ito

  • Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner

  • 90 Days: A Memoir of Recovery, Bill Clegg

  • This Body I Wore, Diana Goetsch

  • Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje

  • Burning the Days, James Salter

  • The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr

  • Cherry, Mary Karr

  • Lit, Mary Karr

  • The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls

  • My Broken Language, Quiara Alegría Hudes

  • Chelsea Girls, Eileen Myles (“a novel”)

  • A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip, Kevin Brockmeier

  • Motherhood, Sheila Heti (memoir-adjacent)

  • The Country of the Blind, Andrew Leland

  • The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch

  • Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain

Short Stories

  • Rock Springs, Richard Ford

  • Bliss Montage, Ling Ma

  • Liberation Day, George Saunders

  • Tenth of December, George Saunders

  • Homesick for Another World, Ottessa Moshfegh

  • No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July

  • Birds of America, Lorrie Moore

  • Black Light, Kimberley King Parsons

  • Fresh Complaint, Jeffrey Eugenides

  • Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro (or anything else by her)

  • Fortune Smiles, Adam Johnson

  • That Thing Around Your Neck, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

  • Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri

  • Hunger, Lan Samantha Chang

Essays

  • In the Land of the Cyclops, Karl Ove Knausgaard

  • Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Joan Didion

  • The Hard Crowd, Rachel Kushner

  • The Braindead Megaphone, George Saunders

  • This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett

  • (Anything by) Annie Dillard

Books About Writing

  • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders

  • The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr

  • On Writing, Stephen King

  • Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

  • Body Work, Melissa Febos

Books About Life and Other Things that Made Me Cry

  • Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl

Thoughts, etc.

Sometimes I really need to talk about an author and have no patience to do the whole “submit my work” to “publications” thing so here are my thoughts and recommendations, sans middle (wo)man.