In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

What To Read This Fall

Jill

I just bought Freedom, and I’m pretty excited to delve into what is supposedly The Greatest Novel of Our Time (that link, by the way, goes to a really really great piece that you should all read). But I’m also happy to see that Gawker’s list of books to read includes a number of female writers, especially since talented women are often passed over in the literary world (although for the record, no, I don’t exactly think Jodi Picoult is a literary genius, or much of an example of this phenomenon, any more than I think Nicholas Sparks is a better writer than Cormac McCarthy. And I don’t even like Cormac McCarthy).

What are you all reading, or planning to read, this fall? If you’re looking for some good short fiction, allow me to recommend The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40. If you click on a writer’s portrait, there’s a Q&A and a link to the piece that the magazine published.

30 thoughts on What To Read This Fall

  2. I’m deeply suspicious of Greatest Novels of Our Time (and white male authors who are deemed Authors and Fawned Over), so I’ve never read Franzen.

    I’ve been re-reading Ruth Reichl’s books, have several more library books waiting for me (To Serve Them All My Days and The Good Son) plus some brain candy (Daniel Silva and Jennifer Cruise).

  3. I’m super excited about Freedom too. It’s next on my list.

    I’ve been reading Their Eyes Were Watching God. I don’t know why this book wasn’t ever assigned in any of my English classes because it’s such a fantastic classic book. I usually have trouble reading anything where the dialog has words shortened with apostrophes but in this case I got used to it. And the prose is so amazing that I would slog through the dialog just to read more prose.

    1. I love Their Eyes Were Watching God. It actually was assigned in my 11th grade English class — definitely lucky to get to read and discuss that book in a classroom setting, along with other American classics.

  4. I read Their Eyes Were Watching God in my freshman English class, a class about literature of the South. It is really great.

    I’ve been wanting to read Zaytoun, by Dave Eggers, for a while. I’ve heard it’s amazing. I never finished A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but I have high hopes for this.

  5. I just started reading You and the Pirates by Jocelyne Allen, and I’m eagerly awaiting Dreadnought by Cherie Priest. Magic realism followed by alternate history steampunk!

  6. @Jill So lucky!

    @Sarah I would have loved to take a class like that! I’ve read a little Langston Hughes and that’s about it for classic southern literature (unless Gone with the Wind counts?). I should really find some more books in that genre.

    I try to read the classics, but they’re so hit or miss. I’ve been trying to read The Count of Monte Cristo for months now and I can’t stand the writing style.

    You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers is on my top 10 list of books.

  7. I didn’t get the chance to read Their Eyes Were Watching God until my freshman year of college.
    But I was fortunate enough to take courses that taught books by women and people of color.

    Right now I’m reading Brick Lane by Monica Ali, a book I’ve been meaning to read for quite some time. But what I want to read is Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. I hear it’s good and it explores the relationships between Masters and Slaves.

  8. Douglas Coupland is a great social commentary author and is definitley worth a look. He’s written a load of books (Generation X, Hey Nostradamus!, Miss Wyoming) and they’re all great.

    A recent women writer that I have been enjoying is a short story writer named Amy Hempel. Her book “At The Gates Of The Animal Kingdom” was fantastic

  9. I’m back in classes for the first time in over a year, so my reading list for the next while includes more statistics and research methodology stuff than I would generally recommend to anyone. 🙂 But if I find the time, I am planning on finally finishing reading The Globalisation of Addiction, which is a very cool book looking at addiction as a social problem within the context of modern hypercapitalism, as well as in comparable historical instances of mass social dislocation and identity disintegration. (Written by the same shit-disturber social scientist who created Rat Park.)

  10. i’m not a franzen fan either – could never make it through the corrections.

    i’m reading william gibson’s zero history and some stuff just out in paperback because i hate carrying (and paying for) hardbacks – a.s. byatt’s the children’s book and lorrie moore’s the gate at the stairs. i’m also so excited about jennifer eagan’s the good squad i’m considering needing it even in hardback.

  12. When you’re done, try “The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao,” which is a beautifully written book about a second-generation Dominican New Yorker nerd whose story is intertwined with, essentially, the biography of the Dominican Republic under a dictatorship. Again, it’s gorgeous.

    (Meanwhile, if someone could recommend a decent piece of fiction for me, please. I’ve had a terrible dry spell, and even tried the “classics I should have read” list that nevertheless bores the hell out of me. Rabbit Run my ass.)

    1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Oscar Wao. One of my favorite books I’ve read this year. “Gorgeous” is a perfect description. Have you read Diaz’s short stories? “Drown” is pretty incredible.

      Also recommended: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. Mind-blowing. Not an easy read, but really great. 2666 is next on my list, after Freedom.

  13. @ Lauren

    Not sure what kind of fiction you’re into (I skew toward scifi/fantasy and postmodern weirdness), but my favourite fiction book in the entire damn universe is The Last Samurai (nothing whatsoever to do with the awful Tom Cruise movie – that link goes to the beginning of the prologue, which gives a pretty good idea of the style of writing and nature of the book). It’s hard to recommend a book to someone whose tastes and interests aren’t familiar to me, so I make no guarantees, but it’s pretty damned entertaining IMO, and it’s not so obscure as to be hard to find at libraries, but not so well known that many people have already read it or had it recommended. Also, because I am a big CanLit nerd, I recommend anything and everything by Thomas King, Wayson Choy, and Minister Faust (okay, two of those guys aren’t exactly prolific, but they are good). And he’s not a Canadian, tragically, but Jaspar Fforde writes wonderful “books for people who love stories and stories for people who love books”.

  14. I am currently in the middle of No god but God by Reza Aslan, and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I just finished Give me Liberty by Naomi Wolf.

    I recommend the first and last. I’ve learned a great deal about the history of Islam and some very useful things about the US political system, but so far, The God Delusion is like reading the atheist version of Ann Coulter. Boo.

  15. I just read the novel “Old Filth” by Jane Gardam. she’s from the u.k. and I’m not sure how mainstream she is here, because the book was lent to me by a friend who has a bookshelf or two in every room of her house…anyways, I recommend it, it’s entertaining
    and stimulating…something about her style reminds me of James Joyce, but more accessible.

    Also, I recently read “The Missing Peice” by Shel Silverstein. Over and over again, because it’s brilliant and takes 5 minutes to read.

    I’m planning to read “Damien” by Herman Hesse. It was just recomended to me. I’d like to finally get to “On the Road”, Miranda July’s stories, and “True and False” by David Mamet too. I think those are at the top of my list.

  17. Lauren: When you’re done, try “The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao,” which is a beautifully written book about a second-generation Dominican New Yorker nerd whose story is intertwined with, essentially, the biography of the Dominican Republic under a dictatorship.Again, it’s gorgeous.(Meanwhile, if someone could recommend a decent piece of fiction for me, please.I’ve had a terrible dry spell, and even tried the “classics I should have read” list that nevertheless bores the hell out of me.Rabbit Run my ass.)  

    For classics, have you read Vanity Fair? Because Thackeray is delightfully caustic, and none of the characters are lovable.

  18. Thanks for that recommendation April. I’ve been wanting to Reza Aslan’s books. Another good book on Islam is Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots in a Modern Debate by Leila Ahmed.

  19. I’m currently reading the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Napoleonic era with dragons pretty much ^O^ Then I plan on going through Warriors: The Power of Three since the boxset is coming out this month, and then the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy.

    I gotta give my brain a break cause of all the serious reading I have to do for classes. So I’m looking for YA or sci-fi/fantasy that won’t try to teach me something or make some kind of point for a political/belief agenda.

    Since someone mentioned Jasper Fforde, a list of various author’s beliefs and policies toward fanfic here. In case you’re involved in fandom and don’t want to inadervantly support authors that compare fanfiction to white slavery, breaking and entering, or Piss Christ.

  20. A friend of mine met Jonathan Franzen on junior year abroad many years ago. He said Franzen was an intellectual snob who seemed almost ashamed of coming from St. Louis instead of the East Coast, and was not exactly popular because he didn’t much like the rest of the people on the program.

    I haven’t been able to read his books since, and I have zero desire to read Freedom. I was particularly annoyed after I listened to an interview with Franzen and realized that a) he’s still a snob, and b) he speaks in one of those overly precise, somewhat nasal voices that is scrubbed of every single trace of accent in favor of what he thinks of how he thinks an intellectual East Coaster should sound.

    If I read a novel this fall, it’s going to be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, which I somehow missed when it came out.

  21. Lasciel:
    Since someone mentioned Jasper Fforde, a list of various author’s beliefs and policies toward fanfic here. In case you’re involved in fandom and don’t want to inadervantly support authors that compare fanfiction to white slavery, breaking and entering, or Piss Christ.  

    A question, actually. While I can see that Fforde is clearly not pro-fanfic (disappointing), is he specifically someone who “compare[s] fanfiction to white slavery, breaking and entering, or Piss Christ”? I ask because I can’t find that reference on his website FAQ, and those attitudes would be a bit more than disappointing to me, so I’d like to know.

  22. @Lasciel I love me some YA fiction, for exactly the reasons you’re saying- it’s a good place to put my brain. Even better when it’s got good fantasy writing in the bargain.

    Some of my favorites:
    Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean (kinda YA, kinda not)
    Guardian of the Dead- Karen Healey. YA + fantasy themes using Maori mythology
    Impossible- Nancy Werlin. You’ll never listen to “Scarborough Fair” the same way again.
    More book reviews and the like on my blog.

  23. I just started The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks which I’ve not been able to get out of my head since hearing about it a few months ago. Earlier summer reads included The Commitment by Dan Savage and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which was really, really good. I also enjoyed Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science by the always witty and smart Mary Roach.

  24. @Jadey-to the best of my knowledge, Fforde hasn’t bashed fanfic authors, sorry if I implied that. It was Diana Gabaldon, writer of the Outlander series, who deserves ‘credit’ for the analogies I mentioned.

  25. @Lasciel – L’Affair Gabaldon was particularly ironic since Gabaldon a) scrubbed the offending posts from her website after receiving so many nastygrams that it made Fandom Wank, and b) she had freely admitted a few year ago that her male lead was based on a Doctor Who character. That she herself had managed to make a great deal of money writing something about a millimeter from *being* fanfic really, really pissed a lot of people off.

    @Abby-Won – you will LOVE The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I read it last spring and loved it.

    One that I read that I thoroughly enjoyed: The Poisoner’s Handbook, by Deborah Blum. It’s the story of the coroner’s office in New York City as told through various poisoning cases. Fascinating stuff.

  26. Jill: I LOVE LOVE LOVE Oscar Wao.One of my favorite books I’ve read this year.“Gorgeous” is a perfect description.Have you read Diaz’s short stories?“Drown” is pretty incredible.Also recommended: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño.Mind-blowing.Not an easy read, but really great.2666 is next on my list, after Freedom.  

    Jill and Lauren:

    If you love Diaz, check out The Best American Short Stories 1999 and 2000 editions. The editors re-printed, in my opinion, his best new short fiction in those volumes. “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars” and “Nilda” far surpass anything he did in Drown. I adore his work, but those two stories are impeccable. I mean, you don’t land your fiction in The Best American Short Stories in back to back editions unless you’ve done something stellar. And Amy Tan edited the 1999 editon, E.L. Doctorow the 2000. Check it out.

  27. Fforde is the just about the only fiction I’ve read in years, other than Harry Potter and Honor Harrington series. Seriously awesome for word geeks, and kind of odd that it’s easier to find fictional writing to satisfy my science geek side than my literary geek side. Other than that, it’s just non-fiction and humor books for quite some time – almost done with Mary Roach’s new book, have asked for the new Daily Show World book for my birthday. Am very sad that I have now almost completely finished her books.

    I don’t have a problem with authors being weirded out by fanfic, can understand that an artist may feel very protective of their characters. Fforde is weird that way, likes to use well-known characters, but says that he’s careful only to use those that are public domain, or at least I think I read that in the back of one of his books.

  28. Room by Emma Donoghue
    It’s been shortlisted for the Man Booker award and it’s phenomenal. The story is told from the perspective of a 5 year old, who all he knows is the room he lives in with Ma. I don’t want to say anything else other than it’s riveting, emotional, and really stays with you after finishing it.

Comments are currently closed.