It is also on my to-do list to finally get to reading Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women in the new year! I've heard SO many great things, and it's spent far too long in my TBR pile.
I’m not huge on re-reading even my most delicious faves. But I did quite a bit of looking back on some wonderful reads during the pandemic. Those I’m most grateful to have read again: The Accidental Tourist, A Thousand Acres & Nobody’s Fool.
I’m jealous that you get to read Lucia Berlin for the first time! She is one of my absolutely favorites and A Manual for Cleaning Women is her magnum opus. Once I read it, I tried to get my hands on everything she’s ever written. Her stories have staying power, I think about them often.
The last month or so I’ve been down a “retelling of Greek mythology” rabbit hole: Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe —> The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller —> Circe by Madeline Miller (currently re-reading) —> Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (next up). I’m usually not this intentional about what I read and I don’t think I’ve ever followed a theme like this across authors. This has made me rethink my strategy!
Lila and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. The Known World by Edw. P. Jones. The Wizard of Oz.
I return again and again to White Tears by Hair Kunzru, The Idiot by Elif Batuman, and Insomniac City by Bill Hayes. Such wonder! Such enchantment! :)
Half of a Yellow Sun.
Bobcat by Rebecca Lee
Upstream by Mary Oliver, In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard. I press these on everyone.
I love A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch and Old Filth by Jane Gardam.
It is also on my to-do list to finally get to reading Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women in the new year! I've heard SO many great things, and it's spent far too long in my TBR pile.
You might have read them already but both of Min Jin Lee's novels are fantastic!
Still Life by Sarah Winman - I finished it last week and am still thinking about how beautiful it was!
O Albany by William Kennedy. I have also just finished Leeson Park and Belsize Square by your Dad. A wonderful book.
All Laurie Colwin, but Happy All the Time in particular and Calvin Tompkins’s Living Well is the Best Revenge
Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison
Two of my all-time faves (a novel and poetry) that I've recommended hundreds of times, both from Graywolf Press!
DUPLEX, by Kathryn Davis (Kelly Link and Josh Cook are also gaga about this)
TOO BRIGHT TO SEE and ALMA (two books collected in one volume), Linda Gregg
xoxoMichael T.
I’m not huge on re-reading even my most delicious faves. But I did quite a bit of looking back on some wonderful reads during the pandemic. Those I’m most grateful to have read again: The Accidental Tourist, A Thousand Acres & Nobody’s Fool.
I’m jealous that you get to read Lucia Berlin for the first time! She is one of my absolutely favorites and A Manual for Cleaning Women is her magnum opus. Once I read it, I tried to get my hands on everything she’s ever written. Her stories have staying power, I think about them often.
The last month or so I’ve been down a “retelling of Greek mythology” rabbit hole: Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe —> The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller —> Circe by Madeline Miller (currently re-reading) —> Ariadne by Jennifer Saint (next up). I’m usually not this intentional about what I read and I don’t think I’ve ever followed a theme like this across authors. This has made me rethink my strategy!
I have Transit of Venus and Manual for Cleaning Women on my shelf - unread. So January is defo a plan.