“The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day is a fascinating study of unreliable narration, as well as an exploration of duty and responsibility.
“An Untamed State” by Roxane Gay
If you offer yourself up to the experience of reading An Untamed State, you will be rewarded.
“Hyperbole and a Half” by Allie Brosh
Hyperbole and a Half is a funny, eccentric, endearing graphic memoir that captures the large and small moments of Brosh’s life.
“Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo
Behind the Beautiful Forevers has changed the way I look at journalism—changed the very way that I want to tell stories.
“The Frangipani Hotel” by Violet Kupersmith
Gabriel Garcia Marquez annoys me. There, I said it. His is the most prominent name in magical realism, and his work had me convinced that I was not a fan of the genre. I inevitably grew weary of what seems like cutesy or convenient inventions put it place to further the narrative or tickle the reader. I want to know if a story is based in the world that I know or if it is fantastical. Go big or go home; don’t settle for ambiguous magical realism, I always thought.
“Cairo In White” by Kelly Ann Jacobson
Eighteen-year-old Zahra has been climbing over the wall to Jamila’s house and sneaking into her girlfriend’s room for years, but that night was different…
“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood
When she was out in the world, the world as it had been Before, she hadn’t known how free she was. She was free to marry her lover, Luke, and they were free to have a daughter together. She was free to hold down a job, to have money of her own, to wear whatever she liked and go wherever she wanted whenever she pleased.
“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” by Alexandra Fuller
Title: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood Author: Alexandra Fuller ISBN: 9780375758997 Pages: 336 Release date: March 11, […]
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
Set in fictional Maycomb County in 1930s Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by young Scout Finch, who is generally more interested in finding treasures and scrapping with her brother, Jem, than in the Great Depression or Jim Crow. But tension in the Deep South is unavoidable, especially when your dad is Mr. Renaissance Man himself. Atticus Finch is representing Tom Robinson, a black man accused of sexual assault by an impoverished white girl. Scout is young, but already she struggles with biases inherited from members of this insular community. As she observes the tumult caused by the trial, and as she deals with her own demons, Scout learns that people aren’t always as they appear.
“I Am Forbidden” by Anouk Markovits
There are some books that are so good, as soon as you finish reading you’re ready to tell the world exactly what you loved about it; the words have been forming in your mind the whole time.
I Am Forbidden may not be one of those books.
It’s a book that you read obsessively—it takes over your thoughts—and quickly—because you have to know what happens, you have to stay with these characters. Yet when you put it down, you don’t know how to explain the book, much less why you loved it.
“The Pharmacist’s Mate” by Amy Fusselman
This is what I believe:
When someone dies, they don’t go to some pearlescent afterlife or some sulfurous hellhole.
Instead, they live on in the memories of those who loved them.
“A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan
Much is said about plot in writing. Without plot, you don’t have a book… right?
That’s why, at first glance, A Visit from the Goon Squad appears to be a series of interconnected short stories. There is no overarching plot, no event or circumstances that drive the characters through the narrative, which switches back on itself, going into the past and then the future over the course of four decades. In books like The Train of Small Mercies, the characters never meet. But the same event—the death of RFK—draws them together in theme and event if not in circumstance, and so their arcs mirror each other.
“Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
Title: Gone Girl Author: Gillian Flynn ISBN: 9780307588364 Pages: 432 Release date: June 5, 2012 Publisher: Crown Genre: Thriller Format: Ebook Source: […]
“Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” by Jenny Lawson
Jenny Lawson, better known as The Bloggess, is kind of a big deal. She has more than 342,000 Twitter followers–including Neil Gaiman–and a popular blog supported by ad revenue; maintaining her site and Twitter feed is a full-time job. After becoming an online superstar, she published Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir.
“Losing Clementine” by Ashley Ream
Clementine has made up her mind: In 30 days, she’s going to end it. Kick the bucket. Buy the farm. Push up daisies. That gives her an entire month to put her life in order. Because she’s resolved not to leave a mess… not like her mother did.
“Unnatural Selection” by Mara Hvistendahl
Mara Hvistendahl’s Unnatural Selection examines the issue of sex selective abortion. The book outlines how a combination of the increasing availability of abortions and ultrasound technology and a strong cultural and individual preference for boys has contributed to a staggering deficit of 160 million women and girls.
Melody Schreiber 