more readings

If you’re looking for more to read or just curious about what I like, here are some more lists!

Recent compilations by other people:

Readings from my Fall 2023 reading group (this group was focused less on linguistics but some of the readings fit very well into my regular class):

  • ‘Amnesty’ by Octavia Butler [discussion]
  • ‘Toward a Theory of Alternative Lifestyles’ by Theodore McCombs [discussion]
  • Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  • ‘The Semplica-Girl Diaries’ by George Saunders [discussion]
  • Frankenstein (full novel) by Mary Shelley [discussion]
  • ‘The Third Tower’ by Debra Eisenberg [discussion]
  • ‘Office Hours’ by Ling Ma [discussion]
  • ‘Paradises Lost’ by Ursula Le Guin [discussion]
  • ‘Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom’ by Ted Chiang [discussion]

And here are a few more spec-fic readings with language-y themes that I may incorporate into the course later on:

Some of my favorite sci-fi/spec-fic novels:

  • Parable, Lilith’s Brood and Seed to Harvest series by Octavia Butler
  • The Circle by Dave Eggers
  • Never Let Me Go and Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Memory Police by Ling Ma
  • The City and the City by China Miéville
  • Strange Bodies (my all-time favorite) and Far North by Marcel Theroux
  • Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Other fiction authors & books I enjoy re-reading, various genres:

  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck (stories)
  • Jean M. Auel, The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Valley of Horses
  • Jane Austen – everything, favorites are Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility
  • Dave Eggers, Heroes of the Frontier and The Parade
  • E.M. Forster, Howards End and A Room with a View
  • Nick Hornby, About a Boy and All the Way Down
  • Kazuo Ishiguro – pretty much everything
  • Ha Jin, A Good Fall (stories)
  • Shirley Jackson – pretty much everything
  • Tayari Jones, Silver Sparrow and Leaving Atlanta
  • Lisa Ko, The Leavers
  • Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake and Unaccustomed Earth (stories)
  • Laila Lalami, The Other Americans and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (stories)
  • Penelope Lively, According to Mark
  • Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil, The Razor’s Edge, other novels
  • Terry McMillan, A Day Late and a Dollar Short and Waiting to Exhale
  • Celeste Ng, Everything You Never Told Me
  • Ann Patchett, The Magician’s Assistant and State of Wonder
  • Tom Perrotta, Nine Inches (stories) and The Abstinence Teacher
  • Barbara Pym – everything, Excellent Women is one of my all-time favorites
  • George Saunders – pretty much everything
  • Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle, Abide with Me, Olive Kitteridge
  • Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet and Back When We Were Grown-Ups

New stories I’ve read recently (since late 2023) and liked:

  • The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
  • Ring Shout by P. Djèli Clark
  • The Talk by Darrin Bell
  • Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
  • The Hole We’re In by Gabrielle Zevin
  • ‘Brownies’ and ‘Drinking Coffee Elsewhere’ by ZZ Packer
  • The Sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Theroux
  • The Eyes & the Impossible by Dave Eggers
  • Eileen and ‘Bettering Myself’ by Ottessa Moshfegh
  • Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
  • The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
  • Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
  • This Census Taker by China Miéville (maybe the scariest book I’ve read)
  • Changing Planes by Ursula Le Guin
  • Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde

Stories I’ve turned to when grieving a loved one:

  • Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg
  • Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
  • ‘The Aquarium’ by Aleksandar Hemon (essay)
  • The Heart (Réparer les vivants) by Maylis de Kerangal
  • ‘A Temporary Matter’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • February by Lisa Moore
  • Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
  • The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Stories I turn to when I fear for the world:

  • The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
  • Milkman by Anna Burns
  • Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
  • The Plague (La peste) by Albert Camus
  • Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers
  • An Enemy of the People (En folkefiende) by Henrik Ibsen
  • Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco
  • Braided Lives by Marge Piercy
  • Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead