Recommended Reading

·  The Dog of the Marriage, by Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel writes in such a unique way, and is such a rule-breaker, that I find myself putting down the book, my heart racing, saying to myself, “Wow.  Can you really do that?”

·  Slouching Toward Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
Someone once praised Joan Didion’s “comma-less prose.”  Didion’s writing is at once lyrical, spare, and profound.  And behind that effortless language lie a big heart and a wicked sense of humor. 

·  Hollywood, by Charles Bukowski
Bukowski’s writing has real muscle. But the other thing that makes him such a joy to read is that he’s so unapologetically himself.  He’s also sharply funny – his humor springing from that favorite place of mine: incisive revelation of his own flaws. 

·  The Executioner’s Song, by Norman Mailer
This book about Gary Gilmore’s life and death is a fascinating story as well as a writing tour de force.  It’s a thick book that never loses you.

·  The Golden Notebook and Children of Violence, by Doris Lessing
I love The Golden Notebook because it completely challenges notions of how a novel should be structured.  It isn’t a linear narrative at all. And the point of view jumps around.  Children of Violence is a five book series chronicling the life of Martha Quest.  The first book starts when she’s a fourteen-year-old girl in South Africa.  The last book takes place in the near future, and Martha is in an old woman. 

·  The Corrections, by Jon Franzen
From the first sentence I was hooked. Franzen painstakingly dissects the minutia of the lives of five family members.  It’s a big story about small moments.  It’s also extremely funny.

·  My Dark Places, by James Elroy
Elroy wrote this book about his mother’s murder and his attempts to solve the crime years later.  The murder took place in the fifties, when the legendary Black Dahlia murder also took place.  Young James Elroy becomes obsessed with the famous murder as a way to process his mother’s death.  The story is fascinating, but it’s his noir writing style that clicks the story along like high heels on a hardwood floor.

·  Birds of America, by Laurie Moore
Moore’s prose drips with metaphor, humor, and the unexpected twist. 

· The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
I usually like spare writing.  But Cunningham’s lush prose is gorgeous.  One of my favorite literary scenes of all times is in The Hours.  A mother makes a cake with her son.  Outwardly, it’s a simple domestic scene – but we’re watching the mother unravel. 

·  Child in Time, by Ian McKewan
Child in Time is a surprising novel that begins with a couple dealing with the disappearance of their child.  A shocking, almost metaphysical, twist turns it into a hopeful and redemptive story.

·  The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
There are many reasons to recommend this book.  But one of them is the well deserved best last line of all time:  “And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past.”

·  As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
Faulkner’s classic tells the story of a family traveling with their mother’s coffin.  Each chapter is told from a different family member’s point of view.  Beautifully written, it’s an evocative portrayal of a poor southern family. 

·  Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Aside from being beautifully written and very funny, this novel is proof that no subject is off-limits to a writer.  The main character, Humbert Humbert is a fantastic character -- despicable, sad, absurd, and compelling. 

· A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother, by Rachel Cusk
This book contains my favorite line about motherhood:  “Motherhood is a career in conformity from which no amount of subterfuge can liberate the soul without violence…” 

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