Flannery O’Connor on Teaching Literature
In most English classes the short story has become a kind of literary specimen to be dissected. Every time a…
Fiction
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A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk
A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk is one of the Top 5 best novels I’ve ever read.
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100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
I picked this one up at the library with a pretty specific checklist in mind: I wanted a long novel, a Latin American novel, and something with a thread of magical realism running through it. I already love the way magical realism shows up in Haruki Murakami, and I’ve always had a soft spot for Southern Gothic — so a book that pulls both of those threads into a sweeping multigenerational epic seemed like it would check every box.
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Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Ministry for the Future is one of the better science fiction novels about climate change that I’ve read. It’s fast-paced, well-written, and grounded in realistic scenarios. The setting works. The characters work. The whole thing works.
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The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
The Redeemer is not Nesbø at his absolute best, but “not his best” for Nesbø still means it’s a very good book. The plot pulls Harry Hole into the world of the Salvation Army, a contract killing, and a web of secrets that gets darker the further in you go.
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Best American Short Stories 2015
I picked up The Best American Short Stories 2015 at a used bookstore sale. The price was right, the premise was appealing – a curated collection of the best short fiction published that year – and I’ve always been curious about the short story as a format.
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Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
I picked up Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco for the same reason I pick up most literary fiction I know nothing about — it won a pile of awards and the setting intrigued me. A murder mystery that opens in New York City and winds its way back to Manila? That sounded like exactly the kind of ambitious, globe-spanning novel I’d enjoy.
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The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
The Complete Stories is the only collection that includes every short story Flannery O’Connor ever wrote — including “The Geranium,” which she submitted as part of her master’s thesis at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. If you’re going to read her, this is the one to get.
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The Elephants Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
The Elephant Vanishes is a short story collection by Haruki Murakami, and it’s one of his best. I’m generally a…
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This Dark Road To Mercy by Wiley Cash
This Dark Road to Mercy is another memorable novel from Cash. Without getting into too many spoilers, the book follows two young sisters in 1990s North Carolina who find themselves on the run with their estranged father. It’s a tense, propulsive story that weaves together themes of family, poverty, and redemption against the backdrop of Appalachian culture.
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A Happy Death by Albert Camus
A Happy Death by Albert Camus is essentially a prequel to The Stranger — and it’s best understood that way.
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The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essays by Albert Camus
The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus is one of those books I’ve read a couple of times and finally just decided to own. I picked up the Vintage Books edition specifically because it includes bonus essays — particularly “Summer in Algiers” — that I think represent some of Camus’s best work.
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Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
I picked up Oedipus Rex as part of reading through the Theban trilogy. I was browsing Standard Ebooks and the collection caught my eye. I hadn’t read it since a required literature class in college, so I figured it was time to revisit and see how it held up.
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The First Man by Albert Camus
The First Man is the manuscript that was found at Albert Camus’s side after his death in a car accident in 1960. It sat unpublished for decades — held back by his estate, his daughter and granddaughter — before finally being released to the public.
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Antigone by Sophocles
I read Antigone by Sophocles after finishing Oedipus Rex. Both are part of the Theban Trilogy, which I grabbed from Standard Ebooks.
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Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
I picked up Oedipus at Colonus from Standard Ebooks as part of the Theban Trilogy, along with Antigone and Oedipus Rex.
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Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
I’ve read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon. He’s my favorite mystery character, and I’ve worked my way through every story…
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Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet is really two completely separate stories. One takes place in Victorian London with Holmes and Watson investigating a murder. The other takes place in the American West—Utah, specifically—decades earlier.
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Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
Tobacco Road follows the desperate lives of the Lester family, poor white sharecroppers struggling to survive in Depression-era Georgia. The novel’s unflinching portrayal of poverty and moral degradation shocked readers when it was published in 1932, sparking controversy while highlighting the harsh realities of rural Southern life.
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The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
I’ve been a Murakami fan for years. I’ve read most of his major works and loved the surreal, dreamlike quality…
