Brandon Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Brandon

@lynnsstrong You probably already teach these, but in the past, my undergrad students have really loved Lesley Arimah's "Who Will Greet You At Home" and CJ Hauser's "The Crane Wife," which I know is not a short story but it's the piece that rewired the most brains in my class re: narrative.

Brandon

If this were a Henry James novel, we would feel sorry for Undine, but Edith Wharton hates her fucking guts, so we do not, lol.

Brandon

Five years later, they tried to give Sinclair Lewis the Pulitzer for Arrowsmith and he said, NO THANKS. And then when he won the Nobel Prize, the Nobel committee was like, "To be honest, this is mostly just because we love Main Street." dskhjdlaskhdas

Brandon

Ann Patchett’s new novel so far is…precisely the book I hoped it would be. Shades of Commonwealth. She’s so back.

Brandon

Tomorrow (Monday!) night at 7PM CST, I will be talking to the brilliant @ChloeAngyal about ballet and bodies and capitalism and soooooo much more to celebrate her brilliant new book TURNING POINTE. Register via @Prairie_Lights! https://t.co/rdgc1a9of5 https://t.co/tQdDBcVO1I

Brandon

I’m not gonna do too much because Edith Wharton was WRITING WRITING in The Age of Innocence. I mean, the sweep of that novel. The playfulness. The technical wizardry. The sublime attention to the viciousness and the beauty of living in a society. She was in her bag!

Brandon

I recently read Zadie Smith’s new novel The Fraud. It is a brilliant book. I loved it… I don’t want to spoil anything, but the Jamaica sections of that book should be studied and taught and memorized.

Brandon

It’s sprawling and masterly and has the feel of a great novel with so many brilliantly drawn characters. I can’t get enough of it.

Brandon

A smart, playfully philosophical novel charting a young woman’s journey to self-understanding... BUT THE GIRL unfolds across Girl’s time at an artist residency in Scotland as she makes friends and enemies alike in a world far removed from any she’s ever known.

Brandon

There’s a dreamy associative quality of the novella that made it feel true and beautiful and moving. I left “Bonsai” feeling a little melancholic ache in my ribs, as though some crucial part of me had been taken away.