Joanna Rakoff Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Joanna Rakoff

Human Blues’ brilliance ... lies largely in her urgent narrative style, and precise, perfect takes on contemporary language and mores, and just how fucking funny and smart is she, how she goes deeper and deeper at every turn.

Joanna Rakoff

WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS is that rare thing: A comedic novel about death. It’s also a midlife coming-of-age tale and an exploration of the complexities of twenty-first century friendship, motherhood, and sexuality.

Joanna Rakoff

@lisasolod I loved, loved The Great Believers (and all Rebecca Makkai) and Disappearing Earth! And I'm the only person alive who's not yet read A Gentleman from Moscow. (I will confess that I did not love The Nix.)

Joanna Rakoff

I truly couldn’t put down Evan Hughes’ THE HARD SELL: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup, which reads like a novel—truly—complete with fascinating, complicated characters and heart-stopping suspense. If you loved Patrick Radden Keefe’s EMPIRE OF PAIN, you’ll love this one.

Joanna Rakoff

When I say “one of my favorite novels,” I don’t mean favorites of 2022, or of the last few years or decade, or of the 21st century, I mean: Favorite novels. Of all time. Of everything I’ve read in my entire life…If there is a Great American Novel, this is it.

Joanna Rakoff

I loved, loved this deeply wise, absorbing novel, which I read months back, and still think about nearly every day. It is also so deeply a novel of London—my favorite city—and made me long to return.

Joanna Rakoff

An eighteen-year-old ultra-orthodox girl enrolls in college and is given a computer, which leads her to discover pornography. What ensues is somehow heartbreaking, exhilarating, hilarious, moving, unsettling, and fully wonderful.

Joanna Rakoff

@BabsVan Graphic novels: Sheets by @brennathummler Roller Girl and All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson Justine by Forsyth Harmon and everything by @hopelarson

Joanna Rakoff

Carriere’s story is, of course, utterly gripping, but the brilliance of this singular memoir ultimately lies in her luminous, gorgeous narrative style—evident from the first page—and her novelist’s approach to character, for everyone she encounters, even for a moment, springs to vibrant, transfixing life.

Joanna Rakoff

@CatheriNewman Yes!! Rufi Thorpe is one of my favorites! Her first, The Girls from Corona del Mar, is, I think, a perfect novel.