MJ Franklin Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

MJ Franklin

In October, the Book Review Book Club will read and discuss “Intermezzo,” by Sally Rooney! It’s one of the buzziest books of the fall, and we thought: Everyone’s reading it so let’s talk about it!

MJ Franklin

Maybe it’s how much I love the book, or maybe it’s the almost two years of our present pandemic, but the Station Eleven trailer made me extremely emotional https://twitter.com/timothycsimons/status/1466483414605959175

MJ Franklin

This was my first Han Kang novel and I… loved it! ...This is a novel that really grapples with the idea of the painful but necessary work of remembering, and it explores that in a haunting, original, poetic, unforgettable way.

MJ Franklin

I think this book is a remarkably comprehensive biography, driven by a tremendous amount of research and scholarship, that advances a unique argument, fills out a life story, and gives readers a deeper and fuller understanding of one of America’s greatest writers. It’s so good!

MJ Franklin

A recent book I read and loved... For me, this is a modern “Sula” — it’s an intense gem of a novel that traces the tortured-but-pivotal, lifesaving-and-life-ruining, challenging-but-inspiring friendship between two young women who are the polar opposites of each other... It’s stunning!

MJ Franklin

“Talty forms a rich and vast picture of what it is to be alive, with stunning clarity, empathy and unwavering honesty.” @amil reviews “Night of the Living Rez,” by Morgan Talty https://t.co/t3YIxYUPFl

MJ Franklin

This month we chatted about “Playworld,” by Adam Ross, a book that I really, really loved! It’s a dark, off-kilter coming-of-age story that is simultaneously funny and harrowing.

MJ Franklin

I am obsessed with this book! It’s a queer historical novel that digs into an under-discussed part of history... it features a deliciously complicated protagonist, it starts off in this moody, broody, introspective way and then the story absolutely takes off with plot twist after plot twist!

MJ Franklin

A debut novel about one woman trying to win an absolutely demented reality TV competition... This book is a really, really fun one... like the best reality TV shows, you stay hooked because you want to see what deranged thing is going to happen next.

MJ Franklin

This is a lively, tremendously fun but remarkably thoughtful gender swap novel inspired by “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf... I really loved this one! In this novel, you can clearly see a thinker at play... it feels especially timely and powerful.