Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

@relatively_pod @NotRollergirl Miriam Toews is just excellent at siblings generally, The Flying Troutmans is another classic (think Little Miss Sunshine). Meg Wolitzer also writes good siblings. The sisters in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle (names entirely escape me at present & I am too tired to Google).

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

@laurabrooke59 @bealelab ...The Accidental - Ali Smith Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor George Eliot - Middlemarch Alice Walker - The Colour Purple Toni Morrison - Beloved, The Bluest Eye - this is hard, I think Beloved is probably best? But The Bluest Eye feels more important.

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

@sophiehannahCB1 #12, Glory - NoViolet Bulawayo: fabulist tale of political corruption, revolution & social struggle, heavily based on Zimbabwe. Mixed feelings: wld have preferred a balance more personal than political; too much with the oppressors rather than the oppressed for my personal taste.

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

OH YES RUTH OZEKI. (Sorry I know I’m late. But still. I hope everyone now goes out & binges her excellent back catalogue. My Year of Meats is CRYING OUT for rediscovery right now.) https://t.co/EHOpNSuAZg

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

I am personally excited about the imminent release of Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, and therefore greatly appreciating the *beyond*-excitement of New Zealanders already reading it (it’s out there already). Newsroom have reviewed it FOUR times: https://t.co/7cE5MEmGvc

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

1. Cursed Bread - Sophie Mackintosh. She creates so strong a sense of the unheimlich with such seemingly straightforward sentences - I want to go back & pick it apart to try to see how it’s done. Disturbing, unsettling, good for Kafka fans who also like tales of erotic obsession. https://t.co/boPRvJlNRU

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

@JohannaTC New Max Porter (I think that’s April??). Enjoying Marina Benjamin’s memoir/essays a lot at the mo. Claire Dederer’s Monsters looks interesting?

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

(I know I keep on about it, but Tania Branigan’s Red Memory really is excellent & her event is at 2 in the Old Divinity School right by St John’s so slots very nicely into a day in town. AND she’s in conversation with Julia Lovell so you’re getting 2 China experts for your money)

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

#2 Leila Mottley’s Nightcrawling. Strong protagonist & a plot that made me so, so angry with society. Not totally convinced she’s found the best ways to combine her poetic talents with the novel form just yet. https://t.co/zA6VReWdzT

Rachael Beale / @FlossieTeacake@writing.exchange

Starting day with One Day I Shall Astonish the World. Nina Stibbe is like Victoria Wood: funny because she understands the music of words, the rhythm of a joke, and the importance of the textures of a life, all its thinginess – all with such heart, never contempt. Joyous. https://t.co/s9HDRqFA4z