Reading List

Dickens was my first literary love and I continue to find myself drawn to 19th- and early 20th-century British literature. When I’m not in the mood for the classics, I have a soft spot for historical fiction — favorites are Tracy Chevalier and Ken Follett — but enjoy reading other genres as well.

This list was begun in September 2010, when I started my Peace Corps service in Ukraine. The middle of the list is wacky because I took the Literature GRE in April 2012 and so spent eight months making my way, slowly and painfully, through as much of the canon as possible. I also did an MA in “Issues in Modern Culture” (aka 20th-century literature) and have recorded everything I read for that in a separate list below.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts and recommendations in the comments!

Currently Reading:

• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
• Lynne Murphy, The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English
• Marc-Uwe Kling, Das Känguru Manifest (aloud w/ F)

What I’ve read so far (most recent at the bottom; * = recommendation):

• *Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
• Milan Kundera, The Joke
• *Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
• *Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
• Matthew Gallaway, The Metropolis Case (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (featured in my essay, “On Escapism: Nicholas Nickleby” for Full Stop)
• *Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
• *E.L. Doctorow, All the Time in the World (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
• *E.M. Forster, Maurice
• *J.W. von Goethe, Faust (featured in my essay, “Goethe’s Faust in Music” for Full Stop)
• J.W. von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
• *Alice Walker, The Color Purple
• Joanne Harris, Chocolat
• Pete Hamill, Snow in August
• William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
• Myrlin A. Hermes, The Lunatic, the Lover, & the Poet
• E.L. Doctorow, The March
• *Beowulf
• *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (selections)
• *Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur (selections)
• Anonymous, Everyman
• Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus
• *John Milton, Paradise Lost (not the full text, but a big chunk that was in the Norton Anthology)
• John Dryden, All For Love
• *Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
• Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
• *Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock
• *Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
• [parts of] Samuel Johnson, The Preface to Shakespeare
• *Sarah Gruen, Water for Elephants
• Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
• *George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan (not the full text, but a big chunk that was in the Norton Anthology)
• *Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
• Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Andriy Kurkov, The Case of the General’s Thumb (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
• *Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• *Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
• *Michelle Fillion, Difficult Rhythm: Music & the Word in E.M. Forster
• *Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
• D.H. Lawrence, Sons & Lovers
• Phyllis Weliver, The Musical Crowd in English Fiction, 1840-1910
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
• *Ken Follett, Fall of Giants
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies
• Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
• *Wendy Moffat, A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster
• *Tracy Chevalier, Remarkable Creatures
• *J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit (re-read before seeing the film)
• *Ken Follett, Winter of the World (sequel to Fall of Giants)
• Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching (for CELTA course)
• *Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool), The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language
• *Toni Morrison, Beloved
• *Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
• *Christopher Isherwood, The Berlin Stories
• Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
• *Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool), The Horologicon: A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language
• Robert Louis Stevenson, New Arabian Nights
• *John Adams, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life
• *Daniel Bergner, What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire (every woman AND man should read this)
• *Tracy Chevalier, The Last Runaway
• Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
• *André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name
• *Geraldine Brooks, March
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones
• *Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords
• George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast for Crows
• *Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons
• Andrew Ladd, What Ends (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Ian McEwan, Atonement
• *Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
• Nikolai Gogol, Diary of a Madman
• Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
• *P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley
• *Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
• Laurie R. King, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
• *Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity (Book 3 of the Century Trilogy)
• *Laurie R. King, A Monstrous Regiment of Women
• *Laurie R. King, A Letter of Mary
• Damon Galgut, Arctic Summer
• Chrissy Wellington, A Life Without Limits: A World Champion’s Journey
• *Elie Wiesel, Night
• *Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth
• Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• Monica Ali, Brick Lane
• Alice Becker-Ho, The Essence of Jargon (reviewed for Full Stop)
• Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife
• Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
• George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin
• *Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl
• Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
• *Laurie R. King, The Moor
• *Paula McLain, Circling the Sun
• Laurie R. King, O Jerusalem
• *Diane Chandler, The Road to Donetsk (reviewed for Blackbird Digital Books)
• *Mona Eltahawy, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
• *Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
• *Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
• *Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
• *Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
• *Anthony Doerr, All the Light you Cannot See
• Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• *Ken Follett, World Without End
• Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude, Amy Mandelker
• *Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies
• Stephanie Burgis, Masks and Shadows
• *Laurie R. King, Justice Hall
• *Kristin Cashore, Graceling
• Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, tr. Mirra Ginsburg
• *Karen Kondazian, The Whip
• *Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
• *Alexander Chee, The Queen of the Night
• *Zadie Smith, White Teeth
• 2017 (or so):
• *Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue
• Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
• *Rose Tremain, The Gustav Sonata
• Jo Anne Normile, Saving Baby (recommended by Sarah)
• *Tracy Chevalier, At the Edge of the Orchard
• *Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
• Philippa Gregory, Changeling (I like an easy YA historical fiction novel once in a while)
• *Laurie R. King, The Game
• *Laurie R. King, Locked Rooms
• *Walter Moers, Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär (F and I took 1.5 years to read this together, swapping paragraphs to improve my German)
• Dave Boling, Guernica
• *Jessie Burton, The Muse
• Elizabeth Chadwick, The Summer Queen
• *Zadie Smith, Swing Time
• *Robin Hobb, The Rain Wild Chronicles (4-book series)
• *Tracy Chevalier, New Boy
• *Danielle Steel, The Duchess
• *Rachel Sieffert, A Boy in Winter
• *Karen Köhler, Wir haben Raketen geangelt
• *Darragh McKeon, All that is Solid Melts into Air
• Toni Morrison, Jazz
• 2018:
• *Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach
• *Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing – for Now Read This: the inaugural PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book Club
• Alison Weir, Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen
• *Dave Eggers, The Monk of Mokha
• *Ken Follett, A Column of Fire
• *Philippe Sands, East West Street
• *Tamora Pierce, Song of the Lioness Quartet
• John Boyne, The Absolutist (for mini book club with friends)
• Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning
• *VE Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic
• Sebastian Faulks, Where My Heart Used to Beat (for mini book club)
• *Laurie R. King, The Language of Bees
• Philipp Meyer, American Rust
• Andrew Sean Greer, Less
• *Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
• Jan Weiler, Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht!
• 2019:
• Robin Hobb, The Liveship Traders trilogy
• Marc-Uwe Kling, Die Känguru-Chroniken (aloud with F)
• *Volker Kutscher, Der nasse Fisch
• Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
• *Pat Baker, The Silence of the Girls
• *Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist
• *Madeline Miller, Circe
• *Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
• Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear
• Scarlett Peckham, The Duke I Tempted
• *Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire (“Mistborn” series #1)
• *Elin Hilderbrand, Summer of ’69
• *LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
• *Laurie R. King, The God of the Hive
• Laurie R. King, The Pirate King
• Tracy Chevalier, A Single Thread
• Adam Fletcher, Make Me German: Wie ich einmal loszog, ein perfekter Deutscher zu werden, tr. Oliver Thomas Domzalski
• Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension (“Mistborn” series #2)
• *Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages (“Mistborn” series #3)
• Aja Gabel, The Ensemble

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MA “Issues in Modern Culture” reading:

• *Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, tr. Geoffrey Wall (re-read — liked it better the second time)
• Baudelaire, Paris Spleen (weird prose poems)
• *Baudelaire, Tableaux du Paris (verse poems about a day Paris)
• Henry James, In the Cage and The Turn of the Screw
• John Carlos Rowe, “Spectral Mechanics: Gender, Sexuality, and Work in In the Cage” (in The Other Henry James)
• 3 theory essays by Henri Lefebvre, Roland Barthes, & Maurice Blanchot, for a seminar called “Epiphany & the Everyday”
• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim (I didn’t really read the latter…)
• *Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”; “The Mystery of Marie Roget“; “The Purloined Letter”
• *Arthur Conan Doyle, Valley of Fear
• *Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art of Murder”
• Selected poetry by Jules Laforgue and T.S. Eliot
• *Henry James, “London” from English Hours
• Henry James, New York chapters from The American Scene
• Ezra Pound: “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” + Cantos I, XIC, LXXIV, LXXX, LXVI
• J.G. Ballard, Crash
• *Tom McCarthy, Remainder
• Henry Green, Nothing
• Henry Green, Doting
• Walter Pater, excerpts from Studies in the History of the Renaissance
• Ford Madox Ford, The Soul of London
• *Ford Madox Ford, “On Impressionism”
• James Joyce, Ulysses
• *James Joyce, Dubliners
• *Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida
• *Susan Sontag, On Photography
• *Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
• *Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
• Film: Citizen Kane
• *Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
• Harold Rosenberg, “American Action Painters”
• *Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia” (for Contexts essay)
• Samuel Beckett, Happy Days
• *Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
• *Music: selections by Bob Dylan & The Velvet Underground (for “Inventions of Rock” Contexts seminar)
• *Wallace Stevens, selected poems
• Sigmund Freud essays:
  • *”‘Civilized’ Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness” (1908)
  • “On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love” (1912)
  • “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920)
• Arthur Schopenhauer, “The Metaphysics of Sexual Love”
• Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark
• Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
• Opera (Music Drama): Richard Wagner, Tristan und Isolde
• Elizabeth Bowen, Death of the Heart
• Elizabeth Bowen, “Making Arrangements”
• Robert Browning, “Porphyria’s Lover”
• *D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love
• *Vladimir Nabokov, (The Annotated) Lolita (fantastic seminar discussion made me want to read it again)
• *André Gide, The Immoralist (tr. David Watson)
• Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (tr. H.T. Lowe-Porter — not a good translation)
• *Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
• Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God
• Excerpts from modern gay fiction:
  • *Gore Vidal, The City and the Pillar
  • Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance
  • *Oscar Moore, A Matter of Life and Sex
  • Edmund White, The Farewell Symphony
• *Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man (possible “Modern Sex” essay text)
• *E.M. Forster, Maurice (possible “Modern Sex” essay text)
• *Selected poetry by Elizabeth Bishop
• Robert Lowell, most of the poems in Life Studies
• Selected poetry by Sylvia Plath
• *Selected poetry by Allen Ginsberg
• Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon (let’s be honest, I only read ~125 pages)
• Selected poetry by Frank O’Hara
• *Tom Stoppard, Travesties
• *Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
• Selected poetry by Adrienne Rich
• J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
• *Derek Walcott, Omeros Book I
• Herman Melville, Billy Budd
• *Willa Cather, My Àntonia
• *Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
• Re-read for “Authors” exam:
  • Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, tr. Geoffrey Wall
  • Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
  • Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark
• Benjamin Britten opera libretti:
  • Death in Venice
  • Billy Budd
• Billy Collins poetry, from The Trouble with Poetry and Sailing Alone Around the Room
• J.M. Coetzee, Life and Times of Michael K.
• Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
• *Toni Morrison, Beloved (re-read…it’s so good)
• *Dave Eggers, What Is the What

* = recommended reads