June Reading List

Greetings bibliophiles,

Summer is almost here, which means that the season of extended beach, pool, and/or outdoor reading sessions is upon us, therefore I have a few extra selections to help sate your literary cravings.
As usual, I'll be offering up options which might help you complete the 2017 Read Harder Challenge.

Isabel Allende's debut novel, The House of the Spirits, is a grand family saga which tells the story of three generations of the extraordinary Trueba clan and of the nation to which they are indelibly bound. Allende is a natural storyteller and her narration slips between third and first person, almost as though the family patriarch, Esteban Trueba, were looking over her shoulder adding his own perspective. For a related short-read, persue this short interview in which Allende explains the possible origin of Latin American 'magical realism'.

June is LGBTQ+ Pride month and the next three books are both written by LGBTQ+ authors and feature LGTBQ+ characters.

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a moving bildungsroman about two Mexican-American teenagers who meet and discover themselves in the El Paso of the late 1980s. Sáenz does a wonderful job of fleshing out his characters; both main characters and their families are drawn with enough humor, pain, and tenderness to feel real. You can listen to a short interview with the author here.

Next up, Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories: two related novels, Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, that capture the spirit of Berlin in the last days of the Weimar Republic. Isherwood was arguably the first openly gay author to be read widely, and these two novels, published in 1935 & 1939, respectively, are considered to be modern classics. Also, these are the basis for the many iterations of Cabaret.

Lastly, for fiction, is Alexander Chee's Edinburgh, the story of a young Korean-American and his struggle to overcome childhood sexual abuse while also wrestling with his identity. Chee sits in for Dennis in the last episode of the season of Food4Thot and describes the process of getting this novel, his debut, published.

For nonfiction readers, I'll also be reading Adam Phillip's Unforbidden Pleasures, a collection of essays loosely connected by the theme of everyday desire and pleasure.

Fiction
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (debut novel, South American book by SA author)
Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (YA Fiction by LGBTQ+ identifying author)
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood (novels published between 1900-1950)
Edinburgh by Alexander Chee (debut novel, all POV characters are POC)

Nonfiction
Unforbidden Pleasures by Adam Phillips

Feel free to comment, email, or set up a date with me if you'd like to discuss any (or all) of these.

Happy reading!
RP