ASF staffers comment on their summer reads.
Stacey Swann’s reading . . .
The summer seems to have brought on promiscuous reading habits in me; I just can’t commit to one book. I’m in the middle of five story collections and two journals! But I am enjoying them all. Here’s what it currently duking it out on my nightstand.
The most recent issues of Mississippi Review and New England Review.
Island by Alistair MacLeod
Big Bad Love by Larry Brown
You Must Be This Tall to Ride, edited by B.J. Hollars
The Alibi Café by Mary Troy
And most recently, I’ve begun The New Valley by Josh Weil. This is a collection of three novellas, and so far the first one has me hooked. But I better finish it quickly–the library is demanding I return the Brown and MacLeod very soon.
“The summer seems to have brought on promiscuous reading habits in me; I just can’t commit to one book. I’m in the middle of five story collections and two journals! But I am enjoying them all. Here’s what it currently duking it out on my nightstand.”
The most recent issues of Mississippi Review and New England Review
Island by Alistair MacLeod
Big Bad Love by Larry Brown
You Must Be This Tall to Ride, edited by B. J. Hollars
The Alibi Café by Mary Troy
“And most recently, I’ve begun The New Valley by Josh Weil. This is a collection of three novellas, and so far the first one has me hooked. But I better finish it quickly–the library is demanding I return the Brown and MacLeod very soon.”
Katy Chrisler’s reading . . .
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections, edited by Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker
Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form by Matthea Harvey
Sad Little Breathing Machine by Matthea Harvey
My Kafka Century by Arielle Greenberg
Tuned Droves by Eric Baus
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Tim Sanders’ “entire summer reading list is made up of works influenced by the editor and teacher Gordon Lish. Each author is a proponent of pared exposition and tight, contained prose. You should read them and buy them, or buy them, then read them, whichever you want to do.” Here they are:
Stories in the Worst Way and I Looked Alive by Gary Lutz
Carrying the Body by Dawn Raffel
Nightwork by Christine Schutt
Florida by Christine Schutt
Airships and Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah
The Subject Steve by Sam Lipsyte
Excitability by Diane Williams
Last Last Chance by Fiona Maazel
Sarah Wambold’s reading . . .
The Convalescent by Jessica Anthony
Don’t Cry by Mary Gaitskill
Dina Guidubaldi’s reading . . .
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (“because murder’s better when it sounds like it came from IKEA”)
An Artist of the Floating World by Kashuo Ishiguro
How to Sell by Clancy Martin (“meth heads + jewel thieves + prostitutes = fun”)
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008, edited by Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant
Johannes Lichtman’s reading . . .
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (“surprisingly readable; kind of a page-turner”)
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (“hilarious”)
The Human Stain by Philip Roth (“by far my favorite Roth book”)
The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe (“a good mix of plot and character-driven fiction, literary and journalistic style—so far, anyway”)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (“which makes reading genre fiction a guilt-free experience”)
Two more that also impressed him:
At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom by Amy Hempel (“sharp and short, with two really great stories”)
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (“dreamy and pretty”)
Stacy Muszynski’s reading . . .
a stack of 14 books teetering on her nightstand. The top two are Rick Moody’s collection Demonology and Andrea Barrett’s Ship Fever, which she’ll get around to after she finishes Flannery O’Connor’s Collected Works. (“After ASF staff selected two of her stories to celebrate during Short Story Month, I sank into her novel Wise Blood. I broke down and watched the John Huston film of the story [Wise Blood] last night. While I won’t compare the stories here, I will say that the film is wild and laugh-out-loud creepy and the interviews with Hazel Motes’s Brad Dourif and writer-producer Michael Fitzgerald and his brother/writer Benedict Fitzgerald take us behind the story. The Fitzgeralds knew Ms. O’Connor personally and even hosted her at their home a few times.”)
Jill Meyers’s reading . . .
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (“brilliant and difficult to describe . . . memoir, nature writing, and an artistic inquiry all in one–an embracing of getting lost, of the moments when ‘the world becomes larger than your knowledge of it’”)
Flannery by Brad Gooch (“lots of good insight into one of my all-time favorite writers”)
Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (“finally out in paperback! love the harrowing scene of the nun as Godzilla”)
What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us by Laura van den Berg (“snagged an electronic galley of this great collection; it comes out in October from Dzanc”)
Patti Hadad’s reading:
Memoirs of Hadrian, Maguerite Yourcenar
“I am incredibly impressed with the way French novelist Marguerite Yourcenar imagines one of the ‘Top 5′ Roman emperor’s thoughts, feelings, and philosophies. A lot of them are ‘old man’ ruminations, but written quite eloquently.”
At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O’Neill
“The length of this book gives Infinite Jest a run for its money. It takes place around the time of Easter Rising in Ireland. One wee lad tries to teach the other wee lad to swim (while citing political philosophies), they make a pact to swim to an island in Dublin Bay, and romance ensues. With love and swimming, this novel has ‘beach-side reading’ written all over it.”
By Night in Chile, Roberto Bolaño
“My family is from Argentina. The relationship between Argentina and Chile is like the relationship between Canada and the United States. We have a lot of similarities, but really, you’re forced neighbors looking over the fence wondering, ‘What the hell kind of gardening is that?’ That’s why I tend to cringe a bit when Chilean writer Bolaño’s name is mentioned. I tend to applaud any attention a Latino writer gets, however, so I’m ready to see what the hubbub is about.”
Faces and Masks, Eduardo Galeano
“This is the kind of book that lead me to pursue my MFA, so that I could spend time studying more Latin American fiction in order to learn more about the history and politics of what was once considered the New World.”
The Passion, Jeannette Winterson
“Winterson is one of those writers who I want to shake my fist at for being so talented and successful at such a young age. She published The Passion at age 27. Napoleon’s chef falls in love with a woman with webbed feet, and the book covers their passion, the passion of others, the passion of war, etc. I’ve read nothing but good things about Winterson’s writing style, it being nontraditional and lyrical. Also, I just want to hear what the neck-wringer-turned- chef has to say (if anything) about time in Bonaparte’s kitchen.”
The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker
“There seems to be a trend that a person’s first novel is a short one, as this one is. We read the inner monologue of an office worker while he goes down an escalator to a mezzanine. Probably not as off-the-wall as The Office, but funny with long-winded footnotes.”
The American Short Fiction Workshop Series launches two online classes soon—July 15—so sign up now for a spot in an introductory workshop or learn how to apply for an advanced one. Classes run for eight weeks, through September 2. All students will receive individualized attention from instructors, be given targeted exercises to generate new work, and gain access to a supportive community of writers.
Tonight ASF is hosting a free reading at Cafe Caffeine (
