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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
This collection of essay-lists, sold in bookstores to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, is a beauty. It's a fierce cry to read, and to read widely, to seek out the little-known and under-promoted. Better yet, it's specific. The recommendations in its pages will sculpt my used-book searching for years to come.
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
It was like Roxane Gay's goodread account, but more intimate. It definitely gave me a list of books to add to my "to-read" list. The last chapter really hit home for me and I think for many people who live, breathe, and heal from books. "I am made of books."
A short collection of essays compiled for Independent Bookstore Day 2015. The book contains seven essays, all appropriately discussing literature - what literature as a whole & certain books within it have meant to Gay, what's missing from mainstream publication & where she goes to find it. I appreciated the theme, especially in connection with the event for which the collection was produced. However, on the whole it missed the spark of "Bad Feminist," and I was surprised by the inclusion of two interviews of other authors conducted by Gay. They were interesting, but I would have rather had more from Gay herself. The collection remains solid, and fans of Gay will appreciate the insight into her influences and literary interests. I wouldn't recommend as an entry point to her work, though - check out "Bad Feminist" or "An Untamed State" for that.
The essays included are below - all have been previously published elsewhere.
- "Two Damn Books: How I Got Here and Where I Want to Go" - an introductory piece of sorts, orienting Gay at this moment in her literary career.
- "The Ten Best Books About Modern Virgins" - a list of Gay's favorite books on virginity.
- "A Literary Flyover" - in response to a piece on the best writers in Manhattan, Gay discusses her favorite authors from across the country.
- "The Modern Lolita: Dramatizing the Mind of a Female Pedophile in Alissa Nutting's Tampa" - an interview and discussion of "Tampa" by Alissa Nutting
- "A Conversation with Kiese Laymon" - an interview with Kiese Laymon, author of "Long Division" and "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America."
- "Urgent, Unheard Stories" - Gay discusses the authors telling the stories that publishing needs more of, covering a wide swath of human experience and diversity.
- "The Books That Made Me Who I Am: I Am the Product of Endless Books" - my favorite in the collection, Gay discusses the books that have shaped her throughout her life. Responding to the social media meme asking for 10 books that influenced you, Gay asserts that she cannot limit herself to only ten. She explains "In all these books and in so many more, I find the most essential parts of myself. I become more myself... A list could not contain me."
A short final note: I commend Gay & Harper Perennial for supporting the event and am pleased my local Indie chose to carry it from the catalog of products available. The finished product left a little to be desired - there are some editing mishaps (missing italics for some titles in a couple essays, a quotation that perhaps should have been indented?) that tripped me up a bit, though the content still stands solidly.
The essays included are below - all have been previously published elsewhere.
- "Two Damn Books: How I Got Here and Where I Want to Go" - an introductory piece of sorts, orienting Gay at this moment in her literary career.
- "The Ten Best Books About Modern Virgins" - a list of Gay's favorite books on virginity.
- "A Literary Flyover" - in response to a piece on the best writers in Manhattan, Gay discusses her favorite authors from across the country.
- "The Modern Lolita: Dramatizing the Mind of a Female Pedophile in Alissa Nutting's Tampa" - an interview and discussion of "Tampa" by Alissa Nutting
- "A Conversation with Kiese Laymon" - an interview with Kiese Laymon, author of "Long Division" and "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America."
- "Urgent, Unheard Stories" - Gay discusses the authors telling the stories that publishing needs more of, covering a wide swath of human experience and diversity.
- "The Books That Made Me Who I Am: I Am the Product of Endless Books" - my favorite in the collection, Gay discusses the books that have shaped her throughout her life. Responding to the social media meme asking for 10 books that influenced you, Gay asserts that she cannot limit herself to only ten. She explains "In all these books and in so many more, I find the most essential parts of myself. I become more myself... A list could not contain me."
A short final note: I commend Gay & Harper Perennial for supporting the event and am pleased my local Indie chose to carry it from the catalog of products available. The finished product left a little to be desired - there are some editing mishaps (missing italics for some titles in a couple essays, a quotation that perhaps should have been indented?) that tripped me up a bit, though the content still stands solidly.
Many thanks to my writer daughter who introduces me to contemporary writers like Roxanne Gay.
This book is very small but expanded my reading list greatly, thanks to Roxane Gay's intriguing recommendations.
I think I'm just the only person who doesn't really like Roxane Gay. I really want to like her work and keep trying it, but it just doesn't resonate for me.
Roxane Gay's writing is wonderful as ever, and indeed, I had missed most of these pieces (most, if not all, of which were previously published online). But the book itself seems like a slapdash effort by Harper Perennial: there's some repetition between pieces that feels like redundancy instead of synchronicity; the proofreading seems sloppy; and tellingly, the running heads (UNTOLD STORIES) don't match the title of the book. A little disappointing after BAD FEMINIST was put together with such care.
A delicious little snack of a book, though I was surprised to see that this was essays and not, well, stories. It just made want more of Roxane's essays and has stoked desire to read Hunger.
Roxane Gay has a way of writing that is both vulnerable and veiled that makes reading her work seem like I'm gripping the edges of a piece of handmade lace too tightly.