A review by juliana_aldous
B-Side Books: Essays on Forgotten Favorites by

4.0

This is a collection of essays, reviews, and recommendations for books you most definitely missed. The writers of the various reviews are often academics—and sometimes that shows in the use of $2 words. But there is something for the true bibliophile in this book, or those looking for that undiscovered novel or story, particularly ones by underrepresented groups in literature. There a few that enticed me enough to add them to my future reads list. I added Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall which was the debut novel by Paule Marshall about Barbadian immigrants living in Brooklyn. And a review by Ursula K. Le Guin for the book Annals of the Parish by John Galt which compared him to some of my other favorite authors, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy, gives this book a place on my TBR pile. And then there is a review of Kay Boyle’s Author of Herself. I had recently learned a bit about Kay Boyle’s incredible life in another book, and here is a biography I need to read. And lastly, who knew Shirley Jackson, whose classic horror novels have been undergoing a revival, also wrote about her domestic life in two memoirs, Life Among the Savages, and Raising Demons.

I have to say, if you are looking for other good books of book recommendations, I would suggest The Writer’s Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager, any of Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust series, and Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read Before You Die.