haven't been reading as much as i'd like to be reading atm, any recommendations would be cool, fiction or nonfic. on the fiction side of things, lately i've enjoyed Grapes of Wrath, The Metamorphosis, and Last Night at the Telegraph Club, but anything would be great.
on the non-fiction side, there's a ton i need to read more about, but stuff about a past or present communist state/movement would be awesome(especially China, Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, USSR), or alternately something like the Jakarta Method. also queer theory or literature would be great
idk if this is the right comm actually, i can repost this elsewhere if i need to
edit: thanks all!
10 Days that Shook the World, a primary source of the Bolshevik revolution by war correspondent and communist party representative John Reed.
General Dean's Story, a primary source of an American POW during the Korean war.
If you liked grapes of wrath you should read Steinbeck's other works. He's a great author overall. My sister suggested East of Eden which is on my list after I finish "Travel's with Charlie" which are both by Steinbeck.
Nope, how does it compare to East of Eden? I might push it forward.
It's very short whereas East of Eden is a grand historical epic over generations. Cannery Row is a series of connected vignettes written for soldiers to read in the trenches. It follows a group of romantics and ragamuffins in a seaside town as they get into trouble and live in love and solidarity with one another. East of Eden is about the continual reincarnation of Kane and Able through three sets of brothers as Central Valley becomes the agricultural heart of the United States.
Cannery Row is a sweet dream of the sea. East of Eden is sweat and blood over and over.
The second chapter of Cannery Row is a two page philosophical prose-poem that I love so so so much and the form of the book is a bit more free and experimental. East of Eden is much more structured and layered.
I can't tell you which to read first, but hopefully that is enough of an impression of each to decide which is more exciting to you!
East of Eden sounds really good and I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't listen to my sister's recommendation sooner lol
Queer literature: if you're feeling really pretentious 'Sphinx' by Anne Garretta is about an extremely french theology student who goes to an underground club with a decadent priest and then becomes a DJ after stuffing the previous OD'd DJ into a septic tank. There's then a stormy affair with a ghost/angel they see in the club. There is a really really big twist to the novel that gets spoiled in EVERY REVIEW AND IN THE INTRODUCTION TO MOST COPIES!! If that description is interesting to you, you can snag it from the fiction section on libgen!
Less 'heady', Nevada by Imogen Binnie is about 150 pages of a direct spinal tap into the (white NYC) transfemme experience that hit me a lot closer to home than like Detransition, Baby. It's about a woman who loves her bike a little bit more than her girlfriend as she goes through a personal crisis that leads to a spontaneous roadtrip to Nevada. Very stream of conciousness. Very catty. Very 2000s nostalgia.
In terms of past AES, October by China Mieville is a page-turner thriller about (you guessed it!) the Great October Revolution. Esp. if you haven't been reading as much recently its a great way to get glued back into a book.
Finally, in general fiction, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents are sociological travel narratives in a similar vein to Grapes of Wrath. Rather than explore the ecological crisis of the dust bowl, they explore the ecological crisis of near-future climate change.
Also if you are not sick of Steinbeck yet, Cannery Row is a short and wonderful series of interconnected short stories about a number of cannery workers and ragamuffins in early 20th century Monterrey California. They are all bruised and damaged but genuinely care for each other and are not punished for selfless acts of kindness which is so so so refreshing given how cynical so many novels these days are. Fair warning, he is fairly orientalist although overt racism is punished in the universe of the novel. He also has really bizarre depictions of sex workers that are probably problematic.
Try 100 Years of Solitude if you are looking for something a little less academic and more artsy. It's just a damned good read all the way through.
Honestly I've been having a lot of fun reading the Great Chessboard by Zbignew Brzinsky (however the fuck you're meant to spell his name). He was the brain genius behind Operation Cyclone, and thus can be seen to have had quite a large hand in the formation of Al Qaeda and subsequently 9/11. The book is hit outlining of American geopolitical strategy and he makes great note of the fact that if Europe and Asia begin working together, they will be able to rule the world and cut America out. Spends a lot of time talking about the World Island of Eurasia, and a lot of his predictions are definitely interesting to look at in hindsigt.
Non-fiction:
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Kissinger's Shadow, it's about the war criminal we all know, a little on his early life and underlying philosophy with an in-depth look at how he perpetrated his war crimes. It was both an engaging and enraging read.
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Chasing the Scream, it's about the origins and failures of the war on drugs, how it has shaped our views on addiction and how we might move beyond it. A melancholic yet hopeful read.
Good recent fiction I read last year:
- Inside Man by K. J. Parker. It's a novella, supernatural office comedy from the perspective of a demon working in the lowest part of the possessions department after a nervous breakdown. First book I've laughed out loud to on a few occasions in a while; some people didn't like the end because it's kind of empty, but I think it was a natural end that fit the vibe and direction of the story.
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