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!

  • bubbalu [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    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.