Welcome to June!
Here are three TBR suggestions to kick off your summer reading. I’ve already downloaded Same Bed Different Dreams and The Wall will follow. Little, Big and Giovanni’s Room will be great summer re-reads.
Same Bed Different Dreams, by Ed Park
Literary Fiction | Utopian | Alternate History | Asian-American | Novel
From the publisher: Soon Sheen, a former writer now employed by the tech behemoth GLOAT, comes into possession of an unfinished book. Same Bed Different Dreams is a feat of imagination and a thrilling meld of history and fiction that pulls readers into another dimension–one in which utopia is possible.
Why we suggest this book: twisting historical events into plausible explanations behind other historic events, unfinished books, unseen hands directinge events which questions what history even is, will always get our attention.
“Your view of twentieth-century history will be enlarged and altered by Ed Park’s mysterious, panoramic novel. It seems to draw on Bolaño, Pynchon, and DeWitt for its radical structure, yet remains grounded in a droll, sweet voice we’ve wished to hear again since Personal Days. This is a Gravity’s Rainbow for another war, an unfinished war. Having been enlisted in the Korean Provisional Government, I now await my instructions.”
–Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude
The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer.
Speculative Fiction | Dystopian | Post-apocalyptic | Novel
From the publisher: Allegorical yet deeply personal and absorbing, The Wall is at once a critique of modern civilization, a nuanced and loving portrait of a relationship between a woman and her animals, a thrilling survival story, a Cold War-era dystopian adventure.
Why we suggest this book: a speculative look at an imagined Cold War era event told, not in an epic, globe spanning disaster, but about the intimate single person homestead with her animals and small piece of nature around her, feels almost like a cozy disaster novel.
“Haushofer’s thought-provoking masterpiece stands as a touchstone for popular literary post-apocalypses by such authors as Emily St. John Mandel and Ling Ma and is certain to be a life-changing read for many.”
— Library Journal (starred)
Little, Big, by John Crowley
Fantasy Fiction | Fabulist | Novel
Why we suggest this book: Historical, fantastical, a place called Edgewood–not found on any map, a story of fantastic love and heartrending loss; of impossible things and unshakable destinies; and of the great Tale that envelops us all. What more can we ask for?
Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin.
Literary Fiction | Novel
Our classic title of the month is set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.
Why we suggest this book: The twists and turns of our hearts are never what we plan, or even imagine. And following the desires of the heart lead to complexities and ecstasies. Who we are is revealed in those we love.
“If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one.” – Michael Ondaatje
Modern Folklore Bookstore is an affiliate of Bookshop.org where every purchase supports local bookstores. A better way to buy books online.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.