What to Read When You Want a Fresh Start
In keeping with the spirit of the New Year holiday, we’ve put together a list of books that deal with new beginnings—and the unexpected twists and turns that come after.
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Posts Tagged: book recommendations
What to Read When: A Holiday Book-Gifting Guide
Rumpus editors share their favorite books to gift to friends and family, from recent 2017 releases to longtime literary loves.
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What to Read When Everyone Is Talking about Rape
A list of memoirs, fiction, poetry collections, and nonfiction that deal with rape culture and the many ways that is shapes our society and the women and men who live within it.
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What to Read When You’re Thinking about Florida
In celebration of our Floridian friends and family, we’ve compiled a list of great books that take place in, engage with, or otherwise visit the “Sunshine state.”
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What to Read When You Need Some Good News
Take a quick break from the apocalyptic news and end your week with this list of books to eagerly anticipate (assuming the world doesn’t end) instead!
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What to Read When Everyone Is Talking about Healthcare
Here’s a list of wonderful books that look at physical and mental health from many different perspectives. By the time we read through the entire list, maybe Congress will have come to their senses.
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What to Read When You Want to Hand-Swat Your Husband
Here are some book recommendations about husband-swatting ladies who you might adore.
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What to Read When You Are Surrounded by Spies
Here, in one handy list, are a few of our favorite spy novels. Watch your back!
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What to Read When You Want to Avoid the News
From drugs to celebrities to murder to just plain good writing, here are five books that offer us a brief respite from the onslaught of terrifying news.
...moreWeekly Geekery
Is HBO’s bookish Westworld poised to give science fiction the Game of Thrones treatment? Antelopes, Bollywood, climate change, Brönte. National Geographic‘s autumn book recommendations—sushi, hiking, murder, oh my! Elon Musk name-drops Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Also, we’re going to Mars?) Spotting dementia through diction in Agatha Christie.
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #29: Literary Bitches
All too often, it gets hurled at strong women like a boulder of hate tied up with a big red misogynistic bow.
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #28: Linked Stories/Novels in Stories
I recently finished revisions to a novel I’ve been working on for years and have embarked on writing a new novel, in stories, Hazel Conquers the World. I’ve always loved the form and these are some favorites and masterful examples of the very specific craft of making each story stand alone and in service to the […]
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #27: True Stories
These are extraordinary stories, exceptionally well-told. In a world where too many storytellers don’t tell truths, these writers do. Each one of these authors is steadfast and loyal, fierce and open, generous and unflinching. Their works deeply satisfy. Every story here made me consider my own life more carefully and inspired me to tell my own […]
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #26: Fiction I Read and Loved This Summer
Not a one of these is a “beach read,” though I read many of them on the beach. Every one of these novels and short story collections transported me deeper into myself. Every one of these books excited me and made me hungry to live more, love more, think more, feel more, give more. What […]
...moreIs That Book for Jocks or Nerds?
There is virtually no end to lists that attempt to catalog the best books in history, but what about a list that scrutinizes whether a book suits a jock sensibility or a nerd sensibility? Over at the Toast, Bridget Gibson scrutinizes the MLA Top 100 Novels list and categorizes which novels are “jock” novels and which […]
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #14: Memoirs about Hard Times and Beauty
I love memoirs about difficult times that don’t sugarcoat it, that don’t pretty it up. I love a memoir that finds the beauty—there is such an unbelievable amount of beauty in this world—without handing out a Hollywood ending, without dipping the pain in glitter, without pretending we all get held all night, every night by […]
...moreDon’t (Blurb) Speak
Wallace coined the helpful term “blurbspeak,” which he defined as “a very special subdialect of English that’s partly hyperbole, but it’s also phrases that sound really good and are very compelling in an advertorial sense, but if you think about them, they’re literally meaningless.” Though David Foster Wallace was somewhat skeptical about book blurbs, he […]
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