Essential Reading: November 2013

Posted by bennardfajardo on November 10, 2013 · 4 Comments 

Well, this post is way overdue but, still, it’s better than never right? October passed by in a blur and another month of reading is now in the books. Of the five books that I prepared to read for October, I’ve only read three since other books deviated my attention from the other two. With that said, I still think that it was still a good month of reading even though I did not went with the plan. Anyway, here are the books that I read for October:

• Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster (4/5)
• Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (4/5)
• A Thousand Years of Good Prayers: Stories by Yiyun Li (5/5)
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (3/5)
• New Sudden Fiction: Short-short Stories from America and Beyond ed. Robert Shapard (3/5)
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (4/5)

I am happy that I deviated. If not, I wouldn’t have read Ender’s Game, which is a very entertaining sci-fi romp; Travels in the Scriptorium, which is classic Auster; and the short-short stories of New Sudden Fiction. 

Anyway, here are the books that I’ve chosen to read for November. There is no theme for the month but these books are written by authors whose works I haven’t read yet:

• Emporium: Stories by Adam Johnson – The 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded for Adam Johnson’s The Orphanmaster’s Son and, before I read that half-a-tome of a book, I think it would be a good idea to acquaint myself with Adam Johnson’s writing through his short stories first.
• White Noise by Don DeLillo – DeLillo is considered as one of the greatest living American writers and someone whose works I haven’t read yet. White Noise, one of his most famous works, should be a proper introduction to his works. The fact that DeLillo and Paul Auster are friends doesn’t hurt either.
• Stoner by John Williams – This book comes highly recommended by some of my friends whose opinion on literature I value greatly.
• Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem – Part of LA Times’ Postmodern 61 list, a list that I am currently trying to conquer, this book is also recommended by one of my friends. I must say that the plot, a detective story with an unconventional narrator, is highly intriguing.
• Kaddish for an Unborn Child by Imre Kertész – It’s been a while since I read a work by a Nobel laureate in Literature and I think that Kertész would be a nice Nobel read for this month.

November is my favorite month and hopefully the books that I’ve chosen will make this month extra-special.

Filed under Books, Reading List · Tagged with Adam Johnson, Books, Don DeLillo, Emporium, Essential Reading, Imre Kertesz, John Williams, Jonathan Lethem, Kaddish for an Unborn Child, Motherless Brooklyn, Stoner, White Noise