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Claudia Rankine's Reading List

When the poet and essayist, whose latest book is “Just Us,” finishes reading novels, she stores them in her guest room “or in a bag by the door to be given away.”

By the Book: Claudia Rankine (2020)

NYT By the Book column (2020-11-26).

Source: www.nytimes.com

The Return

Hisham Matar · Buy on Amazon

"It takes a personal question (or a moment of doubt could be another way of thinking about it) and interrogates lines of inquiry surrounding that question, historically and psychologically."

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood · 1985 · Buy on Amazon

"I reread Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' as a form of fact-check against the Hulu series and it did feel as if I was reading it for the first time."

Beloved

Toni Morrison · 1987 · Buy on Amazon

"Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' and Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth' are two examples of books that made me feel I was for somewhere else, and for something else."

White Teeth

Zadie Smith · 2000 · Buy on Amazon

"Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' and Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth' are two examples of books that made me feel I was for somewhere else, and for something else."

Life and Times of Michael K

J.M. Coetzee · Buy on Amazon

"It's difficult to know anything for certain and yet — you feel everything forever. It's similar to Teju Cole's 'Open City.' It's all moment and atmosphere."

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

Saidiya Hartman · Buy on Amazon

"Hartman, one of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers, introduced the term 'critical fabulation' into my world. She's a theorist and writer who actually changes what's possible in my thought patterns."

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