Karen Russell's Reading List

"One that continues to haunt me is “The Vanishers,” by Heidi Julavits. I am in awe of her prose."

"And I am still reeling from “My Poets,” a joyfully transgressive hybrid book by Maureen McLane — part memoir and part criticism."

"“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” by Zora Neale Hurston, has maybe the best depiction of a wrathful hurricane in literature."

"Peter Matthiessen’s “Killing Mister Watson” trilogy."

"“The Yearling,” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, is a great old Florida book."

"Denis Johnson’s “Fiskadoro,” I think that qualifies, too — it’s a fever-dream set on a former Florida Key after nuclear holocaust."

"“After the Apocalypse,” by Maureen McHugh, an amazing collection from Small Beer Press."

"Several books that I remember going crazy for as a younger reader were “A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L’Engle; “The Rats of NIMH”; “The Last Unicorn,” by Peter S. Beagle; and “The Martian Chronicles,” by Ray Bradbury."

"Several books that I remember going crazy for as a younger reader were “A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L’Engle; “The Rats of NIMH”; “The Last Unicorn,” by Peter S. Beagle; and “The Martian Chronicles,” by Ray Bradbury."

"“The Last Unicorn,” by Peter S. Beagle"

"“The Martian Chronicles,” by Ray Bradbury."

"I loved Richard Adams’s “Watership Down,” an exodus story told from a rabbit’s point of view — it makes sense to me that child readers like to consider human systems from the estranged vantage point of animals."

"Oh, it’s hard to isolate just one. “Jane Eyre.” “The Grapes of Wrath.” “The Lord of the Rings.” “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” The Brothers Grimm. “Great Expectations.” “Middlemarch.” “The Day of the Triffids.” “Antigone.” “The Waves.” “Dune.”"

"“Jane Eyre.” “The Grapes of Wrath.” “The Lord of the Rings.”"

"“The Lord of the Rings.”"

"“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”"

"“Great Expectations.”"

"“Middlemarch.”"

"“The Day of the Triffids.”"

"“Antigone.”"

"“The Waves.”"

"“Dune.”"

"If we’re measuring impact in terms of months of sleep lost, I read Stephen King’s “It” in middle school and remained moon-eyed and haunted for six months."

"Somehow I’ve managed to hold on to my high school copy of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” for example, and my mom’s edition of C. S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces.”"

"and my mom’s edition of C. S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces.”"

"I would maybe like to be Bone, from Russell Banks’s “Rule of the Bone,” but only for that briefest of idylls where he lives with I-Man and Froggy in the abandoned school bus. It’s a credit to Banks’s writing that this abandoned school bus remains one of the most credible depictions of a terrestrial heaven that I’ve encountered in a novel."

"With a book like Borges’s “Ficciones” that I’ve owned since college, I get to see all the underlinings and marginalia from my previous trips through."

"David Graeber has this line in “Debt” that I keep thinking about: “About the only thing we can imagine is catastrophe.”"

"On my night stand I have a galley of Karen Shepard’s beautiful new novel, “The Celestials,” and A. M. Homes’s “May We Be Forgiven.”"

"On my night stand I have a galley of Karen Shepard’s beautiful new novel, “The Celestials,” and A. M. Homes’s “May We Be Forgiven.”"