Maria Semple's Reading List
The author of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” calls Franzen her “big daddy” — “My favorite kind of book is a domestic drama that’s grounded in reality yet slightly unhinged.”
Open in WellRead Daily app →By the Book: Maria Semple (2013)
NYT By the Book column (2013-05-23).
Source: www.nytimes.com
Jonathan Franzen · 2001 · Buy on Amazon
""The Corrections." When it was published, I'd been out of college for 15 years, but was still an English major at heart. A guy my age had just written something as complex and weighty as a classic? Plus, it was loose, nutty and hilarious?"
Philip Roth · 1997 · Buy on Amazon
"The glove factory in "American Pastoral," the encounter with the gravedigger in "Everyman" and the Halcion addiction that opens "Operation Shylock" are my favorite examples of Roth's skill, showmanship and power."
Philip Roth · Buy on Amazon
"The glove factory in "American Pastoral," the encounter with the gravedigger in "Everyman" and the Halcion addiction that opens "Operation Shylock" are my favorite examples of Roth's skill, showmanship and power."
Philip Roth · Buy on Amazon
"The glove factory in "American Pastoral," the encounter with the gravedigger in "Everyman" and the Halcion addiction that opens "Operation Shylock" are my favorite examples of Roth's skill, showmanship and power."
Matthew Kneale · Buy on Amazon
"Matthew Kneale is also up there. "When We Were Romans" and "English Passengers" are both in my top 10."
Matthew Kneale · Buy on Amazon
"Matthew Kneale is also up there. "When We Were Romans" and "English Passengers" are both in my top 10."
Barbara Trapido · Buy on Amazon
"I've given her first novel, "Brother of the More Famous Jack" to dozens of people, and like me, they fall rapturously in love with Trapido's breezy, raunchy and unsentimental style."
Phil Stutz and Barry Michels · Buy on Amazon
""The Tools," by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels. Before I sat down to answer these questions, I used one of their psychological tools called the Reversal of Desire. I'm not joking. Read the book."
Jennifer Egan · Buy on Amazon
"I'd want to show him a good time by giving him "The Keep," by Jennifer Egan. It's so wild, weird and hard-charging it would guarantee to blow his mind."
Louise Fitzhugh · Buy on Amazon
"Harriet the Spy. She's fascinated by people, yet feels joyous and all-powerful in solitude: a portrait of the novelist as a young woman."
Rachel Kushner · Buy on Amazon
"Recent ones that delighted me the whole way through were "The Flamethrowers," by Rachel Kushner; "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London; and "Office Girl," by Joe Meno. "Glaciers," by Alexis Smith."
Jack London · Buy on Amazon
"Recent ones that delighted me the whole way through were "The Flamethrowers," by Rachel Kushner; "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London; and "Office Girl," by Joe Meno. "Glaciers," by Alexis Smith."
Joe Meno · Buy on Amazon
"Recent ones that delighted me the whole way through were "The Flamethrowers," by Rachel Kushner; "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London; and "Office Girl," by Joe Meno. "Glaciers," by Alexis Smith."
Alexis Smith · Buy on Amazon
"Recent ones that delighted me the whole way through were "The Flamethrowers," by Rachel Kushner; "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London; and "Office Girl," by Joe Meno. "Glaciers," by Alexis Smith."
George Saunders · Buy on Amazon
""Tenth of December," by George Saunders. When I got to the part in his story "The Semplica-Girl Diaries" where the narrator describes a cheap basketball that's way too bouncy, a sound I don't know how to properly describe escaped my mouth."
James Salter · Buy on Amazon
"The last book I read, "All That Is," by James Salter. I'm starting it over immediately. It's full of achingly beautiful passages… and also some of the funniest dialogue I've ever come across. It's my book to beat in 2013."