Literary Loft 2

It's 2022. How are we all doing?

I'm OK... nearly two years of the pandemic and I'm feeling relatively flattened by the endless work cycle, but hanging in there. I'll be traveling again for work in March (Portland, OR), and am mostly looking forward to it. Trying to figure out what to do about my website Bloom, which is fraying at the edges but I don't have the capacity or stamina to run the whole thing by myself. My kid just got engaged to a lovely woman, is graduating this spring with his MD, and will be starting a residency somewhere (he'll find out where in March) at the end of the summer, so at least someone is having an exciting year. Me, I'm just a bit overworked and underslept but taking care of business—reading some good stuff, writing letters, looking forward to doing some gardening (and trying to find some newspaper so I can make little pots to start my seeds... turns out the pages of the New York Review of Books, which is the only paper we get, is too stiff and coated to work right).

>1 lisapeet: trying to find some newspaper so I can make little pots to start my seeds

It's a funny thing. I make those pots too, and it is the one thing about gardening that I really don't like. I don't mind the dirt that gets rubbed into my skin or under my nails when I'm planting or weeding. I don't mind the inevitable long scratches from thorny canes and branches when I'm pruning. But something about getting that black newsprint ink all over my increasingly dry hands as I make those damn seedling pots drives me up the wall. I have to incessantly wash my hands every fifteen minutes and I go through a bottle of hand cream.

My poor country is being run over by insane Trumpists (Canada). On Friday I got so depressed at work that I just wanted to go home and cry. I don’t remember in my lifetime the world being as bad as it is,just a really rotten time.

Im so sorry for you and all your country folk. Its bad enough these people are harrassing those in our country but to go to another? What fresh hell is this?

Just remember that times have been bad many times throughout history. We always seem to survive them. Thats what Im hoping whenever I get frustrated or sad by it all. Pandora after all did find the gem of hope in her box that she unleashed all of the worlds evil. so have hope.

Yes thank-you, we've just never experienced anything like this before, it's
very grim. We can only hope for better in the future. A lot of the funding,
millions is coming from the U.S.

I had a kind of fun thing happen recently. There's a detail of a children's novel I've always remembered: if you can kiss your elbow, you are a fairy. No idea which book, or anything else about the story. It's not something I've ever tried to track down. Well, the other week I picked up No Flying in the House and, while reading it, noted it's the kind of old fashioned story with magic in a realistic setting that I would have read as a child. However, nothing was familiar until a character is told that if you can kiss your elbow, you're a fairy! So that mystery is solved.

Anyone heard from Lisa lately?

I emailed her and she usually replies in a timely manner, so I'm kinda' worried.

Lisa P? I actually saw her on Friday when I was in NYC. She is buried in work - I could only coax her out for a few hours - and I'm sure you will hear from her.

Oh, I'm here. And Pat, huge apologies! Lauren is correct, I'm just stupidly buried in work doing three people's jobs, plus Jeff had a tumor recurrence in December and has had two surgeries since then—one was today, and I'm just back from a 12-hour day at the hospital where I lugged around two laptops and worked the entire time. And I had Covid last month—I'm feeling OK, but Lauren can attest to my leftover consumptive cough. This has just been a shitty and unmanageable winter. The only thing I do with any regularity besides work is go for walks, meditate every day, and write letters.

But I've been reading, if slowly, since I tend to just fall into bed and pass out after three pages. Some of it's even been really good, and I'll post about some of it soon.

Don't worry about me—I'll be fine. But also AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH, this fucking winter.

>9 lisapeet: Did they get it all? Is he ok? Any residuals?

I figured something must be up because you always reply. Thanks for checking in.

>10 Pat_D: Hey Pat! They did get it all, and we're waiting on pathology. We should take this to email... I'll fire one over tomorrow or so.

Hope things are well with you.

No rush, Lisa. Satisfied to know you're still out there.

YooHooooo.

Anyone home here?

I feel like a homeroom teacher taking attendance when I ask if the BB'ers are still around and well.

I know - I don't think anyone's posting but you and I, Pat.

This is sad. I hate to see it end.

Have people migrated somewhere else, or have they just stopped reading books & discussing them?

I'm here, very intermittently—I'm fine, just not having a lot of time to hang out online the way I used to, I guess. I post a bit in the Club Read group, but I'm still not all that active there, either. I am reading, though more slowly than usual—10 hours a day reading and editing stuff leaves my eyes tired at the end of the day. But I'll go over to the thread and post some of what I've read since last I visited.

Ach. I don't mean to pressure. Nothing's worse than feeling like this becomes an obligation. I'd just hate to lose contact after so many years posting together.

I owe you an email too. No pressure, because it's good to keep in touch no matter how crazy life gets.

I've been just as lax as everyone else, and I get how post-pandemic a lot of people's priorities have changed (which may be one of the positives to come out of that nightmare). I'd just hate to see our longtime group fade away merely from neglect. We really are fortunate to have this nice, free, little space to "hang out."

I've been spending waaay too much time on Twitter, but I am, unfortunately, stuck in one of the most politically concerning red states (Floriduh). As long as I have familial obligations here, I'm not free to move, so all I can do is speak out and be as responsibly active as I can. Because things are truly getting very scary down here. Banning books in MY country?!? Nope. Can't keep quiet about all this.

Between that and trying to stay active by reading informative articles and watching clips, my book reading has been spotty. However, unlike the past few years, I'm genuinely excited about books I've recently accrued, so I'm motivated in a way I haven't been since I fell ill.

Going to make an extra effort to be a better BB'er.

I still check in occassionally because I value everyone I met at Readerville and Book Balloon, but don't post much. The books I read don't really sync with the books the rest of you look for, so I mostly list those on Goodreads.

I'm curious why you feel like books need to sync, Lyddie? I always want to know what people are reading even if it's not something that appeals to me.

Actually, that's one of the main reasons I still come here; to get turned on to great reads I'd not normally choose for myself.

Hi Pat Im still around! Been reading lots of books through LT for various and sundry themes and challenges including

things fall apart why did it take me so long to read this?

the avram davidson treasury

an introduction to sally a von armin Id never read

africa is not a country(nf)

one damned thing after another

the pursuit of love

little men

the talented mr. Ripleysaw the movie never read the book

Otherwise doing fine. Like you I don't want to see this disappear. Hope we can keep it going a while longer. Anyone here how DGs mom is doing?

>23 cindydavid4: I haven't seen any DG news, sorry, Cindy.

Nice to see you checking in.

DG's mom is maintaining and DG and Sister Meg are taking good care of her. But outside of work and her care, I don't think either of them are doing much of anything else.

oh I get that. Thanks for the update. Let them know im thinking of them

I will. Have a great summer.

I'm here, thanks for asking. Mom's not doing so great, but it just sort of is gonna be what it's gonna be. I feel like we spend more energy on navigating the system than we do on any sort of healing or recovery, but we're not really certain how much of the latter is possible anyway. It's bleak-ish, but there's always just enough possibility of daylight that we keep showing up for appointments for her to be poked and prodded.

"Delay of Care."

Those are the magic words, DG.

Just use those whenever you think your mom's care is not pro-active enough. Those are the 3 words that put fear in the hearts of doctors/nurses.

So many feels for you. I know what a difficult time this can be.

I would pop in every few months but never saw much activity. I think a lot of readers have migrated to Goodreads which is a very mixed bag.

or to the groups here on LT, Have you checked any out?

I belong to a few on lt but they don’t seem to last very long.

So this thread is kind of dead. I just caught up with a few months worth of stuff. I see Julie hasn’t been around lately. It was weird because I was reading her old posts about the people she met from RV BB. Me, David Weiner, Sue Russell. And how weird it was that both of those two people died of the same thing. She hasn’t even been on Facebook in quite a while. I guess I should send her a message. The four of us had a great evening in Dallas years ago. Then Sue and I got together for lunch a couple of days later and The 6th Floor Museum (the only time I have ever been there!)
Julie came over to my house once a few months later and she and Mark and I went to see Singin’ in the Rain.

And I’m getting to meet Lauren next month!

I really miss Sue. We exchanged many wonderful reading suggestions.

>34 laurenbufferd: Plus we saw Jeannie C Riley in a velour catsuit together.

Unforgettable!

Sue pops up in my Goodreads reviews all the time—we had such similar taste, but she got to all the books before I did. I miss her a lot.

Nothing much to report here. We lost our oldest cat a few weeks back, but it was a calm and gentle end—thank goodness for hospice vets who come to the house to do the hard thing. My sister-in-law was here all last week, which was nice even though we were closing an issue of the magazine and I was glued to my desk all day all week. But we had some fun, and it was good to have her here.

The big news is that, 3-1/2 years after my dear Dorrie died, we're getting another dog! His name is Jasper, he's a year and a half old, a red heeler/Australian shepherd mix (and therefore probably smarter than Jeff and I put together), being transported up from Texas this week—we pick him up Saturday. It's probably not the best time in my life to be getting a dog, since work is still hairy and Jeff's health is so-so—but I so miss having a dog, no matter how much I love our cats. I've been getting daily emails from Petfinder for probably three years, and this was the first time I saw one and just said, "That's my dog." And it's not like I don't know how to take care of a dog—we had Dorrie for 14 years, and I commuted that whole time. Now I work from home, and we have a nice big yard, plus I already walk a couple miles every day... I just hope the cats won't be too freaked out for too long. He's supposed to be very nonreactive around cats, and even a little afraid of them, which is perfect.

He'll need to learn commands, but he's housebroken. And he'll need lots of exercise and stimulation, but... jeez, so do I. This should be very mutually beneficial.

Plus HOW CUTE IS HE?

Sue pops up in my Goodreads reviews all the time—we had such similar taste, but she got to all the books before I did. I miss her a lot.

Nothing much to report here. We lost our oldest cat a few weeks back, but it was a calm and gentle end—thank goodness for hospice vets who come to the house to do the hard thing. My sister-in-law was here all last week, which was nice even though we were closing an issue of the magazine and I was glued to my desk all day all week. But we had some fun, and it was good to have her here.

The big news is that, 3-1/2 years after my dear Dorrie died, we're getting another dog! His name is Jasper, he's a year and a half old, a red heeler/Australian shepherd mix (and therefore probably smarter than Jeff and I put together), being transported up from Texas this week—we pick him up Saturday. It's probably not the best time in my life to be getting a dog, since work is still hairy and Jeff's health is so-so—but I so miss having a dog, no matter how much I love our cats. I've been getting daily emails from Petfinder for probably three years, and this was the first time I saw one and just said, "That's my dog." And it's not like I don't know how to take care of a dog—we had Dorrie for 14 years, and I commuted that whole time. Now I work from home, and we have a nice big yard, plus I already walk a couple miles every day... I just hope the cats won't be too freaked out for too long. He's supposed to be very nonreactive around cats, and even a little afraid of them, which is perfect.

He'll need to learn commands, but he's housebroken. And he'll need lots of exercise and stimulation, but... jeez, so do I. This should be very mutually beneficial.

Plus HOW CUTE IS HE?

Moved this one over to the Reading thread.

>38 lisapeet: he’s adorable Lisa. All the way from Texas.Wow!

He is so adorable!!! I love his smile.

That’s a very cute dog.

Oh, he's a beauty and with double-smart DNA to boot. What's his story? A stray? A surrender?

So sorry to hear about your cat passing, Lisa.

We're having issues with Kacie (still getting used to the way my son misspelled her name when registering the microchip). We got her from a breeder in GA. as a puppy during COVID. We drove all the way there to check out the breeder as I wasn't thrilled with going that way (most of our dogs have been rescues or rehomers, but my son really pushed me to get a puppy so we could raise her from the get-go, and it just *had* to be a beagle. Since he'd be doing all the walking/exercising I caved even though I wanted a Lab soooo badly). Anyway, as she's a pandemic puppy, she's super reactive to anyone other than my Dad, my son, and me coming near the house. My son takes her to the dog park to get her socialized. She's great with other dogs. But the non-stop barking when we have someone over, or a repairman, etc. is so bad she makes herself sick and shakey. I discovered an entire thread on Redditt devoted to Pandemic Puppies and I've tried every suggested remedy (except bark collars, of course).

She also has terrible allergies, and we had to put her on Apoquel to get that controlled.

Except for those 2 things, she's my darling girl.

Wishing you all the best with Jasper, Lisa. He's a lucky pooch.

Oh poor Kacie. Pandemic puppies and kids had such a hard time of it. I hope some good quality time with you helps her mellow.

Thanks for the good words about Francis. He was our good boy for nearly 15 years, and I miss him.

But Jasper is a total delight. He's 1-1/2, and was with the same rescuer for almost a year—a bit of a hoardy situation (22 dogs!) so now he's ours. He's obviously well-loved, and soaks up affection like a sponge. Also really well-mannered, a little disturbingly so—he reacts strongly to "NO" and acts like he thinks he's going to get smacked on the butt, so I'm trying to keep the obedient part of the response and get rid of the idea that anyone will ever be harsh with him. He's very polite with the cats, and has formed a real friendship with Spencer, our youngest and most fearless—the two of them run up and down the house chasing toys and each other, and it's really sweet to see.

Which is good, because Jasper's really scared of street noises—he's a country boy—and we haven't been able to take those long walks and go to the dog run as I'd been hoping. Ah well, life is all about managing expectations... and we have a big yard for him to do zoomies in, so he can take all the time he needs to get his confidence up. He also doesn't do great with car trips—puked and pooped all over our brand-new car on his first vet visit, so we can work on desensitizing him a bit, or at least effluvia-proof a bit better, since he has to go back for boosters in a few weeks and we're bringing him to Brooklyn for Thanksgiving. He's super smart and already knows "sit," "down," and "paw"—he sits up at attention like an eager little soldier, as if he knows just how endearing it is. So if we end up spending a lot of the winter at home, he'll learn a bunch of commands.

But mostly he's just a joy—and surprisingly easy, for all I thought he'd upend things.

    

>43 Pat_D: You probably have already seen this as an option; but have you tried rewarding the reactive behavior for 5-10ish seconds and then distracting/moving the pup to a different area? I ask because my dog was very reactive until I started thanking her for alerting me. It took months; but she went from wildly reactive to barking twice and staring at me waiting for her "reward." It was far harder for me than her. I had to stay consistent; use the same behavior no matter how tired I was, how distracted I was, no matter what she was reacting to..."good girl! thank you for telling me. let's go X."

>44 lisapeet: Those ears!!! Those eyes. ❤️❤️

>45 lesmel: That's an interesting training idea. Jasper growled at a repairman last week and my husband praised him for being a good protector and then send him into the other room, but he didn't keep barking so it wasn't like a big intervention was needed.

Yeah, I feel just a little bad... I know you're supposed to adopt the saddest, oldest, most in-need dog you can find, and we chose a rock star. But given everything else going on in my life, I just needed this guy in particular. I literally looked at his Petfinder listing and said, "That's my dog." And so he is.

Lisa: I don't know how anyone could've resisted adopting Jasper. Firstly, those breeds are very rarely available for adoption (never mind a combo of the two), and Secondly, I believe in the strong attraction thing (we saw the pic of baby Kacie, and it was scary/spooky how alike Gracie she looks, our 13 y/o beagle who'd just passed. They could've been twins).

Between my son and myself, we've adopted 2 abused beagles, a third surrendered at 6 months, a rehomed miniature schnauzer, a rescued basset hound, and a rescued husky. That's going back to my childhood, too. We've also had 2 cats, 1 from a litter left in a box, and 1 that adopted us after living in the swale by our house (my son has also raised 3 brother cats). So, I'm kind of over guilt-trippin' with getting Kacie from a responsible breeder. I am seriously considering becoming a foster, though. I think getting Kacie a companion might solve some of her issues. I'm keeping an eye out for someone looking to rehome one of those Envigo beagles. I'm a member of that Beagle Freedom Project, but I wasn't healthy enough to take one on at the time so many were available.

lesmel: When Kacie is having one of her reactive barking fits, nothing stops it. No treats, no calming talk, no bark buzzer (not a bark collar, but one of those contraptions that gives off a high-pitched noise). We always soothe her afterwards, but nothing has worked so far. One trainer on Reddit said we should meet the visitor outside in the driveway with Kacie before allowing the stranger in the house. He also said to keep the visitor, at first, away from areas that she considers her own (like where her food sits, where her crate is, and any other favorite haunt). I've never had this problem with a pet, and I feel like I'm failing her because I just can't find a solution. Plus, if it wasn't for this one thing, she'd be as close to perfection as a dog could be. She was housebroken within 2 days (!!!), she's a really quick study learning commands, and she's very affectionate/sweet.

Book lists.

How many of those things have we seen, discussed, and critiqued over the book forum years? Too many "Greatest Novels of All Time" to count. Usually, they're the same old/same old dusty things.

However, this The Great American Novels list of 136 titles recently compiled by The Atlantic truly is different. Interesting, thoughtful, and even in some instances pleasantly surprising (DeWitt's The Last Samurai? Oh, yeah. Now we're talkin'). It's an inspiring one. Check it out.

Hi all—I'm still alive and fine, just spending a lot less non-work time online. Logging in lots of yard hours with Jasper, mostly, and generally just giving the internet a bit of a rest during my off hours. Plus work, work travel, the endless battle of housework, having a little social life... the usual. Last weekend we went up to Syracuse to see my son and daughter-in-law, which was a lot of fun—they're doing great, busy and enjoying life, and were terrific hosts. It's a neat town. And despite being pretty miserable during the car ride up and back (even with meds), Jasper was an exemplary guest. If he didn't hate the travel part I 'd bring him with me everywhere, because he has such nice manners.

>48 Pat_D: That sounds like a cool list, Pat, but it's behind a paywall so I can't see it. What else is good and offbeat on it?

And how's Kacie doing? I've been following a pet behaviorist/trainer list on FB lately because Jasper is still is afraid of walking out on the street. We've made tiny progress—he's not afraid of the leash anymore (lots of leash work in the yard) and he'll go down to the sidewalk and up and down our block before wanting to go back in (cheese!), so I'll take the small victories for now. But I'm wondering how much I'm respecting his fears and how much I'm reinforcing his idea that "yeah, it's scary out there so let's run back inside every time a baby cries." Anyway, he's a happy dog otherwise—nice manners, great with the cats, isn't bouncing off the walls, doesn't destroy anything even when he's home alone, sleeps through the night (mostly). I'll keep him.

hes soooo cute!

Beautiful dog.

>49 lisapeet: Lisa, I'll try and sneak a copy of the list in here when I get a chance. It's 136 titles, and it's embedded in one of those infuriating multiple windows things. In my excitement of seeing a list I finally found interesting and extremely discussable (as opposed to polarizing), I forgot it was a subscription thing.

Jasper looks gorgeous. Kacie's barking thing is getting better. Now, it's just some of the time she won't stop and some of the time she listens and stops immediately. She's getting a little chunky, is on a diet now, and does not like it one bit.

I don't think any of us spend as much time online as we have in the past. I'm happy just to see peeps checking in once in a while to shoot the shit and/or share good reads, movies, articles, stories, or whatnot. I just hate the thought of losing touch after all this time. When I think of all the hours we spent on TT, Readerville, and The Atlantic, I wonder where in the heck we found the time.

Sorry it's taken me so long, but that Atlantic List of The Great American Novels was not only embedded in individual windows, but it was copy & paste proof.

FYI: The Atlantic is presently offering one month's free trial, so you could sign up and peruse the list in all its meant-to-be glory, at no charge. IMO, it's still one of the few mags worth its subscription fee.

So, back to this unique list. This is an excerpt from their explanation of how they went about comprising it:

"In setting out to identify that new American canon, we decided to define American as having first been published in the United States (or intended to be—read more in our entries on Lolita and The Bell Jar). And we narrowed our aperture to the past 100 years—a period that began as literary modernism was cresting and contains all manner of literary pleasure and possibility, including the experimentations of postmodernism and the narrative satisfactions of genre fiction...."

It's a brief Intro but entirely worth the whole read, as are the excellent, short summaries of each selection and the book cover images. As I mentioned, one of the reasons I find this list so unusual is that not just a few of the choices are completely unfamiliar to me.

I don't want to get LT in trouble, so I'm just going to leave it up for a few days (I'll keep a file if someone requests a copy down the road). I would've loved to post it with all appropriate Touchstone links, but life's too short.

1920's

The Great Gatsby,
F. Scott Fitzgerald
1925

An American Tragedy,
Theodore Dreiser
1925

The Making of Americans,
Gertrude Stein
1925

Death Comes for the Archbishop,
Willa Cather
1927

A Farewell to Arms,
Ernest Hemingway
1929

Passing,
Nella Larsen
1929

The Sound and the Fury,
William Faulkner
1929

1930's

Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner
1936

Nightwood,
Djuna Barnes
1936

East Goes West,
Younghill Kang
1937

Their Eyes Were Watching God,
Zora Neale Hurston
1937

U.S.A.
John Dos Passos
1937

Ask the Dust,
John Fante
1939

The Big Sleep,
Raymond Chandler
1939

The Day of the Locust,
Nathaniel West
1939

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
1939

1940's

Native Son,
Richard Wright
1940

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,
Carson McCullers
1940

A Time to Be Born,
Dawn Powell
1942

All the King’s Men,
Robert Penn Warren
1946

The Street,
Ann Petry
1946

In a Lonely Place,
Dorothy B. Hughes
1947

The Mountain Lion,
Jean Stafford
1947

1950's

The Catcher in the Rye,
J. D. Salinger
1951

Charlotte’s Web,
E. B. White
1952

Invisible Man,
Ralph Ellison
1952

Fahrenheit 451,,
Ray Bradbury
1953

Maud Martha,
Gwendolyn Brooks
1953

The Adventures of Augie March,
Saul Bellow
1953

Lolita,
Vladimir Nabokov
1955

Giovanni’s Room,
James Baldwin
1956

Peyton Place,
Grace Metalious
1956

Deep Water,
Patricia Highsmith
1957

No-No Boy,
John Okada
1957

On the Road,
Jack Kerouac
1957

The Haunting of Hill House,
Shirley Jackson
1959

1960's

Catch-22,
Joseph Heller
1961

A Wrinkle in Time,
Madeleine L'Engle
1962

Another Country,
James Baldwin
1962

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
Ken Kesey
1962

Pale Fire,
Vladimir Nabokov1962

The Zebra-Striped Hearse,
Ross Macdonald
1962

The Bell Jar,
Sylvia Plath
1963

The Group,
Mary McCarthy
1963

The Crying of Lot 49,
Thomas Pynchon
1966

A Sport and a Pastime,
James Salter
1967

Couples,
John Updike
1968

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
Philip K. Dick
1968

Divorcing,
Susan Taubes
1969

Portnoy’s Complaint,
Philip Roth
1969

Slaughterhouse-Five,
Kurt Vonnegut
1969

1970's

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,
Judy Blume
1970

Desperate Characters,
Paula Fox
1970

Play It as It Lays,
Joan Didion
1970

Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine,
Stanley Crawford
1972

Mumbo Jumbo,
Ishmael Reed
1972

Sula,
Toni Morrison
1973

The Revolt of the Cockroach People,
Oscar Zeta Acosta
1973

Oreo,
Fran Ross
1974

The Dispossessed,
Ursula K. Le Guin
1974

Winter in the Blood,
James Welch
1974

Corregidora,
Gayl Jones
1975

Speedboat,
Renata Adler
1976

Ceremony,
Leslie Marmon Silko
1977

Song of Solomon,
Toni Morrison
1977

A Contract With God,
Will Eisner
1978

Dancer From the Dance,
Andrew Holleran
1978

The Stand,
Stephen King
1978

Kindred,
Octavia E. Butler
1979

The Dog of the South,
Charles Portis
1979

1980's

Housekeeping,
Marilynne Robinson
1980

The Salt Eaters,
Toni Cade Bambara
1980

Little, Big: Or, the Fairies’ Parliament,
John Crowley
1981

Oxherding Tale,
Charles Johnson
1982

Machine Dreams,
Jayne Anne Phillips
1984

Blood Meridian,
Cormac McCarthy
1985

A Summons to Memphis,
Peter Taylor
1986

Watchmen,
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
1986

Beloved,
Toni Morrison
1987

Dawn,
Octavia E. Butler
1987

Geek Love,
Katherine Dunn
1989

Tripmaster Monkey,
Maxine Hong Kingston
1989

1990's

Dogeaters,
Jessica Hagedorn
1990

American Psycho,
Bret Easton Ellis
1991

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents,
Julia Alvarez
1991

Mating,
Norman Rush
1991

Bastard Out of Carolina,
Dorothy Allison
1992

The Secret History,
Donna Tartt
1992

So Far From God,
Ana Castillo
1993

Stone Butch Blues,
Leslie Feinberg
1993

The Shipping News,
Annie Proulx
1993

Native Speaker,
Chang-rae Lee
1995

Sabbath’s Theater,
Philip Roth
1995

Under the Feet of Jesus,
Helena María Viramontes
1995

Infinite Jest,
David Foster Wallace
1996

I Love Dick,
Chris Kraus
1997

Underworld,
Don DeLillo
1997

The Intuitionist,
Colson Whitehead
1999

2000's

Blonde,
Joyce Carol Oates
2000

House of Leaves,
Mark Z. Danielewski
2000

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,
Michael Chabon
2000

The Last Samurai,
Helen DeWitt
2000

The Quick and the Dead,
Joy Williams
2000

Erasure,
Percival Everett
2001

I, the Divine,
Rabih Alameddine
2001

The Corrections,
Jonathan Franzen
2001

Caramelo,
Sandra Cisneros
2002

Perma Red,
Debra Magpie Earling
2002

The Russian Debutante's Handbook,
Gary Shteyngart
2002

The Namesake,
Jhumpa Lahiri
2003

Veronica,
Mary Gaitskill
2005

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,
Junot Díaz
2007

2010's

A Visit From the Goon Squad,
Jennifer Egan
2010

I Hotel,
Karen Tei Yamashita
2010

Open City,
Teju Cole
2011

Salvage the Bones,
Jesmyn Ward
2011

The Round House,
Louise Erdrich
2012

Americanah,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2013

Nevada,
Imogen Binnie
2013

A Brief History of Seven Killings,
Marlon James
2014

Family Life
Akhil Sharma
2014

Fates and Furies
Lauren Goff
2015

The Fifthe Season,
N. K. Jemisin
2015

The Sellout,
Paul Beatty
2015

The Sympathizer,
Viet Thanh Nguyen
2015

Amiable With Big Teeth,
Claude McKay
2017

Lincoln in the Bardo,
George Saunders
2017

Sabrina,
Nick Drnaso
2018

Severance,
Ling Ma
2018

There There,
Tommy Orange
2018

Lost Children Archive,
Valeria Luiselli
2019

Nothing to See Here,
Kevin Wilson
2019

The Old Drift,
Namwali Serpell
2019

2020's

No One Is Talking About This,
Patricia Lockwood
2021

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois,
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
2021

Biography of X,
Catherine Lacey
2023

Lots of unusual, interesting choices. I feel quite pleased that The Mountain Lion is on there; it's the book I always cite whenever blowhards go on about the Search for the Great American Novel. "It's been found," I say. "It's called The Mountain Lion."

Huh. See? I'm not familiar with that one, at all. Going to check it out now. I love that De Witt's The Last Samurai is included. The only disappointment for me was the McCarthy selection. Blood Meridian being the obvious, commercial choice, but, IMO, Suttree is his masterpiece and the epitome of a Great American Novel.

Take advantage of the freebie month trial thing. It's worth it for the unusual picks' summaries.

DG, I agree. Jean Stafford is rarely read anymore and I think her work is stunning.

also Dorothy B Hughes in a Lonely Place and A Summons to Memphis - two perfect novels, in my opinion.

Alrighty then. That's good enough for me: both deeg and Lauren, so I'm off to see if the Library has digital editions of those (Stafford & Hughes).