stories that stayed
DAY TWENTY-SIX: favorite books
Well I'm glad they didn't say pick one or five or even ten.
My two most favorite in the entire world, because Josef Skvorecky wrote the way I wish I could write.
The Miracle Game - I read this in Prague during my summer abroad. I stayed up until nearly 4am, reading in the harsh overhead light. There's a passage about them fleeing the Soviet tanks rolling towards Prague, trapped on the road with a tank convoy and these Russian soldiers who want to try to Coca Cola the kids are drinking. It is one of the most heart breaking things I've ever read, even though I'm not sure it is really meant to be. But I remember feeling the whole world stop as I stared at the page, the tears welling up my eyes and the ache in the back of my throat like I just wanted to sob out loud but my roommate was asleep three feet away.
The Engineer of Human Souls - Skvorecky's massive epic about love and loss and home and living in a world that doesn't make much sense.
Also see basically every single book by Josef Skvorecky ever.
Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky- the book that kicked off my obsession with Russia, with Slavic languages and history and literature. I read my mother's battered paperback copy, which I still have. I also own several other translations because of course I need them. My favorite academic paper to write in university was about Raskolnikov's dream.
The Reef
The House of Mirth
The Age of Innocence
Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton - possibly one of my most favorite American authors ever. Wharton wrote with a viciousness and brightness of her world.
Splitting
Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon - I think of Weldon as Wharton's spiritual heir, even though she writes of British characters of various classes and in a modern setting. She's razor sharp and brilliant.
The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko - beautiful dark urban fantasy in a Russian setting. Won't like, Anton Gorodetsky in this series influenced my choice of name. He listens to his music on headphones and has great moral conflicts.
No Saints or Angels by Ivan Klima - I read this when it first came out over a decade ago and frequently wrote things down in my notebooks from it. I need to do a re-read now that I'm older, now that death is a more familiar thing. It is utterly beautiful and about acknowledging the shift of mortality.
I'm just going to stop now, because otherwise I'll end up listing everything on the top shelf of my oldest book case.
( For all the other days )
Well I'm glad they didn't say pick one or five or even ten.
My two most favorite in the entire world, because Josef Skvorecky wrote the way I wish I could write.
The Miracle Game - I read this in Prague during my summer abroad. I stayed up until nearly 4am, reading in the harsh overhead light. There's a passage about them fleeing the Soviet tanks rolling towards Prague, trapped on the road with a tank convoy and these Russian soldiers who want to try to Coca Cola the kids are drinking. It is one of the most heart breaking things I've ever read, even though I'm not sure it is really meant to be. But I remember feeling the whole world stop as I stared at the page, the tears welling up my eyes and the ache in the back of my throat like I just wanted to sob out loud but my roommate was asleep three feet away.
The Engineer of Human Souls - Skvorecky's massive epic about love and loss and home and living in a world that doesn't make much sense.
Also see basically every single book by Josef Skvorecky ever.
Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky- the book that kicked off my obsession with Russia, with Slavic languages and history and literature. I read my mother's battered paperback copy, which I still have. I also own several other translations because of course I need them. My favorite academic paper to write in university was about Raskolnikov's dream.
The Reef
The House of Mirth
The Age of Innocence
Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton - possibly one of my most favorite American authors ever. Wharton wrote with a viciousness and brightness of her world.
Splitting
Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon - I think of Weldon as Wharton's spiritual heir, even though she writes of British characters of various classes and in a modern setting. She's razor sharp and brilliant.
The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko - beautiful dark urban fantasy in a Russian setting. Won't like, Anton Gorodetsky in this series influenced my choice of name. He listens to his music on headphones and has great moral conflicts.
No Saints or Angels by Ivan Klima - I read this when it first came out over a decade ago and frequently wrote things down in my notebooks from it. I need to do a re-read now that I'm older, now that death is a more familiar thing. It is utterly beautiful and about acknowledging the shift of mortality.
I'm just going to stop now, because otherwise I'll end up listing everything on the top shelf of my oldest book case.
( For all the other days )