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Roxane Gay’s favorite books
Gay — an author, opinion writer, and active Goodreads user — always champions the books she loves.
Pubblicato il 01 Marzo 2024
Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting
Julia TurshenThis title kicks off the Roxane Gay & series, a celebration of original voices and the human experience curated by Gay and exclusive to Everand. Let cookbook author Julia Turshen lift you up with her memoir about embracing her inner and outer strength. Turshen shares how she learned to appreciate her appetite for food, started powerlifting to marvel at all the things her body could do, and now knows the meat on her bones is “made of the things [she’s] capable of.”
Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: You Are a Teen Mom: Instructions
Randa JarrarThe second installment in the series from Everand and Roxane Gay. Memoirist, essayist, and novelist Randa Jarrar offers an honest and wholly original user’s manual on how to raise a happy and well-adjusted child with little help and even fewer resources, but a fierce willingness to live out loud.
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton“My No. 1 go-to book is ‘The Age of Innocence,’ by Edith Wharton,” Roxane Gay, author of “Bad Feminist” and “Hunger,” told The New York Times in her “By the Book” column. “This is such an elegant novel. I love how Wharton finely details the lives of the New York wealthy, their intrigues, the ways they interact, the ways they indulge and deny themselves,” she wrote for One Grand Books.
All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel
S. A. Cosby“S.A. Cosby writes Southern noir that I cannot get enough of,” writes Gay on her Substack blog, “The Audacity,” where she names “All the Sinners Bleed” as her favorite book of 2023. A fatal school shooting leads Sheriff Titus Crowne into a complex web of racially motivated crime, forcing him to reckon with his role as a Black law enforcement officer in the American South. Gay concludes her review by calling Cosby “one hell of a storyteller.”
Ordinary Notes
Christina SharpeThis kaleidoscopic blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and analysis is another of Gay’s favorite reads from 2023. Sharpe (“In the Wake”) paints a vivid picture of Blackness in America. Her notes reflect on personal and historical moments alike, allowing readers to see how collective experiences inform individual lives. “Ordinary Notes” is as vulnerable as it is incisive.
Let Us Descend: A Novel
Jesmyn Ward“This novel is lush and painful and expertly rendered. Annis’ story is so rich with detail, and the prose is suffused with a sensory vibe I found hypnotic,” writes Gay in her five-star Goodreads rating of this novel. Drawing on Dante’s “Inferno” and America’s sordid history, one of the greatest writers of our generation delivers the gut-wrenching story of an enslaved girl with a powerful ancestry.
The Woman in Me
Britney SpearsSpears’ memoir became another standout read for Gay in 2023, who dubbed it “The Memoir that Made Me Want to Punch Justin Timberlake in the Face a Minimum of 11 Times Because, Honestly,” on Substack. Finally — after 13 years under her father’s control and a lifetime in the public eye — the pop sensation speaks her truth about music, family, heartbreak, and reclaiming her independence (and Justin, obviously).
Break Any Woman Down: Stories
Dana Johnson“I first read this short story collection many years ago and it has stayed with me. I was struck by the title, and then the stories, each focused on Black girls and women, the worlds of those stories fully realized and held carefully in [Dana] Johnson’s very talented hands,” Gay wrote in her list of top 10 books of all time for One Grand Books.
Tampa: A Novel
Alissa NuttingThe “Lolita” of our time, “Tampa” debuted to a thousand criticisms and controversies. But the erotic tale’s brilliance is in artfully exposing the manicured facades of monsters. “This novel is disturbing, uncomfortable, irreverent, and compelling. Nutting makes us complicit in Celeste’s crimes and still, she leaves room for empathy where most writers would not,” Gay wrote for One Grand Books.
Don't Call Us Dead: Poems
Danez Smith“This book is poetry as fierce fire. There is such intelligence and fervor in these poems about Black men and their imperiled bodies, gay men and their impassioned bodies, what it means to be HIV positive, and so much more,” Gay wrote in her Goodreads review. She included it in her top 10 books of all time list for One Grand Books.
Possessing the Secret of Joy
Alice WalkerWhen people think of Alice Walker, “The Color Purple” is what usually comes to mind. But “Possessing the Secret of Joy,” one of the loose sequels to “The Color Purple,” is the Walker work that has captivated Gay. “I don’t know that there is another novel I talk about as much as Alice Walker’s ‘Possessing the Secret of Joy.’ It is one of the books that has most profoundly influenced my work,” Gay wrote in her Scribd Original work, “Writing Into the Wound.”
Heart Berries: A Memoir
Terese Marie MailhotGay writes a lot about trauma, teaches about it, and reads about other people’s trauma often. “Heart Berries” is a work about trauma she recommends in “Writing Into the Wound.” “It’s a story of survival and poverty and oppression and mental illness and what it means to be an Indian girl, an Indian woman. So much of the book is brutal, but Mailhot tells her story so beautifully that the brutality becomes just bearable enough,” Gay wrote.
The Chronology of Water: A Memoir
Lidia Yuknavitch“The Chronology of Water” is another work about trauma that Gay highly recommends. “Lidia Yuknavitch wrote a memoir about her life with an abusive father. The nature of the abuse, the severity of it — these things are clear, but she offers not one explicit detail. When I first read the memoir, I admired that restraint, that dignified discretion, that ability to protect herself while still telling the whole of her story, on her terms,” Gay wrote in “Writing Into the Wound.”
Heavy: An American Memoir
Kiese LaymonAnother of Gay’s recommended reads on trauma. “Kiese Laymon writes about fatness and trauma and family legacies and addiction in his memoir ‘Heavy.’ He is relentless in his self-examination, in telling not only his story but the story of the Black South, of mothers and sons, of young boys being taken advantage of, often in ways few people will acknowledge, of the ways predominantly white institutions fail anyone who is not white,” she wrote in “Writing Into the Wound.”
Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)
Bernardine EvaristoAuthor Evaristo became the first Black woman to win the prestigious Booker Prize in 2019 for her brilliant novel, “Girl, Woman, Other.” She tied with Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments,” the follow-up to “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Gay named Evaristo’s novel her favorite of 2019, writing in Gay Mag, “This novel is a master class in storytelling. It is absolutely unforgettable. When I turned the final page, I felt the ache of having to leave the world Evaristo created but I also felt the excitement of getting to read the book all over again. It should have won the Booker alone. It deserves all the awards and then some.”
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir
Saeed JonesPoet Jones lays bare the struggle of growing up both gay and Black in Texas. His prose evokes these painful memories with just the right amount of distance to show the hope beyond the otherwise bleak circumstances. Gay named this one of the best books of 2019.
Severance: A Novel
Ling MaImagine a crossover episode between “The Office” and “The Walking Dead,” and you’ve got Ma’s terrific debut novel. It somehow manages to satirize everything from careerism to apocalyptic thrillers without sacrificing empathy or believability. A super smart page-turner, Gay considered “Severance” one of the best books of 2019.
In the Dream House: A Memoir
Carmen Maria MachadoMasterfully weaving together dozens of genres, from gothic and folktales, to lesbian pulp and road trips, Machado tells the frightening story of a past relationship with an abusive girlfriend in this memoir that breaks open a new way of nonfiction storytelling. It won the Lammy for best LGBTQ+ nonfiction, and is another of Gay’s favorite books of 2019.
Queenie
Candice Carty-WilliamsSmart and funny, this debut novel uses witty charm to fearlessly lay bare the messiness of race and dating, family and mental health, and the struggle to keep it together. Timely and lively, it’s “Bridget Jones” meets “Americanah.” “This is the kind of novel whose excellence sneaks up on you,” Gay wrote in her Goodreads review. She included it in her list of the best books of the year for 2019.
Patsy: A Novel
Nicole Dennis-BennMany tough choices face the titular Patsy: She decides to leave Jamaica, her daughter, and her husband looking for a better life in America and her first love, Cicely. While she boldly holds the reins of her life, it doesn’t stay on course, and she’s left trying to navigate through her desired dreams and harsher reality. This rounded out Gay’s top books of 2019 list.
Commonwealth
Ann PatchettThis family saga from the always-humorous Patchett explores how actions, big and small, bind us through decades. Gay said “Commonwealth” was the last great book she had read before doing her “By the Book” column for The New York Times in 2017. “[Patchett] is one of my favorite writers, and I loved the ambitious, almost too ambitious, narrative structure of the novel and these little worlds she kept building and tearing down to move the story forward,” Gay said.
Misery
Stephen KingAs one of the most prolific and beloved writers of our time, at least one King of Horror work is bound to find its way onto pretty much anyone and everyone’s favorite’s list. In response to a question about her favorite villain or antihero in her “By the Book” column for The New York Times, Gay chose Annie from “Misery.” Annie touts herself as romance novelist Paul Sheldon’s number one fan, and has a lot of opinions after he kills off his popular protagonist, Misery. “[Annie] was certainly … committed. You have to admire that. And I also recognize that beneath her pathology, she was just lonely. I understand what loneliness can make a woman do,” Gay said.
Run Me to Earth
Paul YoonYoon tells a story of war-torn Laos; his descriptions of bombed-out buildings and landscapes, his clarity around absence, makes readers feel the characters’ acute sense of being unmoored, of the destruction of time and space, safety and self. It’s an enlightening and enthralling tale. Gay included this novel in a list of “10 Books to Bring You Out of the Dark” for Bookshop.org in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election.
Slave Play
Jeremy O. HarrisPrepare to get wildly uncomfortable while reading the script for this provocative play. Every boundary you have about the topics of slavery, race, and sex will be pushed to the limits, in the best of ways. “It’s irreverent, blasphemous really, and deeply intelligent,” Gay wrote for Bookshop.org.
These Women: A Novel
Ivy PochodaThirteen women living on the margins are murdered, and the search for the killer leaves something to be desired. Fifteen years later, when another woman winds up dead through similarly gruesome means, the survivors again fight for their voices to be heard. Pochoda’s work was shortlisted for the Edgar Award for best novel, and included in Gay’s list of “10 Books to Bring You Out of the Dark.”
Un-American
Hafizah Augustus Geter“Incisive, devastating poems about what it means to be American, and who gets to be American and who doesn’t,” Gay wrote for Bookshop.org. To accuse someone or something of being “un-American” has become one of the most popular political insults in recent years. These poems focus on immigrants who are seen as un-American for one reason or another.
The New Wilderness
Diane CookShortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, “The New Wilderness” is a suspenseful dystopian novel from the author of “Man V. Nature.” In the not too distant future, humans are dropping like flies due to climate change, pollution, and overpopulation. Five-year-old Agnes is failing fast, so when an experimental government study opens up, her mother jumps at the chance to join a small group of survivalists in the last patch of unfettered nature. Gay called it “a gripping, fierce, terrifying examination of what people are capable of when they want to survive” in her Bookshop.org list.
Leave the World Behind: A Novel
Rumaan AlamA simple premise belies the provocative racial themes that unfold in this slow burn thriller. A white Brooklyn family rents a luxurious house in the Hamptons for a weeklong getaway, but they’re barely settled in when there’s a late night knock at the door. It’s an older Black couple claiming to be the owners who rented the house out, but they’re back due to a severe power outage in the city. With no internet or cell phone access in this remote area, it’s difficult to verify what’s really going on. The tension keeps ratcheting up until the pulse-pounding end. Gay calls it “an exceptional examination of race and class and family and what the world looks like when it’s ending — not at all different from the world we are in now” in her five star Goodreads review.
You Exist Too Much: A Novel
Zaina ArafatWhen the narrator, a Palestinian American teenager living in Bethlehem, comes out to her mother as queer, her mother responds with the titular “You exist too much.” This is one of many poignant scenes in Arafat’s beautiful debut novel that deals with identity (cultural, religious, sexual) and how hard it can be to grow up no matter what your circumstances. Gay gave it five stars on Goodreads, writing, “Hypnotically meandering narrative structure. Deeply compelling protagonist. Lovely sentences.”
Thin Girls: A Novel
Diana ClarkeClarke is touted as “a talented protégé of Roxane Gay,” so it’s no surprise that Gay holds this novel about the dark underbelly of diet culture in high regard. Lily and Rose are twins who were once identical, but have succumbed to different eating disorders: Lily consumes everything, while Rose starves herself. As one would expect from a student of Gay, this novel deals beautifully and rawly with abuse and trauma.
Dominicana: A Novel
Angie CruzSet in the political turmoil of the 1960s, this vibrant coming-of-age novel explores the propulsive forces behind immigration. When 15-year-old Ana’s parents marry her off to a man twice her age, she leaves her home in the Dominican Republic countryside to start a new life in New York, determined to find a way to bring her family over to join her. Gay gave it a perfect five stars on Goodreads.
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick deWitt“What a rollicking adventure. A great Western with amazing dialogue and narration,” Gay wrote in her five-star Goodreads review. The book is as wonderfully weird, subtly funny, and smartly written as its title. A quirky, stylized genre-bender filled with dark humor and a bit of gore, it channels old-timey pulp and Cormac McCarthy alike.
Fonti
- Roxane Gay: By the Book
- 2017, The New York Times
- Roxane Gay: Top Ten Books
- One Grand Books
- A Year in the Life: 2019
- 2020, Gay Mag
- Roxane Gay's Read Books
- 2009, Goodreads
- Writing Into the Wound
- 2021, Scribd Originals
- My Year in Reading
- 2024, The Audacity - Substack