Read Harder 2023 Task #2: Read One of Your Favorite Author’s Favorite Books

This is a favorite of Nick Harkaway’s, and is one one of my favorite indie press books. It’s a madcap, razor-sharp satire of war in the vein of Catch-22 or Fobbit, with a touch of Three Kings. It’s set during the U.S. invasion of Baghdad, and follows two men who sell goods on the black market who wind up in possession of a prisoner who says he will lead them to Saddam Hussein’s riches if they let him go.

I picked this one up because it was so enthusiastically and beautifully blurbed by Jami Attenberg. And I am so glad I did, because it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year! This one will wring so many tears from your heart. It’s about a dancer who is deciding if she will visit her estranged father after learning that he is dying. Perfect for fans of Tell the Wolves I’m Home and A Little Life.

When pressed, I will tell you that this novel is definitely in my top three favorite books. It’s about the death of a former slave and what happens with his widow, who tries to manage his plantation and the enslaved people who work it. It’s a gorgeous, powerful work, and one of the winningest books for all ties, in both accolades and cash awards, including the Pulitzer. It was no surprise to me when one of my favorite authors, Colson Whitehead, mentioned it as being important to him while writing his first Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Underground Railroad.

And speaking of Edward P. Jones, he mentioned once in an interview that he was influenced by this collection of stories by James Joyce while writing his own collection, Lost in the City. Believe me when I tell you that Jones is one of the best living short story writers, so while I haven’t read this book, it’s on my TBR for sure. Jones loves Irish story writers — he has also mentioned Mary Lavin as another favorite.

Any book blurbed by the magical Kelly Link is an auto-buy for me, and this is probably my favorite that I picked up for that reason. It’s set in Vietnam, back and forth over decades, involving two missing young women in different times, a priest, war, and a whole lot of snakes. It’s a visceral, astounding novel.

In researching what books the amazing Charlie Jane Anders loves, I came across a list with a few recommendations. This is one I have always meant to read, and I actually own, so I think I will pick this one for the 2023 Read Harder Challenge. Lessing is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and this is the story of a young writer who keeps four different colored notebooks (black, red, yellow, blue) for four different facets of her life, but may one day combine them into — you guessed it — the golden notebook.

And this is the book recommended to me by Elizabeth McCracken, which I eagerly read and loved! The title is a bit confusing because it’s a fake biography of a child genius (Edwin Mullhouse) written by a childhood acquaintance (Jeffrey Cartwright) but of course really all written by Steven Millhauser. It was quirky and darkly humorous and brilliant, and it made me feel like I was seeing a bit into McCracken’s brain, because her work is also all of those things. This novel turned 50 this year, and I can now see Millhauser’s possible influence on A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, and Less by Andrew Sean Greer, and Patrick deWitt’s upcoming novel The Librarianist. What a treat it was to be assigned this task.

After Donna Tartt released The Secret History, it was ten years before she released her next book, The Little Friend. It was a very different style than her first, and did not receive the same love that The Secret History was given. I myself loved The Little Friend, and I also love the works of Charles Portis. When I learned that True Grit is Donna Tartt’s favorite novel, it was so easy to see Portis’s influence on The Little Friend. I personally think True Grit is the greatest Western ever written, and worth reading, even if you don’t like Westerns. And if you love Donna Tartt, recent editions include an afterword written by her, and you can also hear her read the audiobook in her lovely Southern accent.

And last but not least, another book I am considering for the 2023 Read Harder challenge recommended in an interview by one of the most amazing authors I’ve read: Alexander Chee! It’s the story of a young woman and her three college friends set amidst the political turmoil of South Korea in the 1980s. The narrator, Jung Yoon, recounts past tragedies and relationships in her life.