I like big books and I cannot lie.
I also quite like short books to tell the truth.
Some of my favorite #ShortNovels:
The Weight of Things (Marianne Fritz), Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead (Barbara Comyns), The Guest Cat (Takashi Hiraide), The Blue Fox (Sjón), The Facts of Winter (Paul Poissel), Small Things Like These (Claire Keegan), Attempts at a Life (Danielle Dutton), The Lover (Marguerite Duras), The Day of the Locust (Nathaniel Hawthorne), To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)...
More unsolicited #ShortNovel recommendations:
If Beale Street Could Talk (James Baldwin), The House of Paper (Carlos María Domínguez), The Ice Palace (Tarjei Vesaas), Fool's Sanctuary (Jennifer Johnston), Sula (Toni Morrison), Tinkers (Paul Harding), Glaciers (Alexis Smith), The Testament of Mary (Colm Tóibín), Dept. of Speculation (Jenny Offill), Ghost Wall (Sarah Moss), A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Becky Chambers), Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony.
Why am I tooting about #ShortNovels, you may ask?
Because I'm falling short of my reading goal for this year, and while part of me thinks it's arbitrary and silly to care, another part of me would like to read a few more books before the year is out.
So... seeking recommendations for a good #Novella or #ShortNovel that isn't already listed. Please and thank you @bookstodon 🙏
@deborahrosereeves @bookstodon Love this question. Some of the best things I have read recently have been short, including (with page numbers because short can be very subjective):
- Small Things Like These (Keegan) (118 pgs)
- Grief is the Thing with Feathers (Max Porter) (114)
- Too Loud a Solitude (Hrabel) (98)
- Open Water (Nelson) (145)
- Scribe (Hagy) (176)
@BBlalock Thank you for adding suggestions - my cup runneth over!
I finished Small Things Like These a couple of weeks ago and am still grappling with the ending and feeling a little haunted by not knowing exactly how it all plays out when he brings home the young woman to his family.
I listened to Grief Is The Thing with Feathers on Audible last weekend and will buy a physical book so I can re-read it as I understand it's quite a visual read.
Thanks again! :)
@deborahrosereeves Brilliant. I had a similar response to Small Things Like These, staying with me like an unresolved haunting. It was the first thing I had read by Keegan, who I understand prefers short novels and endings where other authors might be just beginning?
Scribe would be my other favorite on this list. I saw it described somewhere as an Appalachian fairy tale told at the end of the world & I think that's about perfect.
🙏 for the other books you list on this thread.
@BBlalock I will check out Scribe for sure.
I just heard about a podcast forthcoming in 2023 that focuses on Appalachian Writing. I wonder if they'll discuss Scribe at some point.
Deborah Rose Reeves
B.Blalock