Dorene O’Brien 156 pages Baobab Press (2019)
Read this if you like: Karen Russell, Carmen Maria Machado, quirky short fiction tl;dr summary: Collection of (mostly) literary stories in which characters hope, for better or worse (mostly worse).
Isabelle Allende 443 pages Vintage Español (2011)
Read this if you like: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Chilean history, genre-blurring coming-of-age novels
tl;dr summary: Teenager on the LAM finds refuge in a small village in Chile and learns about both herself and her family’s history in the process.
Hilary Hauck 387 pages Olive Rose Press (2023)
Read this if you like: historical fiction, unique POVs, intrigue-driven plots
tl;dr summary: Jilted British woman travels to Italy to find her suddenly departed lover, instead finds lies (and herself, natch)
Like I imagine is the case for many people right now, the Olympics has become my default “on in the background” content since it started. Not because I’m particularly passionate about any of the sports involved—more the opposite, in fact. There’s something very intriguing and entertaining about watching sports I normally don’t think about, or seeing things I’m only familiar with from family picnics being played at an exceptionally high level.
Something else the Olympics makes very clear: sports are omnipresent in just about every culture of the world. This has likely been true for thousands of years. From the original Olympics held in ancient Greece to the ball game of the Aztec and Maya, just about every culture we know about had some kind of sport.
Despite this, I think it’s safe to say that sports are among the most neglected aspects of society in creative writing. You can definitely find examples of sports in fiction and poetry, but not nearly to the same degree as other cultural touchstones like food, music, religion, or fashion.
Christine Stroud 58 pages Disorder Press (2017)
Read this if you like: hybrid stories, fragmented narratives, grief and loss narratives
tl;dr summary: Twin grieves and remembers her sister in the aftermath of her suicide
See the book on Disorder Press’ website
Virginia Woolf 329 pages Mariner Books (1928)
Read this if you like: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, magical realism, literary satire
tl;dr summary: 16th-century aristocratic English teenager grows up into a 19th-century British woman and has many adventures along the way.
Roberto Bolaño 607 pages Vintage Español (1998)
Read this if you like: David Foster Wallace, Jack Kerouac, Mexican culture and literature
Tl;dr summary: Two young Mexican poets go on a road trip that turns into a 20-year flight around the world.
F. G. Haghenbeck 282 pages Oceano (2018)
Read this if you like: Magical realism, Mexican culture, speculative non-fiction
tl;dr summary: Frida Kahlo’s life story, mostly.
Juan Villoro (trans. Kimi Traubb) 136 pages George Braziller, Inc. (2015)
Read this if you like: Denis Johnson, Roberto Bolaño, Mexican culture
tl;dr summary: Magical realism without the magic in modern Mexico
Charlotte Perkins Gilman 120 pages (Herland), 117 pages (With Her in Ourland) The Forerunner (1915-1916)
Read this if you like: Mark Twain, Gulliver’s Travels, utopias
tl;dr summary: Women do things better, and that includes building a civilization.
See Herland on Bookshop See With Her in Ourland on Bookshop
