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Hi all! I was hoping some of you might be able to point me in the right direction. Last year about this time I read Inland by Téa Obreht, and have since read Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel.

What stood out to me about these books/authors was the writing. Aside from saying it was beautiful, they were sort of poetic and lyrical in nature (unlike my own- sorry, words are failing me today).

It doesn't have to be SFF- I'm open to almost anything that would qualify as more literary or a literary crossover. Trying to avoid anything super depressing right now - so please do recommend those but give me the heads up so I can put them off for a better time.

Thank you in advance!

I found Before You Go by Tommy Butler has a beautiful prose. It is a bit depressing in the middle, but doesn't end on a depressing note. (CW: suicide)

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki is beautifully written as well, yet on the melancholic side.

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde could count as well - albeit, again, it is depressing in times (gosh ... I think, I'm only reading those kind of books ... but somehow Iove the atmosphere)

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley is more on the YA side (and of course starts with the hero knowing she must die ... well ^^'), but ... it is MDH and therefor beautiful.

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips ... ^^' which starts with a horrible event ... ^^' ... (I should stop recommending, I fear ...), but has such a wonderful structure and prose.

The Overstoryby Richard Powers - one of the best books I've ever read, about tree activists and how trees determine their lives.

Gabi wrote: "I found Before You Go by Tommy Butler has a beautiful prose. It is a bit depressing in the middle, but doesn't end on a depressing note. (CW: suicide)

[book:A Tal..."

Thank you Gabi! With Magonia- I'm curious, was the tone similar to The Mere Wife? Because I tried one of Headley's other novels and it wasn't bad but I wasn't really impressed either.

If you haven't read Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin, especially Left Hand, I'd add those. Left Hand is super atmospheric.

Good Morning, Midnight was very poetic and atmospheric, but it does involve the end times, and I didn't find it as impactful or poignant as ESJM's writing.

Maybe John Crowley? Little, Big was suuuuuper pretty to listen to, and Dar Oakley was very surreal.

Exit West is about a refugee crisis, but short and very emotive.

I didn't care for it lol but A Stranger in Olondria is by a real life poet, so as you can imagine, it's verbally evocative.

Sarah wrote: "With Magonia- I'm curious, was the tone similar to The Mere Wife? Because I tried one of Headley's other novels and it wasn't bad but I wasn't really impressed either...."

No, it is different. It has a definite YA feeling to it and the prose is more humorous.

Allison wrote: "If you haven't read Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guin, especially Left Hand, I'd add those. Left Hand is super atmospheric.

Good Morning, Midnight was very poetic a..."

I feel like the only person in the world who isn't enthralled with LeGuin. Is the style different from EarthSea? Because I'd agree she's poetic but I think she's too dense for me right now. If that makes any sense.

ETA: Both are on my list, just wondering if I should bump them up.

OMG so different. So, so different from Earthsea. But yes, dense. There's a lot going on in those books, but I felt similarly about Station Eleven? Hard for me to say, I guess.

Okay I'm gonna monopolize, but you did say we could go outside of SFF.

So, from my classics collection, I'd recommend:

Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment (the title says it all about the tone here)

Maybe The House on Mango Street which is also fairly heavy but taught often to kids as young as 12, so YMMV

Definitely I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings which is so, so brilliant but also CW: rape of a child.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is also heavy (I don't like generalities, but you see why folks say poetry and sorrow go together, some days) but also extremely emotive and strangely joyful, too. Kind of different from the rest because it's beautiful but in a very different storytelling tradition.

Allison wrote: "OMG so different. So, so different from Earthsea. But yes, dense. There's a lot going on in those books, but I felt similarly about Station Eleven? Hard for me to say, I guess."

That helps! I listened to Station Eleven so maybe the format was just easier to digest than Earthsea.

But also- yes please feel free to recommend outside SFF! All genre's welcome. Their Eyes Were Watching God sounds amazing.

It's one of those books that you'd read something and then put the book down because you had to just sit and marvel at a sentence for a minute. For me, at least.

Allison wrote: "It's one of those books that you'd read something and then put the book down because you had to just sit and marvel at a sentence for a minute. For me, at least."

That's just what I'm looking for.!

It's been a long time since I read Station Eleven, so I don't really remember the writing. But for literary low-SFF where the writing spoke to me I have to mention Never Let Me Go. And I second Gabi's rec of A Tale for the Time Being, if you're up for sad (but oddly uplifting) stuff. True for NLMG, too. Tale is pretty heavy on the CWs, but I don't think there's anything outside your comfort zone, that I can remember. Ishiguro is just all out sad, not shocking. But both are also beautiful!

Great way to sell, "they're both so sad and you'll cry!" but yeah, it'll be worth it :)

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht is good. Lyrical, a modern protagonist, and incorporates folklore.

M.L. wrote: "The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht is good. Lyrical, a modern protagonist, and incorporates folklore."

Thanks for the rec! I wasn't sure about it because the reviews seemed mixed, but I think the reviews are mixed on Inland too.

Hi Sarah.


I'd strongly recommend Claire North, who has recently become one of my favourite writers due to her inventiveness, humanity and the quality of her prose. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was her first book to grip me, but none since have spoiled my expectations.


So far, I've only read the first volume of Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy, The Bear and the Nightingale, but that is shaping up to be something very special, a wonderfully written and realised fantasy set in early-modern/late medieval Russia.


Bel Canto by Ann Patchett completely blew me away. I can't believe I've not read any of her others yet. So many books, etc.


And I have to mention Salman Rushdie who may be one of the finest writers alive, His prose is simply magical.

Paul wrote: "Hi Sarah.


I'd strongly recommend Claire North, who has recently become one of my favourite writers due to her inventiveness, humanity and the quality of her prose. "

I've read two of these (Patchett and Arden)- so you are definitely on the right track! Do you have any suggested places to start for Salman Rushdie? I tried his newer one- Quichotte and ended up DNFing. I don't think it was a fault of the book - I wasn't really in the right head space for the kind of story it was telling.

Anna wrote: "It's been a long time since I read Station Eleven, so I don't really remember the writing. But for literary low-SFF where the writing spoke to me I have to mention Never Let Me Go. And ..."

Thanks Anna! There is not *much* that's outside of my comfort zone so that's okay. I think sometimes it depends on how it's delivered too.

@Allison Their Eyes Were Watching God was only 0.99 cents this morning so I grabbed it! I'm hoping to start it after I finish up my current reads.

Sarah wrote: "There is not *much* that's outside of my comfort zone so that's okay. I think sometimes it depends on how it's delivered too."

Unless I'm forgetting something at the moment, the main things are stuff I know you read, so you should be OK. I got through it twice, but part of that may be because I listened both times. If you do audio at all, this one is definitely worth listening to! It adds a whole level to the experience, as it is (very well) narrated by the author, who is also a character in the book.

(Talking about Tale by Ruth.)

I should probably read Their Eyes, too, I think I have the audio. I keep seeing it recommended for all the things I like, but I never got around to it.

Ah this is making me want to re-read! I hope you enjoy it! Please do note that when I read it, Obama had just been elected, so the world was a bit different looking. I no longer recall enough specifics to remember how dark it gets.

For poetic and lyrical, don't forget Guy Gavriel Kay. Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and Under Heaven are amazing and are on our group bookshelf.

Allison wrote: "Ah this is making me want to re-read! I hope you enjoy it! Please do note that when I read it, Obama had just been elected, so the world was a bit different looking. I no longer recall enough speci..."

No worries. If it get's too dark I'll put it down and pick it up at another time. I'm okay with dark I guess I just need something that is more hopeful than bleak.

Chris wrote: "For poetic and lyrical, don't forget Guy Gavriel Kay. Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and Under Heaven are amazing and are on our group bookshelf."

Thank you Chris! I think most of these are on my shelf but I'll try to bump them up.

I haven't read Emily St. John Mandel, but a couple authors I think of as lyrical/poetic are Akwaeke Emezi (some SFF, some not) and Anna-Marie McLemore (YA SFF - I especially recommend Wild Beauty and When the Moon Was Ours).

I've tried a couple Rushdie book, and Shame is the one that has stuck with me the most.

Sarah wrote: "I've read two of these (Patchett and Arden)- so you are definitely on the right track! Do you have any suggested places to start for Salman Rushdie?."


I'd recommend either Midnight's Children or Shame, although The Satanic Verses is a genuine masterpiece. I was lucky enough to be introduced to the first of those at university; it was included in an excellent module on contemporary literature I took, which also included another book I'll recommend:

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, which more than fits the bill for lyrical.


You've got a fair bit of stuff to be working on!

Paul wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I've read two of these (Patchett and Arden)- so you are definitely on the right track! Do you have any suggested places to start for Salman Rushdie?."


I'd recommend either "

UGH. You don't know the half of it. I am somewhat stuck in a rut so I'm just trying to claw my way out. (I also just really love getting recommendations because I really don't know how else to discover new things short of browsing, which is always great but comes with it's own issues.)

Added Shame since you and Kaa both mentioned it.

Kaa wrote: "I haven't read Emily St. John Mandel, but a couple authors I think of as lyrical/poetic are Akwaeke Emezi (some SFF, some not) and Anna-Marie McLemore (YA SFF - I..."

Somehow it surprises me that you haven't read her. Not that I am any sort of expert on your tastes... lol. I've heard good things about Emezi's Pet! Looks like she has a new one out but I'm not sure the blurb is agreeing with me. (view spoiler)[Dead children is one of those things I don't cope well with. (hide spoiler)]

Oh yes, I love Ondaatje. The English Patient is very beautiful, as well.

If you're okay with neo-victorian prose that mimics the style of 19th century masters perfectly, while also being very post-modern in the novel's structure: The Luminaries has gorgeous prose and characterizations, and is the longest book ever to win the Booker. It has strong magical-realism elements (ghosts, astrology, psychics), but is mostly a historical/gothic novel set in New Zealand during the gold rush.

Sarah Moss's prose is also very beautiful. "[The painter] has caught the look on a face before politeness, the moment between saying ‘come in� and assuming the correct mien."

Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses is another magical realism novel with beautiful writing, I think.

I can't quite agree on Exit West: I thought it had very corporate-sounding language "After Saeed was born, the frequency with which his parents had sex dipped notably, and it continued to decline going forward." - not my cup of tea, but that's a very subjective thing, of course.

Hilary Mantel's writing is brilliant and has a wonderful subtle irony: "No need to ask if the cardinal has any particular princess in mind. He has not one but two or three. He never lives in a single reality, but in a shifting, shadow-mesh of diplomatic possibilities." ... "Wolsey talks as if he himself had witnessed everything, eye-witnessed it, and in a sense he has, for the recent past arranges itself only in the patterns acknowledged by his superior mind, and agreeable to his eye. He smiles."

Dan Simmons' Hyperion: "The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below."

That part of Exit West cracked me up! But yeah, as I recall you didn't like the story or the tone, whereas I found it beautiful and lively.

Thanks Eva- the Amy Tan one sounds perfect.

I realized yesterday as I was reading through this thread that we all have different definitions of beautiful writing which is kind of a cool thing all by itself.

Some of these authors come off in my head as “makes you work for it� which doesn’t mean they aren’t beautiful but maybe just a little harder to immediately appreciate.

I know Mantel’s big one is Wolf Hall right? I have not read that one but was eyeballing it today.

Also- I totally confused your Sarah Moss with Sarah Mass (whose writing is great but storytelling is not for me). What book is that quote from?

Sarah wrote: "I know Mantel’s big one is Wolf Hall right? I have not read that one but was eyeballing it today. "

It was quite good. I enjoyed it. The TV series was also excellent.

Yes, the Wolf Hall trilogy is Mantel's biggest success. I've just read the first one this month and loved and admired it so much. The first two have already won the Booker prize and the third is nominated for 2020 - if it wins that would be the first triple win ever.

The Sarah Moss quote was from Bodies of Light, but I've heard Ghost Wall may be the best entry point. It's a short novella about a group of people during a "living like in the bronze age" experiment.

Or, if you want something more easily readable, I thought that Alastair Reynold's prose in House of Suns was very elegant and he has some beautiful descriptions of alien planets, etc. This is the beginning:

"I was born in a house with a million rooms, built on a small, airless world on the edge of an empire of light and commerce that the adults called the Golden Hour, for a reason I did not yet grasp.

I was a girl then, a single individual called Abigail Gentian.

During the thirty years of my childhood, I only saw a fraction of that vast, rambling, ever-changing mansion. Even as I grew older, and gained the authority to wander where it suited me, I doubt that I ever explored more than a hundredth of it. I was intimidated by the long, forbidding corridors of mirror and glass, the corkscrewing staircases rising from dark cellars and vaults where even the adults never went, ..."

Lol, it kind of surprises me too. I want to read her, but there has just always been something else on my tbr that came first.

Freshwater was a bit dark but really excellent, and I am enjoying Pet a lot. Not sure on the latest yet.

Sarah wrote: ".I feel like the only person in the world who isn't enthralled with LeGuin. Is the style different from EarthSea? Because I'd agree she's poetic but I think she's too dense for me right now. If that makes any sense..."

Makes perfect sense to me. I'm not a LeGuin fan either, but I've loved Station Eleven twice.

I recommend Michael Perry for beautifully written genre-benders, mostly sort of philosophical memoirs with humor. And Sonya Hartnett for stuff marketed to children that's sometimes more intense, but gorgeous, than what I can bear.

Anything written by a poet is worth considering. I'll look for more on my shelves. But I use no genre or style tags, so it's difficult to look through them.

I did recently discover Charis Cotter. Her writing is so lovely it transcends genre. Consider The Swallow: A Ghost Story and for a similar reason try The Land of Neverendings by Kate Saunders. They're children's books, so fairly quick reads, but they don't talk down to kids.

I've finished Pet, and it is excellent, but warnings for (view spoiler)[child abuse and implied CSA - neither are described, the reader is just told without any detail that they have happened (hide spoiler)]

Seconding Midnight's Children even though I bounced off it the first time. I have read it twice since then and really loved it.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman are on the group shelf and beautifully written. American Gods is much more prosaic; it comes off as if Gaiman was deliberately writing in a plainer style and it doesn't do much for me.

Maybe Patricia A. McKillip? Alphabet of Thorn is on the group shelf but I think I liked The Forgotten Beasts of Eld better.

No one has mentioned Kim Stanley Robinson yet. We have Red Mars on the group shelf but I think 2312 and Aurora are a bit more impressive prose-wise. They go together (in that order) and Aurora is sort of the bleaker counterpart to 2312, so maybe save it for when you're up for that.