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So many to choose from!

Poetry
Pilgrim Bell: Poems by Kaveh Akbar

The Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte

Dunce by Mary Ruefle

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

Plot by Claudia Rankine

Short Stories
Cloudbursts: New and Collected Stories by Thomas McGuane

Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov by (of course) Anton Chekhov

The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories by Joy Williams

Bark by Lorrie Moore


Essays
These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett 1/21/2022

Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body by Savala Nolan

Collected essays by Joan Didion

The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind ed. by Claudia Rankine

Plays
Three Tall Women by Edward Albee 1/28/22

The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard

Good luck, Ellie! I don’t think I’ve heard of any of your titles, but that looks like a great and interesting list! 🐾

Emily wrote: "Good luck, Ellie! I don’t think I’ve heard of any of your titles, but that looks like a great and interesting list! 🐾"

Thanks. This should be fun!

Good luck with your selections, ellie. They look very interesting.

Interesting list Ellie. I've read almost none of the authors you've listed. Will be interesting to read your reviews as you finish.

Ellie, there are quite a few interesting books on your list. I just added a few to my TBR. I read Bark by Lorrie Moore a few years ago. I hope you have fun with your selections.

Loved Precious Days!! Every essay (or all but one for me, the one on flying in Alaska) was a fantastic reading experience. The one about her relationship with a woman with serious cancer that started out as a casual acquaintance turning into an email correspondence and ultimately becoming a life-altering relationship completely knocked me out.

Writing like this both feels impossible to achieve and at the same time an inspiration to continue writing.

Another win: 3 Tall Women was Albee at his best, sad, funny, ironic. I hope I see it performed one day.

I loved the two works I've read so far: Ann Patchett's book of essays, These Precious Days: Essays, was one of the best books I've ever read. I loved almost every essay (all but the one about flying in Alaska but it may have been that I just wasn't in the right mood). They're beautifully written but also they do make me feel like life is precious, every day, which is a wonderful take-away from a work. Not just the thought that each moment is precious but the actual feeling.

Also, Albee's play, Three Tall Women was a pretty quick read but moving & funny & sad, but a little too wry to be depressing.

And I'm greatly enjoying the short story collections I'm currently reading--Thomas McGuane's Cloudbursts: New and Collected Stories and a collection with a completely different tone The Visiting Privilege: New and Collected Stories by Joy Williams. I love Williams but I do find her work often leaves me saddened.

The Williams is a complete collection--over 500 pages--which I hadn't realized when I put it on my list so I may not read the entire book.

Ellie wrote: "I loved the two works I've read so far: Ann Patchett's book of essays, These Precious Days: Essays, was one of the best books I've ever read. I loved almost every essay (all but the..."

You're on a roll, Ellie. I've been trying to think of a play to read. Was considering something by Ionesco (that I read back in university) or maybe a reread of Waiting for Godot. Or Look Back in Anger. Albee is also a thought. I'm glad you mentioned him. Keep enjoying.

I remember reading Ionesco's Rhinoceros when I was 9 (it was lying around, my mom was reading it) and being terrified!

I love Albee. And Beckett. I also like Beckett's Happy Days.

Ellie wrote: "I remember reading Ionesco's Rhinoceros when I was 9 (it was lying around, my mom was reading it) and being terrified!

I love Albee. And Beckett. I also like Beckett's Happy Days."

Thank you for the suggestions.

So glad you are enjoying your selections. I'm adding Ann Patchett's essays.