Calvin WalkerA good novel can inspire you to recommend it to friends. A great novel can do so much more. This short list of books absolutely sit in the latter category for me. While they range in themes and character arc explorations, they all share one thing in common: stellar writing.
These are the types of books that, as a writer, remind me why I love trying my hand at storytelling. They also make me feel incredibly insecure about my talents! But, because I’m a Gemini, I get over it and turn those threads of insecurity into motivation. If they can do it, maybe I can, too? Regardless, they’re such fine pieces of work that I would gladly have my memory wiped if it meant I could read them all again for the first time.
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Joshua Ferris – Then We Came to the End (2007)
“We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen.”
If you’ve ever worked in an office job doing fairly meaningless work with a pretty six-figure salary, the opening lines to Joshua Ferris’ debut novel, Then We Came to the End, probably hit home. I didn’t know how true these words would ring when I read this novel for the first time 17 years ago. Back then, I was still a college student bouncing between different retail jobs. Graduation was a couple years off but, after that, I’d be in this corporate world and thought ‘why not read a book about the space you’re going to occupy?’ When the Great Recession swept in at the end of 2007, just months after Then We Came to the End was released, I worried about my future. When I graduated and learned my degree meant nothing in my hometown and the best job I could get was at PetSmart, I reread this novel more than once. Time ranked it #2 on their list of Top 10 Best Fiction Books of 2007 but, for years, it was easily #1 for me.
James Baldwin – Giovanni’s Room (1956)
In 2015, I worked in the music industry and was able to travel around the country for music festivals and conferences. The following year, I would turn 30 and decided I’d finally do something I’d always dreamed of. I’d go to Europe! Since I planned on taking my mom—why not take your biggest cheerleader on an epic vacation?—I learned it would be easier on my pocket to book a vacation package of London and Paris. While I started researching for my trip, I picked up travel books on these 2 European cities. I somehow came across Giovanni’s Room which was the first novel I’d ever read by James Baldwin. In its introduction, I discovered how he lived ‘mainly in France’ while writing this novel. Something about that pulled me in before I ever read a word of the book. But when I finally dove in, I couldn’t put it down. I listened to Michael Kiwanuka’s ‘Cold Little Heart’ on repeat because this 10 minute song perfectly encapsulated the mood of Baldwin’s haunting, complicated portrayal of what it means to be a gay man.
Curtis Sittenfeld – Prep (2005)
Prep, a coming-of-age novel following Lee Fiora as she enrolls in a boarding school, was released at a very specific time in my life. I’d recently transitioned from high school to college, The OC reigned supreme in my heart, and pop culture was still very much obsessed with all things ‘prep.’ On top of that, Sittenfeld hails from Ohio like me. Holding her novel in my hands was like clutching the enchanted mirror from Beauty and the Beast that let me see a world of writing possibilities for someone from a ‘nothing’ state like mine. Reading through it for the first time, I can distinctly recall feeling seen. At the time, Sittenfeld splashed teen angst on the page with ease. Despite re-reading Prep during the early days of the pandemic and finding myself incredibly annoyed with Lee, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to shake the fierce, initial connection I had to this novel.
Rasheed Newson – My Government Means to Kill Me (2022)
While reading The NYT on my iPad, I came across a review for My Government Means to Kill Me and was immediately interested in picking up a copy. The novel centers Trey, a young, gay, Black man trying to find himself in New York City during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. He has a flamboyant roommate who sleeps with older, prominent white men for money, volunteers to help care for people dying of AIDS, and spends plenty of time in a bath house in Harlem. Newson skillfully included footnotes throughout the novel which ensured his readers learned real lessons about the details, locations, and people mentioned. The writing is beautiful but, besides that, Newson kept me turning the page because of his well-rounded protagonist with a coming-of-age story I had not yet read. I barely finished reading the last sentence before I was pushing my copy into the hands of a friend and begging them to read.
Also, this book cover is sublime. If I could get a large, HD print of it, I would 100% add it to the gallery in my apartment’s entry hallway.
Oyinkan Braithwaite – My Sister, the Serial Killer (2018)
First things first, the title alone won me over. Secondly, My Sister, the Serial Killer is a quick read with just over 200 pages. In a nutshell, this novel is a comedic thriller about a woman who begrudgingly cleans up after her gorgeous, fawned over, younger sister who can’t seem to stop killing men. Yes, there’s comedy but I also thought it was quite an accurate depiction of what it can be like to live in someone’s shadow.
