10 Books That Have Stuck With Me
From moving memoirs to sprawling novels
As any English undergrad with some form of trauma, I leaned hard into memoir in college. I mostly read and wrote creative nonfiction throughout my early 20s, until 2020 when I had a come-to-Jesus moment and pivoted into fiction. I wanted an escape, and novels were there for me–both in my reading and my writing–as a way to ladder out of my one-bedroom apartment and into the world beyond.
At 28, my reading diet is a bit more balanced, with a mix of fiction and nonfiction. What counts most for me these days isn’t their genre, but their stickiness. A week, a month, a year later, do I still think about them at all?
These are 10 books that I come back to all the time, from memoirs that make me cry to novels that land like a gut punch. The only prerequisite is that I’ve read all of them over a year ago, to prove their staying power.
The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
The memoir to end all memoirs (for me, personally), The Chronology of Water grapples with sexuality, addiction, and abuse through the perspective of a life-long swimmer turned writer. I read this in college and it fundamentally changed the way I wrote to be more direct, more brave, more honest. The ending makes me weepy, and the prose throughout is so so so gorgeous. I absolutely adore this book.
Side note: After years in the making, the film adaptation directed by Kristen Stewart finally premieres at Cannes today!
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
It won the Pulitzer for a reason, people! A reimagination of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead tackles the opioid crisis in modern-day Virginia. I’ve never read a character with a voice as distinct and captivating as Demon’s. It took me a second to get into the Appalachian dialect, but once I was there I fell hook, line, and sinker for this sprawling story. A rare runaway hit that is actually correctly rated, IMO.
Girls That Never Die by Safia Elhillo
Disclaimer: I don’t read a ton of poetry. Still, I hope you take my word for it when I say that this small but mighty collection of poems completely floored me. Girls That Never Die is an exploration of Muslim girlhood and shame. It’s heavy stuff, but there’s a lot of light to be found in these poems, too. I was doggy-earring pages and underlining passages like a madwoman.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
This is a novel, but I’ve filed it away in my mind as nonfiction because of how real it felt to me while reading it. Published in 2021, this book follows an Extremely Online woman who is forced to face up reality when tragedy strikes. If Patricia Lockwood has an addendum to this book that concerns today’s state of AI, I’m all ears.
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
This freaky-deaky gem of a novel is Tess Gunty’s debut (!), a fact that continues to blow my mind. The Rabbit Hutch follows a cast of misfit characters living in a run-down apartment complex in Indiana. What a weird, genius story with such a specific, fully-realized protagonist, Blandine. I think about the image of a character covered in glow sticks all the time.
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal
I’m a sucker for a multigenerational story. This novel about two different kinds of restaurant families–one who owns the book’s namesake supper club and another who owns an imposing chain of diners–is a pitch-perfect version of the form. It captures the magic of old-school, Midwestern supper clubs, replete with plenty of brandy Old Fashioneds and relish trays. I think it’s the perfect summer read, ideally enjoyed near a body of water on a warm night.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
I don’t have an MFA, but I feel like I do thanks to George Saunders, who teaches actual MFA students in Syracuse Universitys’ Creative Writing Program. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain breaks down short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol to show us how great fiction writing works. What an absolute gift of a book for any of us who want to stand at the edge of a pond, drop in a pebble, and let the ripples reach the reader on the other side.
The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso
Leave it to Sarah Manguso to break and build back up again what a memoir about illness can be. In The Two Kinds of Decay, Manguso recalls her struggle with the rare autoimmune disease she was diagnosed with at 21. The writing is spare and perfect, and every word packs a punch. I love a story that keeps things short and snappy. This under 200-page book is a terrific lesson in brevity, for anyone who could use it.
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
As a chronic over-editor, this book helped give me the push I needed to get down my own “shitty first draft” for my novel. Bringing together elements of Zen meditation with writing, Writing Down the Bones is all about trying to find that elusive flow state, and letting it rip until you get there.
We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper
I did not go to an Ivy. I went to a Catholic college in the Midwest, because I am a woman of the people. Still, this book’s critiques of educational institutions made a lasting impression on me. We Keep the Dead Close digs into the unsolved 1969 murder of an archaeology student at Harvard and the university’s decades-long effort to keep it covered up. It is unreal how much sweeping under the rug has happened and still happens at places like Harvard. And even though this book is nonfiction, it’s as twisty and turny as any great thriller.