Books for Men


Inspired by a list from Esquire of "The 75 Books Every Man Should Read" -- which, aside from perhaps a few other problems*, includes only one book by a woman (Flannery O'Connor) -- Emily Schultz and Brian Joseph Davis at Joyland asked folks for suggestions of books by women that men should read. The resulting list is a lot of fun, and a fine place to go if you're looking for suggestions for what to read.

(Also, you should read Ta-Nehisi Coates's commentary on it. But you read his blog anyway, so I don't need to tell you that, right?)

I'm in a frivolously list-making mood, so thought I would add and ditto a few choices, though I'm going to narrow my parameters a little...


25 Works Of Fiction By People Identified As Women (As Far As I Know) That I At This Particular Moment Think Might Be Interesting To Men Who Are Curious To Read More Of Such Things, Though Of Course Tastes Vary

  1. Empire of the Senseless by Kathy Acker
  2. So Long a Letter by Miriama Bâ
  3. Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
  4. The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli
  5. Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
  6. Heartsick by Chelsea Cain
  7. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos
  8. Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
  9. The Collected Stories by Deborah Eisenberg
  10. Money Shot by Christa Faust
  11. Scented Gardens for the Blind by Janet Frame
  12. The Cry of the Owl by Patricia Highsmith
  13. A Shattering of Silence by Farida Karodia
  14. Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  15. The Art Lover by Carole Maso
  16. China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh
  17. Hav by Jan Morris
  18. The Collected Stories by Grace Paley
  19. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
  20. Death in Spring by Mercé Rodoreda
  21. The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
  22. Empathy by Sarah Schulman
  23. In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif
  24. White Walls: Collected Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya
  25. He Who Searches by Luisa Valenzuela


------------------------------------
*The books? What sorts? And what is this "man" being of which you speak? But of course, "75 Works of Fiction and Narrative Nonfiction Some People Who Work for Esquire Think the Marketing Demographic of Esquire Should Read" is a less sexy title.

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