This is a collection of favorite books and/or current reads that were mentioned in the New Members/First-Time Attendees meeting held on Monday, July 27, 2020, at the beginning of the MLA ’20 vConference. Any omission of books on the list was inadvertent. WorldCat links are provided for more information about the books.
Books
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah.
- Austen, Jane. Persuasion.
- Byatt, AS. Possession: A Romance.
- Chugh, Dolly; Nankani, Soneela; and Block, Laszlo. The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias.
- Cooper, J. California. Homemade Love.
- Crowley, John. Little, Big.
- Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel.
- Jahren, Hope*. Lab Girl.
- Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild.
- Leckie, Ann. Ancillary Justice.
- Márquez, Gabriel García. One Hundred Years of Solitude.
- McGuire, Seanan. Middlegame.
- Miller, Madeline. Circe: A Novel.
- Miller, Madeline. The Song of Achilles.
- Morgenstern, Erin. The Starless Sea.
- Murakami, Haruki. Kafka on the Shore.
- Newby, Eric. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.
- Orange, Tommy. There There.
- Roy, Arundhati. God of Small Things.
- Segovia, Sofia. The Murmur of Bees.
- Semple, Maria. Where’d You Go, Bernadette.
- Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
- Solomon, Rivers. An Unkindness of Ghosts.
- Steinbeck, John. Log from the Sea of Cortez: Narrative Portion of the Sea of Cortez.
- Tolkien, JRR. The Lord of the Rings.
- Toole, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces.
- Tran, Phuc. Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit in.
Author recommendations
- Antony Beevor
- Haruki Murakami
- Naomi Novik
- Brandon Sanderson
- Hao Ye
Series recommendation
- Lady Sherlock
* Hope Jahren was a featured speaker at MLA ’17.