[ SECRET POST #3204 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3204 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 052 secrets from Secret Submission Post #458.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Margaret Atwood // Atwood is a literary treasure. Her novels are intelligent and they don't spoon feed you, but they're also engaging and enjoyable, not dry or tedious. Personally I like Alias Grace best of all her novels, but The Blind Assassin might be better place to start. Her Mad Addam series is really good, but be warned, the first book is by far the least enjoyable.

Donna Tartt // The Secret History is definitely her most accessible novel, and possibly her most engaging, so it's probably the one to start with.

A.S Byatt // This author will definitely not be to everyone's taste. She's extremely academic, and her novels can be overly intellectual, the the point where actual plot gets neglected or buried. However, her Booker winner Possession does not suffer from this problem, so it's what I would rec first. My personal favorite of Byatt's is The Children's Book, which is masterfully detailed and complex, but again, many readers may find it overly dry and directionless.

Edith Wharton // Wharton's writing has a kind of clever sharpness that almost makes it feel more like a modern novel set in the past than like an old classic. I like House Of Mirth the best.

Annabel Lyon // I often find historical fiction rather prosaic, but The Golden Mean was an excellent antidote to that. It's poetic but level-headed, and grim but not cynical. In writing about the interwoven lives of Aristotle and Alexander the Great, Lyon provokes questions about the nature of power, tragedy, depression, identity, intelligence, and aspiration. Her book of short stories, Oxygen, is also excellent.

Anne Michaels // Another author who may not be to everyone's taste, but she's long been a favorite of mine. My advice is, read the first twenty pages or so of Fugitive Pieces and if you don't like it, quit.

Jane Austen // I'm not madly in love with Austen, but I'm always happy to have read her works, and will probably read them all again at least once. They're very comforting, somehow - not for their romance, but maybe for their clear-eyed lack of cynicism. Her novels are smarter than they may at first seem and her writing doesn't take itself too seriously, so it never feels melodramatic. Personally I liked Sense and Sensibility the best, but I think it depends very strongly on which protagonist one most relates to, so YMMV. The only one I wouldn't recommend starting with is Northanger Abbey, as it was essentially intended as a bit of a send up of the Gothic romance novels of the time, and is therefore a little less substantial on its own merit.


Gillian Flynn // I'm only 100 pages into Gone Girl and I already have zero reservations about recommending this author. Her writing is smart, engaging, accessible, and exceptionally atmospheric.

Annie Proulx // The Shipping News was fantastic, very subtle and sensitive. A story about perserverance and growth for people who typically find such stories overly simplistic and saccharine.

Joyce Carol Oates // A strong and prolific writer who I've only just got started on. I recently finished reading Because It Is Bitter, And Because It Is My Heart, which I found impressive and powerful, though not wholly satisfying.

Geraldine Brookes // March was fantastic. The thing about history lessons is that they teach us what we should know about, but they aren't very good at getting us to care. This book opens up the American Civil War and just hits you with it so freaking hard.

Janet Fitch // Fitch may have been something of a one-hit wonder with White Oleander, but what a hit. White Oleander is vivid, harsh, lyrical and affecting. It put me under its spell. (I have read her most recent novel, Paint It Black, but would not recommend it. It came off like the extremely wobbly first novel of a young but promising writer with many years yet to hit their narrative stride - sadly an almost irreparable step back from the powerhouse that was her previous work.)

[(Anonymous)]

Jeanette Winterson, the author of Written on the Body and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, has just written a book, The Daylight Gate, about the Lancashire witches.

Jo Baker: If you liked Pride and Prejudice, try Longbourn, in which Baker brings the shadowy presences of the Longbourn servants to life.

Sylvia Townsend Warner: Summer Will Show, The Corner That Held Them, Lolly Willowes.

Sigrid Undset: If you don't feel like tackling the massive Kristin Lavransdatter or Master of Hestviken, try Gunnar's Daughter, set 300 or so years earlier in the Saga Age, with a badass heroine.

Jane Smiley: I've heard nothing but good about Some Luck, a multigenerational story about an Iowa farm family.