ABC, read with me
We’re launching the Little Oracles Asynchronous Book Club (ABC for short!), and this month is all about Immortal Beloveds. Get the gist — and the list — below.
So I read a lot — like, a lot. I read for language, I read for story, I read for setting, and I read to nurture my own work as a writer.
{ I want to recognize my privilege: I am fortunate to make my living as an independent creator, and I’m so grateful to be able to guide my own time. }
I also love a theme, and for the past year I’ve been programming a monthly reading list for myself: themes like The Sacrificial Femme: The Body as Art, Territory, Text and Cultural Cosmogony: Dissonance and Altered States. You know, keeping it real cool / casual.
When I was conceptualizing this latest iteration of Little Oracles — a project that started as a work of poetry, then morphed into a multimedia digital installation, and is now the framework for this blog, the @littleoracles Instagram, and the Little Oracles podcast — I realized how beautifully my passion for reading dovetailed with my conception of Little Oracles as a metaphor for the creativity we bring to even the smallest tasks, like getting dressed, or cooking a meal, or solving a problem.
So we’re toasting Little Oracles’ latest metamorphosis with the launch the Little Oracles Asynchronous Book Club (ABC for short!), a monthly themed CYO reading list curated by yours truly. This month’s theme is Immortal Beloveds, and I’ve chosen 10 books across two categories: books I haven’t read by authors I love, and books that people I love, love.
I winnowed this list down from a first draft of 66 (lolll), preferencing books that were available in audiobook and digital formats. Read all ten, read just one, skip this month: you do you; read whatever you want, whenever it suits you. This book club is asynchronous for a reason, and we welcome everyone to the community, regardless of how many books they read. And away we go!
Little Oracles ABC: January Picks
Elevator pitches below; check out the podcast for even more thoughts on these picks.
One's Company* by Ashley Hutson. A spiraling woman, Three’s Company (as in the TV show from the 1970s), nostalgia in the most etymological sense of the word. *This is the core book for January: the one I recommend folks read first, so there’s a common book among the readership. There’ll be at least one core book on every month’s reading list going forward.
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan. Short fiction, a spare yet emotion-rich style, beautiful portraits of small, intensely human experiences.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Intense character interiority, a wandering (perhaps liminal?) woman, beating-heart vitality in prose form.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston. Memoir melds with Chinese folklore, self-actualization, my mom’s recommendation (which is reason enough to read this book).
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. An author of odd and unsettling characters, the Medieval occult, power struggles between high-placed people and a little motherless shepherd boy.
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. Star-crossed love, a young woman with consumption, New York City in the 1880s.
The Bird Artist by Howard Norman. A confessional opener, Newfoundland in the early 1900s, maybe a murder.
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón. Poetry from one of my favorite poets of all time, cosmic scale in the workaday world.
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin. One of the weirdest voices in fiction, socio-technological horror, a Furby-type evil?
The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride. Prose so exquisite it’s just poetry, a young woman’s self-discovery, '90s-era London.
Join us on Instagram @littleoracles for conversation, virtual hugs and high-fives, and my signature big book energy in real time, and don’t forget to subscribe to the Little Oracles podcast for deep thoughts (and fun puns!) about the everyday creative, available wherever you listen.
Great to see you, thanks for stopping by. And, as always, take care, keep creating, and stay divine.
xx, aa
