As has become traditional (see 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 — we unaccountably skipped 2016), here in no particular order are book and author recommendations from folks at this year’s Barry Goldblatt Literary retreat. I may or may not personally endorse all the choices (I haven’t read them all, for one thing) but here they are!
Also note that these aren’t links to buy the books directly; they might be interviews, reviews, info from the author or publisher’s website, Wikipedia entries…so click and discover!
The Smell of Other People’s Houses, Bonnie Sue Hitchcock
Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire
Without You There Is No Us, Suki Kim
Landscape With Invisible Hand, M.T. Anderson
20th Century Boys, Naoki Urasawa
Spain In Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, Adam Hoschild
Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold
Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett
Queen of the Night, Alexander Chee
Reality Is Not What It Seems, Carlo Rovelli
Celestial Mechanics, William Least Heat-Moon
Shades of Magic trilogy, V.E. Schwab
This Darkness Mine, Mindy McGinnis
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss
Jade City, Fonda Lee
Annals of the Former World, John McPhee
Black Tides of Heaven and Red Threads of Fortune, J.Y. Yang
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate — Discoveries From a Secret World, Peter Wohlleben
Thick As Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner
The Prey of Gods, Nicky Drayden
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Allegedly, Tiffany Jackson
Monstress, Marjorie Lieu
River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey
Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle
Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Cloud and Wallfish, Anne Nesbet
Girl Mans Up, M.E. Girard
Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari  (audio)
Self-Inflicted Wounds, Aisha Tyler (audio)
HyperObjects, Timothy Morton
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Piecing Me Together, Renee Watson
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir, Kai Cheng Thom
Borderline, Mishell Baker
Jane Steele, Lyndsay Fae
American Nations, Colin Woodard
Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley
Carry On, Rainbow Rowell
Mr. Splitfoot, Samantha Hunt
There’s Something Happening Here: The New Left, The Klan, And FBI Counterintelligence, David Cunningham
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, Dr. Carol Anderson
Where Memories Go: why dementia changes everything, Sally Magnusson
Teacup, Rebecca Young, illus. by Matt Ottley
Mother of the Sea, Zetta Elliott
The Jumbies, Tracey Baptiste
Escargot, Dashka Slater, illus. by Sydney Hanson
The Friend Ship, Kat Yeh, illus. by Chuck Groenik
The Arrival, Shaun Tan
On the Edge of Gone, Corinne Duyvis
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Laurence Wright
My Sister Rosa, Justine Larbalestier
The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man’s Quest to be a Better Husband, David Finch
The Great Passage, Shion Miura