It’s almost time for Novellas in November, hosted by Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck.
There are no categories this year, although participants are invited to start off the month with a My Year in Novellas retrospective looking at any novellas read since last NovNov, and finish it with a New to My TBR list based on the novellas that others have tempted me with over the course of the month. There’s also a buddy read – Orbital by Samantha Harvey – which handily was already in my TBR stack.
Anyway, this is what I am choosing from (sorted according to the NovNov categories from previous years):
Short Classics
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (163pp)
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (99pp)
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (199pp)
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (112pp)
Lady Susan by Jane Austen (180pp)
Cheri by Colette (122pp)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (129pp)
Novellas in Translation
The Black Lake by Hella S. Haasse (Dutch, 116pp)
The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer (Dutch, 112pp)
All Dogs Are Blue by Rodrigo de Souza Leão (Brazilian, 125pp)
The Bureau of Past Management by Iris Hanika (German, 178pp)
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana (Thai, 191pp)
Siblings by Brigitte Reimann (German, 133pp)
Breakwater by Marijke Schermer (Dutch, 192pp)
Short nonfiction
The Battle for Home by Marwa al-Sabouni (179pp – although print is tiny!)
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis (76pp)
My Two Elaines by Martin J. Schreiber (126pp)
Hooked by Rita Felski (199pp – more tiny print!)
Intervals by Marianne Brooker (192pp)
The Book of Malcolm by Fraser Sutherland (200pp)
On Mother by Sarah Ferguson (128pp)
The Underachiever’s Manifesto by Ray Bennett (96pp)
Shame by Annie Ernaux (86pp)
Eggs in Purgatory by Genanne Walsh (55pp)
Levels of Life by Julian Barnes (129pp)
Trophy Lives by Philippa Snow (104pp)
How a Book is Born by Keith Gessen (53pp)
The Exotic Rissole by Tanveer Ahmed (195pp)
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (139pp)
300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso (104pp)
Not Waving, Drowning by Sarah Krasnostein (153pp)
Contemporary novellas
We the Animals by Justin Torres (128pp)
Eve in Hollywood by Amor Towles (91pp)
Brother by David Chariandy (192pp)
Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle (76pp)
This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill (97pp)
Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro (78pp)
Flotsam by Meike Ziervogel (128pp)
Water by John Boyne (176pp)
Earth by John Boyne (168pp)
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso (202pp)
Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed (31pp)
A Field Guide to the North American Family by Garth Hallberg (144pp)
Murmurations by Carol Lefevre (108pp)
Crudo by Olivia Laing (160pp)
Swim by Avi Duckor-Jones (172pp)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (136pp)
Of course, no intention of reading all of these, but two or three each week should be manageable. Where to start?
