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 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 them with over the course of the month.
There are also two buddy reads this year – Seascraper by Benjamin Wood and Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde. I have bought Seascraper in readiness, and will reserve Sister Outsider at my library.
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)
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana (Thai, 191pp)
Siblings by Brigitte Reimann (German, 133pp)
People With No Charisma by Jente Posthuma (Dutch, 162pp)
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (German, 190pp)
Imminence by Mariana Dimópulos (Spanish, 176pp)
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (Japanese, 160pp)
The Details by Ia Genberg (Swedish, 155pp)
Beloved by Empar Moliner (Spanish, 166pp)
The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind (German, 115pp)
Days at Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (Japanese, 170pp)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Japanese, 163pp)
Short nonfiction
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)
Trophy Lives by Philippa Snow (104pp)
How a Book is Born by Keith Gessen (53pp)
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron (139pp)
300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso (104pp)
Not Waving, Drowning by Sarah Krasnostein (153pp)
Consent by Jill Ciment (148pp)
The Slicks by Maggie Nelson (56pp)
On Grief by Jennifer Senior (78pp)
The Good Death Through Time by Cailin Mahar (195pp)
A Truce That is Not Peace by Miriam Toews (180pp)
Notes to John by Joan Didion (202pp)
Contemporary novellas
We the Animals by Justin Torres (128pp)
Eve in Hollywood by Amor Towles (91pp)
Audition by Katie Kitamua (197pp)
Brother by David Chariandy (192pp)
Nostalgia Has Ruined My Life by Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle (76pp)
This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill (97pp)
You Must Remember This by Sean Wilson (169pp)
Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro (78pp)
Flotsam by Meike Ziervogel (128pp)
Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed (31pp)
Murmurations by Carol Lefevre (108pp)
Swim by Avi Duckor-Jones (172pp)
The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood (104pp)
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (166pp)
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner (160pp)
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (114pp)
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (176pp)
Of course, no intention of reading all of these, but two or three each week should be manageable. Where to start?
