any recs? my fave authors are jane austen, edith wharton, and fitzgerald. also i used to have a dystopia / orwell obsession, i could probably get back into those!
ik for a fact i need to get onto toni morrison (though i’m not sure if i’m smart enough for her books, i tried reading beloved a few years ago and i didn’t understand anything but i wanna try again) and rn im reading their eyes we’re watching god
im a big fan of pretty flowery writing. i really really dont like historical fiction!! fantasy is ok but it’s not my fave.
by mzjolynecujoh
9 Comments
>my fave authors are jane austen, edith wharton, and fitzgerald.
I’m currently reading Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and style wise it reminds me of Lovecraft mixed with Fitzgerald. Set in 1950s Mexico, so it is kind of historical fiction, maybe a bit fantasy (not done with the book yet), but you may still like it.
>i used to have a dystopia / orwell obsession
Some of my favourite political dystopias (edited to add a bit more detail about these books).
* “The classics,” which you have probably already read, but just in case: Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale, Fahrenheit 451 (short, but I didn’t like this one as much), Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (I have not read this one. but the author is a black woman so it best fits what you ask here).
* [A Country of Ghosts](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58564202-a-country-of-ghosts) by Margaret Killjoy
* [The Left Hand of Darkness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18423.The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness) and [The Dispossessed](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13651.The_Dispossessed) by Ursula K. Le Guin. Her earlier books are more whimsical, while her later books such as these two are more philosophical.
* [Player of Games](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18630.The_Player_of_Games) by Iain M. Banks, who was a Scottish author extremely ahead of his time in terms of writing nonstandard gender and sexuality.
* [Manhunt](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53329296-manhunt) by Gretchen Felker-Martin. When I read this, I very much had the sensation that it was written by and for transgender people.
* [Never Let Me Go](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6334.Never_Let_Me_Go) by Kazuo Ishiguro. This one is much more subtle and more like literary fiction than sci fi. The author, a Japanese British man, has written a variety of literary fiction, historical fiction, and sci fi.
Re: Morrison: Beloved and Paradise are her only books that are really that heavy / difficult. I’d suggest starting with Sula (which is very short and beautifully structured—it reminds me of Gatsby) or Tar Baby (definitely the most “Austen-esque” of her books, a romance set on a wealthy white family’s estate in the Carribean).
“Passing” by Nella Larsen is a short modernist-era classic with something of a Fitzgerald / Wharton-esque sensibility.
For a contemporary writer, I’m a huge fan of Jesmyn Ward, especially “Salvage the Bones.” Her prose is *incredible*. If animal death and abuse are dealbreaker subjects for you, read “Sing, Unburied, Sing” instead.
Of the top of my head: Isabel Allende, Jean Rhys and Alice Walker.
Also a great thing to do is to read the Stranger by Camus and then Kamal Daoud’s The Mersault Investigation.
(I hated Mexican Gothic so much, I didn’t finish it. But ymmv.)
Before I let go by Kennedy Ryan
A Caribbean heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera
Seven days in June by Tia Williams
The wedding date by Jasmine Guillory
Get a life Chloe brown by Talia Hibbert
You made a fool of death with your beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
I second Alice Walker, I really enjoyed The Color Purple. Here are some more books with beautiful prose imo.
* *Giovanni’s Room* by James Baldwin
* *Everything I Never Told You* by Celeste Ng
* *Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I’d also suggest Oscar Wilde. He was white, but personally I include LGBT+ authors into my “diverse” reading.
Try The Waiting Years and The Makioka Sisters, both by Japanese authors. Both have some themes, elements that might appeal to you. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Yasunari Kawabata, Kazuo Ishiguro, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Arundhati Roy, and Jesmyn Ward are all authors I’d recommend for beautiful writing by non-European authors.
Try Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Another recommendation for Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower (which is more post apocalyptic) and its sequel, Parable of the Talents (which will better fit what you’re looking for for a more dystopian vein).
Since you like Fitzgerald, The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo is a retelling of The Great Gatsby from the POV of a Jordan Baker who has been imagined as a queer, Asian adoptee. There are some fantasy elements to it but they’re not major.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – This year I’ve read everything she’s written and been blown away by how good a writer she is.