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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

READING

CHALLENGE

Corey has read 17 of 80 books.

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Corey Mesler

Goodreads Author

Born

in Niagara Falls NY, The United States

Twitter

coreymesler

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories

Influences

Raymond Carver, James Tate, Frank O'Hara, Donald Barthelme, Steve Ster ...more

Member Since

February 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/coreymesler

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COREY MESLER has published in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Esquire/Narrative4 Project and Good Poems, American Places (Viking Press, 2011). He has published 9 novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006), The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores (2010), Following Richard Brautigan (2010), Gardner Remembers (2011), Frank Comma and the Time-Slip (2012), Diddy-Wah-Diddy: A Beale Street Suite (2013), Memphis Movie (2015), Robert Walker (2016); 5 full length poetry collections, Some Identity Problems (2008), Before the Great Troubling (2011), Our Locust Years (2013), The Catastrophe of my Personality (2014), The Sky Needs More Work (2014); and 4 books of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations ...more

Combine Editions
Corey Mesler’s books

Average rating: 4.38 · 707 ratings · 216 reviews · 85 distinct works • Similar authors

	Memphis Movie 4.03 avg rating — 79 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Following Richard Brautigan 4.16 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Talk 4.14 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2002 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	We Are Billion Year-Old Carbon: A Tribal-Love-Rock-Novel Set in The Sixties on an Outpost Planet Called Memphis 4.62 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I'll Give You Something to Cry About: A Gathering of Stories by Corey Mesler (Goodreads Author), Debra Jones-Jackson 4.38 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hole in Sleep 4.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Notes Toward The Story and other stories (2013) 4.23 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Listen: Twenty-nine Short Conversations 4.82 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores: A Novel of Sex and Murder 4.42 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2010 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Diddy-Wah-Diddy: A Beale Street Suite 3.75 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Corey Mesler…

Corey is Currently Reading

Corey is currently reading

Headbanger

by Hugo Hamilton

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Feb 15, 2026 01:18PM

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Morning Poems: A Sensational Daily Poetry Collection on Waking, Mourning, and the Mystery of Creation

by Robert Bly

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Dec 02, 2011 08:46AM

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Selected Letters of John Updike

by John Updike

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Jan 19, 2026 01:47PM

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Corey’s Recent Updates

Corey and 38 other people liked Manny's review of Telephone: "People keep going on about how Percival Everett's "so original", but I don't get it. This one's yet another Black feminist novel written by a man, about the rottenness of modern academia and discovering that your young child is slowly dying of an inc" Read more of this review »
17 hours, 49 min ago · see review
Corey and 2 other people liked Agne Wilton's review of Doctor Glas:
Feb 17, 2026 05:12AM · see review
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Corey rated a book it was amazing The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Five stars for the writing--charming, digressive, idiosyncratic, and groundbreaking--and five stars for Maira Kalman's gorgeous and apropos artwork. This was a treasure and a pleasure to hold in my hands. ...more
Feb 15, 2026 01:18PM · like · see review
Corey is currently reading Headbanger by Hugo Hamilton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 15, 2026 01:18PM · like
Corey rated a book it was amazing The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Five stars for the writing--charming, digressive, idiosyncratic, and groundbreaking--and five stars for Maira Kalman's gorgeous and apropos artwork. This was a treasure and a pleasure to hold in my hands. ...more
Feb 15, 2026 01:15PM · like · see review
Corey and 77 other people liked N's review of Bleak House: "“[He is] otherwise mildly studious in his observation of human nature, on the whole a benignant philosopher not disposed to be severe upon the follies of mankind”- from "Bleak House". This is the third full length novel I've read by Charles Dickens, a" Read more of this review »
Feb 15, 2026 04:44AM · see review
Corey started reading Morning Poems: A Sensational Daily Poetry Collection on Waking, Mourning, and the Mystery of Creation by Robert Bly	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 13, 2026 01:48PM · like
Corey rated a book really liked it Winter Recipes from the Collective by Louise Glück	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Wonderful. "Life, my sister said, is like a torch passed now from the body to the mind." ...more
Feb 13, 2026 01:48PM · like · see review
Corey rated a book really liked it Winter Recipes from the Collective by Louise Glück	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Wonderful. "Life, my sister said, is like a torch passed now from the body to the mind." ...more
Feb 13, 2026 01:46PM · like · see review

More of Corey's books…

Quotes by Corey Mesler (?)

“I miss you because memory
is a kind editor.
The past is a long scroll and
in it is the story of us,
told with gentle metaphor, and
words that bring
you back and back, even as you
lie there, lying.”
― Corey Mesler

tags: corey-mesler, poetry, return-key

11 likes

“It was raining a motherfucker.
It was raining a Dostoyevsky novel.
It was raining a Kurosawa film.
It was raining a Trout Mask Repilca.”
― Corey Mesler, Following Richard Brautigan

3 likes

Corey’s Quotes

“His own faith, however, was not lacking in virtues since it consisted in acknowledging obscurely that he would be granted much without ever deserving anything.”
― Albert Camus

10 likes

“Sometimes, when I couldn’t afford to pay the utility bill at the end of the month, I was forced to read by the light of the stories themselves.”
― Steve Stern

tags: books

9 likes

“I’m on a government watch list. But I’m not interested, because government watches only work twenty minutes out of every hour.”
― Jarod Kintz, At even one penny, this book would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you'd still waste time by reading it.

265 likes

“I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”
― François Rabelais

tags: death, french-renaissance-writer, john-green, last-words, life, looking-for-alaska, meaning-of-life, miles-halter

4569 likes

“He did not know what to do. Not just now, he thought, not just in this, not just about this, today and tomorrow, but every day on the earth.”
― Raymond Carver

6 likes

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¡ POETRY ! — 22560 members — last activity Feb 16, 2026 08:36PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

NYRB Classics — 1460 members — last activity Feb 18, 2026 09:42AM
For friends of NYRB Classics

Ask Jesse Ball — 26 members — last activity Sep 09, 2011 06:52AM
Join acclaimed author Jesse Ball for a discussion of his work in celebration of his newest novel The Curfew. Jesse will answer questions September 5-9 ...more

What's New at Lummox Press — 57 members — last activity Jul 30, 2012 08:57AM
Keep up with new releases, readings and travels with RD Armstrong as he tries to make it as a micro-press in 21st century America. Lummox Press has be ...more

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Sign up to get news of our lastest acquistions and newest releases. Bloggers and Reviewers Welcome! Join for review ARCs, connect with our authors ...more

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Are you the author of a weird book? Are you enjoying a weird book that you'd like to tell others about? Are you an actual weird book that has somehow ...more

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Punk Hostage Press is a not-for-profit book publishing imprint that also acts as a an outreach program to connect writers and contemporary literature ...more

Ask Megan Abbott & Michael Koryta - Thursday, September 12th! — 100 members — last activity Sep 11, 2014 11:46AM
Join us on Thursday, September 12th for a special discussion with authors Megan Abbott & Michael Koryta. Megan and Michael will be discussing their ne ...more

The Melville House Group — 213 members — last activity Feb 22, 2022 05:26PM
We rather like our books. Just a bit, maybe. A little. Naturally, we want to talk about them with fellow readers. Join us in discussing our books or ...more

Folded Word Fan Club — 44 members — last activity May 04, 2020 11:54PM
A place for readers with excellent taste to discuss (chap)books published by Folded Word and schmooze with its editors and authors. Imagine a string q ...more

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Corey’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-30) post a comment »

date

newest »

message 30: by Corey

Nov 01, 2016 04:55AM

Majenta wrote: "Hello again, just want to say congratulations on ALL your books! I am impressed! Write on! Have a good tomorrow/next month!
Blessings!

Best wishes from Majenta"

Thanks so much. You did a lot of liking! Tell me your real name and place in the world.
best,
Corey

reply | flag

message 29: by Majenta

Oct 31, 2016 07:23PM

Hello again, just want to say congratulations on ALL your books! I am impressed! Write on! Have a good tomorrow/next month!
Blessings!

Best wishes from Majenta

reply | flag

message 28: by Majenta

Oct 31, 2016 02:06PM

Hello, Corey! Thank you so much for contacting me. I hope you are well and will have a great and productive week. Happy Monday, Happy Halloween. Happy reading, writing, and everything else. Blessings!
Best wishes from Majenta

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message 27: by Corey

Dec 06, 2013 04:40AM

s.penkevich wrote: "Thank you for the friend request!"

My pleasure.

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message 26: by s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all]

Dec 05, 2013 10:10PM

Thank you for the friend request!

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message 25: by Corey

Jun 18, 2013 04:28AM

Robin wrote: "Thanks for the friendship Corey! Keep up the good writing and may your imagination and inspiration always run free!"

Robin wrote: "Thanks for the friendship Corey! Keep up the good writing and may your imagination and inspiration always run free!"

Thanks. Back atcha.

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message 24: by Robin

Jun 17, 2013 08:45PM

Thanks for the friendship Corey! Keep up the good writing and may your imagination and inspiration always run free!

reply | flag

message 23: by Corey

Jun 10, 2013 04:59AM

Back atcha.

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message 22: by Christine

Jun 10, 2013 04:56AM

Thanks for being my friend

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message 21: by Ed

Mar 29, 2010 11:25AM

Thank you for the friend invite, Corey.

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message 20: by Corey

Dec 12, 2009 06:25AM

Jeffrey wrote: "hey corey;

congrats on your monkey puzzle showing!

jeff"

Jeffrey wrote: "hey corey;

congrats on your monkey puzzle showing!

jeff"

Thanks. It's a classy little production and I was happy to land in it.

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message 19: by Jeffrey

Dec 12, 2009 05:36AM