The 8:30 Chapter discussion

Inspired by Jen. I created this topic as a space for people to discuss their favorite books/authors.

Top five books
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin


Top three authors
Brit Bennett
Roxanne Gay
Kurt Vonnegut

A couple of books I rly like that popped into my head!!!

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenter & Franny & Zooey (stories) - J.D. Salinger
In Watermelon Sugar - Richard Brautigan

In no particular order



Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand ( I disagree strongly with Rand's political views and the extremely pro-capitalist narrative, but the story is masterfully written)

The Dark Tower Series - Steven King

The Wheel of Time Series - Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Michelle Alexander

In Defense of Marxism - Leon Trotsky

The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

The World According to Garp - John Irving

More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory - Franklin Veaux & Eve Rickert

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

The People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn

The Gone World - Tom Sweterlitsch

Dune Trilogy - Frank Herbert

Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party - Joshua Bloom

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - Richard Rothstein

Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Social Welfare - Frances Fox Piven & Richard Cloward

The Gentleman Bastards Series - Scott Lynch

The Mistborn Series - Brandon Sanderson

The Stormlight Archives Series - Brandon Sanderson

Many others...

Some favorite books:
-Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger
-The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
-Florida by Lauren Groff
-Suicide by Édouard Levé
-A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
-Garden State by Rick Moody
-Circe by Madeline Miller
-The Subway Stops at Bryant Park by West Moss
-Self Help by Lorrie Moore
-The Rain in the Trees by W.S. Merwin
-Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

I also really like Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor, but I've read random selections out of their collected editions, and they primarily wrote short stories so it's tough to pick a single book by them.

Same goes for these poets: Chen Chen, Louise Glück, Linda Gregg, Robin Coste Lewis, Timothy Liu, Brian Cordell. I'm also a big fan of Plath's poetry (even though it can be problematic) - just have to take it within its historical context.