hi my reader friends lithub has a new syllabi section that has some great (u guessed it!) syllabi from much beloved writers like ocean vuong and ross gay here's the full list that i have already added half of to my tbr:

ekphrastic poetry with victoria chang (featuring works of john ashbery, joy harjo, paul tran)

the literature of obsession with julia may jonas (obsession as transformation, destruction, catharsis and form)

place, space and landscape with alexandra kleeman (featuring didion, okorafor and hernan diaz)

lyric research with ross gay (books that combine research with an "I" like nelson's bluets or christle's the crying book)

hybrid poetry with ocean vuong (traditions, innovations and possibilities featuring bhanu kapil, rimbaud, clifton)

multigenre experiments in form with paul lisicky (for writing that explores connections between genres)

reading about writers with peter ho davies (books that teach the craft and give writing advice, think 'the outline' trilogy)

speculative women with lina maria ferreira cabeza-vanegas (a look at speculative works by women writers like jemisin, butler, k le guin)

writers and the world with viet thanh nguyen (rankine, baldwin, and coates)

sports and contemporary writing with sam lipsyte (exactly what it says on the tin)

this may be the ambivalent flavor of our future: sweet and bitter and full of contradiction

A couple of summers ago, as I drove through Oregon amid a record heat wave across the Pacific Northwest, I pulled over at a trailhead to eat a plum. Wildfires were burning, temperatures hovered around 100 degrees and the pine forest in front of me had been rendered ghostly, the edges of everything lost and faintly browned by smoke. It was a shock, then, to bite into the fruit and taste its disruptive sweetness, how fresh and pure it was in spite of the surroundings. It was the sort of thing that tears the mind and body in opposite directions — and as we face down a moment increasingly dominated by environmental crisis, this may be the ambivalent flavor of our future: sweet and bitter and full of contradiction.

— Alexandra Kleeman, from "A Lush Novel at the Nexus of Food, Pleasure, Wealth and Catastrophe", a book review of C Pam Zhang’s “Land of Milk and Honey." (NY Times, September 23, 2023)

Hey, if you like A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan and Bunny by Mona Awad, you'd probably enjoy You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman.

A woman named A has a creepy roommate, B, who wants to become her. She also has a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, C.

To me, the best part of the book is the setting. The world resembles our own, but just feels very off.

So if you like "unhinged" or weird literature, check this one out.

"Driving translates reality into the language of the ego. When I drive, anyone I pass is a weak-willed idiot, and anyone who passes me is a narcissistic self-suicider. Driving cuts everything to the size and shape of the self—there’s no way for it to be too long or too short, it just is. Qualitative terms like ‘fast,’ ‘slow,’ ‘oriented,’ ‘lost,’ ‘safe,’ ‘in danger’ make no sense unless you make it clear that you’re using a subjective frame of reference.” He looks back expectantly at his pal, waiting for him to chime in, but he doesn’t. “If you have someplace to be, any perceived delay causes the length to dilate. But we,” he adds with emphasis, “are exactly where we’re supposed to be.”

From Alexandra Kleeman's Nothing New Under the Sun

Thoughts on Alexandra Kleeman? For such a lauded contemporary author she seems like a real throwback to the cerebral postmodernism of the 80s-90s - sometimes to the point where it feels like she's channeling DeLillo in particular a little too much, although her concerns are of course somewhat different (anorexia and body image in You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, climate doomerism in Something New Under the Sun)

Never read her—seemed too thematically au courant. I checked the first page of Something New Under the Sun (terrible title: don't try to improve the Bible!) on Google Books. As you say, the stylistic DeLilloism is off the charts, signaled by the descriptive sentence fragments, the descriptions themselves marked by a skewed and knowing imprecision ("Bruisy shadows under her mouth where the light falls badly") in the ekphrasis of an electronic-mediated representation. But maybe the novelty promised by the title kicks in later, though both good and bad reviews make it sound merely didactic, the usual Millennial leftist screed. I wish DeLillo's almost cosmic neutrality, even his comic-visionary appreciation of the waste land he surveys, were as influential as his style and subject matter.

“Some animals take themselves away to a private place to die, into the forest or under a raised wooden deck constructed of weather-treated pine. Are there animals that seek out the most public place to die, the greatest number of eyes to watch them lie down, roll over, stiffen? Is it true that all living creatures feel the instinct to survive, or are there ones that don’t, only we know nothing about them because they die so swiftly, in utter silence, before they can be seen and recorded?”

You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine - Alexandra Kleeman (2015)

Out of curiosity, could be either due to craft or sheer enjoyment, what are your top favourite books?

Okay lowkey I wrote this post & then tumblr ATE it so here it is a little late!! Rachel's All Time Favourite Books (in no particular order):

Cleanness - Garth Greenwell (litfic, ok but this is actually my fave book & today Garth Greenwell lowkey Acknowledged My Presence SOOOO!!! I've read this 4x since August, it's a craft masterpiece)

What Belongs to You - Garth Greenwell (litfic, the book that comes before Cleanness, I'm not as attached to it but it's still FANTASTIC)

A Hundred Lovers - Richie Hofmann (poetry, my fave poetry collection of all time, ALL my epigraphs come from here)

We Do What We Do in the Dark - Michelle Hart (litfic, AMAZINGGG character study & peak into relationship dynamics)

Big Shadow - Marta Balcewicz (litfic, one of my fave books of all time, FANTASTIC teen protagonist in this bildungsroman)

Physical - Andrew McMillan (poetry, AMAZING queer poetry, lots of epigraphs from here too)

Winter in Sokcho - Elisa Shua Desapin (litfic, probably the best start-to-finish narrative I've ever read in my whole life)

If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English - Noor Naga (litfic, THE BEST litfic ending I've ever read, it's UNEXPECTED and something to be STUDIED)

Undoing Hours - Selina Boan (poetry, I feel so grateful for this book as it really helped me reconnect to my Indigenous identity. I met Selina after a LIFE-CHANGING reading & chatted with her, & that conversation drove me to learn more about my family!)

Bitterblue - Kristen Cashore (YA fantasy, this is LITERARY FICTION TO ME I've re-read this like 6 times)

Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo (YA fantasy, really fun ensemble cast, THE AUDIOBOOK SLAYS)

Intimations - Alexandra Kleeman (litfic short story collection, some of THE BEST short story collections, my work feels adjacent to this dare I say??)

The Marionettes - Katie Wismer (NA paranormal, this series is sooo tropey and fun like I CAN'T WAIT for the last book, I did like book 2 best but this is the first one & I loved it too!)

Demi-Gods - Eliza Robertson (litfic, this was my fave novel before Cleanness & Eliza is my fave writer & from my alma mater! Read my interview with her!)

Monkey Beach - Eden Robinson (litfic, I read this book in a DAY, it's the most impactful novel I've ever read, she's also from my alma mater!)

How to Pronounce Knife - Souvankham Thammavongsa (litfic short story collection, my fave short story collection OF ALL TIME I learned so MUCH about short stories from this!)

The Girls - Emma Cline (litfic, this was MY writing bible for so long lol, I actually ethically hate how this book treats real murders but Emma Cline is an incredible writer & the best parts of this book are the ones that don't casually repurpose history... I have thoughts...)

History of Wolves - Emily Fridlund (litfic, I need to re-read this NOW but wow, the first half of this is chilling...)

Past Lives, Future Bodies - K-Ming Chang (poetry, not sure if you can still buy this but this is one of THE best collections I own)

The Darkest Minds - Alexandra Bracken (YA dystopian, I love AB SOOO MUCH even now hehe, this was a childhood fave & Fostered is a ripoff so <3)

You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, by Alexandra Kleeman

10 books!! :•)

ty 4 the tag @otrtbs (+ @serethereal i'm just doing it on this blog) <3 here r 10 books 2 get 2 know me

1. a history of glitter and blood, by hannah moskowitz

favorite book of. all time probably. first read this when i was like 16 i think and since then i've reread it about once a year. keep waiting for it to like...hit me less hard but every time i read it i am still v much moved in the same sort of way that i was the first time!!

2. the last unicorn, by peter s. beagle

feel like this story is like. integral 2 me as a person. first encountered it in the form of the 1982 movie as a child + then discovered it was a book in high school. there are differences between the two of course but the central themes are the same + i do think the ending like. permanently altered my brain as a child such that it has shaped my worldview ever since

3. the archive of alternate endings, by lindsey drager

newest addition 2 the list!! just read this book like a month ago and it was so good that it now has a place of honor on my favorites list <3 made me full-body sob but is like. so exactly perfect for me as a book that it felt like it was written 4 me

4. animorphs, by k.a. applegate

surprisingly not a childhood series 4 me bc i watched one episode of the tv show they made in the 90s + it scared me so much that i never touched the books. however i read the entire series in college and. it is now one of my favorite works of literature ever.

5. gormenghast, by mervyn peake

this book means a lot 2 me personally bc it's like. tied 2 my dad 4 me <3 he's a big reader but our tastes only have a small overlap, so it's not super often that we'll both love the same book. but when i was in high school i was looking for something 2 read + he pulled gormenghast off his bookshelf + was like try this nobody's ever heard of it bc peake is not well-known but it's like. sprawling dark fantasy. + it ended up being one of the most beautiful + unique stories i have ever read <3

6. you too can have a body like mine, by alexandra kleeman

a favorite satire <3 love kleeman's writing style + the sort of weird suburbia-horror of this story

7. the man who laughs, by victor hugo

generally speaking i am not a big ~classics~ person however. my final year of hs this was the book i chose for my like big final english paper + it's like. the first book i really had 2 study on a deeper level + i loved all the twisting symbolism + the tragedy of it all

8. six of crows, by leigh bardugo

technically this is 2 books bc i'm thinking of the entire duology but. yeah <3 fave like. fun fantasy story 2 reread when i want a book that makes me feel like i'm watching a movie while i read it. also love love love all the characters <3

9. this is how you lose the time war, by max gladstone and amal el-mohtar

first time i read this book i felt like my brain was melting!!! so short but the exact kind of story that i love; sort of scrambled poetic writing style + weird dark fantasy + sci-fi elements

10. no future: queer theory and the death drive, by lee edelman

i actually. do not recommend this book as it is so dry + dense and an absolute slog 2 read. however it makes the list bc encountering lee edelman's writing abt reproductive futurity + the death drive was like. top 10 life-altering moments that fundamentally changed the way i think in college. so!!!

no-pressure tags: @steelycunt @dykefever @pomegranate-pill @suspendedinbush @mayescapade :•)

“I felt hungry. Or to be more precise, I wanted to take something into my mouth and destroy it there.”

You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, Alexandra Kleeman

this is a story about hate. this is a story about love. this is a story about a war. this is a story about a promise. this is a story about two souls reliving their tragedy time and again, carving it into the world like talons on flesh; they will always find each other, and they will always fall in love, and it will always end with them dying.

or maybe this isn't a story at all. maybe this is just a broken record, and maybe it's time to lift the needle.

(moulin rouge, baz luhrmann & craig pearce / deathless, catherynne m. valente / the letter, amy lowell / my heart, ibn hazm (translated by ammiel alcalay) / you too can have a body like mine, alexandra kleeman / a birthday, aleister crowley / wasted days, oscar wilde / symmetrical companion, may swenson / sonnet of the garland of roses, federico garcía lorca (translated by john k. walsh and francisco aragón) / deathless, catherynne m. valente / moulin rouge, baz luhrmann & craig pearce)

dust motes - roman roy (+ken&shiv &body&power)

succession || Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon || nobody, mitski || Hungry as the Sea, Melanie Kenny || you too can have a body like mine, alexandra kleeman || million dollar man, lana del ray || M*A*S*H || mama, my chemical romance || the last days of judas iscariot, stephen adly guirgis

@linklamont entirely bc of you im suffering

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon - 3/5

I’ve been playing a lot of GTA V lately, around the time that I started reading Inherent Vice, or maybe because of it, because so much of the landscape of this book felt like the daily humdrum of a Los Santos NPC. It’s a book that has a lot of personality, and is an apt portrait-cum-parody of post-Manson LA in a way that no doubt influenced Alexandra Kleeman’s Something New Under The Sun and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. But having been written in 2009, about the 1970s, I found it less interesting than its predecessor, 1966’s The Crying of Lot 49 which was actually written during the time period it satirizes. One of my favorite books that I’ve read countless times, Lot 49 says everything that Inherent Vice says, but funnier, neater, more concise and more poignant. There are no moments in Inherent Vice equivalent to Oedipa Maas crying in front of Varo’s "Bordando el Manto Terrestre,” just irreverent and occasionally juvenile parody, which honestly seems kind of odd for what’s supposed to be a more mature work. Aside from that, they are virtually identical mystery stories — a past lover sends the protagonist down a paranoid spiral of conspiracy theories and plot points that mostly don’t culminate in anything; in Lot 49, it’s Oedipa Maas, and in Inherent Vice it’s an annoying teenage stoner.

"she walks on me" by hole is about courtney love and kat bjelland hating each other. its about being transmasc. its about being transfem. its about the madonna/whore complex. its about being a fifteen year old girl. its about dyke drama. its about sexism in the grunge/rock scene. its about having an older sister. its about having a younger sister. its about "you too can have a body like mine" by alexandra kleeman. its about anorexia. its about courtney love and kat bjelland being madly in love. most versatile song ever !!!

tag 9 people you would like to get to know/catch up with

Thank you to @alinelie for tagging me!!

last song: Magdalena Bay - Hideaway

last show: I'm choosing to interpret this as the last show I finished, and I think it was Lost (yes, for the first time)

currently watching: Trying to keep up with the latest seasons of Yellowjackets, Barry, and The Other Two

currently reading: Intimations by Alexandra Kleeman

current obsession: The Sims uhhhhhh, I currently have a major thing for wasabi snack mix

I'm not sure who's done this one, so I'll tag @citrlet @simmerstellar @thecrumblingisle @lotuso3o @sweetbeagaming @nurbsfirby @cinnamonferns @oatberrytea and @damseljamsel if you want to!

You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine - Alexandra Kleeman (2015)