SILENT READING: A collection of books to help divert your eyes from the endless scrolling

Vol. 14 | No. 8 | April 1-15 , 2020

The Contributor normally puts out a Summer Reading List at the beginning of, well, the summer. Right around when schools let out, we spend some time thinking about what you might read in a chair on your back porch, while relaxing on the beach or while hidden away in a dark corner of your house trying to escape your children. Summer hasn’t exactly come early, but many people are homebound, attempting to be socially distant to help flatten the curve during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve rounded up a few books that might help you pass some time — or at the very least keep you from staring at your phone in horror all day long.

'The Sympathizer' By Viet Thanh Nguyen

The narrator in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer is a man of two worlds. As a Franco-Vietnamese communist agent, he’s been embedded in the South Vietnamese forces for years as an aide-de-camp to a prominent general. The novel follows his escape from Saigon to his life as a refugee in Los Angeles, a stint consulting on an Apocalypse Now-esque film, and his bungling attempt to protect the life of his best friend. All the while, he guides us through the contradictions inherent in independence, friendship, love and patriotism. Nguyen’s prose is acrobatic, mesmerizing and transportive — an escape that’s smart and socially conscious. ERICA CICCARONE

'Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them' By Jennifer Wright

A lot of people are plunging right into the bleak underbelly of apocalyptic stories right now. I’m not one of them, yet I find 2017’s Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them comforting. Jennifer Wright takes a sociological view of pandemics, mapping out how societies reacted to the likes of cholera, tuberculosis, polio, the Spanish flu and more. She emphasizes government failures as well individual triumphs, be they scientific, medical or in simply offering radical compassion to neighbors. It’s an absolute riot to read — sharp, voicey and surprisingly hilarious, but never at the expense of others. Get Well Soon offers evidence that we’ll get through this. ERICA CICCARONE

'My Autobiography of Carson McCullers' By Jenn Shapland

A typical autobiography is about the author, not another person — but My Autobiography of Carson McCullers is not a typical book. It tells the story of author Jenn Shapland’s obsessive, years-long investigation into the personal life of one America’s greatest novelists. Along the way, Shaplands gets to know herself — as an academic, author and lesbian — and is struck by how McCullers’ sexuality has been erased and whitewashed by history books. It’s a meditative, healing read that asks us how we want our stories to be told, and encourages us to proudly tell them ourselves. ERICA CICCARONE

'Little Weirds' By Jenny Slate

After watching her Netflix special, I was an automatic fan of Jenny Slate. Reading this book is like reading Slate’s winding, sometimes spiraling daydreams. Each bite-sized chapter is a new surprise. Some read like a memoir excerpt, some read like a comedic essay, others are like a meditation. Slate analyzes the heaviness of life, while also ruminating on sources of light that I never thought of. As you too look for new and different sources of light, she’ll give you some inspiration. HANNAH HERNER

'Ties That Bind: Stories of Love and Gratitude from the First Ten Years of StoryCorps' By Dave Isay

A copy of this book cost me only 75 cents at McKay’s a while back, which honestly offended me once I read it, because the stories are so affecting. There’s just something special that happens when two people who already know each other well take the time to slow down and ask deeper questions. There’s little fanfare or explanation, just a book of conversations — and some monologues — directly transcribed and cut down into the most powerful snippets. In the back of the book there is a list of StoryCorps favorite questions. Now is a great time to call someone you love and use them. HANNAH HERNER

'Late Migrations' By Margaret Renkl

Margaret Renkl’s Late Migrations is an accurate representation of the life I’m living right now: small, lovely snippets of nature intercut with sharp, biting realizations about loss and love and what it means to be a human. It’s the kind of book you can devour: short, sometimes one page, chapters, each one memorable. Renkl doesn’t hit you over the head with lessons: In her book of essays, she’s showing you the life she lived through stories about trees, birds, mothers, fathers and more. AMANDA HAGGARD

'I Miss You When I Blink' By Mary Laura Philpott

Mary Laura Philpott is a damn delight. If you follow her on Twitter, you know she’s provided some bright spots in the nonstop deluge of very, very bad news. If you’re a woman who is always trying to do it all, her memoir I Miss You When I Blink is an extremely relatable read that will leave you feeling like you can finally breathe. When you’re done with the book, sign up for Philpott’s newsletter, where she gives book recommendations, shares cute animal videos and more. AMANDA HAGGARD

'The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing' By Thomas McGuane

I’ve read a lot of books about fishing, but nobody writes about our finely-finned friends and the people obsessed with catching them like Thomas McGuane. If quarantine life has put a kink in your springtime angling, this book can help to scratch that itch. The Longest Silence is the best book about fishing you’re ever likely to read, and McGuane — whose great novels include Ninety-two in the Shade and To Skin a Cat — is such an amazing wordsmith that this one can be enjoyed by anyone who loves the outdoors and wonders at the beauty of the natural world. JOE NOLAN

'Shakespeare Beyond Doubt? Exposing an Industry in Denial' Ed. John Shahan and Alexander Waugh

Look, I would usually keep it cool in the reading recommendations, but in these times of upheaval and solitude, I think that folks might be ready to delve into my secret bailiwick — the Shakespeare authorship controversy! In a quiet war, entrenched interests in the British tourism industry and in English departments around the world have duked it out with a loose coalition of historians, attorneys and actors who question the orthodox biography of William Shakespeare, an illiterate wool merchant from Stratford who is purported to have written some of the greatest literary works in human history. I won’t stake any claims here, but will instead offer up this intriguing collection of essays as a primer on the dubious historicity of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s often surreally absurd dogma. If you enjoy that one, I encourage you to delve deeper with Diana Price’s Shakespeare’s Unorthodox Biography. LAURA BIRDSALL

'Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan' By William Hjortsberg

Richard Brautigan is emblematic of a generation of post-Beat-Generation poets who embodied the druggy surrealism of the West Coast in the 1960s. In classic titles like Trout Fishing in America and A Confederate General at Big Sur, Brautigan blurred the line between short story, poetry and personal essay, creating works that were as touching and illuminating as they were original and askew. This exhaustive biography can bring you the story of the man behind the wire-rimmed granny glasses just in time for April’s National Poetry Month celebration. And Jubilee Hitchhiker’s 878 pages might last you all the way through 2020. JOE NOLAN

'Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine' By Emily Bernard

This book begins with a stabbing — it’s a jarring entrance into Emily Bernard’s life. In 12 essays, she lays out, with brutal honesty, her experiences growing up black in the Nashville area, marrying a white man, adopting two Ethiopian children and more. From the small moments to the big, she writes her stories in a way that makes you feel everything. AMANDA HAGGARD

'Miles: The Autobiography' By Miles Davis

Miles Davis’ autobiography is one of the wildest, most profane books you’ll ever read. Davis strings blue language together nearly as well as he strings blues notes together with his legendary trumpet playing. And a life full of late nights in jazz clubs, studios, limousines and in the thrall of drug addiction and alcoholism gave him countless stories which he fearlessly shares here. This one is necessary reading for fans of the documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, which is great, and currently streaming on Netflix. JOE NOLAN