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The Books Roxane Gay Has Recommended on Twitter

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Jamie Canaves

Contributing Editor

Jamie Canavés is the Tailored Book Recommendations coordinator and Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter writer–in case you’re wondering what you do with a Liberal Arts degree. She’s never met a beach she didn’t like, always says yes to dessert, loves ‘80s nostalgia, all forms of entertainment, and can hold a conversation using only gifs. You can definitely talk books with her on Litsy and Goodreads. Depending on social media’s stability maybe also Twitter and Bluesky.

Thanks to Roxane Gay I discovered the books Green Girl and Dare Me, which is why I always keep an eye out for her bookish tweets on Twitter. Not only is she a great writer (Ayiti, Bad Feminist, and An Untamed State) I find that she also has excellent reading taste—seriously, she’s yet to let me down.

Being that she’s a prolific twitterer (I’m making it a thing) I thought I’d round-up as many book tweets as I could find from this year, while trying not to get TOO distracted by Tatum Channing and Ina Garten posts.

So if you’re looking for your next great read or think your TBR list could use a serious growth spurt, here are Roxane Gay’s book recommendations. (Sorry, you’ll have to do your own search for all the Tatum tweets.)        

 

Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish, Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng, The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara  

 

Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

     

 

The Unfinished World and Other Stories by Amber Sparks (Liveright, January 25, 2016)  

 

Night at the Fiestas by Kirstin Valdez Quade

     

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates  

 

Missoula by Jon Krakauer

 

  How to Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes

 

The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson

 

  City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg (Knopf, October 13, 2015)

 

Oh! You Pretty Things by Shanna Mahin

 

  Gutshot by Amelia Gray

 

Damage Done by Amanda Panitch

 

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan, Citizen by Claudia Rankine

   

 

Today I Am a Book by xTx

 

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

 

  Ruby by Cynthia Bond

 

Many Small Fires by Charlotte Pence

 

If that’s still not enough books (is it possible to have enough books?) here are Stephen King’s tweeted book recs.