A Good Reads Notebook
Six book recommendations for six months gone
Hello, Dear Reader!
This is A Book Designer’s Notebook, a newsletter about books, design, and what I’m working on. I’m Nathaniel Roy.
Somehow, it’s July. Was I this horrified at the pace of a month when I was young? I don’t think so, but that kid didn’t have gray hair in his eyebrows. Must be nice. Oh well—memento mori and all that.
Anyway, since we’ve reached the midpoint of the year, I thought I would share six of my favorite books so far in 2024.
![If Beale Street Could Talk [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F907137e7-081e-4295-9500-403ec6968e8f_648x1000.jpeg "If Beale Street Could Talk [Book]")
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
What a novel. If you, like me, love a good sentence, you need to read James Baldwin.
From the publisher: Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin's story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions—affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.
Time: the word tolled like the bells of a church. Fonny was doing: time. In six months time, our baby would be here. Somewhere, in time, Fonny and I had met: somewhere, in time, we had loved; somewhere, no longer in time, but, now, totally, at time’s mercy, we loved.
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fatsis
If you think you’re good at Scrabble, read this book. I had a lot of fun following the author into this competitive, niche world.
From the publisher: Scrabble may be truly called America’s game. But for every group of “living-room players” there is someone who is “at one with the board.” In Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis introduces readers to those few, exploring the underground world of colorful characters for which the Scrabble game is life-playing competitively in tournaments across the country. It is also the story of how the Scrabble game was invented by an unemployed architect during the Great Depression and how it has grown into the hugely successful, challenging, and beloved game it is today. Along the way, Fatsis chronicles his own obsession with the game and his development as a player from novice to expert. More than a book about hardcore Scrabble players, Word Freak is also an examination of notions of brilliance, memory, language, competition, and the mind that celebrates the uncanny creative powers in us all.
MFA vs. NYC: The Two Cultures of American Fiction edited by Chad Harbach
I’m a little weird. Outside of this newsletter, you can’t really call me a writer. But I have always loved reading books about writing, and it’s only gotten worse since entering the publishing industry. This book is a little dated at this point, especially in a post-pandemic publishing world, but I still thought the discussion interesting.
From the publisher: Writers write—but what do they do for money?
In a widely read essay entitled “MFA vs NYC,” bestselling novelist Chad Harbach (The Art of Fielding) argued that the American literary scene has split into two cultures: New York publishing versus university MFA programs. This book brings together established writers, MFA professors and students, and New York editors, publicists, and agents to talk about these overlapping worlds, and the ways writers make (or fail to make) a living within them. Should you seek an advanced degree, or will workshops smother your style? Do you need to move to New York, or will the high cost of living undo you? What's worse—having a day job or not having health insurance? How do agents decide what to represent? Will Big Publishing survive? How has the rise of MFA programs affected American fiction? The expert contributors, including George Saunders, Elif Batuman, and Fredric Jameson, consider all these questions and more, with humor and rigor. MFA vs NYC is a must-read for aspiring writers, and for anyone interested in the present and future of American letters.
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp
I cut out booze toward the end of last year. Naturally, I wanted to read some books on the subject. Drinking: A Love Story is regarded as one the major memoirs in the “quit lit” genre—and for good reason. Some terrific writing here.
From the publisher: It was love at first sight. The beads of moisture on a chilled bottle. The way the glasses clinked and the conversation flowed. Then it became obsession. The way she hid her bottles behind her lover’s refrigerator. The way she slipped from the dinner table to the bathroom, from work to the bar. And then, like so many love stories, it fell apart. Drinking is Caroline Kapp’s harrowing chronicle of her twenty-year love affair with alcohol.
Of course, there is no simple answer. Trying to describe the process of becoming an alcoholic is like trying to describe air. It’s too big and mysterious and pervasive to be defined. Alcohol is everywhere in your life, omnipresent, and you’re both aware and unaware of it almost all the time; all you know is you’d die without it.
Erasure by Percival Everett
As American Fiction1 was gaining awards steam, I decided to see what the hype for both film and book was all about. Part satire, part family drama, I loved Erasure and its critical-yet-playful tone and structure.
From the publisher: Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been “critically acclaimed.” He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We”s Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days.” Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies—his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer’s, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father’s suicide seven years before.
In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is—under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh—and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.
Know the Mother by Desiree Cooper
This was an insightful and bittersweet short short story collection published by Wayne State University Press. This book is proof you do not need many words to pack a narrative punch.
From the publisher: Short, searing glimpses of how race and gender shadow even the most intimate moments of women’s lives.
While a mother can be defined as a creator, a nurturer, a protector—at the center of each mother is an individual who is attempting to manage her own fears, desires, and responsibilities in different and sometimes unexpected ways. In Know the Mother, author Desiree Cooper explores the complex archetype of the mother in all of her incarnations. In a collage of meditative stories, women—both black and white—find themselves wedged between their own yearnings and their roles as daughters, sisters, grandmothers, and wives.
Bonus (because I cannot help myself): Some honorable mentions include The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Love by Roddy Doyle, and Dearborn: Stories by Ghassan Zeineddini. I’ve enjoyed a lot of books this year!
What I’m working on
Last week: How to Keep on Nodding Terms with Yourself: an essay about how and why I keep a notebook.
Next week: Cover Your Book with Beautiful Garbage: a brief study of great book covers that use “ugly” elements.
In progress: too many things, at various stages of completion. Who knows when they will come out! Something about self-published covers, something about ampersands, something about creativity and depression, something about my book cover process, something about being an artist, something about university yearbooks, something about the public domain. Stay tuned.
No update on that AI-image book cover yet, but I sent new comps this week.
I’m currently working on a cool book about Medieval law and justice as portrayed in movies. I submitted one of my favorite covers in recent history in round one. It will not be used. So it goes.
At the library: I’m working on developing concepts for this fall’s A2 Community Bookfest poster.
At the library: A couple of titles out a little later this year from AADL’s Fifth Avenue Press: Zmagria by Mouna Ammar and Ripple Effects by Amy Hepp. I love designing covers for local books!
Gratitude & Shameless Self-Promotion
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading. There is much—probably too much—to read in this world, so I am grateful for your time and attention.
This newsletter is a labor love, with increasing emphasis on the word “labor.” If you would like to further support my work and keep this newsletter free for everyone, you can:
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Until next time,
—Nathaniel
Further reading: I enjoyed American Fiction, but I read a great critique of it recently from Tembe Denton-Hurst’s Extracurricular newsletter.
Thank you for sharing your reading list, Nathaniel. I’ve always been intrigued by James Baldwin’s novel. I might just give it a go after reading your post!