Both Qua And Otherwise
Between Sampson And The Shears
The Multitude of Forgettenings
And Yet, Never
The Ski Lift Of Entropy
Swimming Upside-Down: A Life Told In Reverse
The Sea And The See And The C
The Hereness Of The Outdoors
Simply Erstwhile As It Happened Not To
Mr. Frederickson Doesn’t Take A Walk After All
The Dire Watchbridge
Through Myself, Dimly
The Narrowing Of Escapement
The Headmistress’ Murrain
Subordinate To Grace
Long Tall Kafka
The Wheel Slowly Turned
King Canute Withdraws
Suleiman And Me
The Rules Of Forgetting
Creating Undoing
The Swamp Lessons
Doubt The Rhododendron
The Wastrel’s Vulgate
The Only Grail In East Montana
Maladroit Invertebrates
Gird The Ouroboros
The Fisher King Rotates
An Inward Unexamining
The Never-Again Of Gretchen
Thrice Shy
Come The Rains And Swell The Melon
Wake The Mollusk
The Ad Hoc Symposium
Stones Cry Out
The Curse Of The Footstep
Cup Of Clouds
Niece Of The Sea God
Omni-Nonsense
The Opacity Of Not-Seeing
Madison, Wisconsin (#4)
The Chunklet Of Helpfulness
Nothing Happened After All: Love, Helen
Forgetment
Sling Down The Old Times, Captain Nate
Special thanks to @theshrillest and Christian Brown for joke assistance.
Tags: books, literary novels, yeah man
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Madison, Wisconsin (#4)
Is this the fourth book in a series? Are they all named Madison, Wisconsin, or are they different place names? Or is this the full title of one, stand-alone book? Or is this the first book in a series, with sequels with completely unrelated names?
I don’t know, but I’ve always thought if I was a musician my first album would be called, “Greatest Hits, Volume 3.”
This was my exact question on reading this list! It’s gotta be a sequel, where the first one was such an acclaimed bestseller that the author was given free rein and few edits going forward, and the page count has been creeping steadily upward.
But what are the others? (Please tell me the whole thing is called “The Prairie Cycle” or something)
madison, wisconsin is the fourth on the LIST OF CITIES TO VISIT IF YOU [CRUX OF EXISTENTIAL CRISIS]. commence inspirational road trip. don’t have to look at the rest of the list- madison, wisconsin (#4) was the best of them all.
Where can I preorder it?
This is the reason I did not go to see Big Hero 6. I thought I would never catch up without having seen the other five movies.
“The Dire Watchbridge” was told in the POV of the bridge. Critics called it “groundbreaking…shattering stereotypes…new frontiers in literary thought””
Please tell me how I can subscribe to Doorstoppers of the Month Club.
Step 1: Apologize to your mail carrier in advance. They will recognize this pre-apology as a statement of intent and submit your subscription automatically.
Step 2: Apologize to your mail carrier upon delivery of each book; it’s only polite to do so.
I can only hope that The Narrowing Of Escapement is followed by the pulse-pounding sequel Terms of Enrampagement.
Okay but I would read every word of “Mr. Frederickson Doesn’t Take A Walk After All” with a giant pot of tea, and I fell confident in my belief that it would be both poignant and heart-warming.
with occasional moments of wry humour that really hit you about eleven pages later
“The Chunklet Of Helpfulness is meaty storytelling and full-bodied prose–to be savored well. Suggested pairing: Barbara Pym’s Glass of Blessings.”
The Hereness of the Outdoors sounds like a dissertation that was adapted into a novel after the author quit grad school.
“Creating Undoing” sounds like the theme of a cultural studies conference I would want to go to and then not understand anything that’s happening.
Sounds like a book about Zen.
“Doubt The Rhododendron”
(nods vigorously) Oh, I do, Mallory. I do.
The Remonstrations
“Jaguar!” Quoth I
The Mulching of Elias Grandview
Huffing Toward Samarkand
The Falkland Quintet, Part II: Sheep For The Shearing
Swift the Waters, and Tangy
Under the Eaves, Above the Sky
The Newport Inundations
Time, and Time, and Time Thrice More
An Empire of Foreboding
When the Junebugs Depart
A Season for the Cormorant
The Way Back to Doubt
The River That Runs Through the Schoolhouse Door
Where My Father Jumped Rope
Really bad planning to put a schoolhouse there
The Atheist’s Blessing
Cobwebs and Corn Cobs
Wings of Tin
The Pulchritudinous Yeoman
Any takers for ‘Spare Glib’?
It’s about a poetry slam champion whose day job is managing a bowling alley in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
Spoiler: the book ends with him torching his workplace and boarding the Megabus for Cleveland.
If Lifetime made that into a movie (starring Markie Post as the mother who gave up her life to raise the protagonist) as part of their new campaign to attract disaffected youth, I would watch it at least 5 times.
I fully expected “Because, As It Were,” to be in there.
Also, I’m like 99% sure my university library had at least six copies of A Multitude of Forgettenings.
I would read The Only Grail in East Montana and Niece of the Sea God, assuming the titles are straightforward accounts of what the stories are about and not (ugh) metaphors or something.
Yes, I read “The Only Grail in East Montana” and went, “Oh man, that sounds really interesting!” before realizing that obviously, if this was a literary doorstopper, the grail would be a metaphor for a woman or the author’s childhood porch swing or a slightly unusual lamppost that was also a metaphor for life.
Niece of the Sea God sounds like a great kids’ cartoon, except it would probably be called “My Uncle Rules…The Ocean!!!” or something. She’s a regular kid but every summer she hangs out with her merfolk cousins in their undersea castle…
I would read the hell out of that.
Stand aside, John Cowper Powys.
At least 3/4 of these titles could be for autobiographical lesbian coming of age books, Rubyfruit Jungle style.
As one who used to work for a bookstore whose name rhymes with “Schmarnes & Boble”, all of these titles not only struck a familiar chord, but their possible book covers popped spontaneously into my head.
The Headmistress’ Murrain and The Dire Watchbridge sound like proper Victorian novels, which as Flora Post points out are the best kind of books to read while eating an apple.
Wake The Mollusk would get a ton of purchases from all the Boognish worshipers based on the name alone. Ween forever!!!
I’m so glad one other person is on this wavelength.
Mr. Frederickson Doesn’t Take A Walk After All is a book I would read so hard
I think most of these names are Christian hardcore bands
I misread “Niece” as “Noose Of The Sea God.” Close enough.
In all seriousness, I wonder if there aren’t some books that are bought by publishers solely on the basis of the title. Thrice Shy could be pitched as “Orphan Black, only as a rom-com.”
There are. It’s called ‘high concept pitching’ and I know several now-NYT-bestselling-authors whose careers have launched thanks to their high-concept pitch skills. You can take workshops in how to develop high-concept pitches.
“Nothing Happened After All: Love, Helen” — stealing that for my fictional retelling of my Nana’s life story.
I will go to the packed bookstore signing of the twat who writes The Sea And The See And The C and pay $29.99 for his tome just to slap him upside the head with it.
A lot of these sound like they should be illustrated by Edward Gorey.
Really bad planning to put a schoolhouse there
I have no words…I’d quit my job and use all my savings to buy these and read them in the park. (And I’m so glad you’re not writing my great unwritten novel Our Goddess – the speculative novelization of Joan of Arc).
I would buy “The Only Grail In East Montana” on the basis of the title alone.
I would buy “The Only Grail In East Montana” on the basis of the title alone.
Swimming Upside-Down: A Life Told In Reverse. Is written in the second person, opens in the middle of a nighttime ocean swim on the eve of the author's fifty-first birthday. It's implied that the author is contemplating suicide. Next chapter is six sentences long but takes up two pages and concerns itself with how, age ten, she cost her swimming squad (the Ostshire Dolphins) first place in the 400m relay because she dropped the baton when her fingers briefly touched her squadmate's, on whom she had a (secret, shameful, confusing) crush. Thus linking forever in her head failure, water, and women.
Her father is called by his name in lower case itallics – " lionel arrived home late that night and I observed him from under the verandah as he wept in his car (a tan Pontiac I called Mathilde)" while her mother is only called MOTHER.
Sling Down The Old Times, Captain Nate: My Year of (Mis)Adventures on the Highways and Byways of England's Canals. Left reeling from an unexpected divorce Natalie "Nate" Gibbons chucks in her job as a commodities trader in the City and impulsively purchases a narrow boat. Despite knowing nothing about the nautical life, she decided to take a year to find herself on the waterways of merry old Blighty. With her daughter Zelda, and mother Francine along for the ride as well, these ladies set sail for adventure!
£20, illustrated throughout by Francine's watercolours and Zelda's instagrams. Soon to be a BBC4 mini series staring Dame Judy Dench as Francine, Olivia Coleman as Nate and Nathalie Emmanuel as Zelda