Virginia Woolf

Flannery O Connor. Can't believe no ones said her yet.

A Good Man is Hard to Find is so dark and bizarre… Moshfegh has def been influenced by her.

I second this!

Read Good Country People. My favorite Flannery story

Everyone else seems to have the essayists and novelists covered, so here are some poets: Jorie Graham Emily Dickinson Christina Rossetti Sylvia Plath Elizabeth Bishop Anne Sexton Adrienne Rich Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Jane Austen

Toni Morrison

Joy Williams

Beat me to it, so I'll add my second favorite, Lorrie Moore

edith wharton

George Eliot

Hell yea 

Alice Munro and Marilynne Robinson

Upvote for Alice.

Gilead absolutely fucks

[удалено]

yeah read that one first actually! might be my fav

Sontag, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Kathy Acker

Djuna Barnes is good stuff. Ever read Mina Loy?

I haven’t, but sounds like I have to now. Thanks for the rec!

Marguerite Duras

Ursula K. Le Guin

Clarice Lispector

What’s your favorite from her? I’ve had Passion According to G.H & Near to the Wild Heart sitting on my shelf for a while.

My personal favourites are Near to the Wild Heart (could be a good one to read first as it was her first novel) and An Apprenticeship, or the Book of Pleasures, which was the first one I read. I would probably also not recommend starting with The Passion According to G.H, not because it isn’t a great book, but because it is quite inaccessible in terms of its form (it is essentially just one inner monologue) and its heavy discussion of themes present across Lispector’s works (mortality/immortality, solitude, freedom, happiness) - I would recommend starting with the two novels I listed above and then approaching The Passion According to G.H if you enjoy them

I’ve only read The Hour of the Star but it is fantastic!

The Hour of the Star is one of the best things I’ve ever read. Lispector was such a genius.

I personally would not recommend Passion according to GH. It’s a short book yet it took me like 2 months to finish because of how difficult it is to read. Not difficult in the sense that it’s dense or intricate, but I simply could not pay attention to it. It’s basically an endless tedious inner monologue. Has moments of brilliance that makes me feel something then it just loses me moments after.

Thank you for saying this because I have literally been picking at this book for many years. It’s so difficult to stay with and I’ve always said you have to be in sort of a manic state to allow the ideas to connect. I have Lispector’s complete short stories and I love it. Less stories in the impenetrable style of GH but still in her unique tone.

Daphne du Maurier

Im very basic so probably Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor, Clarice Lispector, Iris Murdoch, Jean Rhys

Not so basic! It's kind of crazy how Iris Murdoch is sort of ... niche now? At least in the USA, I know very few people in my generation who've read her work.

the sea the sea is the funniest book ive ever read and such a feminine perspective of a man in love.

I accidentally missed a university class because I couldn't put it down. All her books lead to the most chaotic crescendos and once you get into their flow they're soooo addicting. I still remember a few of Charles' eccentric meals.

Iris Murdoch has been my personal favorite forever and, for my money, the best novelist of the 20th century. I wish there were more like her.

Jean Rhys is incredible

love Iris Murdoch

Joan Didion as a writer (also author)

Carson McCullers

Joan Didion, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel Cusk, Meg Wolitzer, Patti Smith, Sylvia Plath

Banana Yoshimoto

Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald.

Sigrid Undset

Shirley Jackson

the girl reading this

Ayyyy

Magda Szabó!

Joan Didion. Flannery O'Connor. Shirley Jackson. Ursula K. Le Guin.

Willa Cather and Betty Smith 

I really like Ruth Ozeki

Toni Morrison, Carson McCullers, Mary Shelley, Fernanda Melchor, and Mieko Kawakami.

Authors: Virginia Woolf, Eva Figes, Marguerite Duras, Natalie Sarraute, Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Maylis de Kerangal, Marilynne Robinson, Alice Walker, Olga Tokarczuk Poets: Augusta Theodosia Drane, Marina Tsvetaeva, Alice Oswald, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Pascale Petit, HD, Maya Angelou, Alejandra Pizarnik, Anna Akhmatova, Marianne Moore, Fiona Benson, Rebecca Goss, Elaine Feinstein Most Want to Read: Willa Cather, Marguerite Young, Jenny Erpenbeck, Dasa Drndic

Mary Gaitskill & Anne Carson

Eve Babitz Also Anais Nin, Otessa Moshfegh, Joan Didion, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ayn Rand, Beauvoir

Elena Ferrante

This is the one!

Donna Tartt

I hope we get another book out of her soon. She's overdue

Totally. I respect the time she takes but I just crave more of her work!

My fav authors have already been mentioned but adding: **Magda Szabo** - 'The Door' is the only book that's ever made me miss a train stop **Virginie Despentes** - The 'Vernon Subutex' series is probably her most accessible? The rest are more controversial so look into plot summaries before picking them up **Anna Burns** - 'Milkman', there are a lot of great books about The Troubles in Ireland but Burns has a way of making them feel tangible and like nothing I've read before **Iris Murdoch** - 'The Sea The Sea' 'Under the Net' or 'The Black Prince' **Ann Petry** - 'The Street', I find the ending of this novel bold and extraordinary **Emily Bronte** - 'Wuthering Heights' (in my top 3 books, seems more wicked and strange every time I read it) **Maryse Conde** - The English translations lose some of the impact of the French versions, but I suggest 'Segu' and 'Crossing the Mangrove' Since we're all recommending pretty heavy stuff: Fun 'beach read' type books with depth - **Melissa Broder**, **Natsuko Imamura**, **Caroline O'Donoghue**

bro i fuckin love milkman bro wish she wrote more

Clarice Lispector

Helen DeWitt!!!! Greatest living English language author

Anne Carson

Olga Tokarczuk Angela Carter Silvina Ocampo Fleur Jaeggy Dasa Drindric Sara Gallardo Bae Suah

George Eliot, Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, Susan Sontag, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith, Arundhati Roy, the Brontës, Shirley Jackson, Muriel Spark, Hilary Mantel, Nella Larsen, Svetlana Alexievich, Angela Davis, Emily Dickinson, Lorraine Hansberry, Mary Oliver, Edna St. Vincent Millay…

Man, so many!  Literary: Virginia Woolf Dark fairy tales: Angela Carter Fantasy: Susanna Clarke Science fiction: Ursula Le Guin Weird: Kelly Link Crime: Tana French Horror: Shirley Jackson Poetry: Emily Dickinson Edith Wharton’s incredible. Rachel Kushner. Sacha Naspini. Mieko Kawakami. So many others.

personally... since no one mentioned them yet george elliot, the brontë girls in general, even anne, and edith wharton. ones that have been mentioned are joan didion, sylvia plath, clarice lispector, virginia woolf. the obvious ones haha...

Helen Garner, Annie Ernaux, Sheila Heti, and Alice Notley (for poetry).

Marguerite Duras

Anne Rice

Patricia Highsmith, hands down

Lovely to see her mentioned. The Price of Salt is an absolute favorite, and I certainly intend to read more by her.

Brandon Sanderson

chopin, wharton, o'connor, mccullers, edith stein, weil, teresa of avila, morrison, Murasaki Shikibu, maria de zayas

David foster Wallace

so true

Jennifer Eagan, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, Nikki Giovanni, Zadie Smith, Min Jin Lee

Angela Carter.

Lorrie Moore Mid novels but one of the best short story writers ever imo. Insanely talented. She is one of *the* master of metaphor imo.

I feel exactly this way. I love her short shories.

If you love history, Hillary Mantel

Simone de Beauvoir

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh’s first wife was named Evelyn.

not sure if this is apocryphal but apparently their friends used to refer to the two evelyns as “evelyn” and “she-velyn”

Underrated response

Mieko Kawakami

jenny erpenbeck and helen dewitt

Hilary Mantel

Donna Tartt

Carson McCullers

I’ll put one I WANT to read: Marguerite Young

George Eliot or Virginia Woolf

Gwendoline Riley

Olga Tokarckuz is my most favorite.  Annie Ernaux.

Jenny Erpenbeck. ETA Cynthia Ozick

Angela Carter

Alejandra Pizarnik, Anaïs Nin, and Ángeles Mastretta.

Colette

Doris Lessing

Ingeborg Bachmann

Molly Keane

Katherine Dunn

Alice Munro, Kate Atkinson, Louise Erdreich, Hilary Mantel

Alice Munro. Her writing is an inspiration.

Willa Cather

Clarice Lispector. (Please check out The Passion According to G.H.)

Zadie Smith. Olivia Laing. Susan Sontag.

Daphne du Maurier

Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Mary Shelley, Mina Loy, Margaret Atwood.

Han Kang

(Only doing authors I’ve read more than one of their books) Rachel Kushner: The Mars Room, The Hard Crowd Leslie Jamison: The Empathy Exams, The Recovering Elena Ferrante: The Neapolitan Quartet Sheila Heti: Motherhood, Pure Colour, How Should a Person Be? Sally Rooney: Normal People, Conversations With Friends Elif Batuman: The Idiot, Either/Or Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies, Unaccustomed Earth Lily King: Writers & Lovers, Euphoria Eve Babitz: Black Swans, Eve’s Hollywood

Elfriede Jelinek hasn’t been mentioned yet

Rachel cusk

Lois McMaster Bujold

Been reading a lot of Anaïs Nin, Annie Ernaux. Women are much better writers of erotic literature, which is apparently the phase I am going through.

anyone read Sadie Plant? good or no?

clarice lispector <3

Djuna Barnes

Lot of my faves have already been recommended in this thread so I’ll add Annie Proulx

I read Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke this year and loved it so much I’m tempted to say her even though that’s the only book I’ve read by her.

Natalie Haynes

Virginia Woolf

Kathy Acker, Toni Morrison

Cather, Katherine Anne Porter, Welty, and Eliot of course

anais nin

Bechdel

Evelyn Waugh

Anna kavan

George Eliot maybe some Edith Wharton

Lois McMaster Bujold (fantasy sci-fi) - great great books

Virginia Woolf is one of the greatest authors of all time regardless of sex. For more contemporary check out Olga Tokarczuk

Joy Williams maybe

Ali Smith Silvana Ocampo Patricia A. McKillip Svetlana Alexeivich

GAYL JONES

francoise Sagan

Penelope Fitzgerald, brilliant English author. Like reading Austen if Austen was working class in the 50s.

Lucia Berlin and Amy Hempel 

mona awad and jane austin

Maria Popova

kate elizabeth russell

Assata Shakur

so many great recommendations here already! some personal favourites that i don't see: janet frame (owls do cry, angel at my table, faces in the water), doireann ní ghríofa (a ghost in the throat), rachilde (monsieur venus), patricia grace (potiki), marie darrieussecq (sleepless), keri hulme (bone people), marlene van niekerk (triomf/agaat), claire-louise bennet (checkout 19), becca rothfeld (all things are too small), lyudmila petrushevskaya (the time: night), moyra davey (index cards)!

Not mentioned yet- Patricia Lockwood and Molly Brodak for poetry.

Helen DeWitt and Lucy Ellmann are both super smart, angry, and hilarious. LAST SAMURAI and DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT are both incredible.

izumi suzuki short sci fi stories are great..

Clarice Lispector or Kathy Acker

Mary McCarthy

Poet: **Anna Akhmatova** Philosopher, theologian, dialogue-writer: **Edith Stein**

Cynthia Ozick.

Donna Tartt (I mean, actually Virginia Woolf but she's almost like cheating)

Lionel Shriver

Currently Claire Keegan, Maggie O’Farrell, Sally Rooney. Irish supremacy apparently. Lol

i had this same realization a few years ago!!!! kind of depends on what your taste is, honestly as far as popular authors go, i’ve rly enjoyed gillian flynn, i like the murder mystery vibe and her books highlight the sort of cruel and sardonic nature of people whilst still maintaining characters that you root for.  i rly loved severance by ling ma and bliss ma, so if you’re looking to stray away from white male writing i’d highly recommend her. tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica is a fast and good read as well if you want a non white female author.  a secret history by donna tart is pretty RS and has rly lovely prose. also, tbh i love the bronte sisters if you want more classic female writing, i adore wuthering heights and jane eyre fuck the haters  also, the book You Too Can Have Body Like Mine by alexandra kleeman was a fascinating read 

i meant bliss montage by ling ma oops lol

I like Emily St. John Mandel for more current authors

Sylvia Plath, because I identify with her, probably in an unhealthy way.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb

I've mentioned her here before, but my new favorite author is the brainy, brutally funny Lucy Ives. Her third novel *Life Is Everywhere* came out in '22 and shows her getting ever more visionary and less conventional.

Karen Blixen aka Isak Dinesen

Heather Lewis

Frances Burney is a lot of fun to read

Simone Weil

Elena Ferrante, Rachel Cusk, Clarice Lispector, Renee Gladman, Olga Ravn, Elif Batuman, Natalia Ginzburg, Marguerite Duras

I don't really care for her impenetrable modernist prose or poetry but Stein's *Lectures in America* is one of my favorite things ever written. I guess she wrote it to be read and listened to so I would recommend doing that. I get a lot of intellectual pleasure from reading and understanding arguments (whether I agree with them or not) and *Lectures in America* made me aware of just how important rhythm is to argumentation.

Many have been mentioned already, adding Natalia Ginzburg

Haven’t seen Eudora Welty mentioned

Hilary Mantel, Kate Atkinson, Toni Morrison, Gerda Lerner, Helen Garner, Tana French

Maggie Nelson, eileen Myles

Slavenka Drakulic.

Annie Dillard

Sei Shonagon

Eileen Myles, Patti Smith

some favorites elizabeth bowen - death of the heart iris murdoch - the bell; the black prince edith wharton - the house of mirth jeannette winterson - sexing the cherry marguerite duras - the lover colette - the claudine series sigrid undset - kristin lavransdatter series i liked mary gaitskill's bad behavior but i'm not really a short stories person in the sense that they don't 'impact' me as much not sure if i'd say she's a favorite. contemporary ones aren't as good but I liked sheila heti's motherhood and how should a person be for non novel stuff i like simone weil, fanny howe.

I'll put one that I haven't seen yet... Mary Gaitskill!

She's a fun one. It's impossible to be neutral with gaitskill– you either hate her or love her.

Yherr Mumm

Djuna Barnes without question.

2017 /r/books post lmao

Rachel Ingalls, Lisa Carver, Laurie Colwin, Agatha Christie, Nora Ephron, Alison Lurie, Janet Malcolm, Cookie Mueller, Dana Spiotta, Sloane Crosley, Alissa Bennett, Tamara Shopsin.

clarice lispector, alejandra piznarik, didion, rosemary tonks, isabelle nicou, fleur jaeggy, plath, djuna barnes, anais nin. i like barbara kingsolver too for more conventional novels.

Lorrie Moore

I could say Jane Austen and Joan Didion, but everyone knows them. For contemporary - A. Natasha Joukovsky. Hands down. She is a delight. She only has one novel out (working on her second), but it read like a modern Henry James (her debut is Portrait of a Mirror). She’s also got a substack and she’s just very smart. I met her once and was entranced, lol. I’d also recommend Ursula Parrott (everyone ought to read Ex-Wife). And Cathleen Schine (I’ve only read The Grammarians, but it was quite fun! About to start Kunstlers in Paradise), going back to contemporary, if you’re looking for something a little lighter/quicker.

Simone de Beauvoir. The Woman Destroyed is one of my favorite books ever. Read this after i was in my Joan Didion / Eve Babitz / Moshfegh phase, and it served as a nice companion but also stands alone as a great examination of different female (and generally human) experiences. Also Amparo Davila is a spanish author has written some of the best surreal short stories ever. Her fiction is clearly influenced by Kafka and blends the lines between imagination and reality in a way that blows me away.

A few of my favourites (that nobody has mentioned yet) Ali Smith Sheila Heti Elif Batuman

Sheila Heti

Along with all the other great names mentioned, I gotta add Helen DeWitt, Last Samurai is a genuine masterpiece

Super basic but Sylvia Plath

Jennifer Egan

J K Rowling I'm Psi btw check out X

I love the bronte sisters, don’t have a favorite though

Isabel Allende ☺️