I am forever making these lists and moving on from them. For now (list created & last edited in 2019), here’s a few groupings of words I love. For a change, I’ve linked to the piece itself where available, and not to my own review; I’m pretty sure all of these appear somewhere on this site, so use the search box just above & right of this post to read what I’ve written on each.
Essays:
- “The Fourth State of Matter,” Jo Ann Beard
- “Frame of Reference,” John McPhee
- “Wait Times,” Joe Fassler (Creative Nonfiction, issue 56, summer 2015: Waiting)
- “An Honest Application,” Nathan Elliot (Creative Nonfiction, issue 56, summer 2015: Waiting)
- “How Did You Become a Writer?“, Brian Doyle (American Scholar, “Epiphanies,” August 23, 2013)
Poems:
- “Among the Things He Doesn’t Deserve,” Dan Albergotti (The Boatloads, 2008)
- “At the Quinte Hotel,” Al Purdy
Authors (and a single favorite title):
- Homer (Odyssey)
- Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
- Amy Leach (Things That Are)
- Brian Doyle (Martin Marten)
- Haven Kimmel (She Got Up Off the Couch)
- Philip Connors (Fire Season)
- Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It)
- Mark Doty (Still Life With Oysters and Lemon)
- Eula Biss (Notes From No Man’s Land)
- Ed Abbey (Desert Solitaire)
A few additional books:
- Pieces of White Shell, Terry Tempest Williams
- Lily and the Octopus, Steven Rowley
- Maps to Anywhere, Bernard Cooper
Check back. They’ll change. (Additional lists upon lists available here.)
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