by Joe Wilkins

Jennifer Egan’s follow-up to A Visit From the Goon Squad revisits some of the characters from that book in an absolutely stunning piece of writing.

Colson Whitehead (2016 Pulitzer Prize winner) has written a fantastically entertaining book about holdups and shakedowns in 1960s Harlem.

Author of Blacktop Wasteland (also pictured here), S.A. Cosby has written a thrilling crime/mystery novel set in the rural area around Richmond. This is true “I can’t wait to turn the page” writing.

Joe Wilkins’s book should be the next one you read. It’s hard to state how good this is. It’s poetic and gripping, urgent and beautiful. Wilkins is also a poet, and the setting is Montana. Read this.

Former speechwriter Grand Ginder’s novel about a politician running for Senate has a touch of VEEP but is also full of intrigue. Both hilarious and suspenseful.

This novel by James McBride is a wonderful story about a cast of characters in New York City in 1969 and how their lives intersect, from gangsters to housing project residents to police officers.

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner is a searing alternative to the many American-centric portrayals of the Vietnam war. The dark humor reminds me of Slaughterhouse Five.

How to describe this crime thriller that takes place in rural Virginia: it’s Narcos in book form. Stellar writing and impossible—impossible—to put down.

Ayad Akhtar’s novel

One of my favorite things about Laila Lalami’s novel is that the chapters are narrated by different characters, so you get to see how, say, a mother and a daughter view the same event. Fantastic writing too.

Quite simply, I do not know that I’ve devoured a book this quickly. It’s hilarious and poignant. Kevin Wilson’s book will make you laugh and give you goosebumps. Read it.

Andrew Sean Greer’s book about a middle aged author on an international book tour is very funny, and comedies don’t often win the Pulitzer, as this did in 2018.

Tommy Orange’s debut novel tells the Native American story in urban America, in this case Oakland. It’s a story not often told.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s debut won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Yes, debut. I don’t know that I’ve read many books with such a combination of both dramatic tension and beautiful prose.

Vonnegut’s book is at the top of my list. When I finished it, I slowly put it down, took a deep breath, and beheld its greatness.

Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winning book is a group of 13 connected stories centered around record company executive Bennie Salazar.

Hilarious, dark, irreverent, and moving: Kristen Arnett’s book about a daughter who takes over her deceased father’s taxidermy practice in Florida is fantastic.

Anthony Doerr’s description of canned peaches as “wedges of wet sunlight” is one of the greatest images I’ve ever read. Doerr’s work of WW2 historical fiction won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize.

Few outside the literature community know about Breece D’J Pancake. He was heralded as the “hillbilly Hemingway” because the setting of his sparse prose was in his home state of West Virginia. This book is all we have of his writing because he committed suicide in 1979 at age 26. This book is incredible.

It’s hard to go wrong with any Raymond Carver collection, but this is one of my favorites. Anyone who writes anything should read something by him.

Michelle Zauner fronts the great band Japanese Breakfast, and she’s also written a wonderful memoir centered around growing up Korean American and losing her mother.