Read 365: No. 4
The theme for the month of November is Voices of Resistance.
A mix of contemporary literary fiction from across worlds.
Some of the books features heavy subject matter, so please be mindful of the content warnings and research them fully.
Your mental wellbeing matters.
Luster
by Raven Leilani
A young Black woman enters an open marriage with a white couple in suburban New Jersey. Leilani's debut is sharp, funny, and utterly original—a story about desire, race, and what it means to be seen.
✨ "I wanted to be wanted and I wanted to be left alone."
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
🔥 226 pages of razor-sharp prose
⭐ NYT Editors' Choice
#MarginsXReads #Luster #RavenLeilani #BlackLit #MillennialLit #OpenMarriage #MustRead
Milkman
by Anna Burns
An 18-year-old girl in 1970s Northern Ireland is stalked by a powerful paramilitary figure. Burns' Booker Prize winner is strange, dark, and unlike anything you've read.
✨ No names. No chapters. All atmosphere and menace.
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
📖 Experimental brilliance
🏆 2018 Booker Prize Winner
#MarginsXReads #Milkman #AnnaBurns #BookerPrize #NorthernIreland #TheTroubles #ExperimentalFiction
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
A powerful literary work centring American voices and experiences. Essential reading on marginalized experiences.
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
💫 What to Expect:
Beautiful, thoughtful prose
Complex character development
Themes that resonate
#MarginsXReads #LiteraryFiction #DiverseBooks #BookCommunity #ReadDiverse
Leave the World Behind
by Rumaan Alam
The perfect vacation rental. A beautiful Long Island house. Then the owners show up at the door in the middle of the night.
Rumaan Alam's thriller is Parasite meets The Twilight Zone. It's about the fragility of civilization, the strangers we become in crisis, and the uncomfortable truths we'd rather not face about privilege, race, and who we believe when the world stops making sense.
📚 Genre: Apocalyptic Literary Fiction
😰 Anxiety Level: 10/10
🏆 National Book Award Finalist • Barack Obama's Best of 2021
#MarginsXReads #LeaveTheWorldBehind #RumaanAlam #LiteraryThriller #Apocalypse #NetflixBooks #BangladeshiAmerican #DiverseBooks #BookClubPick #BarackObamaReading #ThrillerBooks #ReadDiverse
Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
An Artificial Friend watches from a store window, hoping to be chosen. When a sick girl selects her, Klara must navigate love, class, and what it means to be human. Gentle, devastating science fiction.
✨ What does it mean to truly see and be seen?
📚 Genre: Science Fiction
🤖 Philosophical sci-fi
🏆 Nobel Prize Winner
#MarginsXReads #KlaraAndTheSun #KazuoIshiguro #SciFi #AI #NobelPrize #LiteraryFiction
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Two best friends navigate love, friendship, and the state of the world through lengthy email exchanges and messy relationships. Rooney's latest is sharp, political, and deeply felt.
✨ "Why do we think we're so interesting?"
📚 Genre: Contemporary Fiction
📧 Epistolary friendship
#MarginsXReads #SallyRooney #BeautifulWorld #IrishLit #Millennials #Friendship #Love
The Old Drift
by Namwali Serpell
A sweeping multigenerational epic that redefines African literature. Serpell weaves together three families across a century of Zambian history, creating a narrative that's both intimate and mythic—bridging the colonial past and a speculative future.
✨ Lyrical, kaleidoscopic prose that shifts perspective with stunning precision
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction / Magical Realism
📖 Epic scope meets deeply human storytelling
📱 Explores technology, independence, and what it means to be African in a globalised world
#MarginsXReads #TheOldDrift #NamwaliSerpell #LiteraryFiction #AfricanLiterature #ZambianWriters #DiverseBooks #ReadDiverse #MagicalRealism #BookCommunity #Bookstagram #DebutNovel #AwardWinningBooks
The Mars Room
by Rachel Kushner
A young mother is sentenced to life in a California women's prison. Kushner's searing novel exposes the brutality of the carceral system and who gets caught in its machinery.
✨ "The system eats everyone inside it."
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
⚖️ Devastating social critique
#MarginsXReads #TheMarsRoom #RachelKushner #PrisonLiterature #CriminalJustice #SocialJustice
Ghost Wall
by Sarah Moss
A teenage girl joins her controlling father's Iron Age reenactment in Northumberland. As the project grows darker, ancient rituals and modern violence blur. Tense, feminist, brilliant.
✨ About the violence we inherit and reenact.
📚 Genre: Literary Fiction
📖 Pages of mounting dread
#MarginsXReads #GhostWall #SarahMoss #FeministFiction #Gothic #BritishLit #WorkingClass
November’s Voices of Resistance book list