Novels
- Speedboat, by Renata Adler
- The Dead Father, by Donald Barthelme
- U.S.!, by Chris Bachelder
- If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino
- The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
- You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, by Alexandra Kleeman
- The Age of Wire and String, by Ben Marcus
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Vacation, by Deb Olin Unferth
- The Story of My Teeth, by Valeria Luiselli
Short Stories
- Sixty Stories, by Donald Barthelme
- related: “Donald Barthelme’s Syllabus” [from The Believer]
- The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, by Aimee Bender
- Jesus’ Son, by Denis Johnson.
- Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link
- Birds of America, by Lorrie Moore
- Any of George Saunders‘ books – especially Civilwarland in Bad Decline and In Persuasion Nation.
- Vicky Swanky is a Beauty, by Diane Williams
Poems
- Sad Little Breathing Machine, by Matthea Harvey
- Scary No Scary, by Zachary Schomburg
- The Ghost Soldiers, by James Tate