#CatapultReads: Staff Picks

Megha Majumdar, Editorial Assistant

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett (Crown)

Casey Gonzalez, Associate Editor, Black Balloon; Assistant to Publisher

Red Sorghum by Mo Yan (Penguin Books): It is an absolute gut punch—cutting and ornate. A must-read for lovers of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Absalom, Absalom!, or East of Eden. Rarely is rural China's devastating beauty so vividly on display for Western audiences.

Yuka Igarashi, Web Editor in Chief

Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono (New Directions): Powerful, oddly shaped, fascinating stories about women, obsession, pain, sex. Here Rivka Galchen says she is enamored with the title story, ‘about a woman who goes to great lengths to buy other people’s little boys beautiful sweaters that she then is obsessed with watching them struggle into and out of.’”

Allie Wuest, Web Intern

Paul Chan: Selected Writings 2000-2014 by Paul Chan (Schaulager, Laurenz Foundation/Badlands Unlimited)

Leigh Newman, Editor at Large

These Heroic, Happy Dead: Stories by Luke Mogelson (Tim Duggan Books)

Morgan Jerkins, Web Editorial Assistant

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Knopf): I’ve heard such great things about this, including from Ta-Nehisi Coates. 

Julie Buntin, Director of Writing Programs

Fortune Smiles: Stories by Adam Johnson (Random House)

Jonathan Lee, Senior Editor

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler (Knopf): “He loved watermelon-flavored Smirnoff, Jake, cocaine, and pop music. Those subjects provided just enough overlap between us for me to occasionally warrant his attention.” — from the book

Colin Drohan, Writing Programs Assistant

Proxies: Essays Near Knowing by Brian Blanchfield (Nightboat)