{"id":249884,"date":"2025-09-23T21:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T21:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/249884\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T21:07:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T21:07:18","slug":"read-patricia-lockwoods-2025-book-recommendations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/249884\/","title":{"rendered":"Read Patricia Lockwood\u2019s 2025 Book Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com\u2019s books column<\/a>, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you\u2019re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you\u2019re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too. <\/p>\n

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com\u2019s books column<\/a>, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you\u2019re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you\u2019re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too. <\/p>\n

Patricia Lockwood<\/a> pulls from the well of personal experience in her novels, including in her latest, Will There Ever Be Another You<\/a>. The story follows a woman grappling with the symptoms of long COVID<\/a>, and is inspired, Lockwood says, by \u201ca sudden and total departure from reality, and the desire to send postcards home about it.\u201d (Lockwood wrote about her own illness from COVID in \u201cInsane after Coronavirus?<\/a>\u201d for the London Review of Books.) <\/p>\n

\u201cI had an agreement with myself that every perception I put in [Will There Ever Be Another You] would be accurate,\u201d Lockwood says. \u201cFacts and set dressings could change, but the perceptions must be real. So when it was finished I was surprised by how complete and faithful a picture it presented of this strange state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Thurber Prize for American Humor-winning memoir, Priestdaddy<\/a>, chronicled moving back in with her mother and Lutheran-minister-turned-Catholic-priest father along with her husband. And Lockwood\u2019s debut novel, No One is Talking About This<\/a>\u2014which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Women\u2019s Prize for Fiction, and won the Dylan Thomas Prize\u2014focused on a woman consumed by the Internet. (Lockwood has been called the poet laureate of a pre-Elon Musk Twitter<\/a>.) She has also written two poetry collections, Balloon Pop Outlaw Black<\/a> and Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals<\/a>, and is currently at work on another poetry collection. <\/p>\n

The Indiana-born, Georgia-based bestselling author, poet, and essayist goes by \u201cTricia<\/a>\u201d; went to six Catholic schools<\/a> and was in a Christian youth group called God\u2019s Gang<\/a>; has lived<\/a> in multiple rectories and an abandoned convent; met Pope Francis<\/a>; met her husband in a poetry chatroom and married him at 21; has cats named Miette, Fenriz, and Gilly; and writes in bed.<\/p>\n

The one reading habit she\u2019ll never change? \u201cReading first thing in the morning with my coffee. And also reading Hollywood memoirs on planes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good at<\/strong>: procrastination<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bad at: <\/strong>being watched<\/a>; switching genres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likes:<\/strong> GAP sweatsuits<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Dislikes<\/strong>: low-rise jeans<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Scroll through her book recommendations below. <\/p>\n

The book that\u2026:\u2026I recommend over and over again:<\/p>\n

Definitely Maya Angelou\u2019s autobiographical sequence, particularly the first four books, which span not just decades but continents. Singin\u2019 and Swingin\u2019 and Gettin\u2019 Merry Like Christmas<\/a> is my sentimental favorite, because I\u2019ll read anything about a company on tour.<\/p>\n

    …currently sits on my nightstand:<\/p>\n

    This Year<\/a> by John Darnielle! It\u2019s a book of his lyrics (365 songs, naturally) with some deeper background on each. <\/p>\n

      …I\u2019d pass on to a kid:<\/p>\n

      Tell Me a Mitzi<\/a> by Lore Segal\u2014recently reissued by New York Review Books. This book contains the greatest illustration (done by Harriet Pincus) of a bowl of chicken soup that the world has ever seen.<\/p>\n

        …made me laugh out loud:<\/p>\n

        Wanda Hickey\u2019s Night of Golden Memories<\/a> by Jean Shepherd. Everyone knows In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash<\/a> for the Christmas Story connection, but this one is indelible to me for the waft of sauerkraut between Wanda\u2019s lips.<\/p>\n

          \u2026I\u2019d like turned into a TV show:<\/p>\n

          Mrs. Caliban<\/a> by Rachel Ingalls, obviously. I want to see those freaks get it on! <\/a><\/p>\n

            \u2026I last bought: <\/p>\n

            A copy of Shakespeare\u2019s The Tempest<\/a> and Ellen Bryant Voigt\u2019s Collected Poems<\/a>, which contains her sequence about the forgotten flu pandemic.<\/p>\n

              …has the greatest ending:<\/p>\n

              Probably has to be Villette<\/a> by Charlotte Bront\u00eb. What happened to that fussy little boy M. Paul??<\/p>\n

                …has a sex scene that will make you blush: <\/p>\n

                Bent on Grace by Maryann Brickey. Tell me another book whose romantic interludes involve sea turtles, golf, and unexploded nuclear bombs.<\/p>\n

                  \u2026helped me become a better writer:<\/p>\n

                  Nabokov\u2019s Speak, Memory<\/a>\u2014not just in the traditional way, but in the very literal sense that when I was finishing Priestdaddy and felt I needed a little more punch here and there, I went through the text and freely lifted his adjectives.<\/p>\n

                    \u2026.is a master class on dialogue: <\/p>\n

                    Anything by Henry Green, particularly Party Going<\/a> and Loving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

                    \u2026.describes a house I\u2019d want to live in or a place I\u2019d want to visit:<\/p>\n

                    Probably I Capture the Castle<\/a>. I need to kiss that powerful gargoyle.<\/p>\n

                    \u2026I would have blurbed if asked:<\/p>\n

                    I actually was sent Han Kang\u2019s The Vegetarian<\/a> to blurb, but didn\u2019t get to read it in time! <\/p>\n

                    \u2026I never returned to the library (mea culpa):<\/p>\n

                    It\u2019s an odd one that I\u2019ve never heard of anyone else reading: Margaret of the Imperfections<\/a> by Lynda Sexson. It\u2019s clearly a forerunner in that \u201980s\/\u201990s short-story magical-realism wave. The title story concerns a woman whose body begins producing pearls.<\/p>\n

                    \u2026makes me feel seen:<\/p>\n

                    An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter<\/a> by C\u00e9sar Aira. I probably reread Ghosts<\/a> more, but something about the saga of a man taken apart by lightning in a strange landscape and left to make his way resonates with me.<\/p>\n

                    \u2026I could only have discovered at The Dusty Bookshelf in Lawrence, Kansas:<\/p>\n

                    Gossamer Axe<\/a> by Gael Baudino! A fantastic story about lesbian harp-love channeled through an electric guitar…or something. <\/p>\n

                    \u2026that holds a recipe to a favorite dish:<\/p>\n

                    Ruth Reichl\u2019s Comfort Me with Apples<\/a>, which contains her approximation of Danny Kaye\u2019s recipe for lemon pasta, which she said was transcendent. Something about the way she describes it nearly melting on the tongue, and having to eat it in the kitchen while it was still hot.<\/p>\n

                    Read Patricia Lockwood\u2019s Book Recommendations\"<i>Singin'<\/a>Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya AngelouCredit: Random House Trade Paperbacks\"<i>This<\/a>This Year by John DarnielleCredit: MCD\"<i>Tell<\/a>Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal<\/p>\n

                    Now 23% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: NYRB Kids\"<i>Wanda<\/a>Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories by Jean ShepherdCredit: Crown\"<i>Mrs.<\/a>Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls<\/p>\n

                    Now 31% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: New Directions\"<i>The<\/a>The Tempest by William Shakespeare<\/p>\n

                    Now 19% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: Simon & Schuster\"<i>Collected<\/a>Collected Poems by Ellen Bryant Voigt<\/p>\n

                    Now 26% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: W. W. Norton & Company\"<i>Villette<\/i><\/a>Villette by Charlotte Bront\u00eb<\/p>\n

                    Now 14% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: Penguin Classics\"<i>Speak,<\/a>Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov <\/p>\n

                    Now 12% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: Vintage\"<i>Party<\/a>Party Going by Henry GreenCredit: NYRB Classics\"<i>Loving<\/i><\/a>Loving by Henry Green<\/p>\n

                    Now 20% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: NYRB Classics\"<i>The<\/a>The Vegetarian by Han Kang<\/p>\n

                    Now 34% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: Hogarth\"<i>Margaret<\/a>Margaret of the Imperfections by Lynda SexsonCredit: Persea Books\"<i>An<\/a>An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by C\u00e9sar Aira <\/p>\n

                    Now 22% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: New Directions\"<i>Gossamer<\/a>Gossamer Axe by Gael BaudinoCredit: Roc\"<i>Comfort<\/a>Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl<\/p>\n

                    Now 14% Off<\/p>\n

                    Credit: Random House Trade Paperbacks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com\u2019s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you\u2019re on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":249885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,89142,132475,16975,171,3181,2875,132474,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-249884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-content-type-round-up-products","10":"tag-contentid-72620611-6d7d-4364-8d52-e39d72667e94","11":"tag-displaytype-long-form-article","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hasproduct-true","14":"tag-locale-us","15":"tag-shorttitle-shelf-life-patricia-lockwood","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115255656500368886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}