Light Jacket Reads: 9 Books That Capture the Liminality of September
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper
In September, summer quietly transitions into fall, making it a month of transformation, liminality, and uncertainty; a month where you often find yourself carrying a light jacket “just in case…” though you seem to forget it as a cool breeze chills down your spine. The books on this list consider migration, queerness, confinement, and identity as an ode to everything that is liminal, to everything that is hybrid, to everything that is not quite hot, not quite cold, but oscillates in the “right in-between.”
Fiebre Tropical, Julián Delgado Lopera
Delgado Lopera’s debut coming of age novel follows fifteen-year old Francisca’s migration to Miami from Bogotá, Colombia. Francisca is caught between Miami and Colombia, English and Spanish, romance and despair, evangelical faith and the doubt gnawing underneath it. Fiebre Tropical refuses to pick a single ground to stand on, instead, it dances through taboo with satirical exuberance.
A World Between, Emily Hashimoto
A compelling will-they-won’t-they, Hashimoto taps into the mysterious bond that leads to the perdurance of love and attachment telling the story of two people who can’t quite let go of who they were to each other. Eleanor Suzuki and Leena Shah are now completely different people than they were when they first met in an elevator in college years ago, and yet, their chance encounter sparks a tension that was not as rapidly forgotten as their lectures.
Tsunami: Women’s Voices from Mexico, edited by Gabriela Jauregui and Heather Cleary, translated by Heather Cleary, Gabriela Jauregui, Julianna Neuhouser, Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez, and Julia Sanches
Tsunami embraces multiple pluralites: in its hybrid forms, its confrontation and dismantling of eurocentric feminism to its politics, Tsunami is a collection of works that is exactly everything that is in-between. From both established and emerging Mexican writers, the voracity of the voices in this anthology will remain with you after the page ends.
The Default World, Naomi Kanakia
Jhanvi, a trans-woman plans to exploit a group of wealthy roommates in San Francisco, but is unexpectedly sucked into the glamour of their hedonistic lifestyle. Kanakia’s novel eludes resolution, but sets forth on an inquiry about class, youth and identity, asking: can one “find family” in friendship? In the face of luscious privilege and a new found fondness for those who wield it, should Jhanvi do what is right, or do what is right for her?
Reservoir Bitches, Dahlia De La Cerda (Translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary)
Reservoir Bitches boldly prances between dark humor and social critique. Thirteen Mexican women protagonize stories of endurance, absurdity, and grit, with humor and defiance. De la Cerda explores rage and tenderness in the same breath, refusing to be softened into just one.
Wall Tappings: An International Anthology of Women's Prison Writings, 200 AD to the Present edited by Edited by Judith A. Scheffler
If you are looking for writing that exists at the margins, Wall Tappings pinnacles marginal texts featuring writing by women who were, have been and are in prison. The writing in this collection exists in the space between confinement and voice, the wall itself as the thinnest, most permeable membrane between "inside" and "outside," if you know how to listen for the tapping.
Panpocalypse, Carley Moore
Moore explores confinement, solitude, heartbreak, and romance through her poly, disabled hero who secures a bike to look for her first love in New York City. Set in the onset of the pandemic in New York City, Panpocalypse’s ambience is entirely uncertain, yet its protagonist transforms this story into one of disease, decay, love, and revolution.
