Chelsea Bieker’s Recommended Reading List
Photograph of Chelsea Bieker by Wondra
Chelsea Bieker is the California Book Award winning author of three books, most recently the national bestselling novel, Madwoman. Her first novel, Godshot, was longlisted for The Center For Fiction’s First Novel Prize and her story collection, Heartbroke won the California Book Award and was a New York Times Best Book of the year. She is also she is the co-creator of The Fountain with the writer Kimberly King Parsons.
Chelsea shares her recommended reading list with us below!
To learn more about Chelsea and her inspiring career, visit here.
“I think this is one of the greatest novels ever written. Searing in its portrayal of incarceration and the invisible structures that define a woman’s life long before she’s locked up. Kushner writes with intelligence, sorrow, and grit—I found myself stunned by the precision of every sentence and the expansiveness of the world she creates.”
“The emotional waters around the violence in this book floored me. It’s a portrait of suburbia rotting from the inside, written with Hunter’s signature rawness and electricity—I admire her fearlessness so much and will read anything she writes forever.”
“Trethewey’s memoir is an act of reclamation. Her poetic voice transforms trauma into something incandescent—I wept while reading it, and returned to it again for its wisdom and strength.”
“This novel disturbed me in the best way. Suspense in every line without being...suspensy? Its portrayal of maternal obsession and estrangement is so controlled, so devastatingly precise—I couldn’t look away from its emotional intensity.”
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden
“This book felt like being handed a glowing orb of memory and pain and redemption. Madden’s sentences are lush and wild and brave, and her story made me feel less alone in my own girlhood and survival.”
“I’m drawn to books that blur the boundary between fiction and truth, and Nonfiction does this masterfully. It’s a raw, unflinching meditation on motherhood, addiction, and the limitations of love—I devoured it in one sitting.”
“This book should be required reading. It gave language to so many things I’ve known in my body but didn’t have the words for—Snyder breaks open the silence around domestic violence with deep research and profound empathy.”
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