Monthly Lit Hits: Grub's Infinite Reading List

Lit Hits: What We're Reading in February

Here at Grub HQ, we're always talking about the books that keep us up at night, the novels we can't put down, the memoirs that call to us over our morning coffees. Every month, we'll share our staff's latest literary obsessions to add to your own never-ending reading list.

Dariel, Grub's Head of Faculty and Curriculum, recently finished Han Kang's The Vegetarian, which he found haunting and memorable, and thoroughly enjoyed the parallel storylines in Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust. He's now reading The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Youth Programs Manager Eson just started The Book of Unknown Americans: A Novel by Cristina Henriquezo. After the first chapter, she knew it was going to be lovely. It has a smooth flow that lulls you into a deep well of emotion that you don't notice until you're already inside.

Kaitlyn, Grub's Muse Conference Assistant & Donor Communications Assistant, just finished A Shadow Bright and Burning and loved the blend of historical fiction with fantasy. However, Kaitlyn thinks it'd be nice to find a heroine who can recognize answers when they're right in front of her face.

Lauren, Grub's Programs Assistant, just finished The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which was too prescient and haunting for her to say that she liked it, but it's one of the smartest books she's ever read. She's now re-reading Ray Bradbury's classic dystopia, Fahrenheit 451.

Programs & Advocacy Manager Jonathan just finished Helen Oyeyemi's What is Not Yours is Not Yours, which was a wonderful escape into magical realism. He just started Mona Awad's Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, which he's thus far loving for its brutal yet honest portrayals.

Eve, Grub's Executive Director, just finished an advanced reader's copy of Eden by Jeannie Blasberg, a long time GrubStreet student and board member. She highly recommends it -- it will be out in early May -- especially for readers interested in family history and the way women's lives have changed since the 1920s.

Marketing & Community Engagement Manager Sarah is picking her way slowly -- painfully, deliciously -- through The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride, in ten minute spurts before her eyes shut independently when she should be in bed. On the train, she's reading The Sympathizer and it's too early to tell.

Director of Programs and Marketing Alison got wrecked by Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped, and is also revisiting Angela Flournoy's brilliant Turner House with her Novel In Progress class!

Marcella, Grub's Marketing Assistant, just started reading the incredibely powerful and truthful The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.