FP Staff List: VIOLETS and other flowers we love
Please join us in wishing a very happy pub day to Kyung-Sook Shin’s VIOLETS, translated by Anton Hur! Taking inspiration from both the title and the flower shop at the center of this book, we’ve curated a list of our favorite literary and musical flowers, from Maggie Nelson’s Bluets to Frank Ocean’s “Ivy.”
Enjoy this bouquet of recommendations!
by Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Anton Hur
In Violets, best-selling author Kyung-Sook Shin explores misogyny, erasure, and repressed desire, as San desperately searches for both autonomy and attachment in the unforgiving reality of contemporary Korean society.
—The FP Team
by Maggie Nelson
A confluence of philosophy and lyricism unlike anything I read before or since—so deep, so gorgeous.
—Isla
by Melissa Albert
After her mother vanishes, 17-year-old Alice discovers that the dark fairy tale world of her grandmother’s cult classic book is real, and the only way she can rescue her mom is by venturing into the ominous Hazel Wood herself.
—Margot
by Louise Glück
The Wild Iris, both the collection as a whole and the titular poem, are beautiful meditations on the ordeal of being alive. The collection is written from the perspective of individual flowers within a garden over the course of a year, the gardener, and the divine.
—Nadine
by Rina Sawayama
I know, I know, not exactly a flower but this irrepressibly bouncy song is about blooming—out of shame, stolen glances, and rigid binaries into unabashed queerness the color of cherry blossoms. I love an upbeat song that makes me want to dance while I consider some of the deepest parts of my identity.
—Alisa
by Jamaica Kincaid
Okay, so there's not technically a flower in the title... but Kincaid's book is lush with descriptions of her favorite flowers and other growing things from Vermont to Antigua, along with thoughtful interrogations of colonial history and systems of classification.
—Rachel
Written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes
As a kid I loved this book about a girl with an unusual name! It's all about learning to love yourself how you are—a great lesson for readers of all ages.
—Lucia
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This bestselling book is a gentle, insightful meditation on our relationship to knowledge and nature rooted in Indigenous wisdom.
—Jisu
Performed by Harry Styles
A love song with a quirky, psychedelic spin, this flower-inspired track is perfect for spring.
—Vanessa
by George Sand, with illustrations by Molly Crabapple
Who doesn't love it when classic writers create fantastic tales for their grandchildren?
—Lauren
by Frank Ocean
Does “ivy” count as a flower? I don’t care because I love this song.
—Nick
by Susan Orlean
When you're finished reading this brilliant investigative book about orchids (amazing) and orchid traders (committed), watch the 2002 film Adaptation., in which Meryl Streep plays a fictionalized version of Susan Orlean during the writing of an Orchid Thief screenplay (also fictionalized).
—Drew