What Charlotte's reading now

The Bee Hut, Dorothy Porter

Dorothy Porter inspired me as a young writer with the dazzling, sexy energy and powerful integrity of her poetry, and she still does. Her work has always been beautiful, with knives – and these poems in this posthumously published collection, The Bee Hut, are sharper than ever. My favourite, The Ninth Hour, is fearsome, fearless, breathtaking. Porter is sorely missed, but this collection is a spectacular addition to her work.

Latecomers, Anita Brookner

I’m a latecomer to Brookner so this was an apt way of beginning.
This novel is a moving portrait of the 50-year friendship between Hartmann and Fibich, two Jewish Londoners who meet at a boys’ home after escaping Nazi Germany as children.  Some readers are frustrated by its interiority, but to me it’s a perfect example of how and why a novel is not - and should not be! - a film. I really loved it, a redemptive portrait of two deeply contrasting attempts to transcend tragedy. It's out of print in Australia, apparently, but you might be able to find it in secondhand shops or online overseas. It's absolutely worth tracking down.

The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker

I very much enjoyed this novel as an acute - and hilarious - study of writerly procrastination, an entertaining lecture on poetic form, and, more deeply, a subtle questioning of how we measure artistic success or failure.