Fans pick 19 books like Furious Improvisation

By Susan Quinn,

Here are 19 books that Furious Improvisation fans have personally recommended if you like Furious Improvisation. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Posters for the People: The Art of the WPA

Scott Borchert Author Of Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America

From my list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts.

Why am I passionate about this?

My great uncle was an eccentric book collector who lived in an old, rambling house stuffed floor-to-ceiling with thousands and thousands of books. After he died, I inherited a tiny portion of his collection: a set of state guidebooks from the 1930s and 40s. These were the American Guides created by the Federal Writersā€™ Project, the New Deal program that put jobless writers to work during the Great Depression. I dipped into these weird, rich, fascinating books, and I was hooked immediately. Some years later, I quit my job in publishing to research and write my own account of the FWPā€™s unlikely rise and lamentable fall, Republic of Detours

Scott's book list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts

Scott Borchert Why did Scott love this book?

If you want to learn about the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts, thereā€™s no better place to begin than with the art itself. This lavish bookā€”I keep it displayed on my coffee tableā€”collects hundreds of color posters created by the WPAā€™s Federal Art Project, which put unemployed artists and designers to work during the Depression. Itā€™s no wonder that many of these posters, mostly silkscreen, have been cherished by collectors for years: theyā€™re beautifully designed, often quite striking, and sometimes funny. And like most of the WPAā€™s cultural endeavors, they were meant to serve the public good. Flip through this book and youā€™ll find advertisements for national parks, a reminder to brush your teeth, and a warning to always report dog bites!  

By Ennis Carter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Posters for the People as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This lavish coffee-table book highlights 500 of the best posters produced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during America's 1930s and 1940s. The WPA employed hundreds of out-of-work artists to raise awareness about public issues and civic life in the United States. These posters provide a snapshot of life (and graphic design) during the Great Depression and offer timeless messages about the merits of hard work, good parenting, a clean house, and healthy personal hygiene. "Posters for the People" includes many 'new' images never before published in book form. Full of beautifully reproduced images and fascinating text about a decisiveā€¦


Book cover of Lamps at High Noon

Scott Borchert Author Of Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America

From my list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts.

Why am I passionate about this?

My great uncle was an eccentric book collector who lived in an old, rambling house stuffed floor-to-ceiling with thousands and thousands of books. After he died, I inherited a tiny portion of his collection: a set of state guidebooks from the 1930s and 40s. These were the American Guides created by the Federal Writersā€™ Project, the New Deal program that put jobless writers to work during the Great Depression. I dipped into these weird, rich, fascinating books, and I was hooked immediately. Some years later, I quit my job in publishing to research and write my own account of the FWPā€™s unlikely rise and lamentable fall, Republic of Detours

Scott's book list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts

Scott Borchert Why did Scott love this book?

When I was researching my book, I spent hours and hours in the National Archives and the Library of Congress, poring over the records of the Federal Writersā€™ Project. But I turned up few documents that offered as much insight into the FWP as this absorbing novel from 1941. Its author, Jack Balch, worked for the project in Missouriā€”one of the most dysfunctional and tumultuous outposts anywhere in the country. His thinly fictionalized account describes how the projectā€™s idealistic workers came up against the machinations of a local political machine and, eventually, went out on strike. Balchā€™s memories, and his anger, are still fresh as he takes stock of both the FWPā€™s promise and the obstacles it faced in carrying out its mission. 

By Jack S. Balch,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lamps at High Noon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Federal Arts Projects were created by FDR in the summer of 1935. A year later, a handful of writers employed in the St. Louis office of the Missouri Writers' Project, including Jack Balch, went out on strike. Lamps at High Noon is the only novel about this strike and the only one to treat comprehensively any aspect of the Federal Writers' Project, whose participants included some of the country's most accomplished and promising authors.

Charlie Gest, the wide-eyed and well-intentioned protagonist of the novel, confronts firsthand the project's sometimes underhanded efforts to monitor the political views of its writers.ā€¦


Book cover of Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings From the Federal Writers' Project by Zora Neale Hurston

Scott Borchert Author Of Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America

From my list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts.

Why am I passionate about this?

My great uncle was an eccentric book collector who lived in an old, rambling house stuffed floor-to-ceiling with thousands and thousands of books. After he died, I inherited a tiny portion of his collection: a set of state guidebooks from the 1930s and 40s. These were the American Guides created by the Federal Writersā€™ Project, the New Deal program that put jobless writers to work during the Great Depression. I dipped into these weird, rich, fascinating books, and I was hooked immediately. Some years later, I quit my job in publishing to research and write my own account of the FWPā€™s unlikely rise and lamentable fall, Republic of Detours

Scott's book list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts

Scott Borchert Why did Scott love this book?

Today, most people know Zora Neale Hurston as a novelist, thanks to her classic Their Eyes Were Watching God. But she was also an accomplished folklorist, anthropologist, playwright, and essayist. And yet, by the late 1930s, she was broke, and she found work with both the Federal Theater Project and Federal Writersā€™ Project. This book collects Hurstonā€™s writing for the FWP in her home state of Florida, along with an incisive essay by Pamela Bordelon. The sheer variety of material on display here wasnā€™t unusual for the FWP: youā€™ll find essayistic meditations on folklife and art, collections of tall tales and childrenā€™s songs, and sketches of labor in the turpentine camps and citrus grovesā€”as well as a chilling report on a racist massacre in Ocoee. 

By Pamela Bordelon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Go Gator and Muddy the Water as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Pamala Bordelon was researching a work on the Florida Federal Writers Project, she discovered writings in the collection that were unmistakably from the hand of Zora Neale Hurston, one of the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Over half of the works included here have not been published or are only available in the Library of America edition of Hurston's works. As Hurston's fans know, all of her novels draw upon her deep interest in folklore, particularly from her home state of Florida. Here we see the roots of that work, from the wonderful folktale of the monstrous alligatorā€¦


Book cover of Documentary Expression and Thirties America

Scott Borchert Author Of Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America

From my list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts.

Why am I passionate about this?

My great uncle was an eccentric book collector who lived in an old, rambling house stuffed floor-to-ceiling with thousands and thousands of books. After he died, I inherited a tiny portion of his collection: a set of state guidebooks from the 1930s and 40s. These were the American Guides created by the Federal Writersā€™ Project, the New Deal program that put jobless writers to work during the Great Depression. I dipped into these weird, rich, fascinating books, and I was hooked immediately. Some years later, I quit my job in publishing to research and write my own account of the FWPā€™s unlikely rise and lamentable fall, Republic of Detours

Scott's book list on the New Dealā€™s contributions to the arts

Scott Borchert Why did Scott love this book?

This is a scholarly work, but donā€™t let the unassuming title fool you: Stottā€™s writing is crisp, elegant, and highly readable, and his insights are crucial to any understanding of the New Dealā€™s place in American culture. He covers the Roosevelt administrationā€™s cultural undertakingsā€”from the WPA projects to Farm Security Administration photographers to FDRā€™s own political style and ā€œdocumentary imaginationā€ā€”but his real subject is the broader documentary impulse that was expressed so forcefully and variously during the 1930s. This impulse was hardly confined to the federal governmentā€™s interventions in the arts. The connections he draws between the New Deal and, say, Martha Grahamā€™s dance productions, or James Agee and Walker Evansā€™s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, are illuminating and convincing. 

By William Stott,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Documentary Expression and Thirties America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A comprehensive inquiry into the attitudes and ambitions that characterized the documentary impulse of the thirties. The subject is a large one, for it embraces (among much else) radical journalism, academic sociology, the esthetics of photography, Government relief programs, radio broadcasting, the literature of social work, the rhetoric of political persuasion, and the effect of all these on the traditional arts of literature, painting, theater and dance. The great merit of Mr. Stott's study lies precisely in its wide-ranging view of this complex terrain."-Hilton Kramer, New York Times Book Review

"[Scott] might be called the Aristotle of documentary. No oneā€¦


Book cover of Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America

Colin Asher Author Of Never a Lovely so Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren

From my list on Works Progress Administration or by WPA authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

While writing Never a Lovely so Real, I fell into many traps. The Federal Writers Project was one of the deepest. Nelson Algrenā€™s time at the project in Chicago saved him from personal and professional ruin. And I became a bit obsessed with the idea that, during the Great Depression, there had been a government program that hired writers by the hundreds and brought them together to work toward a common goal; one that helped shape a literary generation. As I say though, it was a pitfall. Most of what I learned wouldnā€™t fit in my book, but Iā€™m grateful for all of the writing my research introduced me to.      

Colin's book list on Works Progress Administration or by WPA authors

Colin Asher Why did Colin love this book?

Several books focused on the Works Progress Administration (WPA), or discreet parts of it, had been published before Borchertā€™s was released but this is the best of them. I doubt that any other book will ever tell the story of the Federal Writersā€™ Project (FWP) quite so well. On one level, it lays out the projectā€™s scope and walks readers through the politics involved with its creation and continued operation. And on another, it explains what the project meant for the writers it employed and how it influenced their work. Every other book on this list was written by an author employed by the project or another part of the WPA; this book will help you understand them as part of a coherent literary moment in American history.     

By Scott Borchert,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Republic of Detours as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice | Winner of the New Deal Book Award

An immersive account of the New Deal project that created state-by-state guidebooks to America, in the midst of the Great Depressionā€”and employed some of the biggest names in American letters

The plan was as idealistic as it was audaciousā€”and utterly unprecedented. Take thousands of hard-up writers and put them to work charting a country on the brink of social and economic collapse, with the aim of producing a series of guidebooks to the then forty-eight statesā€”along with hundreds of other publications dedicated to cities,ā€¦


Book cover of The Librarian's Journey: 4 Historical Romances

Linda Shenton Matchett Author Of Spies & Sweethearts

From my list on historical female protagonists in unusual jobs.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a former Human Resources executive Iā€™m fascinated by the history of women in the workforce, especially in jobs that have traditionally been held by men. I was first drawn into the topic as a writer of WWII novels. Through memoirs, autobiographies, and oral history interviews I learned firsthand about women who entered the workforce to take the place of men who were serving in combat or the defense industry. In an effort to spotlight the women of this era as well as those who have gone before, many of my protagonists hold unusual jobs such as spy, war correspondent, pilot, doctor, restaurant owner, and gold miner. 

Linda's book list on historical female protagonists in unusual jobs

Linda Shenton Matchett Why did Linda love this book?

This is a collection of four novellas that feature pack horse librarians, a project of the Works Progress Administration that delivered books to remote regions in the Appalachian Mountains between 1935 and 1943. I knew nothing about the program and was captivated by these brave women who traveled deep into the mountains by themselves to bring reading and education to the poor (As someone who loses her car in a mall parking lot I canā€™t imagine doing this). What I loved most about the stories is the impetus it created for me to dig deeper into the program and the women themselves. Being a book lover and former library trustee, what these women did moved me on a deeply emotional level.

By Patty Smith Hall, Cynthia Hickey, Marilyn Turk

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Librarian's Journey as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A brave fight for literacy during the Great DepressionFour women set out on horseback to bring the library to remote communities

Part of FDRā€™s New Deal was the Works Progress Administration, which funded the Pack Horse Library Initiative. Ride along with four book-loving women who bravely fight for literacy in remote communities during the Great Depression by carrying library books via horseback. Will their efforts be rewarded by finding love in the process?

Loveā€™s Turning Page by Cynthia Hickey
1936, Ozark Mountains
Grace Billings jumped at the chance to be a traveling librarian, but she didnā€™t anticipate the long daysā€¦


Book cover of The Golden Apples

Melanie McGee Bianchi Author Of The Ballad of Cherrystoke

From my list on where a hot mess is presented as an empowering lifestyle.

Why am I passionate about this?

I spent my early childhood in a rural, isolated, multi-generational household. During summers we rarely saw anyone unrelated to us. My twin sister and I spent our days reading, hiding, and naming our menagerie of barn cats (final count: 36). In my career as a lifestyle journalist, Iā€™ve gotten to interview famous eccentrics ranging from Loretta Lynn to David Sedaris. I live in the North Carolina mountains with my husband, our teenage son, and my aforementioned twin sister. This past summer, a black bear walked the 22 steps up to our front porch and stared in the window, raising his huge paws high in exasperation. 

Melanie's book list on where a hot mess is presented as an empowering lifestyle

Melanie McGee Bianchi Why did Melanie love this book?

Unlike Weltyā€™s works featuring honorable or broadly comic characters, this dense story cycle was never excerpted in anthologies. Itā€™s a trickier cast: consider Jinny Love Stark and Virgie Rainey, who cut through the languor of Depression-era Mississippi with stone-cold intention. Jinny Love plays croquet with her lover to enrage her volatile husband; she encourages her daughter to wear lizards as earrings to offend the propriety of her own controlling mother. Impoverished piano prodigy Virgie flouts her gift merely to watch her teacher go mad. Later, she trims her dead motherā€™s yard with sewing scissors while neighbors do the real work of laying out the body and receiving mourners. The heat presses forward. What day is it? What hour? This is weird, experimental Welty, and the payoff is sweet.

By Eudora Welty,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Golden Apples as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1949, THE GOLDEN APPLES is an acutely observed, richly atmospheric portrayal of small town life in Morgana, Mississippi. There's Snowdie, who has to bring up her twin boys alone after her husband, King Maclain, disappears one day, discarding his hat on the banks of the Big Black. There's Loch Morrison, convalescing with malaria, who watches from his bedroom window as wayward Virgie Rainey meets a sailor in the vacant house opposite. Meanwhile, Miss Eckhart the piano teacher, grieving the loss of her most promising pupil, tries her hand at arson.

Eudora Welty has a fine ear forā€¦


Book cover of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews With Former Slaves

Jeff Matthews Author Of One Must Tell the Bees: Abraham Lincoln and the Final Education of Sherlock Holmes

From my list on the Civil War without all the battlefield stuff.

Why am I passionate about this?

My twin passions are the fictional stories of Sherlock Holmes, and American history as told on the battlefields of the Civil Warā€”and I have long thought that we make history boring, focusing on battles and dates, and not on the individuals who made it happen (Lincoln above all). So why not shake it up? In One Must Tell the Bees, the rational but very fictional Sherlock Holmes brings to life the accomplishments of the shrewd, incisive but very real Abraham Lincoln in a way that I hope adds to our understanding of Lincolnā€™s accomplishments, even as our country struggles to reassess the meaning of that portion of our history.

Jeff's book list on the Civil War without all the battlefield stuff

Jeff Matthews Why did Jeff love this book?

In the 1930ā€™s some very forward-thinking person at the Work Projects Administration got the idea to interview former slaves and record their stories before it was too late, and their stories had been lost.

The result was some 2,300 interviews with men and women who had been enslaved across many states (not just the South). The interviews are generally brief but always unvarnished and compelling.

The resulting record of their lives and experiences will leave a mark on anyone who reads them. And you should read them.

By Work Projects Administration,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Slave Narratives as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has beenā€¦


Book cover of Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt

Bryan Le Beau Author Of The Story of the Salem Witch Trials

From my list on the story behind the Salem Witch Trials.

Why am I passionate about this?

A native of Massachusetts and married to a descendent of two of the accused, the Salem witch trials have long fascinated me. Armed with a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University ā€“ focused on American history, literature, and religion ā€“ a significant portion of my academic career has been devoted to research, publications, classes, and public lectures on the Salem witch trials, reflected in the third edition of my book, The Story of the Salem Witch Trials. The book is only one of several books and many articles I have published on various aspects of American cultural history, many of which relate in some way to what happened in Salem in 1692.  

Bryan's book list on the story behind the Salem Witch Trials

Bryan Le Beau Why did Bryan love this book?

This latest compilation of the records of the Salem witch trials is a must for anyone researching any aspect of the trials. 

Its importance lies not only in its comprehensive documentation of the events of 1692, but also in its inclusion of several documents newly discovered since previous publications offering such records. It also provides corrections that have been made in previous collections, dating to the work of the WPA in the 1930s.

The records are arranged chronologically, but also well indexed, along with a general introduction, linguistic introduction, biographical notes, and bibliography.  

By Bernard Rosenthal,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book represents a comprehensive record of all legal documents pertaining to the Salem witch trials, in chronological order. Numerous manuscripts, as well as records published in earlier books that were overlooked in other editions, offer a comprehensive narrative account of the events of 1692-3, with supplementary materials stretching as far as the mid-18th century. The book can be used as a reference book or read as an unfolding narrative. All legal records are newly transcribed, and included in this edition is a historical introduction, a legal introduction, and a linguistic introduction. Manuscripts are accompanied by notes that, in manyā€¦


Book cover of Never Come Morning

Colin Asher Author Of Never a Lovely so Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren

From my list on Works Progress Administration or by WPA authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

While writing Never a Lovely so Real, I fell into many traps. The Federal Writers Project was one of the deepest. Nelson Algrenā€™s time at the project in Chicago saved him from personal and professional ruin. And I became a bit obsessed with the idea that, during the Great Depression, there had been a government program that hired writers by the hundreds and brought them together to work toward a common goal; one that helped shape a literary generation. As I say though, it was a pitfall. Most of what I learned wouldnā€™t fit in my book, but Iā€™m grateful for all of the writing my research introduced me to.      

Colin's book list on Works Progress Administration or by WPA authors

Colin Asher Why did Colin love this book?

Never Come Morning is Nelson Algrenā€™s second novel and his first great book.  He wrote it during his time with the Federal Writersā€™ Project in Chicago, between working on a cookbook, a travel guide, and sundry other assignments. In some ways, this book feels of a piece with his first. In some ways, this book feels like a piece with his first. Both books center on alienated young men; both are coming-of-age stories (after a manner). But this novel was a leap forward for Algren. The psychological portrait of its protagonist is fully realized, and the prose sings. Algren had the project to thank for both developments. He used the access his job afforded him to conduct interviews, portions of which made their way into the novel verbatim. And with the projectsā€™ financial support, he was able to revise for months, and months ā€“ folding nuance, insight, and poetry intoā€¦

By Nelson Algren,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Never Come Morning as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Never Come Morning is unique among the novels of Algren. The author's only romance, the novel concerns Brun Bicek, a would-be pub from Chicago's Northwest side, and Steffi, the woman who shares his dream while living his nightmare. "It is an unusual and brilliant book," said The New York Times. "A bold scribbling upon the wall for comfortable Americans to ponder and digest." This new edition features an introduction by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and an interview with Nelson Algren by H.E.F. Donohue.


Book cover of Posters for the People: The Art of the WPA
Book cover of Lamps at High Noon
Book cover of Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings From the Federal Writers' Project by Zora Neale Hurston

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