Nine novels that make an art of earnestness

Stef Ferrari is an Emmy Award-winning producer, New York Times bestselling co-author, illustrator, and reformed ice cream entrepreneur. She’s also a recipe developer and has published several cookbooks.

Now Ferrari writes queer fiction and is a freelance journalist covering her obsession: women’s sports, her work on which has been featured in the New York Times. She resides in Brooklyn with her soon-to-be wife, their puppets, Pete-Za, Scraggles and Killer, and their beloved Christmas tree, Stewart (#30).

Her new novel is Pining for You.

At Lit Hub Ferrari tagged nine books that "represent a rich range of literary earnestness." One title on the list:

Tayari Jones, Kin

Earnestness as grace.

Annie exudes earnestness in the face of repeated, profound personal devastation. Abandoned by her mother as a child, she spends her life possessed by the hope of finding her again. She doesn’t naively believe her mother is perfect; she’s driven instead by her determination to understand. And because she doesn’t have the means to avoid reality or live in some dream world, Annie’s decisions—to hold a place for the benefit of the doubt, to choose openness and curiosity, to seek the capacity for love in others along the way—is even more powerful. The grace she has adopted in her hopefulness regarding her mother is extended to others in her life as well: when Lulabelle is prickly and puts Annie off, Annie refuses to give up on her, too—and in the safety of her earnest grace, they loosen and lighten in subtle, heartrending ways.

Read about another entry on the list.

Kin is among Elizabeth Wellington Rollins's thirteen titles that celebrate female friendship.

--Marshal Zeringue