One Woman Show: A Novel

WSIRN guest and literary agent Elisabeth Weed recommended this book, which she called a good example of a title that "has a thimble full of weird." Coulson worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 25 years, where one of her last jobs was writing the 75-word wall labels for the museum's new British galleries. She imagined a novel in that form, and this life story of Kitty Whitaker is the result: a sly and stylish novel told solely through museum wall labels about a 20th-century woman who transforms herself over the course of her lifetime. This short novel could easily be read in one sitting, and is an excellent pick for structure nerds or art and design fans.