Pamela Paul's My Life With Bob is a charming life journey with books. Attaching life events with her "Book of Books," showcases how "book people" have relationships with books all throughout their lives.
Barbara Ehrenreich's Natural Causes is a hilarious and informative perspective on all the ways we and the medical system try to keep us alive. Ehrenreich begs the question of whether or not those things make us less happy as well. Great science read!
David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the most well-researched, thrilling, and heartbreaking non-fiction books I have ever read. Enter a world of murder, FBI infancy, and the all too common and horrific story of how this country has betrayed Native Americans. An important read you won't put down!
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Orlean's The Library Book is a fascinating melding of true crime, history, and theory on arson. L.A. Public Library's 1986 fire plants a seed that only Orlean could bring to flower. I cherished the bibliophile and library love in this book. So intriguing!
Sister Outsider is essential for an intersectional feminist and a perspective that is so acute that it underlines Lorde as a revolutionary woman. The essay/speech "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House" is impeccable and significant to all times. "Uses of Anger: will make you so safe in fury! I wish I could wear Lorde's words all over me, constantly!
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Abby Norman's Ask Me About My Uterus is a perfect example of a new voice with wisdom beyond her years. The experience of being a woman in the medical system is ridden with not being believed, being quesitoned, and mistreated/misdiagnosed. Devastatingly truthful and insightful. Not ot mention, Norman is a Mainer!
Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is one of the most interesting books I have read, not only because of hte deeply heart-wrenching and emotional story, but also because of the writing devices Foer uses. This piece pulls the reader to fully understand the perspective of a young boy trying to learn from his father who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. You feel with and for Oskar the whole time.
Tana French's In The Woods was one of the first "thriller" books I've read in long time and woo-eee! It was a thrill! A mystery within a mystery, a who-done-it, and all with some nods to Ireland and Irish culture. I'm hooked! Not to mention, there are many morey books after this dark debut. It was hard to put down, and hard to read at night.
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Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister is an enthralling history of women and anger. How anger has been enflamed, ignored, utilized, and reinterpreted. If you're mad, read this. If you ain't mad, you're not paying attention. F-ing great!!
Adjei-Brenyah's short story collection, Friday Black, is like Black Mirror but with retail and race specifically. Its perfect portrayal of racial dystopia is scary, fortelling, and darkly comic all at the same time. Smart, dark satire, perfect for right now. Handle it! We should!
You wanna be scared? Are you not afraid of clowns? You want a balloon? Or do you wanna float? Read It! We all float down here. You'll float too.
Dietland by Sarai Walker is a great perspective on body positivity that wonders "What if body positivity and empowerment was more militant?" Plum is a character of transformation and insight that makes us all think of our "real" and "fake" selves in how we treat others and ourselves.
The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood is so scary revealing because of its evident possibility in our own society. The treatment of women as incompetent, scandalous if not covered up, and only respected if they are fertile/with child, underlines current day thoughts and actions of some individuals today. All to real dystopia.
The perfection of the melding of urban fantasy and a classic folklore story. Victor Lavalle's The Changeling puts themes of POC heroes, parenthood, toxic masculinity, and online privacy in the forefront of this accessible horror book. Such a great read!
Heart-Shaped Box is a ghost story for the modern generation. The main character, Judas, seems the unscared type. But when he meets a ghost from his past with only one goal, to kill Judas and anyone who helps him, the story takes us down a creepy, spooky night road that we may never leave...alive.
Katherine Dunn's Geek Love is at once extremely dark and "weird," and light and normal. Follow the Binewski carny family in their tale of murder, selfish love, and genuine insight on what it mean to be in love, in a family, and in confidence of mutations from finned-appendages to telekinesis. Cult classic!
Bloodchild by Octavia Butler is a great mix of horror, dystopia, literary criticism, and writing advice from one of the most thoughful and powerfully creative writers of all time. The titular story involves love affairs with human-sized centipedes, grub crawling under men's skin, and a desperate co-dependency. Perfect!
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Ayelet Waldman's A Really Good Day paints an excrutiating picture of how our over-prescribed, addicted, and criminalized drug system has shadowed the ways that certain drugs can help us and not harm us. An excellent read for anyone who takes drugs, likes drugs, and who might have experience with vicious mood swings!
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Paperback)
If you know anything about the 1893 World's Fair then you've probably already have read this! If not, this is a great introduction to one of the most interesting events in American history. There are two stories in one - one of Daniel Burnham and his leadership in the creation of the fair's architecture. The other story being the life and actions of one of the first serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Great way to hit all the historical thriller spots.
84 Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff is probably the most charming and nostalgic book I've ever read. A perfect book for any bibliophile. Devastating ending! I'm not crying, you're crying.
Roxane Gay's Hunger is a privilege for all of us to be able to read. Her trauma, resilience, and openness that she gives her readers can and should be cherished by all. A beautiful account!
Sphere is one of those books that is so action packed and mysterious that you have to keep reading it. Wake up at 5 am and stay up until 1 am to read it. Such good science fiction from a master, but it also includes conversations about gender, subconscious, and human imagination. Such a solid ending!
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman is such a pleasurable and magical read for anuone that likes stories about witches, love and loss of love, sister relationships, and the tiny moments that put us in awe. Such a fun journey with the Owens sisters and their loyalty for family and their hearts.
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman's collection of short stories starts off with her most well-known story, "The Yellow Wallpaper." This story, like many others, displays the true treatment of women during the early 1900s. Such topics as the feminization of disease, gender roles, and the economic enslavement some women experienced in relationships to men.
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Oh feminist utopia, how I adore you! Perkins Gilman creates a society only inhabited by women until three men (all on a spectrum of questionable relationships with women) find the land by plane. Their stay includes many questions of gender roles, relationships between the sexes, and the longlasting question of matriarchal societies and their benefit.
