With a new TV adaptation being released, it's the perfect time to revisit, or introduce yourself, to this story of conscripts of faith and the extremes people are led to by their interpretations of the divine. Krakauer illuminates the violent history of Mormonism through the framework of a supposed Godly-instructed murder. A gripping exploration of an American religion and its widely unpublicized past.
A memoir of language and literature, Hunt uses this book to search for patterns among that which has influenced her life, whether it be family, books, or ghosts of things that never were. She writes with a tongue-in-cheek style that carries through to the last sentence. She'll tell you herself, but be sure to focus on what's left unwritten here.
I'm a big fan of conversational poetry, the kind that reads like someone sharing a story with you, and Limon does this perfectly in The Hurting Kind. Full of visceral images and thoughtful turns-of-phrase, she illuminates the connectiveness between nature and the human experience while tackling subjects like intimacy, ancestry, and aging. A wonderful read.
America, Goddam is a wonderful new read that centers black women in the struggle for justice, systemic and otherwise, in the U.S. Lindsey weaves her work with personal moments alongside stories of people overlooked or disregarded in the conversations about racism and brutality against marginalized people. An eye-opening exploration of the gender-dynamics of anti-Black violence in America.
A delightfully strange read centered around a building that does not exist and the tenants who reside there alongside chickens, cursed teeth, & records pressed on x-rays. What more could you ask for in a satire?
What the Fireflies Knew scratched my itch for a good coming-of-age story. With a narrator as smart as she is naive to the secrets of the adults' lives around her, this book lets you experience hardships of the world through the lens of innocence and childhood optimism.
How High We Go in the Dark is one of the best sci fi books I've read in a while. Humorous, heartbreaking, & hopeful all at once, this novel left me thinking for days after I'd finished it. Plus who could resist a conversational pig, an amusement park of death, and dimensions outside space and time?
Tides throws you in the mind of a woman who has lost everything and questions if she has done so by choice. With sparse, poetic prose that leaves you shellshocked like our narrator, this book is a heartbreaking read that'll only leave you wishing you could've spent more time in the reality Freeman creates.
In Having and Being Had, Biss explores the modern notions of class and capital through stories of her personal life braided with examinations of everything from RuPaul and Didion to washing machines and sex work. Thoughtful with a wry sense of humor at times, this collection of essays is a great meditation on money and the privileges that come with having it.
