Few essayists or critics can write with such unending love for their subject matter as Hanif Abdurraqib writes about the songs, basketball players, and moments of his life that have shaped him most. The poet, cultural critic, and music journalist’s first collection of essays is a shining example of his appreciation for spoken word; these are essays you can read aloud to loved ones, and the language comes alive. It’s a love letter to rock music, to basketball, to jazz, to Columbus Ohio and the community that raised him. If you like music, of any genre, this book will have something for you. If you want to read a moving collection of deeply personal writing about art, this book will have something for you. If you want to read something that will make you Feel Something, then this book is definitely For You.
Little Witch Hazel is an exquisite year-long walk through the forest with a teeny witch named Hazel, who takes care of her community and finds her community caring for her. The artwork in this book is lush and alive, and Hazel feels like a real friend. It's a bit bigger than the average picture book, with several pages of just illustration, and will be good for slightly older readers who will be able to sit still. Luckily its easily broken up into four stories, on for each season, for your more fidgety readers too! I want to live in Little Witch Hazel's woods and I'm sure after seeing this gorgeous artwork, you will too!!
Mona Awad tells a harrowing cautionary tale of a writer trying to overcome her writer’s block while simultaneously refusing to look deeper into herself or acknowledge her own needs or desires. This lack of self-knowledge leads her to a friendship with a group of young MFA students who are always ‘workshopping’…with disastrous consequences. The writing feels cinematic at times, moody and illustrative. Home, identity, love (both romantic and platonic), inner (and outer) demons, and academic elitism all play a part in this spectacle of creation and destruction. Awad creates a kind of magic that changes with the wind, a contemporary Prometheus tale.
Tim Mohr's oral history of the East German punk scene in the decade leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall is one of the most engaging and moving music history titles I have ever read. The message of these young punks--that a better future is out there, that we have collective power when we work together for something More, that we are strong united and don't need to conform--is extremely relevant today.
Tacky is, hands-down, one of the funniest send-ups to millenial culture and the worst it has to offer. Rax King writes with reverence about the American mall experience of the early and mid aughts, the older punk in her neighborhood who made her mix CDs, the power she found playing God in the Sims, and the special bond she found with her mother in the warmth and safety of a gaudy strip-mall Cheesecake Factory. Though all of these are worth reading, laughing about, and relishing in, the standout is the essay King pens about her father and "The Jersey Shore"--a powerful snippet about family, about trash TV, and the things that bring us together. King is a powerful voice and a brilliant mind and this is a delightful showcase of both her joie de vivre and literary skill.
This book is a love letter to the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, the people that live there, and the rich literary history of New England. Most importantly, this book is an exploration of stories--the stories we read and absorb, the stories other tell about us, the stories we tell ourselves. I could not put this book down. This book is funny in the same way that your Yankee grandfather is funny--dark, witty, and with a lesson to be learned at the end of the day, if you can suss out what that lesson is. Every reader will come away with their own conclusions, and their own Arsonist's Guide.