Garner covers the 2007 trial of Robert Farquharson who, after a difficult separation from his wife, drives into a dam, his three children in the car. He is the only survivor, insisting that it was all a terrible accident. Garner is such an insightful writer; the minutae of a trial becomes vibrant, almost torturous. Throughout the book is low burning compulsion to reach through the pages and shake Farquharson, ask him for the truth, ask him: what did you do?
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
TW: sexual assault, fascism
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
This book is brutal, violent. There were times I had to put it down, go stand in the kitchen, cup my face in my hand. Inevitably, I’d sit back down, pick it back up. It was making me look at something I hadn’t looked at in a long time. The title is Dead Girls; I finished it in a night.
A quiet kind of marriage horror story in which Ginzburg explores all the greatest hits: loneliness, desperation, betrayal, self-betrayal, etc., etc. It’s the kind of book that explores universal experiences with such precision that you might feel it’s written specifically for you.
Anthropologist Nastassja Martin is attacked by a bear in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The attack, the healing, the return to Kamchatka: it’s a fantastic, violent meditation on trauma, the bearing of trauma, and the mythologies that help us do it.
I read this feminist masterpiece for the first time years ago, and as I can recall it was the first piece of writing that put into words a feeling I’d had all my life, but hadn’t quite been able to pinpoint.
page 86, I hope it makes you think of someone.
I just feel like reading a mass market paperback in the summer, on the beach, or near any sort of water bigger than a puddle, is one of life's small pure joys that should never be forgotten. I'm on a Crichton kick this summer. I found his book PREY in a used bookstore in Rapid City, South Dakota. I read the whole thing in a few days, laying out on a lake in the Black Hills. Now I'm reading TIMELINE on the beach in Will Rogers. Are we all going through it this summer? Feels like everyone I talk to has something major (and majorly depressing) going on. A mass market paper-bound book ain't a fix, but, boy, is it ever nice to be distracted for an hour or two.
Beautifully written, of course-- it's Natalia Ginzburg after all-- engaging and tragic in its own subtle way.
We could all use a little cuteness in our lives.
![The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation By Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn Cover Image](https://images.booksense.com/images/books/713/253/FC9780061253713.JPG)
Yes, yes, this is a very long book, and it's just the first of three. However, if you can wrap your head around the length and the subject matter, Solzhenitsyn will blow your mind with his wit, care, and introspection. This book might change you, and if it doesn't you can at least brag about reading it at parties.
Another banger by Herr. Fan of Kubrick? That's great, good for you, but it's certainly not a pre-req for enjoying the bejesus out of this book. Like, I still haven't seen 2001, but guess what, I've read this book multiple times and I never stop loving it. Herr is just a stylist, a linguist, a master of the form-- as I said in my rec for "Dispatches" he could write about a banana rotting, paint drying, whatever, and I'd probably read it over and over and over again.
Eve Babitz is known primarily for her fiction, but if you haven’t tried her nonfiction you're missing out. These essays, written from 1975 to 1997, will stun you with their wit, charm, and insight.
My favorite book of the year so far.
HOLIDAY 2023 UPDATE: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: one of the best books I’ve read this year. In all honesty, and not to be cheesy, although this is very cheesy, reading Foster reminded me of the power of good writing/storytelling. Do you think it’s every day that I ruin a book with my own teardrops?! It is not.
Oh my god, just look at this book! Have you ever been more interested in flowers because I haven’t. Sometimes if I am having a rough day I will just stand in a corner and flip through this book, looking at the delicacy of these flowers and remember that we grew up next to each other.
One tradition I have, maybe the only one I have, and certainly the only one I stick to, is reading Dispatches every year. Herr is a master stylist—he could write about a banana rotting and I’d gladly incorporate that piece into my tradition.
2023 UPDATE: I have to recommend this book because I do it every year. Every year I tell you all that I am obsessed with Herr, that he is one of the best writers not only of his generation but, maybe, of all time. A perfect book for those interested in war, history, good writing, nuance, beauty, terror, life, death…!
All the time I am recommending fiction—fiction, fiction, fiction (or Dispatches, I am also always recommending that). And I love fiction, don’t get me wrong. But I also love snacking cakes. Sometimes I will just stand in my kitchen, staring listlessly out the window, eating a snack cake in my pajamas. But it’s always the same cake—until now.
Man, this book is really really good. It doesn't really matter if you *think* you're interested in fashion-- you are, even if you're "not" you're in the mix, you know what I mean? No? Well, read the book, then. Anywho, as I was saying, this book is really good-- for fans of fashion, non-fashion, good writing, psychology, history, Lacan, culture, etc, etc, etc
Moya is so *fecking* good-- I haven't read this book since I was in college, but it was a favorite then and, while I re-read it this month, it's becoming a favorite again.
A graphic novel interpretation of Euripedes' Trojan Women.
A deeply engrossing read, exploring the nature and limits of forgiveness, the limits of faith.
A really beautiful, honest reflection on what it means to have lost, to have loved.
What a fun, dark, playful-dark, funny, strange page-turner. I’m always in awe of an author brave enough to take on a counterfactual history project, and Binet pulls it off and hits all the right notes.
I’m adding this to the catalog because I want it. Does anyone want to buy it for me? All I want for Christmas is you… to buy me Salad Freak. Maybe we can make a salad together. Anyway, if you know anyone like me, they’d probably love this book.
An exploration of what it means to be a human, to be a woman, without history, without culture, and without future. Certainly not a plot driven book by any means, the beautiful prose and deep relationships within the novel kept me hooked.
A very funny book that dives deep into the lives of celebrated Russian authors.
A super wild, violent, funny, weird, oh so weird, book.
Thomas Merton was one of the great spiritual and political thinkers not only of his time but, I think, of all time. I was not raised in Christianity, but Merton's explanation of God, faith, and contemplation lines up seamlessly with the Buddhist ideals I was raised with-- he just uses different words to describe the same phenomenon.
This book is sweet and dark and funny and moving- everything I want in a novel.
A piece of reportage that shook me when I first read it, and every time since.
Bulgakov starts us out from the perspective of a stray dog near death. A scientist finds him, heals him, cares for him ... and then transplants the pituitary gland and testicles of a petty criminal into the pup. The dog, Sharik, then becomes human, or, human-ish, and hilarity ensues. This book is weird, instantly engaging, funny, biting, and a wild satire of Bolshevism.
Samantha Irby is funny. So funny that it makes my neighbors a bit nervous, I’m sure, to hear me through our thin shared walls, laughing out loud in an otherwise silent room. But it’s not the humor that keeps me reading. It’s the idea that any kind of situation, no matter how difficult, has moments of lightness, if you can just find them.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
A practical guide to alleviating negative emotional stress and physical pain through different Buddhist meditations and visualizations. I’ve found these meditations to be very helpful in navigating this curious life, but, of course, they’re not a replacement for healthcare (get vaccinated).