Isn’t it nice when a book finds you, rather than the other way around? This happened to me with this one, on a day where I was feeling disconnected and despondent. Tempest, a poet and performer, published this pamphlet during the pandemic, and three years later their wisdom still holds. Tempest reminds us that creativity is the pathway to connection, a counter to the numbness and despair that seems to have a grip on all of us these days. Buy this and read it in one sitting. I promise you’ll feel better.
Maggie Nelson is a genius who can do no wrong. Like most, this was my introduction to Nelson's writing. No one writes about desire like she does. Read this for the first time (or again, and again) and feel your mind expand in multiple directions.
Helen Oyeyemi wrote this stunner of novel when she was seventeen. Part horror, part coming-of-age tale, The Icarus Girl tells the story of a troubled, imaginative young girl named Jess and the imaginary friend she encounters on a family trip to Nigeria. Oyeyemi evokes childhood and its loss—all that tenderness and cruelty—beautifully. A book that moves and haunts.