The Weekend Fellow (TM)
Brutal and compelling. Read it over a single weekend and you can too! Kang has a new book releasing later this year so it's always good to catch up before the hot new thing drops.
I don't know what you want me to say! This book is good, probably my favorite of all time, believe the hype, give me all the dour Russians mulling over skepticism vs. faith that you've got. Apologies if you came here looking for a contrarian take on Dostoevsky, some books are just classics for a reason.
There have been several attempts recently to write the post-apocalyptic gender dystopia novel, but only the “filthcore queen” could pull off something this good and gruesome. Manhunt is a trans story of survival in a bitterly hostile world—not too dissimilar from our current reality, but this book captures the fascistic yearnings of TERFs in a world where a testosterone-heavy hormonal balance turns you into a feral monster. Felker-Martin writes with a brutality that belies a tender heart.
James’s Dark Star Trilogy cannot be stopped. I loved the first entry in the series, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and this installment might be even better! James is painting a dark fantasy Rashomon in blood, and Moon Witch, Spider King takes a distinctive approach to the Dark Star story, turning to political intrigue in its world of monsters and magic. Extremely violent and extremely harrowing.
Japanese horror master Junji Ito has always had a sense of cosmic brutalism to his stories. Uzumaki and Shiver, while not exactly plotted around destiny and the stars, have a sense of dread and fatalism to them. Sensor takes those concepts to their logical extreme, and this time-bending manga is beautiful and stands with Ito’s best.
This is usually a summer recommendation, because the World Cup is usually held in the summer. But since it’s being held in the arid deserts of Qatar this year, that means we can add championship international fútbol to our holiday season! Eduardo Galeano’s ode to the beautiful game is definitive, so if the super-fan in your life doesn’t have this book, you know what to get them for the holidays. This. This book.
I believe that Toni Morrison should not only be considered one of history's greatest writers, but also one of its greatest horror writers. Beloved, obviously, has a place in that genre, but so too does Sula, which prompted such expressions on my face while I was reading it that my partner had to ask me what was wrong. That's good stuff!
Beautiful and prescient and impeccably written as only Le Guin can be. Even if you leave out the themes of gender fluidity (this book was written 50+ years ago!) it would still be a masterpiece. Going to start reading anything by her I can get my hands on!
Still terribly funny and stupendous, but you can see how the passage of time has changed work culture--if it was set in 2022, the CDC would recommend that you quarantine as a beetle for 5 days before coming back to work. Your bosses need those travelling sales!
Unfortunately funny and prescient, a send-up of capitalism that will last until the Revolution liberates us all. You’ll recognize a lot of people you know in this one, and you’ll laugh to keep from crying.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
Come for Cullen Bunn’s psychological horror, stay for the eerie and surreal illustrations by Jack T. Cole. The Others by way of Doom Patrol, for that person who needs a good horror rec.
The image of Richard Nixon conducting a cabinet meeting in his old football uniform as a comfort blanket helps make me feel like the past five years are actually part of an American normal, for better or worse (worse).
Yeah, I’m late on this one, but you might be late on it as well, so here’s to us tardy folk: The Fifth Season rocks, no pun intended, and if you’re wondering where all the good spec fic has gone, look no further. Read it before the adaptation gets underway so nobody can call you (much of) a bandwagon jumper!
Carol is one of the greatest Christmas movies ever made and thus it is appropriate to recommend its source material, The Price of Salt, for the holiday catalogue. This book reads warm and has one of my favorite endings of all time, one that unfortunately still feels uncommon.
I love The Hobbit more than Lord of the Rings and that's your hot take for the day. Tolkien's whimsical bent (Tom Bombadil the GOAT) plays much better to me than the darker edge of Middle-earth. Turns out fairy tales and pure adventures still rip.
This month in Mick's "Over-Due Catch-Ups," we've got Frank Herbert's 1965 classic Dune! Turns out it lives up to the hype and rules quite hard. Get it before the Denis Villanueve adaptation comes out, and maybe even watch the David Lynch bomb too. What, you have a social life to get back to or something?
It's late spring (or pre-summer) and this is, to me, the best time for Redwall, a book of such warmth and whimsy that it makes me want to lie in tall grass, look at clouds, and dream that I'm a field mouse settling in for some vittles. Truly the life.
A perfect picaresque portrait of the endless greed and paranoia of the bourgeousie, and a prime example of the hero-less nature of capitalism. Even when you want to root for someone working within its framework, it's inevitable that someone is getting exploited. Dead Souls is a book for the dark humorists and the socialist cynics.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
