The levels of depravity and viciousness that W. is able to reach through his assessment of Lars and himself truly merit the exalted categories of cosmic, transcendental, and messianic.
Harlem Is Nowhere – Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
“We need more books like this. As Americans in a swiftly changing and displaced nation, the project of walking and talking, reading and wondering, must be done with great seriousness.”
The Gospel of Anarchy – Justin Taylor
The Gospel of Anarchy will remind you of the line you toe so you can keep your place in this society. The one under which you sweep your deviant thoughts so your conspecifics won’t see them and think you’re “weird.”
The Strange Case of Edward Gorey – Alexander Theroux
“He throws many words at Gorey, often the same words over and over, in a litany that demonstrates the futility of getting at his core.”
Robert Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century – William Patterson
I knew Heinlein was carrying around contradictions. But it wasn’t until I began to read William Patterson’s biography that I realized how important those contradictions were in expressing the Geist of an entire generation.
Otherwise Known as the Human Condition – Geoff Dyer
If Dyer occasionally sounds off-pitch or elitist, it is because his voice is unapologetically singular: no one else can be Geoff Dyer.
Beneath the Lion’s Gaze – Maaza Mengiste
In a time when revolutions rattle and reinvigorate much of our world, Mengiste’s novel makes a frighteningly real case of the risk inherent in ditching one idol for another.
Bloom County: The Complete Library
The amount of space allotted for Sunday strips has been slowly shrinking for decades. Thank goodness there was still enough space in 1983 for Berkley Breathed to spend seven Sunday strips commemorating a cat’s death by acne.
You Think That’s Bad- Jim Shepard
The stories collected within You Think That’s Bad connect the distant past to the yet-experienced future in globetrotting style.
“Mat Johnson reinterprets Poe’s questionably constructed work in Pym, a novel that manages to be all at once a slapstick adventure, a literary mystery and a satirical approach to race, racism and academia.”