writer
Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir by Mark Hoppus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a book about a guy named Mark. He’s in a band. I love Mark and I love his band. So naturally, I loved this book, which is nothing more and nothing less than Mark being Mark, telling us stories the same way he tells them in his songwriting–flippant and dead serious, obnoxious and breathtaking, fast, fun, and honest.
View all my reviews
Room to Dream by David Lynch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is akin to being trapped at a diner booth with David as he tells you a thousand extremely random anecdotes about his life for hours on end, while a kindly friend interjects occassionally with clarifying facts. And that diner booth is exactly where I want to be. The uncompromising way Lynch devoted his life to art made him half madman and half patron saint. He was both and neither, but unquestionably a bright light mourned by many who understand the call to keep making things, however they might be received, because… we just have to. Also, the many photographs included from David’s personal collection are absolutely fantastic.
View all my reviews
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Listen, there are only so many books out there that hit the very specific cross-section of devoted NBA fandom, the cravings of a poet, a fierce loyalty to the cities of the American midwest that largely get counted out, a need for sad songs, and an open-armed love for the world. THERE’S ALWAYS THIS YEAR feels like meeting someone for the first time, who you see wearing a jersey from your favorite team and after a short affirming word somehow ends up accompanying you into the night as you whisper stories about your lives and suddenly see the future with fresh eyes. Left me in tears, which is my highest praise.
View all my reviews
One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lynda Barry is a truth-teller. Everything she creates leaves me inspired, just gem-filled. In this book, she plays down her talent as a storyteller, but I think we all know her unique voice is on a tier few others will ever achieve.
View all my reviews
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was happy to be gifted a copy of Happy-Go-Lucky, the newest by David Sedaris. I never fail to find something to impress me in David’s writing. His way of saying the world is so good at putting words to seeing the world in a particular way, during imperfect, improbable moments both banal and monumental. I feel very at home whenever I read his work. This one is no exception. Snort-laughing leading right into tears. He isn’t for everyone, but he is for me. This book is just another piece of proof that David’s a damn fine writer.
View all my reviews
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is phenomenally drawn, researched and told. Reading Seek You is a deeply personal act. As Kristen Radtke explores what it means to feel alone, her pages hold a mirror up to our own secret longings and darkest hours. The book asks important questions. It gives intensely challenging reasons to rethink and reimagine the ways we choose to carry our own cycles of loneliness. Radtke delivers a fascinating look at American culture and the human heart.
View all my reviews
The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer by Liza Rodman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is a fascinating, deeply disturbing study on how childhood trauma impacted two lives: one who went on to commit horrific violence, and another who went on to become a loving parent with a happy life. The latter of these is Liza Rodman, who recounts her childhood in Provincetown, Massachusetts in the heart of the 1960’s. The former was her sometime babysitter, Tony Costa-a man who became nothing less than a demon, plagued by violent impulses and devoid of remorse. The way these two real-life narratives intertwine (Rodman’s in first person, Tony’s in a meticulously researched third person from journalist Jennifer Jordan) is engrossing and horrifying. It reminds us that evil sits side by side with the benign, and that we should always trust our instincts when we feel that something… or someone… is off.
View all my reviews
How to Think Like a Fish: And Other Lessons from a Lifetime in Angling by Jeremy Wade
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is everything I hoped it might be and more. Jeremy Wade’s voice, experience, and specialty are each one of the most unique you’re liable to find. In this superbly fishy little volume, Wade plumbs the depths (forgive me) of the peculiar obsession involved in perfecting one’s craft. There are spectacular fish stories and practical tips, but what’s best is the philosophical underpinning and gentle humor that make this book far more beautiful than a simple angler’s guide.
View all my reviews
Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir by Liana Finck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Liana Finck’s distinctive style of drawing makes her graphic memoir feel as if it’s being told to you from the other end of the couch, while sharing a kettle of tea. The story is gently carried on the back of metaphors that allow her images to range free. It’s a beautiful memoir. Reading it feels like meeting someone for the first time, and knowing that they’re going to become important to you. Hard to describe. But you’ll know it when you see it.
View all my reviews
The Poetry of Strangers: What I Learned Traveling America by Brian Sonia-Wallace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Brian Sonia-Wallace’s meandering memoir stops off at unexpected destinations as he explores what it means to make a living as a busking poet in today’s America. Through the lens of his spontaneous poetry that is born of conversations with whomever approaches his typewriter and table, he contemplates all different kinds of desires, legacies, and wishes for the future that define the lives of the strangers that he begins to know. From the shiny temple to commercialism that is the Mall of America to a van that fortune tellers call home in the middle of the desert, these stories show a portrait of a nation and offer poetry as a possible prescription to mend the divisions of its people.
View all my reviews