Ruth's Picks

Walkman (Penguin Poets) (Paperback)

By Michael Robbins

$20.00

ISBN: 9780143134909

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Published: Penguin Books - June 1st, 2021

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I picked up this book for its stunning cover and was delighted to find that the poems inside it are even more stunning. The first line of the poem "Past One O'clock" tells you all you need to know:

"I'll quit smoking as soon as I get lung cancer. The young don't smoke anymore, they join gyms. I can't help thinking they've misunderstood something."

Robbins is a poet for those of us who lie awake and wonder about what ever happened to our Walkmans, to our childhood crushes... those of us who spend every night trying to recreate the nights when we were seventeen and anything could happen. Oh, and these poems are funny as hell. 

No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories (Paperback)

By Miranda July

$16.00

ISBN: 9780743299411

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Published: Scribner - May 6th, 2008

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For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, this collection is alive with absurdity and awkwardness. In one of my favorite stories, a woman teaches seniors how to swim on the floor of her kitchen; in another, a woman fears that removing a birthmark will make her husband love her less. Humans do strange things to connect with one another, and July's intuitive understanding of this fact makes her a delight to read. 

Conversations with Friends: A Novel (Paperback)

By Sally Rooney

$17.00

ISBN: 9780451499066

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Published: Hogarth - August 7th, 2018

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Reading this book was like holding a mirror up to myself. The main characters are insecure, but also pretentious; obsessed with morality but morally inept; critical of conventional social hierarchies but inescapably enmeshed in them. And still, years after reading this book, I can't stop thinking about them.

The Anthropocene Reviewed (Signed Edition): Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (Hardcover)

By John Green

$28.00
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ISBN: 9780525555216

Published: Dutton - May 18th, 2021

Yes, you know who John Green is, but you've never known him like this. These essays expertly weave together history and memoir, searching for truths about humanity in the strangest of places-- Super Mario Kart, for instance, and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Monopoly, CNN, and "our capacity for wonder." This book is a wonderful gift, a bedside treasure, and a beach read of the highest caliber.

I give the Anthropocene Reviewed five stars. 

In the Dream House: A Memoir (Paperback)

By Carmen Maria Machado

$16.00

ISBN: 9781644450383

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Published: Graywolf Press - December 1st, 2020

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This book shook me to my core. Each chapter rarely extends longer than 1 page and explores a different facet of an abusive queer relationship through the lens of a different literary trope (stoner comedy, noir, déjà vu, etc.). As in her critically acclaimed book of short stories, Her Body and Other Parties, Machado's strength lies in her ability to create suspense and horror out of domestic life, Although this is a work of non-fiction, it reads like a thriller. -Ruth, Burlington

Girlhood (Hardcover)

By Melissa Febos

$27.00

ISBN: 9781635572520

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Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - March 30th, 2021

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"I had learned about the male gaze in women’s studies classes, but knew no way to dig it out of me," writes Febos. This books is for feminists who are looking back at their own girlhoods and wondering when and why they began to see their body through others' eyes, where along the way their voices got smaller and their "no"s became diluted or disappeared altogether. This was a book I didn't know I needed until I found it. -Ruth, Burlington

Having and Being Had (Hardcover)

By Eula Biss

$26.00
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ISBN: 9780525537458

Published: Riverhead Books - September 1st, 2020

In this collection of luminous short essays, Eula Biss mines the minutiae of everyday life to understand her precarious relationship with wealth. Much like Maggie Nelson, Biss embraces contradiction and is unafraid to draw from a wide array of fields-- art, philosophy, history, and economics, to name a few. This might just be my favorite non-fiction book of the year.

Let Me Tell You What I Mean (Hardcover)

By Joan Didion

$23.00

ISBN: 9780593318485

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Published: Knopf - January 26th, 2021

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A new Didion collection? Yes, please. From the Monica Lewinsky scandal (a genuinely fresh take) to a fierce defense of Hemmingway's posthumously published novel (he didn't consent to it's publication!), to thoughtful musings on the life of a writer, these essays are a master-class in great writing.

Leaving the Atocha Station (Paperback)

By Ben Lerner

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566892742

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Published: Coffee House Press - August 23rd, 2011

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This novel follows Adam, a self-doubting stoner poet on scholarship in Madrid. He is equal parts riotously funny and frustratingly unmotivated. Coincidentally, these are all descriptions that apply to me, which might be why this is one of my favorite books of all time. Or maybe it's because it's gorgeously written? Either way, read it.

Bad Behavior: Stories (Paperback)

By Mary Gaitskill

$17.00

ISBN: 9781439148877

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Published: Simon & Schuster - July 21st, 2009

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Mary Gaitskill is the QUEEN of character description. Her sentences snap with wit and specificity, and every page or two you'll hit a line that captures the human condition so precisely... its magic. Here's one: “At times she had thought that this was the only kind of connection you could have with people—intense, inexplicable and ultimately incomplete.” 

These stories are not for the faint of heart--some are graphically sexual in a way that Gaitskill has become famous for--but she handles even the most intimate encounters masterfully, and they always have a purpose. The best way to read this collection is cover to cover; you won't want to skip a single story. If you like Ottessa Moshfegh, you'll love Gaitskill!