July Staff Picks
This July is bringing the heat. Last year we made t-shirts that proclaimed, “Stay Safe! Read Books” to encourage people to stay home during the pandemic. But the sentiment remains useful as temperatures climb dangerously high across the country. Take our word for it, find somewhere cool and hunker down with a book. It’s the only way to survive. Maybe one of these!
You can find all our past staff picks here.
Something has overtaken Area X, and its borders are expanding rapidly. The previous expeditions to uncover its mysteries have all failed, and its members have been left either irrevocably changed, or dead. The book follows the 12th expedition who are all women and all nameless. They are the next to enter Area X, 2 years since the last failed mission. Vandermeer's writing in this unsettling sci-fi horror hybrid brings you into the atmospheric strangeness of Area X. Some of Area X's mysteries are never fully explained which adds to the unnerving experience of reading this book. It's also another case of the book being better than the movie. P.S. The endpapers by Eric Nyquist are absolutely gorgeous. — Anthony
In a California raisin town, parched and increasingly destitute from a drastically changing climate, the people of Peaches are thirsting for answers, for deliverance, for rain. Lacy May and her family find solace in a cultish congregation sticky with soda baptisms and God glitter falling from the rafters, until it becomes all too clear a violent "miracle" has Lacy May and several other young girls facing a disastrous fate. An unforgettably visceral novel that explores the wounds of domestic trauma, shifting faith, and finding healing in community with women, Godshot is like that first, crisp sip of water after you wake, jarred from a nightmare. Deeply delicious and yet still, you're thirsting for more. — Colleen
When two adult sisters return home to help their mother move, they are forced to reckon with a disturbing incident from their adolescence. An acute, unflinching examination of sisterhood, generational trauma and the many ways in which men inflict violence on women. This debut blew me away. —Eddie
Kevin Wilson is my favorite eccentric human. If you read his fantastic novel Nothing to See Here, some details in this book will feel familiar--for example, people bursting into flame. Fans of Kelly Link's stories will adore this book, in which every single brilliant story overflows with invention and wonder. — Emma
I started reading this as a web comic and got totally hooked. Come for the lesbian space jousting, stay for Hannah Templer's gorgeous artwork and a delightful takedown of the patriarchy. And check out Vol. 2 online when you're done! — Isabel
In Moshi Moshi you savor each word like a delicacy. I found myself slowing down, and rereading paragraphs; a rare feat. Banana’s writing evokes a transcendent calm in contrast to my fast-paced everyday life. Although this book revolves around the “suicide-pact death” of the narrator's father, I somehow closed the last chapter cherishing life. Some context about the title: The Japanese say moshi twice when answering the phone; if it’s only said once, then you’re actually talking to a ghost. — Jacque
Part cookbook, part graphic novel, Let’s Make Ramen pairs the DREAMIEST illustrations with accessible recipes and colorful history. Honestly…stop reading this blurb and just open it up, you’re gonna love it. —Kristina
Veronica Speedwell is a sassy female lepidopterist (i.e. a scientist who studies butterflies). Stoker is a grumpy, but endearing taxidermist. They bicker and argue nonstop while solving mysteries in Victorian era London. It's amazing. — Lindsay
Interior Chinatown is presented as a telescript, where our protagonist is a side character identified as Generic Asian Male in the background of a procedural show. He pines for the spotlight; to be Kung Fu Guy, but even that lacks the definition of the show’s main characters. Interior Chinatown shines in its portrayal of these characters; the cognitive dissonance of the characters’ generic names (Old Asian Man; Young Dragon Lady; Girl with Almost Eyes) next to the tragic reality of their lives is darkly comic, exposing a real-life truth about whose stories get told and who falls, in this case literally, into the background. — Michael C.
Told with humor and insight, Everything Now explores various corners of the sprawling behemoth known as Los Angeles. Baldwin introduces us to many interesting people that make up the City-State. It made me fall in love with LA even more. — Mike FS
This IS my favorite book. If you think short stories aren't for you, think again! Lucia Berlin wrote the most vibrant, sensual, authentic stories, and it's amazing to have them collected in one book! I'm obsessed with this collection, and I'm in love with Lucia for candidly making the everyday sound extraordinary. — Natalie
Marie NDiaye fills the pages with intense and unsettling brilliance. My Heart Hemmed In is a world where everything quickly slips away and becomes a distorted, unrecognizable place. This is a page turning masterpiece by a French female author of color who not enough Americans know about. — Nick
In this highly-saturated and multi-textured memoir, Rajiv Mohabir invents a mode to encompass the complexities of his existence as an Indo-Guyanese poet who is “queer sexually, queer religiously, queer by caste, and queer countried.” With an intergenerational life story marked by various migrations—and some may say, transgressions—Mohabir carves a vessel to contain his multitudes using the instruments of prose, song, poetry, and prayer. Authentic and defiant, this memoir responds to erasure with assertion, to derogation with reclamation, and to fragmentation with relation. Fans of Ocean Vuong, Alexander Chee, and Saeed Jones will adore this book! —Serena
I read this book from start to finish in a few, breathless hours. Based on H.P. Lovecraft's (arguably) most racist work "The Horror at Red Hook", LaValle's skillful hand has reimagined the story as a subversive and wondrous tale of magic and monsters in old New York. Few reads are as chilling, satisfying, and thought-provoking, all at once, as this amazing little book. Give it a chance - it'll upend your ideas of what reinventing literature can do in just a few short hours. — Shulokhana
We choose new staff picks every month, so stay tuned for regular updates.
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