Julia
Perfection in Form - Robert Mapplethorpe
I was lucky enough to see this exhibit at the Accademia Dell'Arte in Florence over the summer and it was one of the best art exhibits I've ever seen. The contrast between the perfect sculptures of Michelangelo and the perfect bodies of Mapplethorpe is just astonishing. I'm not even a big fan of photo/art books and I loved this.
Beautiful Children - Charles Bock
This novel debuts the brilliant new novelist Charles Bock. All I can say is thank God we have a great new voice on the scene. This book is gut-wrenching and beautiful.
Shortcomings - Adrian Tomine
Good old boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy moves on with life. Beautiful illustrations and a simple touching story. I love this book.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
This is one of those books that I wish I had when I was 16, but was no less poignant when I read it at 20. There are a few books that vy for the crown of modern Catcher in the Rye, and this is definitely one of them, albiet with an amazingly less whiney lead character.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 - Joss Wheadon and George Jeanty
For Buffy and non-Buffy fans alike this series is a great story of a vampire slaying universe where there are three Buffys and numerous slayers all pitted against a big enemy. If you're tired of Twilight or Sookie Stackhouse, read Buffy.
On The Road: The Original Scroll - Jack Kerouac
You've read On The Road (or maybe not), this is the real story. This is the real names, the real drugs, the real sex, the real grit of Kerouac's travels back and forth across America. William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and Allen Ginsberg all make appearances. I absolutely could not put this down. Better than the original.
This is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper
Everything I want in a book. Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply touching, and completely relatable. This book about a dysfunctional family forced to sit Shiva, kept me up all night racing for the end, while simultaneously mourning the end. I loved this book.
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
I can't believe this novel is shelved in Young Adult because if I did the things these kids do as a young adult...oh wait, I did. This is one of those books that actually portrays teenagers as they are. And follows two particularly smart, sophisticated, yet somewhat insecure teenagers through one magic night in New York City. One of my favorite books of all time.
Fables - Bill Willingham
I just started reading Fables and it is shockingly good. Basic premise: what if the fairy tales, or fables, of our childhood were forced off their land in an epic war and made to live in New York City undercover? What if Snow White and Prince Charming divorced due to the Prince's philandering? What if Ms. White cursed like a sailor? What if Beauty and the Beast were having marital troubles causing Mr. Beast to wane between human and beast? Fables is some of the best storytelling I've read in quite some time.
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman
There are few books that I will purchase strictly because of the title. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, and Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs all have been purchased by yours truly based solely on the title (some of those happened a long time ago). My favorite part of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is the essay about how all the women Chuck's age are totally in love with John Cusack, but they're not even in love with John Cusack, they're in love with Lloyd Dobbler. Other favorite is how Chuck dumped a woman for going to a coldplay concert instead of spending the weekend in Manhattan with him. Great book!
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (trans. Volokhonsky and Pevear)
So apparently to be a classic novel you have to be extremely well written and kind of trashy. I was pleasantly shocked by Anna Karenina and the soapy exploits of Russia's society men and women in the 19th century. Much of it would be just as scandalous today...maybe the new Melrose Place can snag a plotline or two from Tolstoy? But will it be as beautifully written?
Maus - Art Spiegelman
Pulitzer Prize winning book, Maus, changed the face of comics when it came out in the '90s. Who knew that a comic book could be about survival in Auschwitz? Complete with Jews as Mice, French as frogs, and Germans as cats, Maus artfully tells a touching tale of Art's father who survived the concentration camp Auschwitz and lived on to tell the tale. This is the best comic ever written. You must read it.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
My favorite of Steinbeck's books, and not just because I grew up next to Salinas, East of Eden is so astonishingly well written and the story to end all stories. Yes, it's a retelling of Cain and Abel but there is so much more here. Generational gaps and similarities, the darkness that lies within all of us and the lightness that guides us all through. What a fucking great book.
A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
Okay, so Oprah made this book controversial because Frey "lied." But no matter if it's made up or not, no matter if it's fiction or non-fiction (I will say that the author himself asked us to move the book to fiction when he was here and we willingly moved it), this book is great. Written in an extremely stylized manner, Frey succeeds in taking readers through the gut-wrenching (literally) world of recovery from addiction.
Life Sucks - Jessica Abel, Gabriel Soria, and Warren Pleece
Screw Twilight. These vegeterian vampires are way cooler, or rather they aren't cool at all. Life Sucks takes the lore of vampires and says 'what if vampires still had to live life, rent an apartment, work a crappy job, and deal with girls? Instead of the joy of death, they have to live with this forever.' Life Sucks brings vampires to our level, where they belong.
Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
Porn star has bastard child and needs to make money for her heir so she decides she'll fuck the most guys in history (600), this is the story of three of the guys waiting for their chance. One might be the bastard, one might know the star, and the other...
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier - Clay by Michael Chabon
My all-time favorite book. Sammy Clay and Joe Kavalier are cousins. Joe is a trained escape artist and manages to escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovokia to come to New York and live with Sammy. They make comics called the Escapist and meet a lady named Rosa, who eventually becomes Luna Moth. From there, life unfolds as it does, in the most unsettling and natural of ways. Chabon's writing deserved the Pulitzer that came along with this book.
Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
Melinda Sordino has a big big secret, and she's not talking. She's not talking at all, not to anyone. Speak is a story about an awful thing and a girl who comes to terms and moves on with her life. There's a reason this book is read in schools to this day.
Youth in Revolt - C.D. Payne
Nick Twisp is your normal East Bay teenager. Disaffected, pissed off at his stepparents, and wanted by the F.B.I. Well, he's not wanted at first, but he becomes an enemy of the state during his journey in Youth in Revolt. But being wanted by the F.B.I. means you can't attend school with your crush, Sheeni Saunders, so Nick does what any other normal teen would do: he dresses like a girl and tries to win her over. Can't wait for the movie with Michael Cera as Nick Twisp.
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Lady Brett Ashley is my favorite lady in literature. It's hard to believe that she was written over 80 years ago, as she's as real and messed up as each and every one of my female friends (myself included). Jake Barnes is damaged, literally and figuratively, and together with Brett these two might be the best couple that isn't actually together in the history of literature. Love this book.
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone - Stephanie Kuehnert
This is another of those books that I wish was around when I was about 16, but was just as wonderful when I was 24. It is also another of those books that belongs in regular adult fiction rather than Young Adult. Emily, in the beginning of the book, loses her virginity on a gravelly parking lot ground and it's all downhill from there. Emily goes into a downward spiral that seems like it might never stop. If not for the healing power of a great mosh pit and the music that accompanies it, she might not. Great book.
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Ignatius J. Reilly might just be the best character in American Literature. He's a disgusting pig of a man that releases valves, belches, and wears a red plaid hunting cap all the time, even though he lives in New Orleans...with his mom. Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most vivid books in existence. Love it!
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