favorite reads
| title |
author |
format |
genre |
pub date |
original language |
notes |
| the employees |
olga ravn |
novella |
fiction/sci-fi |
2022 |
danish |
this book is a dream of experimental science fiction. the actual content of the book isn't that out there - a space ship takes aboard scientific samples from a newly discovered planet, which turn out to be more than they bargained for - but the experience of reading it is so unique. it's presented as clips from interviews with various crew members, out of order and incomplete, which forces you to piece together what's actually happening while the story spirals toward doom. |
| collected fictions |
jorge luis borges and andrew hurley |
collection/short story |
fiction |
1999 |
spanish |
this is an absolute fucking brick of a book, and it doesn't even include borges' nonfiction and poetry. my early perception of borges was that he wrote weird fiction or cosmic horror, kind of an alternative to lovecraft. after becoming acquainted with the whole breadth of his work, though, i really appreciate his stories that retell regional/argentinian legends or folktales. the translator's notes are especially useful there. |
| blackouts |
justin torres |
book |
fiction |
2023 |
english |
|
| the broken heart of america: st louis and the violent history of the united states |
walter johnson |
book |
nonfiction |
2021 |
english |
hooooly shit you guys this book is so good. even if you've never lived in st. louis it's an amazing book about connecting racial capitalism to native american removal to slavery to jim crow to redlining to contemporary policing, and it's also filled with cool midwestern communists you've probably never heard of. |
| that time of year |
marie ndaiye |
novella |
fiction/horror |
2020 |
french |
this book is so sleek and stylish, and it reminds me more than anything of the podcast i am in eskew. there's something so delicious to me in stories about being trapped in an unfamiliar city where the residents don't act quite right and the slow process of assimilation. i have a lot of dreams like that. |
| reform or revolution? |
rosa luxemburg |
book |
nonfiction |
1908 |
german |
|
| the extinction of irena rey |
jennifer croft |
book |
fiction |
2024 |
english |
|