An absolutely brilliant essay collection from an Emerson professor.
Sarah
Grieving is a hard read, but the central idea is so beautiful, the heart-punches you take along the way are worth it. To be human is to be vulnerable but we can envelop that vulnerability in community so that no one is helpless. Though directly about the tragedies surrounding the drug war in Mexico, Grieving illuminates more general human experiences of trauma, national myth, and politics. And I might read the last chapter, "Keep Writing," once a month to help me keep going.
Josh
You've seen those author interviews where the question is inevitably asked, "if you were to host a dinner party and could invite anyone you wanted who would you invite and why?" In this volume, Erica Heller, daughter of author Joseph Heller, makes it lunch and brings together the responses of 50 notable personalities like Michael Douglas, Daniel Bellow, and Bob Balaban to name a few. Questions one has always wanted answered by a loved one or admired mentor are fully fleshed out over a shared meal. Lovely distracting reading for our current times.
Ellen
Lindy West is a brilliant cultural critic and in this collection she tackles an array of subjects from Adam Sandler to #metoo to abortion rights to (of course) Trump and the right wing. This book is broader in its ambit than Shrill, her last one, but what really makes it delicious to read is her incisive observation, brilliant wordcraft, and laugh-out-loud hilarity. She is making deep and important points and reading will make you laugh and be furious at the same time.
David
This was a year of extraordinary books, and I put a lot of thought into what my pick of the year would be. Ultimately, this is the most important book I could share with y'all. Those of us who love deserts and mountains know erosion can be a dramatic force for change, simultaneously destructive and creative. As we live through this era of significant change--personal, political, environmental--Terry Tempest Williams's writing is a spiritual balm and a passionate call to action.
Kate
An amazing collection of essays exploring questions of race, beauty, class, and authority from new angles, from a brilliant sociologist.
Sarah
Now in paperback just in time for the holiday season, the seventh collection of McPhee’s essays and an all around “Best of” his body of work. McPhee brings his inimitable talent for observation to bear on several arenas of the human experience… sports, the phenomenon of celebrity status, nature…employing wit, poetry, and his trademark “turn of phrase”. His curiosity about all things never ceases to entertain.
Ellen
This should be titled Little Wonderfuls instead of Little Weirds! But weird and wonderful it is. Jenny Slate does more than bare her soul - she removes her brain from her skull and allows the reader to poke around in there and find the interesting details that make her human and inspire her creativity. I recommend the audio book too, from Libro.fm!
Heather
Few books capture the spirit of the desert southwest--my homeland!--quite like this collection of essays from Craig Childs. His prose finds both the stillness & the shimmer of heat rising over stone. If you're cold, restless, or longing for summer days under the sun & stars, pick this one up. It'll stick in your soul long after you read it, like the red dust of the canyonlands.
Kate
An amazing collection of essays exploring questions of race, beauty, class, and authority from new angles, from a brilliant sociologist (who'll be here on March 1).
Sarah
