Bluets- Maggie Nelson

Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces - Michael Chabon

The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction - Neil Gaiman

We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Reporting Always: Writings from The New Yorker - Lillian Ross

Tell Me How It Ends: an Essay in Forty Questions - Valeria Luiselli

Know This : Today's Most Interesting and Important Scientific Ideas, Discoveries, and Developments - ed. John Brockman

You'll grow out of it - Jessi Klein

You'll grow out of it - Jessi Klein

Brave enough - Cheryl Strayed

Reporting always - Liliana Ross

Between the world and me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

Summary: "For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him -- most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear.What were they afraid of? In Tremble for My Country, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings -- moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. In his trademark style -- a mix of lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, essayistic argument, and reportage -- Coates provides readers a thrillingly illuminating new framework for understanding race: its history, our contemporary dilemma, and where we go from here"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* In this brief book, which takes the form of a letter to the author's teenage son, Coates, the justly acclaimed author of the family memoir The Beautiful Struggle (2008), comes to grips with what it means to be black in America today. On the basis of his previous writing, Coates is the ideal candidate to even attempt such an ambitious undertaking. He has become an extraordinary essayist; that he succeeds here will rank him securely among his forerunners. The title is from a quotation by Richard Wright; the chief literary influence is James Baldwin; Coates' personal inspiration is Malcolm X; the crucible of the piece is Howard University; and behind it are the writings and attitudes handed down by Coates' father, publisher Paul Coates. Like Baldwin, Coates is both furious and judicious. When he took his son to visit Civil War battlefields, he felt as though he was "a nosy accountant conducting an audit and someone was trying to hide the books." In the days after 9/11, Coates could not help seeing the celebrated police as no different from those who had recently killed a Howard classmate. And he desperately wants his son to know (as his father taught him) that American history too often equates with robbery, and its complacent boosters are hypocritical at best. There is awesome beauty in the power of his prose and vital truth on every page. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again: essays and arguments - David Foster Wallace

A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again: essays and arguments - Wallace, David Foster

Summary: A collection of keen observations, witty analysis, and essays on a wide range of subjects exposes the fault lines in today's society - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
Celebrated Illinoisan writer Wallace's meganovel, Infinite Jest (1996), was megasuccessful, and these intelligent, funny essays are outstanding. In "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley," Wallace presents himself as a young Midwest tennis star with an unathletic, intuitive, yet winning style of play. But Wallace writes about far more than the sum of his self, widening his field of vision to embrace wind, earth, and mathematics, creating a virtual cyclone with his highly idiosyncratic perceptions, perfectly correct cadence, and casually hip lexicon. He applies this arsenal of literary power tools to even greater effect in one of the most original, comprehensive analyses yet of television and the pervasive "culture of watching," discussing such fine points as the tyranny of television's institutionalized, self-referential irony and its tremendous influence on American fiction. Wallace has also written in his edgy way about David Lynch, a state fair, and, in the masterful title piece, his addling experiences on a seven-night Caribbean cruise during which he endured hours of despair interrupted by moments of stunned amazement. ((Reviewed February 15, 1997)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

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A house of my own - Sandra Cisneros

Summary: "From the beloved author of The House on Mango Street: a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography: an intimate album of a literary legend's life and career. From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico, in a region where "my ancestors lived for centuries," the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection--spanning nearly three decades, and including never-before-published work--Cisneros has come home at last. Ranging from the private (her parents' loving and tempestuous marriage) to the political (a rallying cry for one woman's liberty in Sarajevo) to the literary (a tribute to Marguerite Duras), and written with her trademark sensitivity and honesty, these poignant, unforgettable pieces give us not only her most transformative memories but also a revelation of her artistic and intellectual influences. Here is an exuberant, deeply moving celebration of a life in writing lived to the fullest--an important milestone in a storied career"-- Provided by publisher.
"A book of essays spanning the author's career a[nd] reflecting upon the various homes she's lived in around the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* By gathering together more than 40 essays and musings written for various occasions and undertakings between 1984 and 2014, Cisneros, beloved author of the novels The House on Mango Street (1984) and Caramelo (2002), has created her first work of nonfiction, a patchwork-quilt memoir resplendent with one hundred color photographs. Her reflections on houses she's lived in and the meaning of home form a unifying motif, along with accounts of her early struggle to envision a way forward as a self-described "American Mexican" and "working-class writer." Cisneros chronicles with profound insights and striking detail family abodes in Chicago and Mexico City, sojourns on a Greek island and in Sarajevo, Venice, and Chiapas, Mexico, and the uproar over her purple house in San Antonio. Cisneros pays passionate homage to her parents and such writers and artists as Gwendolyn Brooks, Elena Poniatowska, Eduardo Galeano, and Astor Piazzolla. She also examines with abrading candor and impish wit gender expectations, sexuality, and her long campaign to become "a woman comfortable in her skin," the corollary to her love of home as sanctuary: "A house for me is the freedom to be." At once righteously irreverent and deeply compassionate, Cisneros writes frankly and tenderly of independence and connection, injustice and transcendence, resilience and creativity, the meaning of home and the writer's calling. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Cisneros will tour the country with this mosaic of autobiographical stories guaranteed to enthrall her many fans. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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Let me tell you - Shirley Jackson

Let me tell you: new stories, essays, and other writings - Jackson, Shirley

Summary: A new volume of unpublished and uncollected stories, essays, lectures, letters, and other writings by the renowned author of "The Lottery" and "The Haunting of Hill House" includes pieces reflecting on the literary process and family life. - (Baker & Taylor)

Library Journal Reviews
Remember the chilling excitement of reading Jackson's "The Lottery" for the first time? You'll have that same experience over and over again with this new collection, which offers more than 50 unpublished and uncollected works drawn from Jackson's papers at the Library of Congress and coedited by two of her children. Not only have these pieces never appeared before in book form, but many have never appeared at all, including 21 of the 29 stories and 14 of the 15 essays and lectures. With 2015 marking the 50th anniversary of Jackson's death and 2016 the centenary of her birth, expect a blizzard of works about Jackson, including a big biography from book critic Ruth Franklin.

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Drawn & Quarterly

Drawn & Quarterly

Summary: North America's pioneering comics publisher celebrates its quarter-century with new and rare archival comics; essays from Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, and more.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Drawn & Quarterly has stood at the vanguard of art comics for a quarter-century now, and this massive tome celebrates the Canadian publisher and its beloved chief, Chris Oliveros, who conceived of "a comic company with literary and artistic aspirations." Oliveros, staff, and cartoonists are featured in essays, interviews, and photographs as well as appreciations by such literary luminaries as Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Lethem. For readers with no interest in any of that, though, it also brims with new and collected comics. The cartoonist list reads like a who's who of artists who have made independent comics what they are now and are defining where they're going: Beaton, Barry, Brown, Clowes, DeForge, Gauld, Hernandez, Spiegelman, Tomine, Ware . . . though that list barely scratches the surface. This is a magnificent monument to the diversity of aesthetic philosophies and personal styles, and if there's a prevalent theme, it's everyday indignities and how real people face them, even if these real people are occasionally zombies or superheroes. Even skipping the prose, this is a tall mountain to scale in one climb, but sampling and returning to it again and again affords an incomparable journey through comics' state of the art. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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The unspeakable - Meghan Daum

The unspeakable: and other subjects of discussion - Daum, Meghan

Summary: "A master of the personal essay candidly explores love, death, and the counterfeit rituals of American life In her celebrated 2001 collection, My Misspent Youth, Meghan Daum offered a bold, witty, defining account of the artistic ambitions, financial anxieties, and mixed emotions of her generation. The Unspeakable is an equally bold and witty, but also a sadder and wiser, report from early middle age. It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide," Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital. Elsewhere, she writes searchingly about cultural nostalgia, Joni Mitchell, and the alternating heartbreak and liberation of choosing not to have children. Combining the piercing insight of Joan Didion with a warm humor reminiscent of Nora Ephron, Daum dissects our culture's most dangerous illusions, blind spots, and sentimentalities while retaining her own joy and compassion. Through it all, she dramatizes the search for an authentic self in a world where achieving an identity is never simple and never complete"-- Provided by publisher.

Library Journal Reviews
Daum (My Misspent Youth) opens this collection of personal essays with the scene at her mother's deathbed and confesses that she wishes her mother would hurry up and die, setting the honest tone for the pieces that follow. The author proceeds to examine her attitudes about children, dogs, food, lesbianism, Joni Mitchell, etc., often expressing offbeat views counter to those of her friends—she prefers animals to children and devotes one essay to over-the-top love for her dog, Rex, while feeling relieved after having a miscarriage. Daum's fearlessness is to be admired, as is her writing ability. She's a skilled stylist who leavens serious topics with a smidgen of humor, such as attributing her dislike of food preparation to an overall laziness that arises from deep insecurities about not being able to master math, Middle English, and team sports. In the closing essay, the author recounts her close brush with death from a flea-borne bacterial infection with amazing detail and insight, bookending her memoir with her mother's and her medical experiences. VERDICT This book will appeal to memoir enthusiasts seeking an insightful reading experience that will entertain as well as challenge.—Nancy R. Ives, State Univ. of New York at Geneseo

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Worn Stories - Emily Spivack

Worn Stories - Spivack, Emily

Summary: Everyone has a memoir in miniature in at least one piece of clothing. In Worn Stories, Emily Spivack has collected over sixty of these clothing-inspired narratives from cultural figures and talented storytellers.



Publishers Weekly Reviews
Spivak, creator of the Smithsonian's fashion blog, Threaded, assembles a charming collection of one- or two-page essays about favorite items of clothing, each one accompanied on the facing page by a photo of the particular item. Contributors as disparate as mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig, attorney Ross Intelisano, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, chef April Bloomfield, and performance artist Marina Abramovic, among others, are invited to opine here. Highlights include a tribute to a practical dress and to a garment manufacturer grandfather, "the man who dressed New York" from Jill Meisner (of Refinery 29). Also notable is Spivak's own loquacious ode to a pair of flip-flops worn "precisely, perhaps, because they are so ordinary." Author Heidi Julavits, meanwhile, closely studies her privileged neighbors' insouciant style of dress: "threadbare flannels with paint stains, patched jeans, faded and torn polo shirts." The simple photos of each beloved item—a T-shirt here, a pair of work boots there—are intimate and sweet. Spivak has created a fashion book for everyone who feels that so far they have been left out of the fun.

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The dinner party - Judy Chicago

The dinner party: restoring women to history - Chicago, Judy

Summary: "The official publication celebrating Judy Chicago's feminist art masterpiece, The Dinner Party installation at the Brooklyn Museum, and an introduction to outstanding women in history... The Dinner Party, a monumental triangular table, and the Heritage Floor on which the table rests, represents 1,038 women in history--39 by unique large ceramic plates and runners with another 999 names inscribed on the floor's ceramic tiles. It has been seen by more than a million visitors during its international exhibition tour, and has been a principal destination at the Brooklyn Museum since its permanent housing in 2007. A perfect companion to a revolutionary artwork, the book is a must-have for both long-standing fans of Judy Chicago's oeuvre and young artists and women looking for reflections of themselves in the history of Western Civilization."--www.Amazon.com.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
When noted feminist artist Chicago was an undergrad, one of her history professors declared: "Women's contributions to European intellectual history? They made none." As she explains in the introduction to the first book to represent her groundbreaking mixed-media installation "The Dinner Party" (1974-79), this comment inspired her to create an alternative history of women's cultural, political, and scholarly achievements. Consisting of 39 handmade place settings, celebrating notable women from the primordial goddess to Georgia O'Keefe, the installation has been permanent housed in the Brooklyn Museum's Sackler Center for Feminist Art since 2007. Chicago describes the work's genesis, evolution, its collective nature, problematic exhibition history, and public impact. Organized to mirror the exhibition, each section is divided into four chronological wings, rather than chapters, and includes a short description of the woman represented and a photograph of her plate and place setting. Surrounding the photographs are summaries of the other women whose 999 names are inscribed on the ceramic tile floor ("Heritage Floor") on which the triangular table rests. Many of the plates photograph well, particularly those for Sappho and Virginia Woolf, and handmade runners are spectacular. In this volume, published to coincide with her 75th birthday and including a foreword by Brooklyn Museum director Arnold L. Lehman, and essays by Frances Borzello and Jane F. Gerhard, Chicago offers a vibrant visual and textual encyclopedia of female achievement. 100 color illus. (Apr.)

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But enough about you - Christopher Buckley

But enough about you - Buckley, Christopher

Summary: "In his first book of essays since his 1997 bestseller, Wry Martinis, Buckley delivers a rare combination of big ideas and truly fun writing. Tackling subjects ranging from 'How to Teach Your Four-Year-Old to Ski' to 'A Short History of the Bug Zapper,' and 'The Art of Sacking' to literary friendships with Joseph Heller and Christopher Hitchens, he is at once a humorous storyteller, astute cultural critic, adventurous traveler, and irreverent historian."--www.Amazon.com.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* This collection of Buckley's (They Eat Puppies, Don't They?, 2012) essays perfectly showcases and draws upon his many writerly voices. Whether he is humorist, vice-presidential speechwriter, political satirist, novelist, author, editor, essayist, travel writer, critic, or eulogist (sounds like he can't hold a job, doesn't it?), one thing Buckley always is is entertaining. That's at the very least, and these are among his very best efforts. Whether he is waxing sentimental over memories of Thanksgivings past, lamenting the price of cedar nuggets (you have to read it), eulogizing his longtime friend Christopher Hitchens, or practicing the art of name-dropping—which he can legitimately do with characteristic aplomb—he makes his topic worthy of his reader's complete focus. His thoughts are pithy, trenchant, and perspicacious, and for all that, his essays are seasoned with a light dusting of self-deprecation, the secret to this book's exceptional charm. What's more, these assembled pieces are sublimely addicting. To paraphrase a ubiquitous snack slogan, bet you can't read just one! Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

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