|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Are You My Mother?
A Comic Drama
Alison Bechdel
Pretty heady stuff going on here as Bechdel cross-examines her childhood to consider how she was affected by a smart, artistic, but emotionally-removed mother, and a repressed, angry father. If you don't regularly gravitate towards graphic novels...
|
|
|
The Beats
A Graphic History
Paul Buhle, Harvey Pekar
I've read a lot of Beat books in my time here at City Lights, but none are quite as fun as this graphic history. The perfect collection for those who think they've heard all the stories about Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, et al. The Beats also provides...
|
|
|
Bicycle Diaries
David Byrne
David Byrne's travel diaries illuminate the amazing power that dislocating oneself from their homebase has on the senses. His work sends him to cities in the US and around the world, and the visits are anything but passive.
|
|
|
The Keep
Jennifer Egan
Prior to devouring every page of Jennifer Egan’s The Keep, I made the surreptitious decision to read, for the first time, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Besides similar gothic settings, the books focus on the primal need to better understand...
|
|
|
A Hologram for the King
Dave Eggers
A sharp, clear, wide-eyed account of a businessman's troubles renders the destructive impact of global capitalism on everyman/woman. Also, the novel offers a "how to definitely not" self-care for a large, angry cyst if found on one's own neck.
|
|
|
Zeitoun
Dave Eggers
A subtly powerful condemnation of U.S. government response to the floods in New Orleans. What should have been a humanitarian aid mission, turned frighteningly militaristic, reminiscent of U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Though the man pictured...
|
|
|
Atomik Aztex
Sesshu Foster
In the alternate universe of this glitteringly surreal first novel, the Aztecs rule, having conquered the European invaders. Zenzontli, Keeper of the House of Darkness, is visited by visions of a parallel world run by the Europeans, where consumerism...
|
|
|
Everybody into the Pool
True Tales
Beth Lisick
Beth Lisick is the best kind of storyteller -- utterly original, naturally hilarious, wisely observant, and completely down-to-earth. Those who like David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, Marjane Satrapi or Julie Doucet will absolutely love this book.
|
|
|
Helping Me Help Myself
One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone
Beth Lisick
Beth Lisick emerges as one of the great storytellers of our generation, joining the ranks of David Foster Wallace and Cintra Wilson with her hilarious and poignant tales of immersion into the million-dollar self-help industry.
|
|
|
San Francisco Noir
Peter Maravelis
San Francisco Noir lashes out with hard-biting, all-original tales exploring the shadowy nether regions of scenic "Baghdad by the Bay." Virtuosos of the genre meet up with the best of S.F.'s literary fiction community to chart a unique psycho-geography...
|
|
|
Damascus
Joshua Mohr
Santa Claus tends bar as a stage 4 cancer patient, an artist, war vets, hipsters, and alcoholics collide in the San Francisco Mission bar Damascus. Mohr's pitch perfect, simmering, almost hard-boiled novel contains my favorite Hitler reference since..
|
|
|
Hello, I'm Special
How Individuality Became the New Conformity
Hal Niedzviecki
Hal Niedzviecki has a blunt message for the army of tattoo and piercing enthusiasts, bloggers, skateboard warriors, and anyone else walking around with the smug certainty that they are one of a kind: Individuality is the new conformity.
|
|
|
Super Sad True Love Story
A Novel
Gary Shteyngart
Did the opposable thumb evolve to text? Happy to find that I'm not the only one contemplating such serious matters. Shteyngart's new novel is sad, but also very heartwarming to those of us skeptical of, and concerned about, the role that electronic...
|
|
|
Just Kids
Patti Smith
Winner of the National Book Award. Just Kids illuminates the impressive lover of literature that Patti Smith is. Her memoir will be of particular interest to City Lights enthusiasts as she is our quintessential reader, a fan of the Surrealists...
|
|
|