Who knew eyeliner had such a rich history? From Egypt to Iran to Japan to the US, spanning centuries, Hankir weaves together history and interviews discussing the origin of eyeliner along with its uses for beauty as well as a form of resistance. Your idea of eyeliner will transform after reading this book!
Whether or not one drives a car, parking rules our lives. It determines the shape of our streets, the architecture of our buildings, where housing is available and isn't (or, for that matter, affordable). The seedy undergirdings of the parking-industrial complex are hopelessly entwined with gentrification, institutional racism, shocking violence, and cult-like obsessions from bloggers and Tweeters alike. Henry Grabar is the Jane Jacobs of the sidewalk curb and the asphalt lot. The history and culture of parking is just as awesome, petty, frustrating, and comical as one might think.
Benjamin Lorr fundamentally changed the way I think not only about food as commodity, but about retail, period. (Everything you touch, wear, or eat has spent long hours in the back of a truck!) Lorr isn't disgusted by it all, either; in the author's electric language, top-notch writing that engages every sense, the supermarket is a place of worship (think DeLillo's famous grocery store scenes in 'White Noise'). Lorr dedicates a chapter to each part of the supply chain, in all of its confusion and horror—yet still maintains the belief that retail is a font of meaning-making and community. It’s not just about groceries, but about the way we develop identity through what we buy. I can't stop raving about this book.
An expansive, but very readable, collection of histories that many of us are not taught in school. Perfect for anyone interested in the story of our country.
I'm so glad this amalgamation of the editors' and writers' work of re/unlearning Helen Gurley Brown's 1962 Sex and the Single Girl is alive and waiting for readers. The source text, while titillating for its time, is very much outdated for our time so these writers expand past the white, heteronormative, cisgendered, ablebodied, monogamous way of sex and relationships clogging up the information pipeline for single women. These essays do more than just advise you to be sexy for the sake of a man. Female pleasure, queer dating, transitioning, polyamory, celibacy, IVF, not getting married, not having kids - it tackles so much and is definitely worth your time.
What's the difference between loneliness and solitude? What cruelties, or kindnesses are born out of the inevitable loneliness of living? This bleak and beautiful book tries to address those questions and more. Radtke bares it all in illustrations as compelling as her thoughts. It's an instruction manual for being human and a guidebook for this time.
This book moves beyond the spectacle of the 'cult' in order to desimplify and expand our understanding of the cult phenomenon. From Jonestown to Crossfit to Instagram influencers, Montell looks at the linguistic tools utilized to appeal to and shape ones thinking. An accessible and fascinating book full of information that proves useful in times like these, when so many voices are calling for followers.
This book is as diverse and intersectional as the disability community itself, with stories of joy, humor, challenges and frustrations told from a wide range of perspectives. Reading this anthology has changed the way I see and experience the world around me. I have no doubt that these pieces will deeply move and remain with you.
Abolitionist and activist Mariame Kaba has curated accessible essays about transformative justice and prison abolition. From R. Kelly to killer cops, Kaba explains the principles behind her work and how difficult it can be to break away from the punishment = justice mindset instilled within us. Every essay pushes for difficult conversations to have with yourself, but Kaba is there to remind you that "hope is a discipline", and that the beauty of abolition is held within the possibilities of a future that does not require the harmful relic of the prison industrial complex.
When I was 13 a cool older girl at school gave me a silk screened patch that said "RIOT NOT DIET". I promptly sewed it onto my backpack and never looked back. Reading this book is the literary equivalent of a cool older girl giving you that patch.
Everyone needs to read this, particularly all the people who believe they don't need to. Trust me, you do.
