Lou is an artist, aspiring archivist, and probably some other things that start with the letter A as well. Though they just returned from a 4 year stint in the woods of VT, they grew up in Seattle bookstores and are delighted to be on the other side of the counter. When they're not at work, you can find them collecting vintage clothes, turning their house into an art installation/total mess, and swimming in Lake Union. They like books about messy friend groups, oral histories, and all the other ways stories are collectively misremembered.
My favorite Unions 101 book I've ever read! Clear-eyed, historical, hopeful, and beautifully illustrated. This is the place to start your union study and/or a great gift for a lefty in your life.
If you're a kid who likes to stare at pictures and make up worlds, this book is for you. If you're an adult who has a folder on their computer titled "drawings of houses in trees for animals" (like me) this book is also for you. I could spend all day with these lush illustrations. PLUS there's animal facts!
I have read many art novels, and many school novels; this is the very best of them both. Angress is tapped into the subtleties of these worlds, and the ways they flow into and out of each other, to an uncanny degree. Her vivid prose and use of real-world art makes this novel positively hypnotic.
There are things that Gerard Way's face does to my brain that I can only describe as "activating a sleeper agent switch." My mother has been following Belle and Sebastian on tour for almost 20 years. Kaitlyn Tiffany flew cross-country to see a shrine to Harry Styles' vomit. What draws us to this deep, obsessive love? How has finding people who share it shaped both our worlds and the world at large? In Everything I Need I Get From You, I found not just answers but companionship.
It can be hard to find writing about fan culture that doesn't devolve into petty gossip, but Tiffany gives her subjects deep complexity and context; everyone is a full person, fan and object of their affection alike. This book has given me a tool to explain a part of my life, and it's given me a pages-long exploration of the time Niall Horan said "chonce". What more could I need?
Sure, The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For (DTWOF) is the best chronicle of Lesbian life at the turn of the 21st century, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the story of leftist politics, of changing definitions, of independent bookstores and liberal arts schools and marriage and friendships that–despite all odds–carry on for a quarter-century. There’s someone for everyone to relate to in the DTWOF universe, whether you’re a passionate Clarice or a hapless Stuart. If you haven’t read DTWOF since its original run, or you’re happening upon it for the first time, I can’t urge you enough to spend a little time with Mo and friends, and enjoy the ways the world has changed and stayed exactly the same.
An Ocean’s Eleven for the age of museum repatriation! Portrait of a Thief asks us to consider what justice looks like and the complicity of cultural institutions, as well as the mechanics of Paris drag races and disabling security alarms. It’s the sharpest heist novel I’ve read in years,with great chemistry and incredibly satisfying twists. A perfect summer beach read.
