H c
o a
l t 2
i a 0
d l 2
a o 0
y g
W
e
l
c
o
m
e
Thank you for checking out the 2020 Skylight Books Holiday Catalog! This unusual year is wrapping up with what we’re expecting to be an unusual holiday season. Read on for tips on how best to shop with us for the holidays.
Shop Our Website
Shop Early, Shop Local
This holiday season, please consider supporting your local independent businesses (including us!). Your support during the holidays will be crucial in helping our neighbors and us regain our financial footing after a very difficult year. We strongly recommend choosing in-store pickup on your order for two with COVID-related delays reasons: (1) we now process each book on Also, a pickup order as soon as it arrives, so a impacting every stage of book production backordered or not-yet-published book and distribution, we’ve been warned by won’t hold up the rest of your order; and (2) publishers that it will take longer for books to make it to us this holiday season. our customers have experienced long USPS delays and a major uptick in porch theft this Shop early (or preorder!) to help ensure you get your books in time. year with shipped books. Visit us at skylightbooks.com to order any book in print. We’re anticipating high order volume ramping up into December, so order early for the fastest turnaround!
We continue to offer shipping, and will happily ship your order if that’s the best option for you. We recommend Priority Mail, as that service has had fewer delays than Media Mail. Also, please note that we ship an order once it’s all here, so your order won’t ship until any backordered or not-yetpublished books have come in.
Than
k you
!
Shop In-Store Though we have limited capacity, we’d be delighted to see you in the store this holiday season. Be sure to wear your mask over your nose and mouth and keep a distance of 6 ft. from other customers and our staff. We’ll be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends for in-store shopping, phone orders, order pickup.
The support you’ve shown us this year has been extraordinary, and has allowed us to stay in business through the most volatile year the store has ever seen. Thank you for your purchases, your kind words, and your patience as we adapted to this new reality. We’re honored to be your local bookstore. Skylight Books 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027 (323) 660-1175 • www.skylightbooks.com
Mary Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 9780525657606 $26.95 (Knopf) A vivid rendering of the marriage between William Shakespeare and his wife (traditionally known as Anne, here as Agnes) and the death of their son Hamnet. Agnes is a fascinating central character, and between her premonitions and deep connection to the natural world, the novel shimmers with magic and possibility and fear and unknowability. For appreciators of beautiful descriptive language. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell 9780812997439 $30.00 (Random House) Set in 1960s London, this novel is a highly literary take on the classic rise-of-a-rock-band-andensuing-craziness story, as only David Mitchell could write it. Fans of Mitchell will find the genre-bending (and callbacks to earlier novels) that he’s famous for, and fans of the music will enjoy his evocative depiction of a scene like no other.
Memorial by Bryan Washington 9780593087275 $27.00 (Riverhead) At the center of this novel are Mike and Ben, separated suddenly by an ocean and not sure what’s happening with their relationship. From this, Bryan Washington spins a deeply affecting, beautifully crafted examination of love in many forms: relationships, family, the challenge of truly knowing those in our lives, and the act of caring for others.
A Burning by Megha Majumdar 9780525658696 $25.95 (Knopf) This tightly plotted page-turner starts with a terrorist attack on a train in West Bengal, and follows the lives of three characters swept up in the aftermath: Jivan, a young Muslim woman from the slums; Lovely, a hijra with dreams of being a movie star; and PT Sir, a teacher with nationalist political ambitions. Timely, and a great read.
Steve Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place by D.J. Waldie 9781626400795 $30.00 (Angel City Press) D.J. Waldie is a treasure for all of us that love Southern California. A lifelong Lakewood resident, he writes about all parts of Los Angeles, from the big to the banal, with the insight and focus of a precise and meditative scientist. All through the eyes of someone still discovering meanings in our personal and cultural histories during this strange time. The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and Other Stories by William Saroyan 9780811213653 $17.95 (New Directions) William Saroyan is Mark Twain to me. In his words and stories I hear a version of the person I would have liked to be. His adventures are small and romantic—about life, writing, and the common bonds between all us humans. His writing from the 1930s still feels contemporary and fresh—comfort food in these times.
Skateboard Museum Zine Collection by Jurgen Blumlein 9783943330304 $34.95 (Gingko Press) A fun dive into skateboard history, culture, and art that is neatly packaged in a boxed collection of five zines. Cool skate graphics, punk flyers, art painted on skate decks, skate advertisements, old zines, and Vans shoes—this the perfect gift for more than a few of my friends. Built to shred. Tarot by Jessica Hundley 9783836579872 $40.00 (Taschen) The first book in the new Library of Esoterica series is a fascinating exploration into the history, artwork, and meaning of the Tarot. This is an art book that surveys many ancient, modern, and contemporary decks and the artists that created them, and can also be used to help divine meaning from a tarot reading. I love the way it is designed and organized in conjunction with the order of the deck, and the essays are interesting and enlightening.
Charles Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener 9781784780227 $34.95 (Verso) Brand new L.A. history by the great California scholar Mike Davis. This time the author of City of Quartz works with Jon Wiener to document the almost entirely forgotten radical moments and people that made up the decade of the sixties in L.A. With short chapters, each devoted to a different aspect, year, or group of people, Set the Night... is a fast and easy read that is reminiscent of Howard Zinn and makes a strong case for A People’s History of Los Angeles’s horizontal resistance to American Imperialism and all its attendant classism, racism, and misogyny. Discovering Griffith Park: A Locals Guide by Casey Schreiner 9781680512663 $18.95 (Mountaineers Books) Strictly for locals, unless you know someone who would be enticed to visit L.A. and one of the largest city parks in the country. This is the first book of its kind and long overdue.
Anarchy—In a Manner of Speaking by David Graeber 9783035802269 $20.00 (Diaphanes) Since he died in September of this year, this is probably the last book we’ll get from one of the great, politically radical thinkers of our day. Graeber was an anthropologist at the London School of Economics and an avowed anarchist. He was the author of the bestselling and hugely important book Debt and was intimately involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, credited by some with coining the phrase “we are the 99%.” Like Chomsky, Graeber had an uncanny ability to make complex academic issues and geopolitics accessible to regular folks and his work is equally indispensable. Antkind by Charlie Kaufman 9780399589683 $30.00 (Random House) The first novel by the brilliant screenwriter of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In true Kaufman fashion, this novel is extremely “meta” and breaks the fifth and sixth walls as well as the fourth and is painfully engaged with the inner turmoil and existential angst of its very unlikeable narrator. Hilarious and rich stuff for fans of this very odd writer.
Arlo When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Joy Harjo 9780393356809 $19.95 (W.W. Norton & Company) United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo helped usher two brilliant poetry collections into the world this year: this epochal anthology representing the diversity, history, and power of Native poetry and her own book, An American Sunrise. I highly recommend them both. A Girl Is a Body of Water by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 9781951142049 $27.95 (Tin House) This year has been an assault on our lungs—an airborne virus, tear gas in the streets, apocalyptic fires, smokefilled skies, hot blathered air billowing from the corridors of power—but here is a brief antidote to these noxious times: a novel that breathes and speaks freely, moves and flows freely, is full of beauty and truth and takes its time.
Snacky Tunes: Music Is the Main Ingredient by Darin and Greg Bresnitz 9781838661366 $24.95 (Phaidon Press) What’s that sweet aroma and mellifluous melody coming from the back kitchen? If you cherish that warm simpatico connection between cooking and music, or if you just want to know the playlists of your favorite chefs and what songs have influenced their signature dishes, this joyous, offbeat cookbook from the makers of the Snacky Tunes podcast could be the perfect pick for you. The Hour of the Star: 100th Anniversary Edition by Clarice Lispector 9780811230049 $17.95 (New Directions) As former Skylighter Karl (shout out!) would say, this book is utterly f**king devastating. And now it’s here in this beautiful (and affordable) hardcover edition to mark the centenary of the author’s birth. Essential for Lispector fans and new readers alike.
Agnes Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman 9780393357622 $17.95 (W.W. Norton & Company) Hartman has written a history that might seem impossible to write—an intimate history of black women and queer people who made lives in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the 20th century. Punctuated with captionless photos, the book reads like equal parts novel, essay, and elegy. Of Colour by Katherine Agyemaa Agard 9781734498417 $15.95 (Essay Press) A gorgeous essay-book from multi-disciplinary Trinidadian artist Agard. She digests an impossible array of cultural imperatives and hands us something new. Equal parts refusal to surrender and celebration of that which is hybrid, messy, elusive, and multiple. Full, too, of gorgeous images—including some of her paintings. Her writing flashes and cuts like a diamond.
Night Philosophy by Fanny Howe 9781916425026 $18.00 (Divided Publishing) A collection of essays and fragments. I’ve been coming back to this book a lot in these dark times. Howe is a poet and novelist; she has been circling back to questions of God, justice, poverty, race, poetry, and weakness in her many-decade career. Her writing is lyrical, tough, and brilliant. We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma 9781643620176 $19.95 (Nightboat Books) The selected diaries of trans activist and historian Lou Sullivan. Sullivan writes about love, sex, music, community, and gender in ways that felt so intimate—he was writing his way into being. I almost couldn’t bear to keep going, knowing the book would end with his death, in 1991, of AIDS. Now I miss him. Such a joyful book, somehow, though.
Alex Katrina: A History, 1915–2005 by Andy Horowitz 9780674971714 $35.00 (Harvard University Press) Starting in 1915, New Orleans began expanding farther into floodplains and oil companies started digging canals that contributed to erosion of natural barriers, bringing the Gulf of Mexico farther inland, dooming the great city of New Orleans. An exhaustive history of the corruption and greed that led to the devastation of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Grip by Lale Westvind 9781734324709 $30.00 (Perfectly Acceptable) The official description of Grip is “After a strange incident a young woman’s hands are never still.” This wordless comic might be one of the most beautiful comics ever created; from the neon colors to the abstracted motion lines surrounding everything, the whole book feels like it is moving. Very highly recommend.
The Western: Four Classic Novels of the 1940s and 50s edited by Ron Hansen 9781598536614 $39.95 (Library of America) As the pandemic shut down the world, people started ordering books they had been putting off, usually longer classics. Lonesome Dove was one of these long classics, by one of my favorite authors (I highly recommend the Thalia Trilogy for more McMurtry). This collection brings together 4 important Westerns that reframed the West as needlessly violent, cruel, and lonely. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu 9780307907196 $25.95 (Pantheon) Willis Wu dreams of being Kung Fu Guy, but right now he is stuck playing Generic Asian Man in various scenes on the generic cop show Black and White. Most of the book is Willis’s internal thoughts about his family, racial stereotyping, his apartment building, and how to get himself seen. Infuriating, heartbreaking and hilarious.
Anna Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown 9781849352604 $16.00 (AK Press) This book is a welcome invitation to slow down and to study the patterns of the natural world. Inspired by Octavia Butler’s speculative fiction, brown suggests that we grow our communities and seed change through deep connections. Brilliant and simple, this book gave me a burst of excitement for the future.
She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore 9781644450017 $16.00 (Graywolf Press) Part magical realism, part folklore, part historical fiction . . . This novel vividly offers an epic creation myth of Liberia, through larger-than-life but unmistakably human characters. The dream of freedom means different things to these heroes, representing the diaspora that came back, but together they fight for their collective future.
Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry 9780399581045 $30.00 (Ten Speed Press) You may know Bryant Terry from his other excellent cookbook, Afro-Vegan. Vegetable Kingdom provides more of his inventive techniques for plant-based cooking, with a modular approach. His vegan bases are like building blocks you can play with, remixing your veggies with fusion spice mixes from Xinjiang to New Orleans.
Beau Eileen Gray, Designer and Architect edited by Cloé Pitiot and Nina Stritzler-Levine 9780300251067 $60.00 (Bard Center) Evidently the early-20th-century designer and architect Eileen Gray was meant to be rediscovered in a big way in 2020 with lots of museum shows, conferences, etc. We all know what happened then. Fortunately there is still this book, which is amazing. I’m not a big scholar of this field, but it’s hard for me to imagine having many questions about Gray and her fabulous work left unanswered by this monograph. It’s fun to learn about this stuff.
Noah Davis by Noah Davis, edited by Helen Molesworth 9781644230374 $65.00 (David Zwirner) RIP great L.A. painter Noah Gray. His work was a glorious gift. Here are his paintings in their splendour and subtlety, bound in a cover of perfect sky blue. An art book that will keep gaining in beauty, clearly. The writings, also, are earnest and absorbing.
New York: Club Kids by Waltpaper 9788862086578 $55.00 (Damiani Ltd.) This dazzling book gives that strange cultural phenomenon known by the general name of Club Kids its proper credit, at last. The author Waltpaper—that’s him in the middle of the cover—was clearly a major player in the scene, and he places himself dead-center in his story of it (therefore decentering the whole sick murder business). This is fortunate because his book is not just a stunning and ultra-entertaining work of cultural history but also a fantastic memoir. I fucking love it. Luster by Raven Leilani 9780374194321 $26.00 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) I’m trying to find the words for the multiple ways this book is wonderful, or rather the ways I thought this book was wonderful when I read it in July. The writing is beautiful, definitely. There is a weirdness and suspense to the intimacies formed in this unpredictable story that Leilani imbues with a scary-comforting too-real sense of ambivalence and flux. In a pleasantly stimulating way. It’s the funniest novel I read this year, too, I think; lots of LOLs.
Ben The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) 9780345376718 $18.00 (Ballantine) Malcolm X’s charisma and character ooze through this book that will, I can guarantee, uproot something of your received thinking. An inspiring story of fortitude and Black experience that holds no punches, that tells you the truth; no matter what you think of the man, it will challenge you to think about what it means to live with intention. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 9781400078776 $16.00 (Vintage) If you’ve read Ishiguro before, you know how excruciating and delicate his novels are, how deft his emotional blade. If you have not read this Nobel Prize winner: get ready to read a heartbreaker that’ll haunt you for days on end.
The Price of Salt, or Carol by Patricia Highsmith 9780393325997 $14.95 (W.W. Norton & Company) Patricia Highsmith is not “just” a thriller writer, and this novel proves it in spades. At times achingly beautiful, always crisp and clean with thriller-like plotting, this novel is a subtle and evergreen masterpiece about lesbian love, and the social price of living truly.
Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh 9780399562907 $16.00 (Penguin) If you liked Eileen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and Death in Her Hands, but thought they could be served by being a bit more nasty, you will adore these stories. Never has disgust and misery been rendered with such warmth and prismatic intelligence. Master classes in craft, these stories will make you feel something you never knew you wanted to feel.
Dylan Having and Being Had by Eula Biss 9780525537458 $26.00 (Riverhead) Eula Biss is one of my favorite essayists: unpretentious and curious about the world on both a micro and macro scale. This is a great book for anyone beginning to suspect capitalism is, perhaps, not the best system we can come up with.
The Silence by Don DeLillo 9781982164553 $22.00 (Scribner) A new novel from DeLillo rarely disappoints. Over the past year I’ve, at times, struggled to finish longer books— this one is short, so I won’t give anything away, but in many ways it’s vintage DeLillo: a spooky, smart, and obsessive work that doesn’t underestimate the reader.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin 9780679744726 $13.95 (Vintage) These two essays continue to resonate with me long after reading them. You can’t really go wrong with Baldwin— whether it’s novels, short stories, or nonfiction, but this one is one of the rare, uniquely true books I think everyone in America should have to read.
Seeds and Stems by Simon Hanselmann 9781683963097 $29.99 (Fantagraphics) A no-brainer gift for your favorite stoner this holiday season. The sage wisdom contained herein is unimpeachable, just like Simon’s now long-ish-running COVID-19-inspired Instagram comic strips (one of the few silver linings to come from the pandemic!!).
Elisa Gustavo, The Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago 9781536211146 9781536214147 (Spanish edition) $16.99 (Candlewick Press) Gustavo, The Shy Ghost is a delightful and beautifully illustrated picture book by Mexican author and illustrator Flavia Z. Drago. Gustavo is a shy little ghost and, even worse, nobody is able to see him!!! Luckily he is able to use his love of music and violin skills to connect with all the other little monsters in town. This book is a perfect read for any time of the year, plus kids will enjoy searching for Gustavo on every page. A parallel Spanish-language edition, Gustavo, el Fantasmita Tímido, is also available.
When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition) by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele; adapted by Benee Knauer 9781250194985 $18.99 (St. Martin’s Press) An amazing memoir from one of the three founding members of the Black Lives Matter movement. The narrative combines Patrisse’s personal journey of growing up a young, queer, Black woman, and that of her family living in Van Nuys, CA. Patrisse’s story clearly demonstrates the devastating impacts over-policing can have on a single person, and how that injustice can inform one’s decisions to create change to free themselves and inspire an entire movement.
Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera 9781547603732 $18.99 (Bloomsbury) In her new young adult novel, Lilliam Rivera recreates the Orpheus and Eurydice myth in the Bronx. The story reimagines Pheus as a young, Bronx Bachata singer and Eury as a Puerto Rican teenage girl fleeing the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria. As these two begin to fall in love, we are introduced to the complex reality of these two young Afro-Latinx characters. We see how children of the diaspora are haunted by a legacy of colonialism. We witness the daily violence of racism and gentrification in their neighborhoods, and their ability to remain resilient and transcend it all. Lilliam also curated an awesome playlist to accompany the book on Spotify. Everything Naomi Loved by Katie Yamasaki and Ian Lendler 9781324004912 $18.95 (W.W. Norton & Company) Naomi is a young girl witnessing the gentrification of her beloved neighborhood. Every day things change little by little. Her best friend Ada must move away, her favorite local stores are being sold and destroyed to make room for new residents and businesses. Amidst this confusion, her neighbor Mr. Ray teaches her to paint murals as a way to both honor and remember her community. The warm and vibrant illustrations created by Yamasaki will engage young readers and demonstrate how much their feelings matter and how they can impact the world around them.
Frieda Galactic Halo by Esther Pearl Watson $40.00 (self-published) Esther’s paintings are autobiographical visions of a complicated past writ peaceful and haunted by UFOs and her father’s obsession. They’re beautiful, full of whimsy and darkness. This book has her most recent work from a show at L.A.’s Vielmetter Gallery. Doggie Language by Lili Chin 9781787837010 $11.99 (Summersdale)
Gaudí: The Complete Works by Rainer Zerbst 9783836566193 $25.00 (Taschen) I have always loved Gaudí’s works. They’re organic and fanciful. Spiritual without being overbearing. This version of a Taschen book is the best one for quick, subtle viewing of works that inspire happiness and contentment.
As a dog fanatic, I’m a sucker almost everything canine related. Lili’s renditions of dogs are happy and loveable. But dogs aren’t just mindless creatures, pooping and eating and sleeping. They have a language that is important to recognize. This book will help you along as you observe what your dogs are up to. Plus she made a world map, Dogs of the World, identifying the “origins” of many of the breeds of dog we love. We have that as well ($35.00).
Halley The Hole by Hye-young Pyun 9781628729917 $16.99 (Arcade Publishing) Is there a better time to gift your loved one a psychological horror novel about isolation and being trapped inside and mysterious holes and mothers-in-law? I think not.
These Women by Ivy Pochoda 9780062656384 $27.99 (Ecco Press) More than just a serial-killer novel, this book is a devastating, flawless, feminist masterpiece. With Los Angeles as the backdrop, Pochoda gives nuanced, compassionate voice to women who are too often silenced. It’ll have you up all night.
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake, illustrated by Jon Klassen 9781643750057 $18.95 (Algonquin Young Readers) Badger just wants to be left alone to tend to his Important Rock Work. But Skunk is having none of that. A heartfelt, wry story about friendship announces Skunk and Badger’s takeover of the literary scene.
Bloomsbury Object Lessons $14.95 to $16.95 each (Bloomsbury Academic) From Political Sign to Dust to Egg to Hotel, Environment, High Heel, Whale Song—and on and on—this series of slim, collectible books dives deep into the history and philosophy of “objects” we take for granted. Each by a different writer and with its own imaginative twist.
Heather Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake 9780525510314 $28.00 (Random House) A voyeuristic romp covering intricate and complex underground relationships that are largely misunderstood or ignored by those not directly involved. Chock full of intrigue and fruiting bodies, spore distribution and interspecies cohabitation—not to mention some shocking revelations about lichen!
Forgotten Journey by Silvina Ocampo 9780872867727 $14.95 (City Lights Books) Just beautiful, trust me. Delicate and sinuous, compellingly mutinous.
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack 9781982103545 $26.00 (Scribner Book Company) In a year that feels like the end of the world, may I recommend this dapper telling of the possible ends of the universe? If you were going to holiday parties (which you aren’t, because you’re a reasonable person concerned about the safety of everyone else), Katie Mack is the person you’d actually want to hear blathering on about astrophysics. Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings 9781250260499 $19.99 (Tor.com) Perfect for the reader who doesn’t want to know exactly what they’re getting into when they open a book.
Ian Harleen by Stjepan Šejić 9781779501110 $29.99 (DC Comics) Before Harley Quinn donned the face paint and mallet, she was a young psychiatrist named Dr. Harleen Quinzel, about to meet with a patient who calls himself simply The Joker. Stjepan Šejić retells the origin of Harley Quinn with all of the photo-realistic artwork and adult storytelling of his BDSM romantic comedy series Sunstone, in a gorgeous, oversized hardcover edition. Burning Chrome by William Gibson 9780060539825 $15.99 (Harper Voyager) William Gibson’s beginnings in the cyberpunk genre that he helped create can be found in this collection of his short stories. What’s most startling is how Gibson not only predicted present-day technology, but also its ensuing culture, such as online influencers and professional gamers. This collection also contains “Johnny Mnemonic,” which was adapted into my second-favorite Keanu Reeves cyberpunk movie.
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson 9780802148292 $16.00 (Grove Press) Follow the journey of Fatima the royal concubine and Hassan the court mapmaker as they seek the island of the mythical Bird King. Author G. Willow Wilson, creator of Marvel Comics’ Ms. Marvel, utilizes her experience as an American Muslim woman to explore themes of faith, sexuality, and imperialism in a magical tale that’s as action-packed as it is heartfelt. Being Lolita by Alisson Wood 9781250217219 $26.99 (Flatiron Books) Debut author Alisson Wood recounts the powerful true story of her teenage self being groomed, pursued, and possessed by her high school English teacher. Twenty years later, Wood realizes that what she thought was love was really something much darker, and now she’s reaching out a hand to help anyone who has ever felt controlled and victimized in a relationship.
Jae The Magical Language of Others by E. J. Koh 9781947793385 $22.95 (Tin House) If you read Korean, you’ll likely notice that Koh’s translations include some unusual choices. But even those inconsistencies couldn’t bother me because Koh’s prose is just that strong. With the most emotionally honest interactions and reflections I’ve read in a long while, this memoir captures a life and its complications. She’s a poet, and I’ve discovered more to read. Men to Avoid in Art and Life by Nicole Tersigni, forward by Jen Kirkman 9781797202839 $14.95 (Chronicle Books) As flawed as they are, I love museums. And growing up, I’ve (literally) looked up to depictions of women and wondered what they might possibly be thinking as subjectobjects. These to-the-point captions communicate one writer’s take on what they (and probably we) might’ve muttered with an audible sigh.
The Resisters by Gish Jen 9780525657217 $26.95 (Knopf) The February conversation between Gish Jen and Viet Thanh Nguyen at LAPL was one of the first events I attended after returning to L.A. I’ll readily admit I rarely read anything that caters to anyone’s sense of humor, but it’s nonetheless the funniest I’ve read this year (and probably even longer). The familial relationship is an absolute COVID-era tonic. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami 9781609455873 $27.00 (Europa Editions) When aren’t women’s bodies and reproductive choices under scrutiny? Following more or less two generations of a Japanese family, this novel presents several voices considering and critiquing women’s options and obligations at different junctures of their ofteninterdependent lives. Only by adding actual slips of Osaka-ben could their voices seem more true-to-life.
Jenn A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler by Lynell George 9781626400634 $30.00 (Angel City Press)
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs 9781849353977 $15.00 (AK Press)
When the Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories exhibit was up at the Huntington Library, we got a glimpse of Octavia the careful researcher, Octavia the shaper of reality, Octavia in intense conversation with herself on the page. I am very excited to get to know her better through this new collection, which draws on Lynell George’s own personal experiences and time spent researching the 387 boxes of archived materials at the Huntington. This book also serves as an inspirational text for creative thinkers—those of us working to adapt, organize, research, and imagine the future. The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein) 9781609455910 $26.00 (Europa Editions) I gobbled this up, maybe a little too fast . . . but I was so hungry for more Ferrante! So many of us are. Another brilliant novel down the tubes.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an independent scholar, poet, and activist author who has been studying marine mammals, discovering patterns and drawing connections. This book drops on November 17th; preorder it as a gift for deep sea dreamers, fans of Emergent Strategy, and any other caring mammals on your list.
Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974–1989 edited by Julie R. Enszer 9781938334290 $14.95 (A Midsummer Night’s Press) This was my favorite read of 2020. It offers a level of honesty and friendship, a sense of time, and a glimpse at radical existence that is so resonant. It is also a celebration of snail mail, and I think it would be an excellent gift to receive via USPS with some nice stamps on the package.
K The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 9780143039433 $18.00 (Penguin Classics)
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol 9780679776444 $17.00 (Vintage) The story of an exceedingly clever fellow with dreams of rising above his station, who manages to swindle half of Russia before things start to come apart, and of the people whose wealth and privilege blind them to the grifter at their door and the monstrously unjust system beneath their feet.
Van Nuys Blvd 1972 by Rick McCloskey 9781910164761 $75.00 (Sturm & Drang)
Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present by Frank M. Snowden 9780300256390 $22.00 (Yale University Press) Amid all the talk about how we are living in unprecedented times, it is oddly comforting to discover that, superficial details notwithstanding, almost nothing about our current situation is unprecedented. Now if only we could learn from our mistakes, we’d be . . . ahh, who am I kidding. L
Skeletal, elemental, and burning with rage at the suffering casually inflicted on the most vulnerable, as well as at the unbelievable cruelty of those who see that suffering as necessary and deserved, The Grapes of Wrath is a wrenching howl for compassion and solidarity. L
A gleaming slice of bygone Valley nightlife. Shot in rich, luminous black and white and brimming with candid portraits of kids toolin’ the main and hanging out, Van Nuys Blvd 1972 gives us a glimpse of a perennially overlooked part of L.A. history.
Limited quantity
Lane Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington 9780525533689 $16.00 (Riverhead Books) Burroughs wrote a short story called “The Popling” that is highly disturbing but also compelling in that cannot-look-away way. Imagine if “The Popling” was set in Houston, where two boys find a fantasy creature. There is an erotic charge and their whole lives could change. Washington weaves stories about the everyday that are queer in the way that real life is, and are often heartbreaking in their commonness and beauty. Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through by T Fleischmann 9781566895477 $16.95 (Coffee House Press) I love memoir, and I love when people are able to observe their lives and give it to us; it is so generous. This book is a gift that is also a hit of trans-acid. I am always blown away when people are able to observe their lives when they are living on the edge. T brings us there, into the messy world of loving each other as trans people, as people who make art and try to survive. Thank all goddesses for the generosity of trans people.
Les Guérillères by Monique Wittig 9780252074820 $22.00 (University of Illinois Press) If our goal is to survive the ecological catastrophe of our time, a hefty chunk of that burden is imaginary. In 1969, Monique Wittiq wrote Les Guérillères. This book is a series of prose poems, short stanzas interrupted by pages that are lists of women’s names. In Les Guérillères the revolution has already happened, the women are now free, they play games, they perform ceremonies, and confound language. Just over one hundred pages, this book is an eco-sexual salve for the modern ADD brain. Pure pleasure is imaging other ways to live. The Tree and the Vine by Dola de Jong 9781945492341 $15.95 (Transit Books) A quiet psychological book set at the beginning of World War II in Amsterdam. Funny and wry—about a tormented friendship between two women who live together, one a lesbian and the other in love with her, set in domestic space shattered by impending war and forbidden love—the writing shines.
Maddie Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier 9780385545723 $24.95 (Doubleday) A warning: this pregnant pizza delivery girl will totally break your heart. But Pizza Girl is not only to be pitied. She’s tough and funny, with an always-firing imagination and ferocious desires. It’s a thrill to ride in the passenger seat as she strains against the borders of her life. If you revel in the awkward tenderness of PEN15 or Daria, take Pizza Girl home with you. You won’t regret it. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd) 9781609455873 $27.00 (Europa Editions) Maybe my favorite book title ever. This woven narrative of three women—one mother, one sister, one daughter—will shock, delight, disgust, and devastate you. Kawakami’s prose is refreshingly honest about the selfish and violent aspects of womanhood and her characters are beautifully, painfully realized. I didn’t want it to end.
I’m So Fine by Khadijah Queen 9781936919468 $18.00 (Yesyes Books) I’m So Fine documents the ways women carry their beauty, shrug out from under it or wield it as a weapon. This poetry is propulsive, sharp, and wickedly funny, and every celebrity cameo is delicious. Khadijah Queen has a new book out (Anodyne) which you should also buy, but for my money these are the freshest poems out there.
The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert 9780374538347 $16.00 (FSG Originals) This collection deals bravely with the slow and enormous forces that shape our world: disease, disaster, and climate change. Our fast brains are not equipped for the inevitable. Gabbert maps outbreaks of mass hysteria and conspiracy theories to deep existential anxieties and delivers a compelling diagnosis for anyone who seeks to understand how we got here and why we keep making the same mistakes.
Mick Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 9780525658184 $27.95 (Knopf) Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel Homegoing is one of my favorite books of the last decade, so I was anticipating her followup with high expectations. Gyasi did not let me down. This is my favorite novel of the year; keep going Yaa.
The Pits of Hell by Ebisu Yoshikazu 9781911081081 $22.50 (Breakdown Press) Ebisu Yoshikazu’s searingly cynical graphic novel is a collection of stories published between 1969 and 1981. Despite that, when I read it this past January, I thought that it seemed like a portent for 2020. I wish I had been wrong.
Forty Million Dollar Slaves by William C. Rhoden 9780307353146 $17.00 (Broadway Books) Translates arguments for a labor revolution into a sports context. From the squashing of the Negro Leagues to 21st century player/owner disputes, William Rhoden’s documentation of racial inequality in professional sports is as timely as it gets. Share it with the sports fan in your life. The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson 9780836218220 $18.99 (Andrews McMeel) If The Pits of Hell was 2020’s prophecy, Calvin and Hobbes is a prescribed balm. Bill Watterson’s predictive cynicism retains some hope, and reading that feels like we have some company even as we struggle to cope with a plague and rearing fascism.
Ramiro Kusama: A Graphic Biography by Elisa Macellari 9781786277169 $19.99 (Laurence King) A graphic novel by the talented Elisa Macellari. Her writing and illustrations make this book a great treat. After reading this you would surely want to explore much more of Kusama’s masterpieces and to read more about her truly majestic life. Vincent’s Books: Van Gogh and the Writers Who Inspired Him by Mariella Guzzoni 9780226706467 $25.00 (University of Chicago Press) A biography on the life of Vicent Van Gogh through the books and authors and painters who inspired him to become the famous painter we know today. Plus some very intimate letters between Vincent and Theo. A great treat not only for fans of Vincent Van Gogh but art in general.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 9780593081501 $12.00 (Vintage) Adventure, suspense, and everything in between are part of this glorious classic. This is a 19th-century masterpiece. One of the most thrilling books I’ve read in a long time. Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul by Carol Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison 9781534452282 $18.99 (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) What a great collaboration between Carol Weatherford’s intriguing and very entertaining writing and Frank Morrison’s gorgeous illustrations. This is a small glimpse into the life of the queen of soul. A great beginner’s guide to teach children about rhyming and spelling.
Sara The Possessed by Elif Batuman 9780374532185 $17.00 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Holy-Gogol-i . . . I have yet to even read Gogol and it’s like I almost don’t need to. Through Elif Batuman’s The Possessed, I have attended a conference on Tolstoy’s estate and maybe even solved the mystery of his death (a murder, can you believe it?). I have lodged at Empress Anna Ivanovna’s Ice Palace, and I have watched Brazil vs. Turkey’s World Cup as televised in Uzbekistan. Batuman’s writing is so clear-sighted that I would almost take her writing over experience itself. To read her is to love her, and by extension, all that she may love. Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor 9780756416935 $17.00 (DAW Books) I did not want to exit the intergalactic universe of Binti created by Nnedi Okorafor. A recommendation for any age—and in every sense of the word. This is YA and this is any A. This is a text of science fiction, fantasy, mythology, and philosophy. This is literature in its newest and most interesting form. Homer could NEVER!
Socialist Realism by Trisha Low 9781566895514 $16.95 (Coffee House press) “It’s a year later. I came to California. I lost the love I moved here for, but I found another. It’s a year ago. Is it? I’m in New York, listening to Black Flag. I’m staring at the walls, thinking about sunny California. It’s home to me now, but it’s no utopia. It’s just the closet space of my own fantasy; it’s just another prayer. Do I know that? LOL. Maybe not. Maybe I’m just like all the other girls after all.” Passing by Nella Larsen 9780142437278 $14.00 (Penguin Classics) If you were to pluck out every instance of eye contact between Clare and Irene, I’m sure you could successfully build a case for the encoded lesbianism of Nella Larsen’s Passing—and that would be just one of the many readings you could project onto the intensely nuanced performance of this text. First published in 1929, Passing is a masterpiece from the Harlem Renaissance that approaches race, class, and gender in a post-World War I America with such genius finesse that I can’t recommend it enough.
Yves Whore Foods by LA Warman $15.00 (Inpatient Press) Whore Foods is a refreshingly transgressive commentary on retail work and labor via the genre of erotica. The sexual fantasies of the organic grocery store cashier are intricately entangled with the exploits of the retail— but sort of like sifting through mud, it is the fantasiesas-refuge that bring the exploits (dealing with racist customers, overbearing bosses, long work hours, power inequalities) to the surface. Winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Erotica. Grenade in Mouth by Miyo Vestrini (translated by Anne Boyer and Cassandra Gillig) 9780999719831 $14.95 (Kenning Editions) Miyo Vestrini was a vanguard Venezulan poet in the ’70s and ’80s, and particularly critical of Venezeluan politics as a journalist. This collection, translated by Anne Boyer and Cassandra Gillig, is a moving introduction to Vestrini’s militant resistance. Her poetry is honest and vulnerable, but pointed enough to spark a blaze.
dollop by Christina Svenson $14.00 (Nueoi) dollop, the debut poetry collection by Christina Svenson, is perfumed with fantasy, with ennui . . . with Mugler’s Angel. Drawing inspiration from 19th century cleaning manuals and 1980s cookbooks, Svenson transgresses etiquette with a pessimism that attempts to reconcile itself through finding beauty and recluse in the absurd. dollop is a fantasy that serves as an inflatable cushion for the inundating solitude that comes with waiting, with being Penelope, with being Lot’s wife . . . inundating, and so conclusive in its desperate attachment to the always receding edge of the pacific. The Dominant Animal by Kathryn Scanlan 9780374538293 $15.00 (MCD x FSG) Kathryn Scanlan’s The Dominant Animal is a hushed and beautifully refined collection of short stories. These vignettes, often only two pages long, are simultaneously calming and unsettling.
Bob Odenkirk The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson 9781250301826 $28.99 (Flatiron Books) Chinatown is officially my favorite movie of all time. I have read and seen a lot about it over the years, but Sam dug up AMAZING NEW STUFF on the “making of,” the cast of characters and their personal stories, the journey of a magnificent script that got the shit beat out of it in rewrites upon rewrites (all to the good), and an older, chummy Hollywood that is gone, for better and worse. Very entertaining.
Jimmy Neurosis by James Oseland 9780062267375 $18.99 (Ecco Press) This bio came out in 2019 but I am including it here because it’s so damn great. I did not know that Mr. Oseland is a chef or judge on some damn TV-cooking show, just that the writing is very good, personal, and involving. I always love inside accounts of punk rock music scenes from long ago; this has that, and so much more. Wonderful writing.
The Room Where It Happened by John Fucking Bolton 9781982148034 $32.50 (Simon & Schuster) Yeah, I bought it. I read it. It’s astounding, scary, and I’m sure he is spinning stuff, but even within that knowledge I think it gives a sharp glimpse into what the hell is going on in that clown-car White House for the past four years. I’ll bet you’re a liberal; well, don’t be afraid to listen to ol’ John, an arch-conservative, go on and on about his deeply cynical take on humans and the interaction of nations. John always assumes the worst about everyone and this point of view needs to at least be acknowledged. It’ll make you shake your head so much you’ll develop tremendous neck muscles.
El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzmán by Alan Feuer 9781250254504 $28.99 (Flatiron Books) Great! A ripper and a roarer! Chapo is wily, desperate, indulgent, evil, and he scrambles and dips and dives and keeps getting away . . . until he doesn’t.
I read a lot this year. Other good ones that I haven’t finished yet include: The Last Great Road Bum by Héctor Tobar (9780374183424, $28.00, MCD x FSG) and Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry (9781101911341, $16.00, Anchor Books). Good books, both.
Picture Books & Board Books
Arm in Arm by Remy Charlip 9781681373737 $19.95 (NYRB)
You Matter by Christian Robinson 9781534421691 $17.99 (Atheneum)
Our Little Kitchen by Jillian Tamaki 9781419746550 $17.99 (ABRAMS)
Cool Cuts by Mechal Renee Roe 9781984895578 $16.99 (Doubleday)
Just Like a Mama by Alice Faye Duncan 9781534461833 $17.99 (Simon & Schuster)
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom 9781250203557 $17.99 (Roaring Brook)
The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish by Lil Miss Hot Mess 9780762467655 $17.99 (Running Press)
Okapi Tale by Jacob Kramer & K-Fai Steele 9781592703043 $18.95 (Enchanted Lion)
Juliรกn at the Wedding by Jessica Love 9781536212389 $16.99 (Candlewick Press)
My Best Friend by Julie Fogliano 9781534427228 $17.99 (Atheneum)
I Go Quiet by David Ouimet 9781324004431 $18.95 (W.W. Norton & Company)
Families Belong by Dan Saks 9780593222768 $7.99 (Penguin)
Picture Books & Board Books
What Will You Dream of Tonight? by Frances Stickley 9781536214475 $17.99 (Nosy Crow)
Digging for Words by Angela Burke Kunkel 9781984892638 $17.99 (Schwartz & Wade)
You and Me and Everybody Else by Marcos Farina 9783899558555 $19.95 (Little Gestalten)
Homemade Love by bell hooks 9781484799352 $7.99 (Jump at the Sun)
Day of the Dead by Greg Paprocki 9781423654261 $9.99 (Gibbs Smith)
Wherever You Go by Pat Zietlow Miller 9780316487948 $7.99 (Little, Brown & Co)
Boys Dance! by John Robert Allman 9780593181140 $17.99 (Doubleday)
Chirri & Chirra Under the Sea by Kaya Doi 9781592703029 $16.95 (Enchanted Lion)
What We’ll Build by Oliver Jeffers 9780593206751 $19.99 (Philomel)
Nonstop by Tomi Ungerer 9781838661595 $16.95 (Phaidon)
What I Like Most Selena Queen of Tejano by Mary Murphy Music 9781536209402 by Silvia López $16.99 (Candlewick Press) 9781499811421 $18.99 (Little Bee)
Early & Middle Reader
Meet Monster by Ellen Blance and Ann Cook 9781681374284 $19.95 (NYRB)
Mindy Kim by Lyla Lee 9781534440074 $5.99 (Aladdin)
Clubhouse Mysteries by Sharon M. Draper 9781442427099 $5.99 (Aladdin)
13th Street: Battle of the Bad-Breath Bats by David Bowles 9780062947796 $5.99 (Harper)
The Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel 9780060580865 $14.99 (Harper)
This Is Your Time by Ruby Bridges 9780593378526 $15.99 (Delacorte)
Ghost Squad by Claribel Ortega 9781338280128 $17.99 (Scholastic)
The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert 9780316456388 $16.99 (Little, Brown & Co)
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse 9781368024662 $16.99 (Rick Riordan Presents)
Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim 9780525554974 $16.99 (Kokila)
Snapdragon by Kat Leyh 9781250171115 $12.99 (First Second)
The Chaos Curse by Sayantani DasGupta 9781338355895 $17.99 (Scholastic)
Early & Middle Reader
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller 9781524715700 $16.99 (Random House)
Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit by Lilliam Rivera 9780316456647 $14.99 (Little, Brown & Co)
Show Me A Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte 9781338255812 $18.99 (Scholastic)
A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat 9781536204940 $17.99 (Candlewick)
Ways to Make Sunshine Renée Watson 9781547600564 $16.99 (Bloomsbury)
Clean Getaway by Nic Stone 9781984892973 $16.99 (Crown)
Bloom by Kenneth Oppel 9781524773007 $16.99 (Knopf)
Doodleville by Chad Sell 9781984894717 $12.99 (Knopf)
Love Sugar Magic by Anna Meriano 9780062498472 $7.99 (Walden Pond)
The Vanderbeekers by Karina Yan Glaser 9781328499219 $7.99 (Houghton Mifflin)
Charlie Hernández by Ryan Calejo 9781534426597 $8.99 (Aladdin)
My Little One by Germano Zullo 9781939810663 $24.00 (Elsewhere Editions)
Young Adult
Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera 9781547603732 $18.99 (Bloomsbury)
Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore 9780062869913 $17.99 (Harperteen)
The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert 9781368053297 $18.99 (Disney Hyperion)
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez 9781616209919 $17.95 (Algonquin)
This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi 9781250242341 $17.99 (Feiwel & Friends)
When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition) by Patrisse Khan-Cullors with asha bandele, 9781250194985 $18.99 (Wednesday Books)
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson 9780374312718 $17.99 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas 9781250250469 $17.99 (Swoon Reads)
The Mermaid, the Witch & the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall 9781536204315 $18.99 (Candlewick)
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed 9781534462724 $18.99 (Simon & Schuster)
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender 9780062820259 $18.99 (Balzer + Bray)
Each of Us A Desert by Mark Oshiro 9781250169211 $17.99 (Tor Teen)
Young Adult
Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza 9781984815712 $17.99 (Putnam)
Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee 9781624149245 $18.99 (Page Street Kids)
Avatar, the Last Airbender by F.C. Yee 9781419735042 $18.99 (Amulet)
Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova 9781368023801 $18.99 (Little, Brown & Co)
Sasha Masha by Agnes Borinsky 9780374310806 $17.99 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow 9781250315328 $17.99 (Tor Teen)
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown 9780062891495 $18.99 (Balzer + Bray)
His Dark Materials: Serpentine by Philip Pullman 9780593377680 $12.99 (Knopf)
The Montague Twins: The Witch’s Hand by Nathan Page 9780525646761 $25.99 (Knopf)
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen 9781984851598 $16.99 (Random House)
Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson 9780062840356 $17.99 (Katherine Tegen Books)
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam 9780062996480 $19.99 (Balzer + Bray)
Comics
Portrait of a Drunk by O. Schrauwen, Ruppert and Mulot 9781683962892 $29.99 (Fantagraphics)
The Sky Is Blue With a Single Cloud by Kuniko Tsurita 9781770463981 $29.95 (Drawn & Quarterly)
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine 9781770463950 $29.95 (Drawn & Quarterly)
LAAB MAGAZINE #4: This Was Your Life! by Ronald Wimberly, Ed. 9781948886079 $19.99 (Beehive Books)
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang 9781626720794 $24.99 (First Second)
The PLAIN Janes by Cecil Castellucci, Jim Rugg 9780316522816 $18.99 (Little, Brown & Co)
A Walk Through Hell: The Complete Series by Garth Ennis, Goran Sudžuka 9781949028423 $39.99 (Aftershock)
The Neil Gaiman Library: Volume 1 by Neil Gaiman 9781506715933 $49.99 (Dark Horse Comics)
Pulp by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips 9781534316447 $16.99 (Image Comics)
920london by Remy Boydell 9781534315044 $17.99 (Image Comics)
Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf 9781419734847 $24.99 (Abrams)
The Man Without Talent by Yoshiharu Tsuge 9781681374437 $22.95 (NYRComics)
Comics
Wendy, Master of Art by Walter Scott 9781770463998 $24.95 (Drawn & Quarterly)
Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito 9781974715473 $22.99 (Viz Media)
Prison Pit: The Complete Collection by Johnny Ryan 9781683963134 $39.99 (Fantagraphics)
Mindviscosity by Matt Furie 9781683963707 $39.99 (Fantagraphics)
I Want You by Lisa Hanawalt 9781770463882 $21.95 (Drawn & Quarterly)
City Monster by Reza Farazmand 9780593087794 $18.00 (Plume Books)
The Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver 9781684156245 $24.99 (Archaia)
Heaven’s Door by Keiichi Koike 9780867198812 $19.95 (Last Gasp)
William Softkey and the Purple Spider by CF 9781944860301 $20.00 (Anthology)
The Times I Knew I Was Gay by Eleanor Crewes 9781982147105 $25.00 (Scribner)
Please Don’t Step on My JNCO Jeans by Noah Van Sciver 9781683963752 $14.99 (Fantagraphics)
Ginseng Roots 1–6 by Craig Thompson 9781941250433 $34.95 (Uncivilized Books)
Art, Photography & Design L
Limited quantity
L
Philip Guston Now by Philip Guston 9781942884569 $60.00 (DAP)
Deadly Prey by Deadly Prey Gallery 9781734324716 $30.00 (Perfectly Acceptable Press)
L
I Can Make You Feel Good by Tyler Mitchell 9783791386089 $60.00 (Prestel)
Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957 by Gordon Parks 9783958296961 $40.00 (Steidl)
A History of Arab Graphic Design by Bahia Shehab, Haytham Nawar 9789774168918 $49.95 (American University in Cairo Press )
L
Thank you for your business III by Quentin de Briey $35.00 (Yvon Lambert)
Secret Societies by Jon Black 9781527268074 $47.00 (Same Old)
History of EC Comics by Grant Geissman 9783836549769 $200.00 (Taschen)
Los Angeles Standards by Caroline & Cyril Desroche 9782490140190 $45.99 (Poursuite)
Jamie Hewlett by Jamie Hewlett 9783836582636 $25.00 (Taschen)
The Moon Book by Sarah Gottesdiener 9781250206183 $29.99 (St. Martin’s)
L
Death Magick Abundance by Akasha Rabut 9781944860271 $40.00 (Anthology)
Art, Photography & Design
Made in L.A. 2020: A Version by Myriam Ben Salah, Lauren Mackler 9783791359106 $50.00 (Prestel)
Electronic: From Kraftwerk to the Chemical Brothers by Jean-Yves LeLoup 9781872005492 $30.00 (DAP)
L
The Crystal Workshop by Azalea Lee 9781579658656 $24.95 (Artisan Publishers)
This Book Contains Pictures of Police Vehicles On Fire by David Ritchie $40.00 (Secret Headquarters)
L
Reynaldo Rivera: Provisional Notes for a Disappeared City by Reynaldo Rivera 9781635901122 $34.95 (Semiotext(e))
L
Swamp Monsters by Phil Zimmermann 9781636496696 $12.95 (Ice Plant/ Spaceheater Editions)
Elements of Vogue by Sabel Gavaldon, Manuel Segade, Eds. 9788445138311 $45.99 (Motto)
Inside Out & Upside Down: Posters from CalArts, 1980–2019 designed by Michael Worthington $40.00 (CalArts)
Weegee’s Naked City by Weegee 9788862086950 $39.95 (Damiani Ltd)
Information Graphics by Sandra Rendgen, Julius Wiedemann 9783836583831 $50.00 (Taschen)
Duro Olowu: Seeing by Naomi Beckwith 9783791359489 $40.00 (Prestel)
L
Selected Works from 1982 to 2011 by Raymond Pettibon $12.99 (Innen)
Cookbooks
United States of Cocktails by Brian Bartels 9781419742873 $24.99 (Abrams)
Xi’an Famous Foods by Jason Wang 9781419747526 $35.00 Abrams)
Dishoom by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar 9781408890677 $35.00 (Bloomsbury)
Jubilee by Toni Tipton-Martin 9781524761738 $35.00 (Clarkson Potter)
Meals, Music, and Muses by Alexander Smalls 9781250098092 $35.00 (Flatiron)
In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan, Julia Turshen 9781984856739 $35.00 (Ten Speed Press)
Synergetic Stew by Buckminster Fuller, Ed. 9783037786437 $25.00 (Lars Müller)
Honey From a Weed by Patience Gray 9781903018200 $39.95 (Prospect Books)
Time to Eat by Nadiya Hussain 9780593233535 $29.99 (Clarkson Potter)
Chi Spacca by Nancy Silverton 9780525654650 $35.00 (Knopf)
Spirited by Adrienne Stillman 9781838661618 $49.95 (Phaidon)
The French Laundry, Per Se by Thomas Keller 9781579658496 $75.00 (Artisan)
Cookbooks
The Good Book of Southern Baking by Kelly Fields, Kate Heddings 9781984856227 $35.00 (Lorena Jones Books)
La Buvette by Camille Fourmont 9781984856692 $24.99 (Ten Speed Press)
Drink What You Want by John deBary 9780525575771 $25.00 (Clarkson Potter)
Chicano Eats by Esteban Castillo 9780062917379 $35.00 (Harper)
Old World Italian by Mimi Thorisson 9781984823595 $40.00 (Clarkson Potter)
Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa M. Martin 9781579658472 $35.00 (Artisan)
Cool Beans by Joe Yonan 9780399581489 $30.00 (Ten Speed Press)
Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry 9780399581045 $30.00 (Ten Speed Press)
Chetna’s Healthy Indian by Chetna Makan 9781784726621 $29.99 (Mitchell Beazley)
My Korea by Hooni Kim 9780393239720 $40.00 (W.W. Norton & Company)
Eating Out Loud by Eden Grinshpan 9780593135877 $32.50 (Clarkson Potter)
A Good Bake by Melissa Weller, Carolynn Carreño 9781524733438 $40.00 (Knopf)
Fiction
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 9781635575637 $27.00 (Bloomsbury)
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline 9781524761332 $28.99 (Ballantine)
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates 9780399590610 $18.00 (One World)
The Searcher by Tana French 9780735224650 $27.00 (Viking)
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi 9780525541608 $27.00 (Riverhead)
The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender 9780385534871 $26.95 (Doubleday)
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett 9780525536291 $27.00 (Riverhead)
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 9780525658184 $27.95 (Knopf)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 9781982136451 $26.99 (Gallery)
Missionaries by Phil Klay 9781984880659 $28.00 (Penguin)
Luster by Raven Leilani 9780374194321 $26.00 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner 9781250758002 $17.00 (Picador)
Fiction
The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem 9780062938787 $27.99 (Ecco)
To Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu 9781250306081 $27.99 (Tor)
Deacon King Kong by James McBride 9780735216723 $28.00 (Riverhead)
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 9780525620785 $27.00 (Del Rey)
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh 9781984879356 $27.00 (Penguin)
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez 9780593191415 $26.00 (Riverhead)
The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly 9780316485623 $29.00 (Little, Brown & Co)
Jack by Marilynne Robinson 9780374279301 $27.00 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Grand Union by Zadie Smith 9780525559016 $17.00 (Penguin)
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter 9780062868084 $28.99 (Harper)
Memorial by Bryan Washington 9780593087275 $27.00 (Riverhead)
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu 9780307948472 $16.00 (Vintage)
NonFiction
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh 9781982156947 $30.00 (Gallery)
Eat A Peach by David Chang 9781524759216 $28.00 (Clarkson Potter)
A Peculiar Indifference by Elliott Currie 9781250769930 $27.99 (Metropolitan)
God-Level Knowledge Darts by Desus & Mero 9780525512332 $26.00 (Random House)
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty 9780393358490 $15.95 (W.W. Norton & Company)
The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza 9780525509684 $27.00 (One World)
A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky by Lynell George 9781626400634 $30.00 (Angel City Press)
Metazoa by Peter Godfrey-Smith 9780374207946 $28.00 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Anarchy—In a Manner of Speaking by David Graeber 9783035802269 $20.00 (Diaphanes)
Conditional Citizens by Laila Lalami 9781524747169 $25.95 (Pantheon)
If Then by Jill Lepore 9781631496103 $28.95 (Liveright)
For Now by Eileen Myles 9780300244649 $18.00 (Yale)
NonFiction
A Promised Land by Barack Obama 9781524763169 $45.00 (Crown)
The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne 9781631491665 $35.00 (Liveright)
Just Us by Claudia Rankine 9781644450215 $30.00 (Graywolf)
Wagnerism by Alex Ross 9780374285937 $40.00 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Discovering Griffith Park by Casey Schreiner 9781680512663 $18.95 (Mountaineers Books)
Little Weirds by Jenny Slate 9780316485364 $16.99 (Back Bay)
Intimations by Zadie Smith 9780593297612 $10.95 (Penguin)
Stakes Is High by Mychal Denzel Smith 9781568588735 $26.00 (Bold Type)
How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy 9780593183526 $23.00 (Dutton)
Shit, Actually by Lindy West 9780316449823 $27.00 (Hachette)
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 9780593230251 $32.00 (Random House)
Rage by Bob Woodward 9781982131739 $30.00 (Simon & Schuster)
Gifts Design Works Ink Portable Flatware
FORK YEAH! 0840111501696 $16.00
FORK IT OVER 0840111501702 $16.00
HAVE A KNIFE DAY! (SEE YOU SPOON!) 0840111501726 $16.00
Rekonect Magnetic Notebooks
Magnetic Journals Purple 664346103001 $29.95
Magnetic Refill Lined 664346410000 $8.95
Magnetic Journals Red 0664346104008 $29.95
Magnetic Refill Blank 664346410000 $8.95
Magnetic Journals Grey 664346101007 $29.95
Magnetic Refill Grid 664346410024 $8.95
Gifts Traveler’s Notebooks
Black 4902805137140 $59.95
Camel 4902805151931 $59.95
Brown 4902805137157 $59.95
Recordable Message Gift Box by SuckUK 5060043069247 $15.95
FAR Handmade Leather
Planner Covers $49.95
Card Holder $42.00
Planners
2020–21 Weekly Scarlet Red Hard Cover 3 x 5.5 8053853606921 $17.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Weekly Black Hard Cover 3 x 5.5 8053853606891 $17.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Monthly Black Soft Cover 3.5 x 5.5 8056420850130 $17.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Weekly Scarlet Red Soft Cover 3.5 x 5.5 8056420850017 $17.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Daily Sapphire Blue Hard Cover 5 x 8.25 8053853606853 $27.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Daily Scarlet Red Hard Cover 5 x 8.25 8053853606846 $27.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Daily Black Hard Cover 5 x 8.25 8053853606839 $27.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Daily Sapphire Blue Soft Cover 5 x 8.25 8053853606884 $27.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Monthly Black Hard Cover 5 x 8.25 8056420850352 $22.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Monthly Black Soft Cover 5 x 8.25 8056420850147 $22.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Weekly Scarlet Red Soft Cover 7.5 x 9.75 8056420850031 $24.95 (Moleskine)
2020–21 Weekly Sapphire Blue Soft Cover 7.5 x 9.75 8056420850062 $24.95 (Moleskine)
Planners
2021 Colorful Printed Vegan Leather Agenda Soft Cover 5.75 x 8.5 0840111503836 $39.95 (Design Works Ink)
2021 Colorful 17 Month Agenda Hard Cover 7.5 x 10 0840111503973 $39.95 (Design Works Ink)
2021 Derby Warm 17 Month Planner Hard Cover 5.75 x 8.25 0840111506868 $28.95 (Design Works Ink)
2021 17 Month Yearly Vegan Leather Agenda Soft Cover 5.75 x 8.5 0840111506875 $22.95 (Design Works Ink)
Little Book Big Plans 17 Okay Let Do This Month Soft Cover 8.5 x 11 Hard Cover 5.75 x 8.25 0840111503874 0840111506479 $16.95 (Design Works Ink) $28.95 (Design Works Ink)
2021 Circle Square Vegan Leather Agenda Soft Cover 5.75 x 8.5 0840111503843 $22.95 (Design Works Ink)
Velvet Planner Denim Soft Cover 7.5 X 9.25 $28.95 (Smitten on Paper)
Slingshot 2021 Assorted Colors Small 4.25 x 5.5 $8.00 (Slingshot)
Slingshot 2021 Assorted Colors Large 5.5 x 8.5 $16.00 (Slingshot)
2021 Verso Radical Diary and Weekly Planner by Verso Books 9781839760242 $24.95 (Verso)
Redstone Diary 2021: Everyday Pleasures by Julian Rothenstein 9781616898793 $24.95 (Princeton)
Memberships and Subscriptions Make Great Gifts! Skylight Books Friends with Benefits Club Member benefits include: 10% off almost everything in the store* 20% off Skylight’s monthly best sellers 20% off each month’s event books Members-only events and giveaways Free USPS Media Mail shipping within the U.S.
Imaginary Friends Reading Club Subscribers will receive curated paperback fiction, with an emphasis on small presses, translated literature, and rediscovered gems. Think of it as the books your literary imaginary friend wants you to read, delivered to your door. Subscriptions are all pre-paid, with books shipped once a month.
Join or renew at skylightbooks.com, and use your member discount on your online orders 1 year • $25
2 years • $45
3-month subscription • $62 6-month subscription • $120 12-month subscription • $236
3 years • $65
For more info and to sign up, visit www.skylightbooks.com/franny/fwb
For more info and to sign up, visit www.skylightbooks.com/franny/ifrc
*Excludes periodicals, gift cards, subscriptions, and memberships.
Signed First Editions Club Give the gift of a better home library. Subscribers receive a signed first edition every month, curated for literary value and collectability. Recent selections include:
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Butterfly Lampshade by Aimee Bender
Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit
Pick up in-store or have shipped. Friends with Benefits discounts apply. Archival mylar cover available. Books are charged to your credit card once a month, with options for a 6-month or ongoing subscription. For more info and to sign up, visit www.skylightbooks.com/franny/sfec