dumbest boy alive

What an interesting book. I haven’t read a good monster novel in a while. The premise is simple and very much reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster, though with a bit of a twist. Córdova is skilled at showing how parental grief gives life into this monster. He opens with some pretty visceral imagery that sets the stage for how seriously we should be taking the subsequent plot. We’re then careening off through the novel without any questions about the insanely fantastical premise - watching as the monster’s parents reckon with trying to tame its wildness, to make it into something other than what it’s true nature is. The struggle is similarly well written, and I was absorbed throughout the whole book. (Don’t want to give too much away here, you should just read it - how Córdova makes the monster sympathetic is spectacular.) However, the one thing I think that made this book less strong than it could have been is its final act. We rotate between narrators throughout the book, and the final chapter in the monster’s voice is the weakest. Córdova almost gives up on grounding the novel in suffering in a way that feels cheap given the amount of loss we’ve endured over the preceding 200 or so pages. It’s also kind of apparent that he doesn’t understand his monster enough to make it have a convincing inner voice. After all the buildup, I thought we’d be exposed to a much richer inner life. Instead he’s one dimensional. Maybe that was on purpose. I’m not sure, but I was left wanting more. I still would recommend reading the book, but I do caution the ending falls flat.

Reading the whole book you get just a sinking feeling drawing parallels to our current situation in 2026. Davis makes predictions towards the end of the book about what the 90s will look like, and while some of his most doomer prognoses didn’t come true in 1990, in 2026 we see a lot of these coming true: the rise of homegrown fascism and the New Right, entrenchment of socioeconomic apartheid, and a neoliberal Democratic regime that is entirely identical to Republicans they supposedly oppose. If those analyses were prescient, then perhaps maybe so are Davis’ thoughts about how we can get out of this. The task, as it always is, to build solidarity from the bottom up, at home and abroad. I would strongly recommend reading this book, with the caveat that you’ll have to endure a slow creeping feeling of horror as you step your way through American working class history. Now, more than ever, it’s important to understand where we came from so we can move forward.

What do you do if you have a stroke? How do you make sense of the world after? How do you write and create meaning despite the changes? Siken grapples with all of these things and his own childhood trauma that resurfaces in the most devastating and beautiful way. I cried so much reading these poems. Very impactful.

Truly one of the most striking books I have read recently. Mamdani’s perspective and analysis was really groundbreaking to me. I would highly, highly recommend reading this book!

I originally picked up this book because of how it was billed in the description: exposing the FBI’s abuses of power and ignorance of white supremacist groups organizing in the United States. What followed was a very interesting book that had a lot of “disappointed but not surprised” moments. It was interesting to learn more about FBI history itself, but a lot of the ways the government illegally surveils antiwar and labor activism was kind of old news. It’s tough now to read books that were published pre-Trump 2.0, since things have escalated so far past any “norms” or “standards” that exist, ramping up again classic areas of division that started from 9/11. I was expecting German to be much more critical of the institution itself, since he describes it from its inception as a force simply designed to uphold the status quo and enforce existing power. Instead, he offers us incremental change and a baffling analysis that shies away from outright standing on business that local police groups have strong ties to white supremacist movements now. Interesting book, but its lack of self-awareness makes me think this one might be a pass if you’re looking for a coherent, incisive analysis of law enforcement and white supremacy.

let’s see what happens in 2026 ;)

I absolutely love a well-written sci-fi novel. Much like the title, everything in this book comes in threes. The first act serves a bit to (purposely) confuse you while it sets the stage. We go back and forth between modern time and 1960s era revolution in China - scientists are killing themselves, and they’re all connected to this shady organization. Our main character, an applied physics professor, is roped into the ongoing investigation to provide expert level insight. There’s somehow a video game of an alternate civilization. We keep talking about the unstable, unsolved “three body problem” that physicists can’t solve yet. And how is this one family of theoretical physicists tied to everything throughout each time we bounce between? We are given a glut of information, almost like a very very noisy signal that we must filter. This parallels the electrical engineering concepts used in astronomy that underlie the story and that Liu explains in detail. Act two then contains a twist - there’s a breakthrough in both our understanding as the audience and the characters about how the whole problem is happening. If I was to compare this to the central metaphor of the book, it would be as if we had reached an equilibrium where the three planets of the three body problem align perfectly in a straight line when viewed from a point, so it seems as if there is just one planet. Tension rises to almost a boiling point. Act three sees everything boil over, the planets moving apart from each other to reveal the other two, and one of the most stomach-churning twists I’ve ever read. Everything is all revealed at the end, but we are plunged into despair. What a fantastic fucking book. I cannot recommend this enough!

I really enjoyed the lyricism and rhythm of these poems - it was the first collection of poetry I’ve read in a while that begs to be spoken or screamed aloud. Marsh captures the experience of being Black and queer so powerfully, I frequently had to stop and just absorb what was said like a gut punch. Her wordplay and imagery paints a complex picture of our time - holding both anger, sadness, and joyful resistance. Would definitely recommend… especially “QTNA”, which was one of my favorite poems from this collection.

Probably one of the most compelling prose poets I’ve ever read. A devastating interrogation of what it means to create things. It cuts even deeper now in the age of AI slop. What does it mean to want to say something and not have the words? How does making art fundamentally alter the thing it’s about, and how does it fundamentally alter us? Siken throughout speaks to the necessity of creation, despite self-doubt and doubts from others. Art about making art feels intimate and maximally vulnerable. We are in the painting and judging the painter and the painter himself and all these contradictions come to the surface in the most gorgeous of ways. I keep turning these poems over in my mind. This picture of making art making us authentically human, I am trying to etch in my brain forever.

I think this is one of my favorite books of all time. I love the chaotic, self-referential, looping narrative. Books within books within books with changing characters, but somehow still retaining this dialogue between two sides of what grows to feel like the same coin by the end. There’s a lot of meta-commentary that is more poignant given that this book took twenty years to come to fruition. What does it mean to make art in an age of AI? What does it mean to connect to people around you? What does it mean to have something be true/truthful? How does the audience function in the creation of art? Are we complicit in our consumption? I am left utterly speechless by this book.

Great book dissecting the interplay between mainstream media and the carceral state. I’ve been following the author for a while now and been meaning to read his analysis. The egregious scale that journalists and news outlets unconsciously and consciously peddle the carceral state as the only answer was flooring. Well written and easy to read, I am glad to have another tool in my toolbox to dissect propaganda that hides among omissions. Whose voices aren’t being heard? What is common sense and how is it creates? All important questions in our world where it’s becoming increasingly harder to champion truth and transparency.

I had the great fortune of attending an open mic a while ago where the author shared some excerpts from her book, and I immediately had to get a copy off her. Genuinely amazing sci-fi trans erotic poetry that has some of the most compelling imagery I’ve encountered in a long time. SO GOOD! I honestly have no idea where you would get a copy of this book unless you run into the author, but 100% recommend

I was first introduced to this book my freshman year of undergrad when I took a class on Black contemporary experimental poetry. I credit this book for being the first time I was truly floored by poetry. We only covered a few excerpts from the book, so now years later I am glad to have finally gotten around to reading the whole thing. Holy shit. The story of Zong! is, as the poet describes it, an un-story that resists telling but must be told. Zong was a slave ship that ended up being the subject of a court case, since the white crew decided to throw 150 captive Africans off the ship to collect insurance money. The case is briefly worded, and centers entirely on whether or not the insurance should pay for the loss of “property”. Philip uses the text of this short case exclusively to construct these poems and tell the story of these humans who have been pushed to the margins and their story completely silenced. As she writes in the notes at the end of the book, the act of breaking apart the court case and letting the true story come through results in poems that resist understanding but at the same time forces the reader to continue to search for meaning and make sense from murmurings. I have no good way to describe the raw feelings that surface reading this book and experiencing this poem for the first time. The structure of the poems in each of the five sections are arresting in their own way, and are a true master class in what skilled use of form can look like. I can say is that this is probably the most impactful poetry I have ever read, in every sense of the word. Highly recommend.

Everything you’d want in a book club read. It starts out lighthearted and fun to draw you in, but then things rapidly take a turn for the dark. Set in 1930s rural Pennsylvania, the book explores solidarity across race and class lines. What happens when something awful happens to someone in a group that you’re not “supposed” to associate with? We get insight into the dynamics between Jewish immigrants, their Black neighbors, and the white Americans who think that both are “destroying America”. (I wonder where we’ve heard that before.) I really don’t want to give any spoilers, so I won’t go into the plot event that really kicks off the solidarity between the Jewish and Black community, or what happens at the end. Things are left a bit ambiguous, but all in all I think it’s safe to say that good eventually triumphs over evil. All the characters are charming and goofy in their own way, even the minor characters are described so well. I alternated between laughing, crying, and being horrified. All in all, this was an amazing book, I would recommend going into it with no spoilers. Fantastic work of fiction!

Gorgeously illustrated, this graphic novel makes Hall’s dissertation and research into the history of women-led slave revolts come alive. It chronicles not only this hidden history, but the deliberate erasing of stories that occurred both then and now. We watch her struggle to read between the lines, to get access to sources from institutions that would rather pretend they never were a part of the slave trade, to stomach the banality of evil documented in slave ship records. The whitewashing of history demands that we forget resistance - but Hall helps us see beyond to the truth. I’m quite tempted to go find her dissertation or other articles she’s published throughout her career.

Fantastic book. The reality TV show premise really allows us to explore the horrors of capitalism. Slowly, we watch every contestant become more depraved as the show goes on. The invisible cameras and the nameless producers loom in the background the whole book. I felt continually shocked by the violence, but I was more shocked that they all agreed to it. The tantalizing reward of fame and riches at the end was enough of a stick to keep them all in line, even when the tasks they have to complete to get rewards become progressively more cruel. Simultaneously funny and horrifying, I seriously enjoyed this book.

I was unsure if I should count this, given that it’s more of a coffee table illustrated guide to how cities work (of course with NYC as the case study). But I figured there were enough words and pages to count it, especially because I was out of other books to read. This book provides a charming snapshot into 2006 NYC’s operations. I was absolutely giddy to see the old subway routes like the 9 and the V still talked about. There was a lot of cool info about city infrastructure and historical changes to NYC, which I was enraptured by. Fun little filler read!