Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
Brownstein’s memoir is an eloquent and witty account of her longstanding career as a musician, writer, and actress. If you are a fan of Portlandia and/or Sleater-Kinney, this book is excellent. –Kim Abrams
My Struggle (Book One) by Karl Ove Knausgard
At turns devastating, self-indulgent, and beautiful, the first book of Norwegian novelist Knausgard’s 6-volume memoir is nothing short of epic. Readers will transported to the pristine, lonely archipelago that is adolescence. —Nora Almeida
The Girls by Emma Cline
This novel is loosely based on the story of Charles Manson and the young women who joined his cult. The book is set in 1969 California and the protagonist is a naive 14-year old girl who comes of age as the “Summer of Love” has rotted into pure evil. —Monica Berger
Syllabus by Lynda Barry
Printed and bound in the format of a composition book, this meditation on teaching is a collection of handouts and assignments from her drawing and writing classes at the University of Wisconsin, interspersed with collages and writing that focus on creativity and pedagogy. Terrific! —Maura Smale
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
This story is set in a future dystopia of New York City and humorously critiques love, politics, technology, and consumerism. —Junior Tidal
Micro Book Reviews by City Tech Librarians
Writing my Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor
Forgiveness is hard won but to forgive self is enlightenment. . . is perhaps the greatest lesson captured in this poignant and reflective memoir. The book details how a young boy from Detroit goes from murderer, to prisoner, to MIT media lab fellow. Listen to his introduction here. –Kimberley Bugg
Tune In: The Beatles, All these Years, Vol 1 by Mark Lewisohn
This is the first installment of what will eventually be a three volume set about the Fab Four. The book starts in describing how the four band members’ families came to reside in Liverpool in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and ends with the band on the cusp of fame in December 1962. The short version of the book logs in at about 900 pages; the author’s cut is twice that size. This is just the first volume. Historian Mark Lewisohn has made the Beatles’ story his life work and it shows in the attention to detail he brought to Tune In. They will no be released for several years, but I can’t wait for the future volumes. –Keith Muchowski
