My new favorite photography book is L.A., 1971, by Anthony Hernandez. A gorgeous, aluminum-covered collection of 12 photos taken in a single day of people walking out of a vault-shaped door in L.A.
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Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica is absolutely stunning, horrifying, and a must-read. Recommend.
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I decided to read Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat based on Womb House Books excellent Book Domme’s recommendation. This novella is absolutely superb, curiously erotic, and astonishingly demented. Read it.
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Read my final verdict in The 2026 Tournament of Books Championship, featuring The Passenger Seat v. Flesh.
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A Long Game: Notes on Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken is an advice book for writers who don’t like advice. Organized into a series of short, numbered sections, the book’s interests range from plot and story to character and imagery. There are no right or wrong answers here, just suggestions on how to navigate the marathon that is writing a book-length work of fiction. I loved it and found it inspiring. I expect you will too.
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“Had I just sat through the most feminist-coded movie of the year, lauded and anticipated by women, written and directed by women, foamed over and frothed at by women, only to find out it actually disses the woman, and celebrates the man?” — a great review of Hamnet from my pal, bestselling author Lydia Netzer
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Last year I read Atomic Habits by James Clear, which I found to be relatively helpful in habit building. This year I read the companion workbook, which I found to be less helpful. It feels underdeveloped. So maybe skip it.
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Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky is a curious book. There is a monkey child, a zone where terrible things happen, a “stalker” who is hunting for … what? Money? Hope? Dreams? This book was the inspiration for Stalker, which you should watch if you haven’t. But truth be told: The book is better.
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I first read William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience in college. I highly recommend this small version.
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Linda Williams’ Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the “Frenzy of the Visible” is a rigorously academic work that seeks to trace the history of pornographic movies and explore what their content reveals about their viewers. Dense and filled with academese, the book tackles adult content with all the sexiness of a spatula. While not strictly feminist, Williams’ work privileges feminist porn over not-feminist porn while failing to identify if there is an actual difference between the two beyond an ultimately failed marketing ploy. This book is a buzzkill.
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Earlier this year I read Parasitic City #0.1 by Shintaro Kago which is totally insane, so when I came across a copy of Parasitic City #0.2 I knew I had to have it. Do you like the apocalypse? Do you fantasize about your body being torn in half and the two halves functioning independently? Do you have erotic fantasizes in which people torn in half by the apocalypse have body horror sex? If the answer is yes, you will love this book. I did.
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I really liked Weapons. A terrific script structure, weirdly realistic and awkward dialogue, a major case of the spooks, a mind-blowing performance by Amy Madigan as the totally terrifying Aunt Gladys, and a lot of dynamic film-making. The third act got a little wobbly a few times, but all in all if you liked Barbarian, as I did, you’ll really love Weapons. The best thing about this inventive movie is its nonlinear narrative script, which allows for overlap and interweaving that’s impossible with linearity.
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This year, I decided to read only books with pictures. In August, I read four books. (You can find all my short book reviews here.) My favorite was Susan Meiselas’ Mediations: “a wonderful overview of her career, development as a photographer, and efforts to rebalance the power dynamics between photographer and subject.” My least favorite was Johnny Ryan’s Porn Basket: “the artistic equivalent of watching a child play with its own feces.”
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I regret spending money on Johnny Ryan’s Porn Basket. It’s the artistic equivalent of watching a child play with its own feces. The child thinks it’s hilarious; you shake your head. Ryan seems chronically stuck in a reflexive need to attempt to offend, but his work is uninteresting and redundant. I like art that offends; I’ve created some of it myself. But this is merely dull. If you’re an eight-year-old boy, you’ll love this book.
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I bought a copy of Trulee Hall, a monograph about the artist, after seeing her work at MOCA. I was blown away by Witch House, which is insane and amazing. The book features essays and commentary and an interview. If you’re looking to embrace your inner ick or wade in the goo of sex or shift your ideas around the kinds of art women can create, this book is a good place to start. Hall: “I don’t differentiate between high and low and right and wrong, but I’m more likely to gravitate to something ‘low’ and ‘wrong.’”
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Kevin Sampsell’s I Made an Accident dazzled me with its beautiful, mysterious collages and pried my brain open with its curious, dreamy poems. I really loved how the art and prose play together, suggesting new connections, making a meta collage of images and words in book form. Accidents never looked this good. Delightful.
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I really loved Susan Meiselas’ Mediations. It provides a wonderful overview of her career, development as a photographer, and efforts to rebalance the power dynamics between photographer and subject. I particularly enjoyed the essay by Eduardo Cadava, which manages to be both personal and theoretical. Recommend.
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