Mark's Top Ten Non-Fiction Books of 2019!
This book is a razor-sharp, moving and urgent collection of essays; it examines social issues on both the macro and micro in a new way. The writing is incredible and Tumarkin displays a breadthless understanding of issues like justice, friendship and the collective failings of society.
After hosting Leslie Jamison for a reading,and hearing her read the essay, LAYOVER STORY, I know I would have to buy and devour this book. As a thinker, Jamison is in a league all her own. Brave, self-critical and full of beautiful insights, this collection is incredible.
A book about craft, but so much more. This book illuminates the patterns found in fiction and explains the forms that have normally been found in the traditional Western novel, while exploring the patterns in more experimental books. Finding these ‘patterns’ in nature (spirals, waves, etc) Alison manages to illuminate, not only writing, but a way of looking at both storytelling and life.
A brutal, visceral and important book, Cristian Alarcón tells the story and legacy of seventeen year old Víctor Manuel Vital, aka Frente, who was killed by police in the slums of Buenos Aires. Part investigation, part eulogy, and a nuanced, subtle description of a culture steeped in violence and fatalism.
A book consisting of three essay-poems that begin as meditations on 19th century science and end firmly as research into the present. From chronophotography to algorithmic surveillance, from phrenology to fMRI brain scans, from Victorian specimen collections to the bleached bones of the Great Barrier Reef, each poem in this collection explores technologies of knowing each other and the world we're in.
A thoughtful, original and courageous meditation on relationships, place, proximity and distance, belonging, community, gender, politics, the body and even love, and all the things that can mean, braided with digressive, descriptive passages about the work of Cuban-born American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The book bends and distorts prose and still feels urgent.
Intellectually curious, virtuoistic and voracious, these essays prove all too easily why Duras was such a magnificent writer and thinker. The essays vary on subject but the reader is never less than interested.
Moving west--from Singapore to America, from New York to California--a woman examines the myth of "finding home" even as she comes to terms with its impossibilities. Low grapples with the meaning of everything, in a memoir rich with theory and digression, but also in stark, gorgeous imagery and memorable insights. Another example of Coffee House Press’ ability to find the strongest and most singular voices.
Although not out until next year (in March) this wonderful collection of essays takes a look at lighthouses, venturing into history, literature and so much more. Each essay focuses on a specific lighthouse but veers into unchartered territory, whether it’s birds, books, relationships or vacations. A moving book written in a generous voice.
With honesty and courage, Cameron Dezen Hammon confronts the personal, the spiritual, and the cultural in this stunning memoir. Written in sharp and lucid prose, Hammon explores passion, doubt, and the risks of faith. This Is My Body carries an urgency and a candor seldom seen in contemporary memoirs. In two words, Hammon's story is beautiful and brave.