After a summer back at D+Q, I'm skipping town for the next 6 months. Until I return, here's a peek at which books you might catch my nose stuck in if we cross paths in Los Angeles! 

Weighing in at well over 1000 pages, this 17th century tome has occupied the bulk of my leisure reading hours this summer, and has been a true delight. The language is surprisingly accessible, and the author's breadth of knowledge staggering. From lycanthropy and demon-possession to humoural imbalances to good old lovesickness (one entire book is devoted to love melancholy!), Burton's life's work is an exhaustive and engrossing treatise on melancholy, a subject dear to my heart! All hail NYRB for making this behemoth available in paperback. 

I was highly anticipating this collab between comics powerhouses Ben Passmore and Ezra Clayton Daniels, and it did not disappoint. It's a super insightful and meticulously executed critique of gentrification, set in a fictional neighbourhood in Chicago. Though the body-horror component didn't agree with my squeamish temperament, I heartily recommend it nevertheless! 

I haven't delved into this one yet, but have been admiring Inés Estrada's work for quite some time, so I have high hopes. Plus, it's a near-future dystopia, which is always fun! 

The latest collection of short stories from the author who wrote the story behind Denis Villeneuve film, Arrival, is starting off strong. Speculative fiction at times reminiscent of Black Mirror, perfect for readers of a sci-fi bent.   

Hard to find a writer more quintessentially LA than Eve Babitz, whose depictions of her beloved  city capture the high-low, glitz-grime dichotomy which I, along with her, love so well. So many LA authors love to hate the place (I'm looking at you, Nathaniel West!) whereas Babitz's genuine appreciation of it is refreshing and resonant. Though her own essays are often autobiographical, I'm excited to read this biography, thematically appropriate for my imminent sojourn in her hometown!

In the past few months, I've been trying to get more into reading poetry, since I've always felt weirdly intimidated by it. I signed up for a fantastic mailing list from The Paris Review, who kindly send a daily free poem from their archives to subscribers, so thanks to that, I've discovered a bunch of amazing poets who give me goosebumps! But sometimes one just has a hankering to revisit an old favourite, and that's Plath for me. It helps that this hardcover edition is super cute and makes a fine addition to any shelf or bedside table!

A former student of Lynda Barry, polymath cartoonist Ebony Flowers is also a scholar, teacher, and ethnographer. I blazed through her first comics collection in one sitting! Most of the vignettes are about the experiences of young black girls navigating racialized spaces. Too often, in predominantly white environments, the characters deal with racism, while they're considered "too white" in black neighbourhoods. A common thread throughout the stories is the (at times fraught) politics of black hair - a perm is never just a perm. By turns funny, poignant and affecting, Flowers has a knack for capturing childhood's tribulations and adults' attempts to shelter children from a hard world. A great debut! 

I'm intrigued by the premise of this graphic novel, but haven't yet had a chance to read it. A woman moves to Sweden and finds herself in the absurd paradox many immigrants face: no job without a work permit, no work permit without a job! With few prospects, the author is forced to work under the table and endure poor working conditions. Having myself been in a similar position (young and unemployable in Scandinavia) in the not so distant past, her story feels deeply relatable! 

I'm a late-comer to Fisher, but what I've encountered from his ouevre has been compelling. I love a damning critique of neoliberalism, and this was truly Fisher's wheelhouse. So I'm going whole hog and tackling this massive collection, featuring the best of his blog, k-punk. With a page count almost as formidable as the aforementioned Anatomy of Melancholy, this is the most ambitious doorstop-sized book reading summer I've had since the one in which I read Moby Dick, Infinite Jest, and War and Peace back to back! Wish me luck! 

To counterbalance the rather intense non-fiction kick I'm on, I've got The Idiot on my fiction list. A semi-autobigraphical story set in the mid-90s, the narrative follows the teenage Turkish-American protagonist from Harvard to Europe, through first love, and coming into herself as a writer. I'm told it is delightfully funny. Surely, I'll soon contribute to the unanimous, resounding chorus of praise heaped upon it by all of my colleagues who have read and loved it! Seems like the perfect book to read on a long flight, no?