Benjamin Lee recommends:
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Alexie remains as one of my favorite authors for his honest and raw perspective on Native American life. This collection of short stories continues that tradition by blending humor, flashbacks, and surreal imagery to create a dark and honest portrait of Native American life on the Spokane Reservation.
Laura Knicklebine recommends:
After the Quake
A Salesman, a collection agent, a son of God and a giant talking frog walk upon a city that’s left fragile after a massive earthquake. These six short stories make delicate dives beneath daily routines, upheaving small mysteries but leaving ordinary life intact. This book is a sparkling glimpse at Murakami’s remarkable ability to fold magic into the mundane.
Erin Taylor recommends:
Hera Lindsay Bird
Hera Lindsay Bird is a fantastic read. I pretty much spent an entire day reading it in and out and back again. I was given it by a friend and so it felt dear reading it. But even more so Bird’s writing is so witty and relatable, which simultaneously isn’t at a loss for tenderness. It’s one I will definitely read again.
Claire Hopple recommends:
Cities I’ve Never Lived In
This book is about things lost: people, places, memory, objects. How they are both here and not here, how their absence can be a presence if you handle it delicately enough. Inventive in its description of the power of the in-between, it proves beauty can’t really exist without loss, and how that’s okay.
Mallory Smart recommends:
Shadowbahn
Shadowbahn is the tease of an America that doesn’t exist. It’s a multifaceted story about culture and divide following the surreal re-appearance of the Twin Towers in the Badlands. I read it just a few days ago in a dark car on my way to Texas and was moved by its strange relevance. I highly recommend it.
Bulent Mourad recommends:
The Last Question
This quick short story by Isaac Asimov is always a favorite to look back to when I want to be amazed by the cosmos and imagine time in it’s endless nature.