Naked City
I think I love Weegee because he is a chronicler of daily life in days gone by. He doesn’t shy away from the ugly parts, but he doesn’t deny the beauty of the ordinary moments that we all take for granted.
Diversity
Most old books are written by rich, straight, white men. These books were written by people who were not. Authors from a visible minority and women writing outside of ‘acceptably feminine’ topics can be found here.
Unusual Fragments
I’m including Unusual Fragments as a spooky selection because all of these stories share some aspect of the unusual and arguably supernatural — or at least just plain eerily weird.
Paradise Rot
What follows is a fever dream of decay and the juxtaposition of awakening and discovering blurred boundaries between individuals, bodies, sexuality, and plant life.
Cool For You
While their stories are funny tales of minimum-wage teenage drudgery, they are also stories of chafing at the world one inherits from their parents.
Fair Play
When you hear the name Tove Jansson, you probably automatically think of Moomin, but Jansson was much more than the exploits of everyone in Moomin Valley.
Weight of the Earth
In these tapes, Wojnarowicz discusses a vast variety of topics but mostly settles on art, dreams, and death as he processes his HIV diagnosis and impending end of life.
My Father and Myself
The moment real adulthood begins is when you look at the grown-ups around you and realize that they are people and they may not always know what’s best for you or understand your experience.
Motion Sickness
Like the narrator, the novel wanders between past and present and often between locations themselves.
Suzanne and Louise
Guibert’s aunts were a major part of his life and offer him comfort that his parents cannot when he gets sick. In them, he can see his own end of life.
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black
One of the best parts of the collected editions like this (especially when they’re arranged chronologically) is that you can follow Mueller through her life and watch her evolve as a writer.