AWM Staff Picks: January 2025

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

From the publisher: “Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for years. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. Expeditions into Area X have ended in disaster or death. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the latest expedition. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and the narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover lifeforms that surpass understanding. But it’s the secrets they carried across the border with them that change everything.”

—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager

Alligator Bites Never Heal by Doechii (album)

Just a great album! Doechii is a Tampa-born rapper who is on the rise with performances on Jimmy Fallon and an NPR Tiny Desk Concert!

—Nat, Storyteller

Autumn by Ali Smith

From the publisher: “Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Two old friends—Daniel, a centenarian, and Elisabeth, born in 1984—look to both the future and the past as the United Kingdom stands divided by a historic, once-in-a-generation summer. Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand-in-hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever. A luminous meditation on the meaning of richness and harvest and worth, Autumn is the first installment of Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet, and it casts an eye over our own time: Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearean jeu d’esprit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s pop art. Autumn is wide-ranging in time-scale and light-footed through histories.”

—Maya, Marketing & Creative Associate

Beethoven Blues by Jon Batiste (album)

This album will turn you on your head as piano virtuoso Jon Batiste uses all of his musical voices on piano to remake some of Beethoven’s most memorable works. There are strong blues, gospel, and jazz influences woven into familiar classical pieces. This recording demands full attention and will make you admire both creators. The story that Jon conveys through the music is like a journey into his past and how it has shaped his thinking. Bravo!

—Christopher, Director of Operations

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

From the publisher: “Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship…Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst? Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test.”

—Courtney, Assistant Director of Education

Cassandro written by Roger Ross Williams and David Teague

From Rotten Tomatoes: “Saúl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso, rises to international stardom after he creates the character Cassandro, the ‘Liberace of Lucha Libre.’ In the process, he upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life…Gael García Bernal steals hearts as the charismatic Cassandro in this feel-good biopic about a wrestler that triumphs in the macho world of Lucha Libre while embracing his true self.”

—Isabel, Storyteller

“Chrishona Hodges’s Life Sentence” by Elly Fishman

A well-written and heartbreaking piece about a mother’s struggle as her son faces the justice system. You can read the article here from Chicago Magazine’s January 2025 issue.

We hosted Fishman (pictured here) for a virtual program back in 2021 to discuss her book Refugee High: Coming of Age in America. You can watch that program on YouTube here, or listen to it on this episode of the AWM Author Talks podcast.

—Karie, Director of Marketing

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

From the publisher: “Jane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around. After a long, precarious stretch bouncing among sketchy rentals and sublets, she and her family are living in luxury for a year, house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles…Finally, some semblance of stability and success seems to be within her grasp. But things don’t work out quite as hoped. Desperate for a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her gaze to Hollywood. When she finagles a meeting with Hampton Ford, a hot producer with a major development deal at a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a ‘real writer,’ and together they begin to develop ‘the Jackie Robinson of biracial comedies.’ Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong. Funny, piercing, and page turning, Colored Television is Senna’s most on-the-pulse, ambitious, and rewarding novel yet.”

—Carol, Assistant Director of Development

Dorothy Parker in Hollywood by Gail Crowther

From the publisher: “The glamorous extravagances and devasting lows of her time in Hollywood are revealed as never before in this fresh new biography of Dorothy Parker—from leaving New York City to work on numerous classic screenplays such as the 1937 A Star Is Born to the devastation of alcoholism, a miscarriage, and her husband’s suicide. Parker’s involvement with anti-fascist and anti-racist groups, which led to her ultimate blacklisting, and her early work in the civil rights movement that inspired her to leave her entire estate to the NAACP are also explored as never before.”

We are excited to host author Gail Crowther for a virtual program to discuss her new book. Learn more and register for the livestream here.

—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager

Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narco-Trafficking and Culture in the US and Mexico by Oswaldo Zavala

From the publisher: “Through political and cultural analysis of representations of the so-called war on drugs, Oswaldo Zavala makes the case that the very terms we use to describe drug traffickers are a constructed subterfuge for the real narcos: politicians, corporations, and the military…Immigration has endured as a prevailing news topic, but it is a fixture of modern society in the neoliberal era; the future will be one of exile brought on by state violence and the plundering of our natural resources to sate capitalist greed…Translated into English by William Savinar, Drug Cartels Do Not Exist will be useful for journalists, political scientists, philosophers, and writers of any kind who wish to break down the constructed barriers—physical and mental—created by those in power around the reality of the Mexican drug trade.”

—Cassidy, Guest Services Manager

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

I thought Echo was wonderful: weird horror with a harrowing wilderness survival story embedded in it, as well as a great love letter to the gothic genre of literature if you’re into that sort of thing.

More from the publisher: “From international bestselling sensation Thomas Olde Heuvelt comes Echo, a thrilling descent into madness and obsession as one man confronts nature—and something even more ancient and evil answers back.”

—Hunter, Storyteller

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

From the publisher: “Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children’s bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past. This chilling novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.”

—Hunter, Storyteller

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

From the publisher: “Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gripping psychological drama concerns the Pyncheon family, a dynasty founded on pious theft, who live for generations under a dead man’s curse until their house is finally exorcised by love.”

I recently hosted a podcast episode about Hawthorne with our friends at The House of the Seven Gables, a National Historic Landmark in Salem, MA that was the real-world inspiration for Hawthorne’s novel and maintains his historic birthplace home. This episode is now available to stream here on the Nation of Writers podcast.

—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager

In That Number: One Woman’s March from the Streets of Protest to the Halls of Power (And Beyond) by Regan Burke

From the publisher: “A unique hybrid memoir, Regan Burke’s In That Number chronicles one woman’s struggle to find grace and peace amidst the chaos of politics and alcoholism. It’s an important public book from a longtime Democratic Party activist, one whose beliefs led her from protesting the Vietnam War at the Lincoln Memorial to working inside the White House…It’s also an intimate and revealing private memoir from a woman who spent a harrowing childhood being raised by shockingly dysfunctional parents…an entertaining and ultimately heartwarming journey from private schools to the psych ward, from hippie communal living to the corridors of power to the pews of church, and through the rooms of twelve-step recovery to the serenity of long-term sobriety.”

—Carol, Assistant Director of Development

My Life as a Cowboy by Hugh Timbrell

From the publisher: “Conor is 17. He lives with his mum in Croydon. He works at a leisure centre. He’s gay. Life is not what he expected, and he’s worried he might be, well, a loser. He dreams of moving away, of being noticed, of being a somebody. When he hears about an opportunity to perform on stage at the very questionable Croydon People’s Day, he hatches a plan to indulge his passion of Country Western dancing and show the world just how cool he is…In My Life as a Cowboy, Bruntwood Prize-longlisted playwright Hugo Timbrell’s hilarious and heart-warming story of friendship, courage and cowboy dance moves, these three unlikely teenagers learn what it really means to dance, to embrace your weird side, and to show up for your mates.”

—Matt, Community Engagement Manager

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

From the publisher: “In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she’s turning into a dog…As the mother’s symptoms intensify, and her temptation to give in to her new dog impulses peak, she struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity secret. Seeking a cure at the library, she discovers the mysterious academic tome which becomes her bible, A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography, and meets a group of mommies involved in a multilevel-marketing scheme who may also be more than what they seem. An outrageously original novel of ideas about art, power, and womanhood wrapped in a satirical fairy tale, Nightbitch will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. And you should. You should howl as much as you want.”

—Maya, Marketing & Creative Associate

Open Throat by Henry Hoke

From the publisher: “A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign… When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call ‘ellay.’ As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person, or become one? Henry Hoke’s Open Throat is a marvel of storytelling, a universal journey through a wondrous and menacing world recounted by a lovable mountain lion.”

—Maya, Marketing & Creative Associate

Rod Serling at 100: One Writer’s Acknowledgment by Joseph Dougherty

From the publisher: “The year 2024 marks the centenary of Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. Emmy-winning writer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars) picked this special anniversary to reflect on Serling and his contributions to television drama. An appreciation and exploration of the six-time Emmy-winning writer’s catalogue, Rod Serling at 100: One Writer’s Acknowledgment looks at some of Serling’s best known work and also some of his least acknowledged, inviting a new perspective on a master storyteller.”

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dougherty about Rod Serling’s for the latest episode of Nation of Writers. We were also joined by communications professor William Ressler, who teaches at Ithaca College, where Serling also taught. You can listen to this episode here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

—Nate, Content & Exhibits Manager

Satan’s Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker

From the publisher: “Communities throughout the United States were convulsed in the 1980s by accusations, often without a shred of serious evidence, that respectable men and women in their midst—many of them trusted preschool teachers—secretly gathered in far-reaching conspiracies to rape and terrorize children. In this powerful book, Debbie Nathan and Mike Snedeker examine the forces fueling this blind panic.”

—Isabel, Storyteller

Selected Poems of Jimmy Santiago Baca by Jimmy Santiago Baca

From the publisher: “Jimmy Santiago Baca has been writing as a mestizo (part Native American, part Mexican) and an outsider ever since he learned to read and write—in English—during a six-year Federal prison sentence when he was in his twenties. Drawing on his rich ethnic heritage and his life growing up in poverty in the Southwestern United States, Baca has a created a body of work which speaks to the disenfranchised by drawing on his experiences as a prisoner, a father, a poet, and by reflecting on the lush, and sometimes stark, landscape of the Rio Grande valley.”

—Isabel, Storyteller

Sonorous Present by Alex E. Chávez (album)

From Bandcamp: “An immersive poetic and musical passage, Alex E. Chávez’s debut album, Sonorous Present, extends sonic meditations on loss, migration, and mourning across America’s borderlands, as physical place and liminal space. What began as an improvised performance in 2019—inspired by the music and poetics of Chávez’s award-winning book Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño (Duke 2017)—has been reimagined as a studio album in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning producer Quetzal Flores.”

—Isabel, Storyteller

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

A pivotal, autobiographical book about the butch lesbian experience! The book is loosely based on the author’s own life as a Jewish, working class butch lesbian born in the mid-20th century. There are a lot of heavy and perhaps triggering moments, but that is to be expected in a book that highlights the lived experience of someone with various marginalized identities.

—Nat, Storyteller

The Voice and Other Stories by Seicho Matsumoto

From the publisher: “Six stories by Japan’s foremost detective writer, Seicho Matsumoto, as he offers us fresh glimpses into the workings of the criminal mind…These stories are masterpieces of dramatic setting and situational suspense. They are all the more absorbing because they concern ordinary people leading humdrum lives—a switchboard operator, a bank clerk, a bar hostess. Yet each is thrown by fate into a chance encounter with crime and violent death. As the characters reel about in a maelstrom of their own making, the reader finds himself pulled in, too, and is only released at the very last line.”

—Cassidy, Guest Services Manager

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl screenplay by Mark Burton, story by Nick Park and Mark Burton

The first Wallace and Gromit film in 19 years, Vengeance Most Fowl takes the beloved duo and forces them to contend with some modern day problems (and their old penguin enemy, Feathers McGraw). The film is of course great for kids, but anyone can find something to love in it.

—Nat, Storyteller