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reading this right after all my puny sorrows was kind of weird, honestly. kind of a hall of mirrors. it felt like the warmup novel to AMPS, but was actually written a number of years after—the author is turning the same events over into different stories to different ends. this work is more lighthearted, an easy read. I like getting to see authors work through their own shit.

as always, I love michael deforge's work. let us all eat from the universal worm

The author seems to print runs of these in 25-100 copies, each edition with a different cover, which seems like a cool way to run a small press publication. I read the 37th, picked up at the Wine and Rock Shop in Yucca Valley (referenced, fittingly, in the book). I think the main audience of this book is folks visiting who want to nod along with the surface social dynamics described and be able to say “hey I know that place!” while reading. So, me, in this specific moment. It’s fun, would recommend if you see it in a shop while visiting Joshua Tree, but pick up Desert Oracle, too.

LA art world in the 70s -> life crisis -> drinking mezcal in small towns in Oaxaca -> growing del maguey mezcal. a brand promo book for sure, but I also learned a lot about mezcal production and some about small town Mexico across the years. plus has a real LA / artist freewheeling memoir feel that I'm a sucker for

like everything michael deforge writes I love it. this one’s a collection of shorts, all delightful. I want to share the last one with my team at work (at some point protagonist falls in and out of love with “the public”) but I’ll probably not

interesting and multifaceted sociological study of the social dynamics and labor that goes into NYC VIP clubs, including motivations of each of the actors (girls/models, promoters, and to a more limited extent clients). reminds me of tressie mcmillan cottom’s writing on the hustle economy, in that it digs into why “girls” would want to participate in such a clearly exploitative system, which I think is both more satisfying and says something about all of our lives under late capitalism. four stars because it gets a little repetitive in that common academic way, but recommend

I very much agree with @callan's review. encourage folks to join the maintainer's email list if this book is of interest to you; interesting things come through often! themaintainers.org/community/

a collection of essays weaving together magic, whiteness, indigeneity and colonization, the pacific northwest, domestic violence and living and loving through ptsd, alcohol and sobriety, red dead redemption 2. beautiful, excited to dig into some of the footnotes (esp about indigenous stories and their relationship to natural phenomena, like the Salish stories of historic Seattle earthquakes along a fault caused by serpent a'yahos: www.nature.com/articles/news050711-7)

this book delivers what it promises but was more deeply researched and expansive than I expected—rolls in labor history, ones relationship to work, social programs, etc, to paint a picture of a cultivated and toxic modern relationship to work. was a concrete way to tie in theory, history, and work malaise, though I lost a bit of interest toward the end and petered out about 3/4 of the way through