Spring Reading, 2017

This book delivered exactly what I hoped for from the main creative forces behind Broken Lizard. There are about as many “colorful” jokes as one might imagine, including hilarious misadventures with sex, drugs and the comedy high life. But those jokes are very funny, and his writing is honest, engaging and full of good advice about film, comedy, and just living. 

Check it out, right meow. - Jax

My favorite thing about this book is that it leaves you wanting to read more; full of literary references and name-dropping galore! A biography that’s more adventure than simply a book of facts, Hemingway and Dos Passos, saving lives to great effect. Two literary giants inspired by wartime woes, dodging bullets while their writing skills grow. It’s a quick read and lot’s fun, especially if you're like me and into WWI. - Ashley

At long last, a book about the A’s! And not just any A’s, but the rowdy championship team of the 1970’s. From the drama behind the scenes and on the field to the mustaches and garish uniforms, Turbow brings the larger than life personalities of the team to life while charting their rise and fall, making this a rollicking ride through one of the most entertaining team’s baseball has ever boasted. - Flannery

I’m pretty sure Alyssa Mastromonaco is my new best friend and, omg, what a dynamic bestie to have! By age 35, Alyssa was serving as Deputy Chief of Staff to Obama and her memoir romps through that experience as well as her life path getting there. Although I came for the nostalgia and much needed escape, I stayed for her humor, intelligence, and inspiring message which was conveyed not so much as manifesto but by example—hilarious, hardworking example. - Melinda

If you don’t know about The Moth yet or haven’t been obsessively listening to The Moth Radio Hour—where have you been? Welcome to the legendary live storytelling event that showcases the transformative power of empathy, deep listening, and community. True tales as diverse as you can imagine (told by astronauts, refugees, moms, and celebrities), now in print, that might even give you a spark of hope for this stormy world. - Julia

Rebecca Romney, rare-book specialist on Pawn Stars, serves up an always spicy—and sometimes scary—collection of stories about books, book people, and book making, including words of wisdom such as “everything’s worse with chlamydia” and “you know you’re involved in a snobby movement when printing Shakespeare is considered selling out.” Gutenberg, Mercator (of map-making fame), Benjamin Franklin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Dickens all get amazing, and quite often appalling, chapters. - Dave

Anne Lamott wants us to start living like we value forgiveness and humility more than we value being right and winning. Unlikely in these divisive times, you say? Yet Hallelujah Anyway makes a reasonable case that we can, and should, start within our personal lives, weaving lofty spiritual wisdom with a dose of cynicism and silliness. In true Lamott fashion, even the God-talk isn’t dogmatic, but resonates as inspiring and relevant. - Julia

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favorite writers and her new book only solidifies that. In Dear Ijeawele, she offers advice to her friend on raising her child to be a feminist in fifteen suggestions. Adichie is passionate and eloquent in her delivery, making you feel as if she’s talking to you personally. - Karena

The first of the two pieces collected here is a draft of an essay that traces a road trip Didion took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, through the south in 1970. The second is a series of “California Notes” which she recorded for an assignment for Rolling Stone (that she never completed) on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. She later expanded them to include her thoughts about San Francisco, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento, and published it as part of her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From. If you’re a Didion fanatic, as I am, you’ll be gobbling this up. - Rico

I know what you’re thinking: “Another book about Nazi Germany? What could that possible add to our knowledge?” One word: drugs. So. Many. Drugs. This is no sensationalist story, but rather a thoroughly researched examination of the integral role drugs played in the rise and fall of the Third Reich—from the meth that fueled the troops to Hitler’s favorite cocktail of drugs, this book ensures that you will never look at the Third Reich the same way again. - Flannery