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Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of the 2023 memoir "Sink," which chronicles his childhood and the solace he found in geek culture. His debut novel, "God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer," follows an Iraq War vet turned EMS worker in North Philadelphia.
"or, on being the other woman" by Simone White (2022)
These experiments in lyric poetry raise the bar for the syntactically possible — an amalgamation of bluntness, high theory, rage, subtlety, and feminist inquiry that performs space-clearing gestures in your mind long after you put the book down. I'm still striving to be "unsentimental and intimate" with everyone; it is not easy. Buy it here.
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"Potted Meat" by Steven Dunn (2016)
A slim book told in deft fragments straight out of southern West Virginia. Incredibly underrated with its high precision of language and the risks Dunn takes in detailing racialized intimacy and class violence with heart and humor. Buy it here.
"Year of the Rat" by Marc Anthony Richardson (2016)
This no-bullshit Philly realist novel about an artist caring for his sick mother contains some of my favorite, most visceral sentences of all time. Buy it here.
"Hurricane Season" by Fernanda Melchor (2017)
Fernanda Melchor does not play. This circuitous novel is born from incidents that occurred during Melchor's time as a journalist in and around Veracruz, Mexico. You can hear the region's black ancestry in the voices of her characters, even as Melchor reconfigures the murder mystery in a slew of voice-driven details that get better on every read. Buy it here.
"Minor Detail" by Adania Shibli (2017)
Shibli's novel, a National Book Award finalist, unfolds in two distinct sections. The first follows Israeli soldiers during the 1949 Nakba who rape and murder a girl, while the second follows a present-day Palestinian academic who can't help but transgress borders — both mental and physical. Throughout, Shibli changes styles from the flat internalizations of colonial violence to the infinite neurosis and social constrictions brought on as it persists. Buy it here.
"Mosquito" by Gayl Jones (1999)
This novel follows Mosquito, a black woman truck driver, and her branching streams of thought in black vernacular concerning politics, poststructuralism, love, the generalized antagonisms of the everyday, and — what I enjoy more every time I return to this book — her friends. Mosquito's homegirls Monkey Bread and Delgadina are consistently unsentimental thought partners as she navigates an incredibly hostile, hilarious world. Buy it here.
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Gen Z in Los Angeles, the end of ‘Stranger Things’ and a new mystery from the creator of ‘Breaking Bad’ in November TVthe week recommends This month's new television releases include ‘I Love L.A.,’ ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Pluribus’
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‘Security is no longer a function only of missiles and fighter jets’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
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2 MLB pitchers charged with rigging throws for betsSpeed Read Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been indicted
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6 homes with fall foliagefeature An autumnal orange Craftsman, a renovated Greek Revival church and an estate with an orchard
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Bugonia: ‘deranged, extreme and explosively enjoyable’Talking Point Yorgos Lanthimos’ film stars Emma Stone as a CEO who is kidnapped and accused of being an alien
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The Revolutionists: a ‘superb and monumental’ bookThe Week Recommends Jason Burke ‘epic’ account of the plane hijackings and kidnappings carried out by extremists in the 1970s
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Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
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Book reviews: ‘Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity’ and ‘Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice’feature An examination of humanity in the face of “the Machine” and a posthumous memoir from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who recently died by suicide
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The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago
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Salted caramel and chocolate tart recipeThe Week Recommends Delicious dessert can be made with any biscuits you fancy
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6 trailside homes for hikersFeature Featuring a roof deck with skyline views in California and a home with access to private trails in Montana
