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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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Metaverse: Zuckerberg quits his virtual obsessionFeature The tech mogul’s vision for virtual worlds inhabited by millions of users was clearly a flop
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Frank Gehry: the architect who made buildings flow like waterFeature The revered building master died at the age of 96
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Is MAGA melting down?Today's Big Question Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Laura Loomer and more are feuding
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Frank Gehry: the architect who made buildings flow like water
Feature The revered building master died at the age of 96
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6 lovely barn homesFeature Featuring a New Jersey homestead on 63 acres and California property with a silo watchtower
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Film reviews: ‘Marty Supreme’ and ‘Is This Thing On?’Feature A born grifter chases his table tennis dreams and a dad turns to stand-up to fight off heartbreak
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Heavenly spectacle in the wilds of CanadaThe Week Recommends ‘Mind-bending’ outpost for spotting animals – and the northern lights
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It Was Just an Accident: a ‘striking’ attack on the Iranian regimeThe Week Recommends Jafar Panahi’s furious Palme d’Or-winning revenge thriller was made in secret
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Singin’ in the Rain: fun Christmas show is ‘pure bottled sunshine’The Week Recommends Raz Shaw’s take on the classic musical is ‘gloriously cheering’
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Holbein: ‘a superb and groundbreaking biography’The Week Recommends Elizabeth Goldring’s ‘definitive account’ brings the German artist ‘vividly to life’
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The Sound of Music: a ‘richly entertaining’ festive treatThe Week Recommends Nikolai Foster’s captivating and beautifully designed revival ‘ripples with feeling’
