I love giving people recommendations and notes on the infinite amount of content I consume. I sometimes write reviews or notes on letterboxd and musicboard. And, because bookshelf.website is down, here is my replacement list of books + other recommendations… Please feel free to send me any rec my way + I love it when people tell me about a rec they really liked!!

written

books where each sentence is a painting strung up in a gallery (my strongest recs)

  • Symphony for the City of the Dead, by M.T. Anderson
  • Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
  • The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
  • A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
  • Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, by David Eagleman
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
  • How Much of These Hills is Gold, C. Pam Zhang
  • Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
  • The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
  • Notes from Underground, by Dostoyevsky
  • The Tale of Desperaux, by Kate DiCamillo
  • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
  • Bluets, by Maggie Nelson
  • The Book of Disquiet, by Fernando Pessoa
  • Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder
  • The Little Prince
  • No Exit, by Sartre
  • Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
  • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
  • A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
  • Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
  • Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
  • Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
  • Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
  • The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
  • There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm

nonfiction masterpieces/recs

  • The Science of Storytelling, by Will Storr
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed
  • Humble Pi, by Matt Parker
  • Games: Agency as Art, by C. Thi Nguyen
  • Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande (really topical in areas of elderly care and longevity)
  • The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal
  • I Am a Strange Loop, by Douglas Hofstadter
  • Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Brain, by Douglas Hofstadter (note: still unfinished)
  • The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman
  • Fear and Trembling, by Soren Kierkegaard
  • When Breath becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
  • Utilitarianism: For and Against, by J.J.C. Smart
  • Disability Visibility, by Alice Wong
  • Design Justice, by Sasha Constanza-Chock
  • The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
  • Innovators, by Walter Isaacson

other book recs

  • Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
  • 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, by Jules Verne
  • Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
  • Moonglow, by Michael Chabon
  • Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
  • Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (did you know it’s a trilogy? and it’s actually pretty good?)
  • Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
  • Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  • The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
  • Night, by Elie Wiesel
  • Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
  • I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne
  • 100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • A Secret History, by Donna Tartt
  • Ender’s Game (and the next 2-ish books), by Orson Scott Card
  • The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Orczy Emmuska
  • The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe
  • Last Comes the Raven, by Italo Calvino
  • The Office of Historical Corrections, by Danielle Evans
  • Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin
  • 1984, by Orwell
  • The Stranger, by Albert Camus
  • The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon

graphic novels

  • The Wicked + the Divine
  • Saga
  • Watchmen
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths
  • V for Vendetta
  • Batman: Hush
  • Nimona
  • I was their American Dream

music

find my music reviews on musicboard.

recommended playlists by yours truly:

best albums of all time

find the musicboard (and more comprehensive) list for this here.

  • Melodrama, by Lorde
  • Submarine, by The Marias
  • Pulsar, by L’imperatrice
  • Bleachers, by Bleachers
  • The Last Goodbye, by ODESZA
  • empathogen, by WILLOW
  • Empire Central, by Snarky Puppy
  • How to Build an Ocean: Instructions, by Bears in Trees
  • Unreal Unearth, by Hozier
  • Five Seconds Flat, by Lizzy McAlpine
  • MINT JAMS(Live), by Casiopea
  • Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, by Kendrick Lamar
  • BRAT, by Charli xcx
  • The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, by Mitski
  • Dance Fever, by Florence + the Machine
  • Luv(six) Heaxology, by Nujabes
  • Good Morning It’s Now Tomorrow, by Matt Maltese
  • Nothing Happens, by Wallows
  • Good Faith, by Madeon
  • Love Hate Music Box, by Rainbow Kitten Surprise
  • Further Joy, by the Regrettes
  • Hyperdrama, by Justice
  • 22, A Million, by Bon Iver
  • Random Access Memories, by Daft Punk
  • Dopamine, by BØRNS
  • Carrie & Lowell, by Sufjan Stevens
  • Loss of Life, by MGMT
  • I Love You So F***ing Much, by Glass Animals
  • God Said No, by Omar Apollo
  • Wild EP, by The Analog Affair
  • M3LL155X, by FKA Twigs
  • Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, by M83
  • Citrona, by Flipturn

other miscellany

films i like (check out my letterboxd…)

  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • A Silent Voice
  • Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse (whole series)
  • The Dark Night (+ the whole nolan-verse)
  • Synecdoche, New York
  • Stalker (1979)
  • Kinds of Kindness
  • Challengers

blogs/magazines you should read too

  • ava bookbear express
  • rayne fisher-quann
  • sasha chapin
  • libraries for the future
  • overcoming bias
  • works in progress
  • asterisk mag
  • asimov press
  • freddie deboer
  • gwern
  • sam kriss

to reads: (top of reading list)

  • White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
  • The Overstory, by Richard Powers