Let’s talk about the dreadful state of your bookshelves. You need to update. Gone Girl came out like a hundred years ago. I’m not telling you that you have to read anything, but you do need to buy some new books. Lucky for you, I am going to tell you what to buy over the course of the next few weeks. Let’s start with Miranda July’s The First Bad Man: A Novel. Place this book on your shelf and you will look smart (intelligent) and smart (stylish). I mean, can you go wrong with a black-and-white cover? No, you cannot.
But I do urge you to actually read this book. People tend to describe my someday-best-friend Miranda as “quirky.” That’s some bull. Her stories are so wonderful and unexpected–but I don’t find them precious in any way. (When you have a few minutes, please listen to Parker Posey’s reading of “The Swim Team.”) Anyway, if someone put a gun to my head and forced me to say what The First Bad Man is about, I suppose I would say it’s about one woman’s quest to become a mother. But this novel covers so many topics—friendship, sexuality, love, aging, violence, consent, identity—but, you guys, this book is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. So please read it, then contact me and/or Ryan (I begged her to read it, too), and then give it some prominence on your shelf.
