JAC’s staff picks
Jacinta (she/they) has been wearing many hats at Lost City Books since mid-2022. You can often find them chatting loudly behind the counter, hosting Meet Cute on the second Tuesday of every month, or at home with her beloved four-legged son Baron. As expected, she has an interest in reading, creative writing, and buying more books than they have space for; Jac also recently finished her Master’s degree and fills her newfound free time with baking, board games, & ttrpgs, and wishing more customers would flirt with her.
FIFTY BEASTS TO BREAK YOUR HEART by Gennarose Nethercott
What is the most hideous thing you have ever nurtured? A collection of hazy, fever-like stories from folklorist-author GennaRose Nethercott, of which I am the exact target audience for. Short, gothic fairytales that linger long after you turn the page or close the book. This evocative, poetic, tender collection also contains the incredibly important element of two girls kissing behind a hot dog stand. Welcome to the Eternal Staircase that is life, love, and humanity – Watch Your Step.
WE LOVED IT ALL by Lydia Millet
“Language is the key to our redemption,” and in these pages, Lydia Millet helps take us there. From the Beginning to what comes after, her stunning prose blends between essay, memoir, and nature writing, all with a very poetic heart. It hurts, that much is true: it hits you in your gut and in your chest, but that’s the whole point. We were here. We hurt. We loved it all.
THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett
Hot damn is this a good book. THE TAINTED CUP features a unique and complex magic system, incredible world-building, and an addictive, tangled web of plots that center the bizarre investigator Ana Dolabra and her assistant Din. Dinios Kol is an engraver, or someone that has been magically altered to have a perfect memory, and Ana has the same eccentric + chaotic charm of Benoit Blanc from Knives Out – truly what else could you ask for from a fantastical whodunnit in which the victim died from having a literal tree grow out of their body?
GENTLEMEN CALLERS by Corinne Hex
An absolutely strange, kind of poetic, silly and sensual story from Belgian author Corinne Hex. Exactly what it says on the back of the box — a collection of erotic dreams our narrator has featuring different men. From Museum Guard to Gas Station Attendant to Young Priest 2, each encounter proves that you truly can make a euphemism out of anything. HMU if you’re trying to be the overheated tradesman to my fountain of running water.
BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood
If Ali has a million fans, I’m one of them. If Ali has one fan, I’m that one. If Ali has no fans, that means I’m dead. Dare I say her best yet – this gem of a paranormal romance features: a marriage of convenience between a vampire and an alpha werewolf; inter-species political drama; and the wildly underrated kink that is scenting.
A 10/10 detour from the steminist rom-com we’ve come to expect.
FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry
Without a doubt, Emily Henry has settled into her voice – it’s incredible the way that her skill, characters, and overall world & relationship building continues to age like a fine fucking wine. When her fiancé decides that what he actually wants is to marry his best friend Petra, our main character Daphne moves in with Petra’s ex-boyfriend, Miles Nowak. Forced proximity, and-they-were-roommates, and a love interest that is so Nick Miller coded? Giving this five stars is as easy as breathing and never did I think that another book would be fighting Beach Read for my #1 EH spot.