jODIE’s staff picks!
Jodie (she/her) is the Inventory/Shipping/Receiving Assistant and has been with Lost City Books since March 2023. Perry first discovered her rummaging around in the alley looking for scrap metal, and he thought that those skills would be transferable to the job of going through boxes of used books to list on our eBay store. Besides finding cool pieces of metal and hoarding them like a crow, she also likes to read books about history, politics, and religion. She also loves reading (and writing!) silly little comics.
THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS by Ruth Ozeki
I truly cannot recommend and praise this book enough. It’s an incredibly compassionate novel that teaches so much, while also being so fun and rewarding to read, with its devastating lows & beautiful, redemptive highs. If you’ve experienced trauma, complex mental health issues, loneliness & isolation, or a disordered relationship with accumulating possessions, you need to read this book. & This Book needs you to read it too ;)
THE IRON CAGE by Rashid Khalidi
There is no such thing as a neutral or unbiased telling of history, nor should it even be something we covet to be honest, BUT this book does a great job of laying out some real facts from very accessible sources about what went wrong for the Palestinians. He is also impressively careful about not filling 9in gaps where no documented evidence is available, which demonstrates incredible integrity & makes me trust this work quite a bit.
WE WANT FREEDOM: A LIFE IN THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY by Mumia Abu-Jamal
An absolutely one-of-a-kind journalist and historian is Mumia Abu-Jamal, and with this one he gives an incredibly detailed & narratively compelling history of The Black Panther Party, from its rise as an organization of numerous chapters focused on direct, on the ground defense/mutual aid/political education for black people in cities across the US, to its fall after being sabotaged by government and police meddling. Really, whether or not you decide to read this one, I urge you to learn about Mumia & his unjust incarceration that continues to this day. Freedom for Mumia & All Political Prisoners!
THE ESSENTIAL DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR by Alison Bechdel
Everyone knows Fun Home (for good reason, it’s great!), but before that, Alison Bechdel spent literally 25 years writing DTWOF, and she really gives you a set of characters who grow & change & fuck up & learn, to an insanely real and immersive degree. As a trans woman and lesbian who didn’t know a lot of queer lit until well into adulthood, this was a real “where has this been all my life??” type read. Also, as a comics artist with ADHD, this one had me like “...How the hell did she stick to writing this for so long?!?”
RINGMASTER: VINCE MCMAHON AND THE UNMAKING OF AMERICA by Josie Reisman
You don’t even have to be a wrestling fan to gain something from this book. Basically, the growth of the WWE & McMahon wealth came at the expense of real people’s real lives… Nothin’ fake about the intrinsic violence of capitalism. The other cool thing about this book is that she draws from & contributes to real history and serious reporting about pro wrestling, the most amazing & horrible artform that most people don’t take very seriously at all.
THE FAGGOTS & THEIR FRIENDS BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS by Larry Mitchell
In this current moment of reactionary attacks on queer and trans people, it makes you realize that in many ways, acceptance of us is conditional. This books celebrates the communities we can build ourselves, and the beauty of being a radical and a freak! We should all live life unconcerned with the repression & bigotry of patriarchal society. And this book is also such fun little fairytale prose poetry with some incredible drawings throughout. I also named my cats after a couple of the characters. Ask me which ones!