Best books…chosen
Linguist Amanda Montell is the creator of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult and the author of Cultish and Wordslut. Her new book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, explores the cognitive biases running rampant in today’s information age.
Stiff by Mary Roach (2003). I fell in love with Mary Roach’s witty, hypercurious, totally singular science writing thanks to this macabre (but not grotesque) nonfiction exploration of dead bodies. I owe so much of my voice as a writer—including the silly footnotes in my books—to Roach, whose delightful diction has breathed life into topics from space travel to digestion.
Word by Word by Kory Stamper (2017). Written by a career lexicographer with an infectious love of the English language, this ode to the dictionary is full of fun facts for linguistics lovers, as well as intimate stories that nerds of all stripes can enjoy. It’s a cozy book that will make you appreciate dictionary entries with newfound wonder.
Noise by Daniel Kahneman et al. (2021). Kahneman’s books belong in any skeptic’s starter pack, including this one. The Nobel-winning psychologist just passed away at 90 after devoting his life to studying human decision-making, and his work on our irrationality is more urgent than ever. Though we humans aren’t very good at changing other people’s minds, we have much better luck changing our own.
Everything/Nothing/Someone by Alice Carrière (2023). Carrière is the daughter of an illustrious but aloof New York painter and a movie star with such boundary issues that you wonder,“Was this child abuse, or is he just European?” Carrière’s memoir describes her romantic but isolated West Village childhood, and a 15-year roller coaster of psychiatric hospitalization, overprescription, drug abuse, and self-destruction, in prose that’s gorgeous, timeless, and wise.
Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley (2024). Crosley is the writer who made me feel like I could write books one day. What a gift to read her intimate elegy to her best friend, who died by suicide. Crosley is well-known for her humor, which I appreciate even more in the context of such vulnerable solemnity.
All Fours by Miranda July (2024). I am in awe of Miranda July’s mind. Her forthcoming novel deals with aging and desire while chronicling the auto-fictional story of a 45-year-old semi-famous artist who embarks on a cross-country road trip that’s quickly derailed. It’s peculiar, gripping, saucy, heartbreaking...everything July does best.