Two \u201ctreat\u201d books, to close out Women\u2019s History Month. My work\u2019s focus has shifted to short stories and poems lately, so I read two books that I\u2019ve read before, but are meant to kick-start my story and poem writing. I\u2019m talking, of course, about The Girl In The Flammable Skirt <\/em>by Aimee Bender and Hecate Lochia<\/em> by Hoa Nguyen. <\/p> The Girl In The Flammable Skirt <\/strong><\/em>by Aimee Bender: <\/strong>man, I forgot how raw and alive this book is. Not raw in the sense that every sentence isn\u2019t perfectly polished. More like, every character is incurably horny. Sex in Aimee Bender books is never just sex, though\u2014I\u2019m not sure anyone\u2019s ever made sex more akin to venturing into the witch\u2019s house or answering a bridge troll\u2019s questions in a fairy tale as Aimee Bender. The title story is still in the pantheon of greatest short stories ever written, right up there with Saunders\u2019s \u201cSea Oak,\u201d Johnson\u2019s \u201cCar Crash While Hitchhiking,\u201d Kincaid\u2019s \u201cGirl,\u201d Davis\u2019s \u201cThe Fish,\u201d Fu\u2019s \u201c#ClimbingNation,\u201d or\u2014aw hell, I\u2019m ramblin again. Anyway, this book remains amazing, and even though it\u2019s got a 30th birthday coming up in a couple of years, not much feels dated. <\/p> Hecate Lochia<\/strong><\/em> by Hoa Nguyen: <\/strong>close to a perfect collection of poems. Each poem is the perfect length, for sure. Again, I love the leaps from parenting, to things her kids say, to politics, to mythology, to food, to the indignities of having a body. Every poem feels written on a notepad while Blue\u2019s Clues<\/em> plays in the background\u2014or, in my case, on the Docs app on my phone while the new version of Blue\u2019s Clues<\/em> plays in the background. I am definitely visiting the Wave Books table for more Hoa Nguyen today, if I haven\u2019t picked any up already. <\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to while you browse? There\u2019s a new Lazy & Entitled <\/em>podcast out (Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>)\u2014no guests this time, just Brendan and I debuting the podcast\u2019s \u201cwe wanna talk about movies\u201d segment, Five-Act Structure. We also give a special shoutout to video store workers, bookstore workers, record store workers, and anyone else who gets paid minimum page for a job people who make six figures always think \u201cmust be so sick.\u201d If you don\u2019t want a podcast, I am concerned that you didn\u2019t listen to Gully Boys when I said to on Wednesday. Let\u2019s re-up Gully Boys. <\/p> And hey, all the links this week are books coming out around nowish that you should either buy or preorder. <\/p>![\"The](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/1749582f-3e49-4eb1-878e-dc8e1d936b43_4030x2719.heic\")
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