Remembering Brazenhead Books
One of NYC’s best truly hidden book stores.
Wow. This just really brought me back to the mid 2010s era of exploring NYC.
I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Brazenhead Books a long time ago. The pseudo-bookstore, illegally run from inside an apartment owned by Michael Seidenberg on East 84th St. You would go to an unassuming normal NYC apartment building, take the elevator up, and enter a slightly cracked door in a hallway to the sights of books stacked at every turn. It was just wonderful.
Michael was often there co-leading a talk or a discussion, but also acting as the sole employee and cashier. Books had prices, but they were never set in stone. His apartment was one of the most unique book stores I’ve ever been to. It was eventually shut down and Michael “retired” elsewhere and eventually passed away in 2019.
What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms
A dissection of America through a mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018.
I’ve had a pretty grim feeling about the United States lately and reading this book certainly does not make it better. I just finished What We’ve Become by Jonathan M. Metzl which frames the US gun debate and culture through the lens of the 2018 mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House.
Nearly every chapter of this book is just a heartbreaking peek into the ripple effects of guns in our lives; The lives lost, the families ruined, and the incredible inaction taking place at every government level to curb mass shootings in the United States.
The situation since this book was published has only seemed to get worse in my opinion. Just a truly sad look at the state of the country in contrast to the efforts of other power-nations curbing this threat of guns.
The Hundreds coffee table book
New book for the new house?
Somehow in 2020 I missed the announcement of this coffee table book from The Hundreds. I wonder what was going on then…
Anyway, the book chronicles the journey of one of streetwear’s most prominent brands from its founding in 2003 to about 2020. The brand is still around, but has recently closed their last physical store on Fairfax. I was very sad to see this store go as it was ground zero for a lot of my 20’s while I was living and traveling to Los Angeles.
The 2nd edition of this book is now out and available for $59. A nice little walk down memory lane for somebody like me, and a neat coffee table book for design nerds and streetwear aficionados.
In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Incredible good read that parallels our time in the US today.
Wow. I just finished In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson and it at times felt like a parallel world of what is currently happening in the United States. I’ve never read Larson’s other books before but I have heard great things about how he manages to weave true stories of history with great storytelling.
In The Garden of Beasts is a slow-boil recollection of one American family’s journey as ambassadors in Germany during the rise of the Hitler regime. It recounts the horror of realizing that the general public did not really see Hitler as that bad of a guy, but rather just a sorta-crazy person who can’t possibly ever take control. Hitler’s rise to power was not immediate and in fact was often dismissed by people as sensational news (sounds like what the US is doing now). As a reader, I couldn’t help but see the events of history mirroring what is happening today in the US.
Dora, Yerkwood, Walker County, Alabama
The incredible book Dora, Yerkwood, Walker County, Alabama by Fumi Nagasaka is currently on sale at Amazon for $44. The book follows some incredible characters down in rural Alabama during the 2016 US Presidential election and shortly after. It’s a road-trip sort of book with amazing portraits of the people in that community. Pick it up today!
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
An incredible book about the problems in the United States.
I just finished this book called Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. It is a heavy topic, one that deals with race, cultures, customs, and laws that permeate every single facet of American life today. I knew reading the promo for this book that I’d find some connection to how modern politics have played out in the real world (the 2nd rise of Trumpism), but I had no idea that it would be so clearly paralleled with the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.
Reading this book will forever change the way you look at people here in the United States, and more importantly, hopefully better understand the root of the problems we have as a society. As resources become scarce (eggs?!) and divisions become more extreme (cars?! bikes?!), it’s important to understand how it’s not always a race issue but rather a caste issue.
I know it’s early in the year, but I can tell already this will be one of my favorite books of 2025. Go pick it up!
How humans use a ping-pong table
The everyday uses of the same object.
TTP is a fantastic book by Hayahisa Tomiyasu photographing the various ways people make use of a humble ping-pong table outside of his dorm room window in the German city of Leipzig.
The camera, seemingly fixed on a tripod, shows the table being used as a prop, as a seat, as a meeting place, and even a tanning bed among other creative uses.
“The You You Are” book from Severance is now actually available to buy
Dr. Ricken’s “The You You Are” from Severance is now available to read for real!
The formerly fictional book from the Apple TV show Severance, “The You You Are” is now a real thing and you can buy a copy on Apple Books.
Unlike the TV show however, it looks like the book is only 39 pages, so Dr. Ricken’s wise words seems to be quite abridged in this real life version.
It’s also available as an audiobook.
Both the book and the audiobook are free.