I Don't Hate It | Ten thousand
Hey there. It's the Friday of Labor Day weekend, so I'm not sure anyone is really there. Let's get to it.
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1. Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints has been adapted to film and recently released in theaters. I'm not saying you shouldn't see it—I probably will—but I am saying you should read the book first. Ten Thousand Saints is one of those atmospheric novels that grabs you from the opening scene and holds on tightly for 400 pages. You will read about the straight-edge scene in 1980s New York and when you're done you'll wonder why you hadn't read about it sooner. It's the story you didn't know you needed.
2. Firoozeh Dumas's Funny in Farsi is a very different story, this one autobiographical, of one family's move from Iran to the US in the early seventies. It's not a perfect memoir from a craft standpoint, but Dumas's prose allows you to appreciate the cultural necksnappers that come with emigration.
3. It's Labor Day, so my non-book-related recommendation is rest and relaxation. Thank your unions!
As always, art by Jen Deaderick.