The best gift you can give is a book. There’s just no denying it.
Books are:
- Practical; easy to carry, kill time, transport you to magical dimensions.
- Intimate; they reveal themselves to you and in turn reveal you to yourself.
- Sensual; smell good, feel good, look good.
- Ecclectic; sci-fi and lo-fi, comic and horny, autofiction and automobile repair, oratory and auditory, self-help and self-destruction and self-indulgent, Marxist and Maoist, revolutionary and revelation, etc, etc.
What’s a cooler gift than a book though? A book by someone you know. I’m not just saying that because I’m someone you know who’s written books. It’s just a fact. It’s punk rock to slide a book into someone’s hands that they’ve never heard of before. It becomes a secret just for the two of you. And when the book blows up, you can brag about being a trendsetter.
don’t be boring
With that in mind, here’s a few books by my friends.
Beside Myself, Ashley Farmer—flash fiction beauties. I have an original, a most prized possession!
Boxcutters, John Chrostek—John is the master of the final line. These stories are fan-freaking-tastic!
Mari Murdock—Mari is one of my favorite creative minds. She has too many cool projects to list, just check out her goodreads page.
M O 月 N, Chengru He—playful, energetic, amazing poetry. Whenever I feel down about my own place in the world as a writer, I remind myself I was in a graduate program with Chengru. She’s an unparalleled genius!
The Reincarnations, Nathan Elias—Montag Press homie. These stories are a blast. Meditations, examinations, and ruminations on the stormy brilliance of living.
Gridlock, Brett Biebel—these sentences will melt your face. Glorious, snappy stories.
The Lengest Neoi, Stephanie Choi—seeing Stephanie’s work in an experimental forms class was when I first realized the folks in my MFA were serious fucking business.
In Transit, Nicholas Pierce—whenever I try to write sonnets I turn to Nick’s book. His control and comfort in the sonnet is otherworldly to me.
Avail, Erin O’Luanaigh—Erin wrote a sestina that fundamentally changed the way I understand poetry. Check her out!
Don’t be boring. Buy these books. Then buy them again and gift them to all your friends.
Michael Farfel 