Marketing to GenZ

For you? Something with a lot of pictures.

I'm reading The Poisoned City right now, about the Flint water crisis, and it's as rage-inducing as you would expect. The Best American Short Stories anthologies will never steer you wrong, even the bad ones like the Junot Diaz one have enough worthwhile selections in them to make it worth your time if not your money (I assume you're going to the library). It's the best downtime reading.

Earlier this year I read Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein (Chicago guy!), about Barry Goldwater, the '64 election, and the modern conservative moment he spawned. Outstanding book, highly instructive, but I'm not gonna lie, it took me a very long time to hack through it. Perlstein is like Robert Caro in that if you ask him what he had for lunch, he will tell you that it all began when Mesopotamian cultures first learned to cultivate grain, but this is a net positive.

On the novel side, I read Normal People by Sally Rooney in about two days this summer. It's basically ratcheted-up YA lit, but I still liked it a lot. If there's a fatal flaw, it's that Rooney can't hide her brushstrokes in writing a male lead: the guy is so clearly a pastiche of every guy she has ever dated and ultimately been disappointed by, such that the finished character is wildly incoherent and unrecognizable as a guy in his late teens/early twenties. He's somehow the star soccer player at his high school (or whatever you call it in Ireland) who is also a devoted Marxist who is also the most popular student who is also able to ace all his tests with ease with no interest in the subject matter just because he did the reading who is also a tortured literary genius who yearns to write short stories but hates the publishing world because everyone is so fake. I dunno, I went to a small-ish high school where everyone necessarily had to wear a lot of hats at once, but I don't think any of us ever checked that many boxes at once. Our devoted Marxists were anything but extremely popular, of that much I can assure you. But hey, for how long have male novelists struggled to write women? Call it equality.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher(First of the Dresden Files)

Whatever Tall Midget isn’t reading.

Otherwise, Devil in the White City is a good read if you’re into non-fiction.

That novel sounds awful imo(not really a YA guy from what I can tell) but I’ll take a look at the other two.

Any Jack Reacher book by Lee Child. Great action and easy reads and you don't have to read them in any particular order. As an ex-military guy you will love them.

It's pretty good: the most basic synopsis is that it's about a working-class guy who mom cleans for an upper-class girl, and how their friendship expands and contracts around high school graduation and college. The guy is one of the most loathsome characters I've read in a while. All I wanted to do was hit him really hard over and over.

I changed oil and fixed brakes on 5 ton trucks while being classified as an electrician when I was in the army so not sure I’ll identify a lot but I’ve heard those books are good.

Glad to see you survived last night. Water and Advil must have done wonders.

Anyway, I’m not surprised you suggested a picture book. I didn’t expect more.

Fat ass factory worker living in some shitty apartment is a scholar now. If I need a patriot titted loser with no education to discuss something, I’ll find you passed out somewhere. Otherwise shut up you fat fuck loser.

Fat ass factory worker living in some shitty apartment is a scholar now. If I need a patriot titted loser with no education to discuss something, I’ll find you passed out somewhere. Otherwise shut up you fat fuck loser.

I missed this WFR vs FF thing.

Ruffcorn is quite the piece of work.

FF you better be careful or he will start PMing you really idiotic things