Non-Fiction Gift Guide

plus very exciting personal announcement <3

The last few years, I have been on a serious non-fiction tear—memoirs, biographies, essays, histories. Here are three non-fiction titles that I think are perfect presents for yourself or someone you love.

I love Zadie Smith. I love her novels, I love her essays, I love her clothes, I love the sound of her voice. If you’re wondering if I have been an absolute freak every time I’ve been in the same room with Zadie, congratulations, yes, you’re right, I have. Listen, some people are just too smart for me to hang with, and too cool, and that’s okay. The beauty of books is that you can choose to hang out with the coolest people alive and they can’t laugh you out of the room! (Zadie would never laugh someone out of the room, to be clear.) Click here to buy Dead and Alive. (Also let’s just take a minute for that title and this book jacket, imagine being cool and gorgeous enough that you just put the BACK of your HEAD on your book jacket. I bow down.)

We hosted Margaret Atwood last week and it was one of the highlights of my year. Her memoir, Book of Lives, is a mind-blower. Her childhood in the Canadian wilderness with a zoologist father, her youth as a nature counselor, her beginnings as a poet, the romantic entanglements of Toronto in the 1960s!!! Her farm life, her marriage, her work. I was beside myself with affection and admiration. You will be, too. That’s a badass motherfucker right there.

Right now I am listening to the audiobook of The Uncool, Cameron Crowe’s memoir. If you enjoyed Almost Famous, you will love this book. If you love music—any kind of music!—you will love this book. I personally do not care for the 70s rockers that Crowe adores, but I am a fan at heart, and I love how much he loves them. It really does feel like magic, how he ends up in the room with all his heroes, earning their trust. It’s not like my book at all, except for all the ways that it is. Loving something is a powerful thing. It’s an amazing book, and an amazing life. I will say, I think it’s weird that he doesn’t mention the incredible Nancy Wilson who he was married to for more than 20 years even one time, but I guess the book pretty much stops before he met her? That’s weird. But the book is about his early life, and so maybe we can forgive a memoirist his blinders. Or maybe in their divorce agreement, Nancy took one look at Almost Famous and was like, you are never allowed to write about me, bub. Who knows!

ALSO!

Remember when I said I would have exciting gossip again? I don’t know if this counts as gossip but it DOES count as a major personal accomplishment. Our Montague Street store is a few doors down from a deli called Lassen + Hennings. Lassens (as we call it) has been there since 1949, and I personally started patronizing them in the 90s, when I was in high school. They make sandwiches and have delicious baked goods and several shelves of prepared foods.

A few months ago, Lassens started selling a salad called the Jennifer Aniston. What the absolute hell, I thought. I don’t have anything against Jennifer Aniston, but I was confused. Some of my youthful staff told me that it had something to do with TikTok. I googled, and sure enough, a million things popped up. It’s fine. Quinoa is never as exciting as you want it to be. I went up to my friend Danny, the manager at Lassens, and said, why does Jennifer Aniston have a salad? I’m in here 12 times a day! I should have a salad.

And sweet Danny, angel that he is, said okay.

Here’s what’s in my salad: brown rice, kale, tofu, pepitas, cherry tomatoes, pickled red onion, feta, and a lemon tahini dressing. It is delicious. Good and good for you. I have never been so proud.

Lassen and Hennings is located at 114 Montague Street, in Brooklyn Heights. Tell them I sent you! (I also recommend the sandwiches and the cakes and the cookies and most of all, the people.)

In short: bullying works! Eat more salads! <3