The Nineties rock memoir I’ve been waiting for: In Even the Good Girls Will Cry, Melissa Auf Der Maur, the badass bassist of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, recounts her hippie upbringing, how she joined Courtney Love’s band at 22 – four months after Kurt Cobain’s death – and all the other highs and lows of the last truly analog decade. – Music & Culture Editor Carys Anderson

I’m collapsing, contentedly, into senescence. So I’ve begun listening to audiobooks, mostly things I’ve already read. I recently enjoyed Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Pros: giants eating people, bronze-tipped arrows, the wine dark sea. Cons: misogyny, bragging. Now I’m onto Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Pros: desert landscapes, the Judge. Cons: cartoonish violence, adjectives. – Staff writer Brant Bingamon

Roberto Calasso’s The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. My life has gone through some growing-out-of-your-old-container transformational changes these past few months, so I’ve veered towards the philosophical. Calasso’s essayistic, personal approach to myth and metamorphosis has been a helpful companion. “Live many lives” and “die many deaths,” yeah, I can do that. – Publisher Cassidy Frazier

I recently finished Maggie O’Farrell’s 2013 novel Instructions for a Heatwave while sitting out on my apartment balcony, feet propped up, sweating profusely in soupy Texas summer air. But I barely noticed, wonderfully far flung to an island town in Ireland where a trio of troubled siblings search for their disappeared father. In the middle of the sweltering 1976 heatwave, he had stepped out to buy a newspaper and never came back. – Staff writer Sammie Seamon

I deal with my insomnia by drifting off to nonfiction audiobooks, preferably delivered with a plummy British accent. However, I’ve been enjoying Peep Show comedian David Mitchell’s Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens so much, it’s keeping me up all hours. His witty, sweary historical survey is genuinely informative; but also, and maybe more importantly, Mitchell will call a monarchical wanker out when he sees one. (Spoiler: Mostly wankers here.)  – Editor Kimberley Jones    

I’m nearly finished with Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash, a recommendation from my local bookslingers over at First Light Books. Loving the writing style, complicated family dynamics, and “gnat” Easter eggs (iykyk). Next up is My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, which I really should have picked up when I was traveling to Italy last month, but better late than never! – Associate Art Director Lauren Johnson

I just got back into a gorgeous little number I found at the fall School-tastic Book Fair called Fish Butchery by Josh Niland. It’s the perfect summer read: stunning photos alongside easily digestible morsels on topics like “The Problem With Wet Fish,” which could be valuable info, should I find myself at the beach! – Copy Editor Kat McNevins

I like my books like I like my boyfriends: cheap, mature, and a little messed up. I just finished a longer tome and wanted something a bit shorter from my pile of titles I’ve picked up from the discount shelves of one book fair or another. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas fit the bill at 200 yellowed pages. I don’t think I like poetry, but luckily I also like my men unsuitable and a tad difficult. – Managing Editor James Renovitch

Retaining my status as the Chronicle’s Disney Adult, Ken Bruce’s Before the Birds Sang Words: Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room is a wonderful history of the surprisingly revolutionary and technologically complex attraction. Of course, one book at a time will never do, so bedtime reading varies between exotic criminal history in Galveston’s Maceo Family Empire: Bootlegging and the Balinese Room and Polar Horrors: Strange Tales From the World’s Ends, part of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird anthology reprints. – Senior staff writer & critic Richard Whittaker

I am currently reading The Night of the Gun, a memoir by the late investigative journalist David Carr. In this raw narrative account of his life as a young, wayward reporter in Minneapolis, Carr tracks down sources from his past – interviewing everyone from best friends to drug dealers – who reinvent how he perceives his life, leading him to raise the question: How much of his memory is myth? – Assistant News Editor Joe Ellett

I just finished Game Changer, the book right before Heated Rivalry in Rachel Reid’s hockey romance series. After that light rom-dram, I’m reading Andrea Gibson’s Take Me With You for a book club and Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery for my own personal pleasure – he writes great sentences! – Calendar & Qmmunity Editor James Scott

Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. Sure, why not just watch the Hulu series? The same could be said of … for instance …  Forrest Gump, but even the best cinema could not capture all the juicy details in this investigative piece on The Troubles and some of the most instrumental figures thereof. I’m not going to lie: It helps if you’re just a wee bit Irish. – Luv Doc & Distribution Manager Dan Hardick

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. Between reads from the towering stack of fresh local releases on my nightstand, I’ve been stepping into Angela Carter’s dark fairy tale realm. Her ornate language and sharp sensibilities never fail to pull me in and I love having a short story collection to return to when I need a refresh. – Staff writer Caroline Drew

Dinosaur Empire! (Earth Before Us #1): Journey through the Mesozoic Era by Abby Howard. A perfect read for the future paleontologist in your life, this time-traveling nonfiction graphic novel is jam-packed with wild facts about dinosaurs and other creatures of the Mesozoic. It’s written for the older gradeschool set, but also gets the seal of approval from my awesome three-year-old daughter, who requests it every single night at bedtime. You’ll learn about crocodylomorphs, convergent evolution, how birds are dinosaurs, and way more – all in frequently hilarious and adorable ways. (Yes, dinosaurs were cute!) – Art Director Zeke Barbaro

This article appears in June 26 • 2026.

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