Art & Literature

WF PICKS: LET'S READ JUNE 2021!

Every month we so excited to present our favorite book picks, and this month is no exception! We are only halfway through 2021, but we can safely say these are early contenders for favorites of the year.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest book, Whereabouts, is less than 200 pages long, but it’s depth is hauntingly extensive in the series of vignettes that she has created. Lahiri wrote Whereabouts in Italian and translated it herself into English—no small feat. Her talent is boundless it seems, especially in capturing the melancholic acquiescence of life’s smallest and greatest defeats. The story doesn’t necessarily have a proper plot per se, but somehow Lahiri is able to capture the sadness of life’s most trivial moments with such beautifully succinct and pointed prose. This book won’t bring you to tears, but it will have you connect with the feelings that we’ve all endured at some point in our life, especially in the last year.

This book gave us all the feels. Musician Michelle Zauner, stage name Japanese Breakfast, has the cool vibe we all wish we had in a friend and if we’re honest in ourselves. This memoir will make you smile and have you in tears. In so many cultures, where food is love, her no nonsense, tough but endearing relationship with her Korean mother will have you craving your mother’s home cooking and embrace.

Food memoirs are often imbued with celebrity, but not here. There is nothing more relatable than a contentious but loving relationship with family, and the flavors that transcend time and bring us back to the comfort of childhood. Michelle Zauner cries for her late mother at H Mart—and we may too after reading this heartwarming and satisfying book.