'Against Everything: On Dishonest Times' by Mark Greif

(Verso, 2016)

There is no doubt that 2016 is going to go down in our memories as a bit of a rubbish year. From the deaths of beloved celebrities, to what looks like the collapse of liberal politics, it is hardly surprising that there is a massive demand for intelligent writing that can effectively analyse these often-unintelligible times.

In Trump's America, we miss Christopher Hitchens

Mark Greif, co-founder of the magazine n+1 and a professor of literary studies at the New School in New York, offers Against Everything, a collection of essays on ‘things you are supposed to do.’ Greif exerts his formidable critical faculties on such seemingly benign or frivolous subjects as exercise, food, and the cultural significance of the hipster. What we as readers receive though is a thorough shakedown of contemporary culture and society, through the lens of subject matter which at times seems improbable. This is achieved by a critic who is at the height of his powers – something which is enviable, even scary, given Greif’s relative youth – and who is a genuine master of the long-form essay, so much so that, one day, we will inevitably have to place him in the pantheon with the likes of Hitchens, James Wood, and even Orwell.  Toby Salisbury

 

'The Argonauts' by Maggie Nelson

(Graywolf Press, 2015)

It doesn’t take long to realise that The Argonauts will be a unique read: few writers could pull off jumping from describing their sex life to Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations all within the first page. It’s hard, then, to say quite what The Argonauts is about. At minimum, it is a memoir of Nelson’s relationship with her gender fluid partner, Harry, and an exploration of the meaning(s) of gender. Yet it is also a book about the nature of language, literature, and art, drawing on Nelson’s immersion in the L.A. art-scene. Perhaps these concerns are not so very different: Nelson draws on Judith Butler to suggest that gender is a matter of “working the trap” in which we find ourselves, of repeatedly citing norms that precede and exceed us, and through her collage-like and heavily citational style she seems to suggest that in art too the only originality to be found is in taking up in new ways what has come before. This is a book for anyone who wants a love story with a shade or two of grey, a down-to-earth introduction to queer theory or just reassurance that there are still progressives to be found in America.  Nick Clanchy

  

'The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo' by Amy Schumer

(Simon & Schuster, 2016)

Readers who picked up this autobiography-styled book expecting only to be entertained by Amy Schumer’s signature vagina jokes and quick, crude humour that characterise this young American comedian’s stand-up would be disappointed. Amy Schumer’s book offers us a window into her life with painful honesty. It might be hard to see the book as a feminist literature, but Schumer offers the most gut-wrenching accounts of some issues that women universally can relate to, such as losing her virginity in a grey area of consent, her abusive relationship, and how she rediscovers in her twenties what it means to be a daughter. The chapters named “Dad” and “Mom” are where Schumer’s most insightful characterisation and reflective language come through. She grew up with a dad who developed multiple sclerosis when she was in school and a mum who jumped from one relationship to another. To Schumer, becoming a woman is finding out that “parents are people. Sad, human people”, and to continue loving them. The book seems to be a rite of passage to adulthood for me, especially this year when I finally left home, when I first have to wrestle with identity issues, relationship problems and sexuality alone that only seem bearable with a hint of humour.  Olivia Lam

 

'Bi: Notes for a bisexual revolution' by Shiri Eisner

(Seal Press, 2013)

At the beginning of Michaelmas, my best friends made some less-than-sensitive chit-chat about LGBT+ people that hurt me. I confronted them after collecting my thoughts and they were apologetic, empathetic and super nice. After, I couldn’t shake a feeling that I needed something to change for me, whether that was thicker skin, external support or a whole new perspective on my own and others’ bisexuality.

“This is the first book to attempt a distillation of a coherent radical, rather than liberal, bisexual politics,” Eisner writes, only on page seven, “It is not about receiving rights, protection or privilege; it is not about inserting small changes in the system so that it “works better”; it is not about changing legislation and waiting for the effects to “trickle down.” Instead, radical politics is about the revolution."

Eisner opens her book with academic theories of bisexuality and biphobia, adding her own unique interpretations. The middle sections read almost like a discussion group, as they separate and interlink the lived experiences of bisexual men, bisexual women and transgender bis, also discussing the findings of various sociology studies. Finally, the book closes with something akin to a political manifesto, as Eisner turns her critical eye to the mainstream LGBT+ movement as well as the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Told from a unique, self-aware and modern perspective, this book channels the voice and energy of a young writer, academic and activist in pursuit of liberation. It is obligatory reading for all those who want to be inspired, empowered and incited to revolt.  Chay Graham

 

'Action' by Amy Rose Spiegel

(Hachette, 2016)

Sex ed is almost invariably a bit shit. Whether at school or in fresher's week, the few ideas put across tend to be that having sex will ensure that you get STIs, pregnant, or worse, expelled, that sex is having someone's whatsit in someone else's hooha, and that the whole ordeal is really rather grim.

Hence why Action by Amy Rose Spiegel, is such a delight - billed as ‘a book about sex’, it is, and entirely unlike anything Year Ten PSHE or Cosmo would have us expect. Spiegel is frank and filthy when describing technique, but Action's greatest strengths are in its holistic approach (covering not only getting to sex, but also being a person in your own right outside of encounters of the friskier kind) and her boundless enthusiasm for all things x-rated. It's also great fun to read, with Spiegel's effervescent millenial beat poet style carrying the transitions from consent to blowjobs to heteronormativity to sex toys and back again, casually dismantling any preconceptions regarding norms while telling stories of the bizarre and wonderful things (and people) she’s done. This book will not only make you a better shag, but also a better person.  Anna Edgar