Reading List: A Love Letter to Books
We're proud to partner with Seminary Co-op Bookstores as our official bookseller.
Check out our reading list featuring festival friends writing about all different types of love.
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Greta Johnsen (Nerdette podcast), who interviewed Wang at CHF, called Beautiful Country a love letter to books. We 100% agree (and also think love letters to books are the best kind of love letters).
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Of her memoir about the (complicated, but beautiful) love between mother and daughter, Zauner told her CHF audience: "it was a delight to write these sentences." It is also a delight to read them (even when they make you cry).
Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner
This book is about love between sisters and friends. It is uniquely American, uniquely Chicago story, and anyone who lives in this city should read it.
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
The Yellow House is about how we are a result of the places and people we come from—how they compose and shape us, and the ways in which we love them for it.
Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby
Live, laugh, love: read this book. We refer you to Irby’s essay “Love and Marriage,” since she is now married and thus an expert on the subject. You’re welcome in advance.
Rebel Cinderella by Adam Hochschild
We love a fairytale come to life, especially when the protagonist is the hero of her own story. Read all about Rose Pastor Stokes: an immigrant to America who married into Gilded Age New York high society and became a social crusader. We stan a legend.
Just Like You by Nick Hornby
Next, jump back to the future (or really the present) with a thoroughly modern love story about a post-divorce meet-cute from the author of rom-com classic High Fidelity.
Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown
Pleasure activism is the politics of healing and happiness we could all benefit from right now. We love a book that dedicates a whole chapter to Audre Lorde’s lecture “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" and teaches us how to “sense more pleasure than capitalism believes in.”
Watch Qian Julie Wang, Michelle Zauner, Dawn Turner, Sarah Broom, Samantha Irby, Adam Hochschild, Nick Hornby, and adrienne maree brown talk about their work!
CHF is proud to partner with Seminary Co-op, a not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling.
[Image description: The banner image along the top of the web page consists of eight hearts, each with a book cover inside. The background image is a photograph of letters and notes on a wall.]
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