Shelf Life: Books That Can Fit In A Luar

An investigation.

Welcome to Shelf Life, our themed book list series. For our inaugural post, we’re recommending our favorite reads that fit in a Luar bag — so you can tote your book everywhere, without sacrificing style. (Note: Some may stick out a little bit…this is fine.)

WOMEN by Chloe Caldwell - HarperCollins

Ten years ago, 21-year-old Sophia wrote about Chloe Caldwell’s recent small press novella Women for Eugene Weekly. Now, Caldwell’s horny, exacting 2013 queer cult classic is being reissued for the very first time on HarperCollins — this time with a blurb from Emrata — how times have changed! But some things remain the same: It’s still small enough to carry around with you in most purses.

ON DIVAS: Persona, Pleasure, Power by Spencer Kornhaber - Zando Projects

Diva expert and Atlantic journalist Spencer Kornhaber has spent his career thinking about divas – tracing the uncompromising personality and persona that is crucial to the art of some of our finest artists, including everyone from Björk to Beyoncé. Big personalities, tiny book!

EARTH ANGEL by Madeline Cash - CLASH Books

All you need in your Luar is Madeline Cash’s brilliant debut Earth Angel and a candy-colored vape. It’s hard to say which is more addicting.

PRETTY OBSCURE, An Anthology by Far West Press

Far West Press is one of the finest indie presses publishing today. (P.S. all of its books fit in a Luar!) Don’t sleep on Pretty Obscure, a new anthology where you’ll find some of the most spellbinding work around, from authors including Matt Starr, Lily Lady, Jack Skelley, and Language Arts’ own Sophia June. (P.S. Far West is now on Substack!)

PREGAMING GRIEF by Danielle Chelosky - Hobart Pulp

Danielle Chelosky’s debut novel is a stunning portrait of youthful, corporeal lust, perfect for reading in dim corners of bars while waiting for a date who may or may not ruin your life (celebratory) for the next six months.

COEUR DE LION by Ariana Reines

Ariana Reines’ cult classic 2007 self-published, format-busting epistolary love poem was well ahead of its time. Reines tactfully estranges love and its aftermath in a wholly sensual and engrossing way that verges on spiritual.

WHY DID I EVER by Mary Robison - Counterpoint

A decade ago, Layla was experiencing what she’d later call her “summer of torment” and asked for book recommendations that would alleviate what felt like an eternal sorrow. While Why Did I Ever didn’t immediately heal her (it was that serious…) protagonist Money Breton’s crumbling life of multiple ex-husbands and dodging I.R.S. agents provided a belligerently funny escape. You might not even need to stuff Mary Robison’s brilliant and sharp novel into a Luar because chances are you’ll cackle through it in one sitting.

ROLE PLAY by Clara Drummond - FSG

If you’ve ever met an international student at your “acclaimed university” who spoke of being “upper middle class” but was later revealed to be, like, a “shipping heir,” you’ll get a sick satisfaction out of Clara Drummond’s absurd and acid-tongued leap into the upper echelons of Rio de Janeiro. Here, the private-plane rich are frivolous and mercurial, corrupt politicians change laws instead of breaking them, and benders are punctured by police violence. 

IF I CLOSE MY EYES by Ben Fama - SARKA

While Ben Fama’s If I Close My Eyes begs the question “Does this actually fit in a Luar?” this uniquely modern love story starts with a mass shooting at a Kim Kardashian book signing for a scintillating and self-referential take on tabloid and celebrity culture. 

OPEN THROAT by Henry Hoke - MCD

“I’ve never eaten a person but today I might,” writes Henry Hoke’s from the perspective of a queer, starving mountain lion living under the Hollywood sign — until an act of arson forces him to roam “Ellay” in search of shelter. Open Throat is arresting and frisky, tackling everything from alienation to climate change to the unwavering and degrading realities of being alive.

VIVIENNE by Emmalea Russo - Skyhorse Publishing

Vivienne is a dizzying, bold novel told in text messages, open letters by protesters, and vivacious surrealist prose that tells the story of an elderly artist whose past rumors of her misdeeds threaten her unlikely comeback.

TEN BRIDGES I’VE BURNT by Brontez Purnell - MCD

A memoir unlike any other; Brontez Purnell builds sentences to a profound apotheosis only to explode everything open with his invigorating sense of humor. A bonus for Barbz: Nicki Minaj’s famed “Pickle Juice” quote is an epigraph.