Matt Buckingham <\/p>\n
Copy editor<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s reading: The Helen West Mysteries by Frances Fyfield<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plot descriptions of these British police procedurals from the late \u201980s and \u201990s, starting with A Question of Guilt (1988), may sound routine, almost dull. But Fyfield\u2019s ability to get in the minds of her characters, coupled with her expertise as a retired London criminal lawyer for the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service, makes them anything but. \u2018Why am I reading this?\u2019 you\u2019ll ask yourself. Then you\u2019ll pick up the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Effinger<\/p>\n
Staff writer<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s reading: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m reading it because it\u2019s my book club book. Also rereading The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for work!\u201d<\/p>\n
Maxx Hockenberry<\/p>\n
Sales director<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s reading: The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People\u2019s History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti<\/p>\n
\u201cA really fun, engaging history of ancient Rome told through the lens of class struggle, propaganda, and the violent suppression of popular reform. Parenti flips the conventional narrative around Rome as an empire defined by democratic virtue on its head, instead painting a very different picture of a bloated, fragile, increasingly paranoid and isolated hegemon consumed by imperial expansion, oligarchic dominance, and the systemic subjugation of both colonial populations and its own working masses. Parenti also exposes how the propaganda of \u2018mob rule\u2019 has long been weaponized by elites and echoed uncritically by the media. This book is a refreshing, cathartic and cautionary tale that draws an alarming number of parallels between ancient Rome and the modern American empire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron Mesh<\/p>\n
Editor<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s reading: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, look, he\u2019s reading Orwell\u2014what a clich\u00e9. But at least it\u2019s a different Orwell. The truth is, I usually have three to five books going at a time, and rarely finish anything but the detective fiction. Still, facing a nine-hour flight to Heathrow, this slim volume by the master of first-person reportage felt like an opportunity to get a 30,000-foot perspective on the squalid conditions in Portland. The poor will always be with us. Any day, we could be the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophia Mick<\/p>\n
Graphic designer<\/p>\n
What she\u2019s reading: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen<\/p>\n
\u201cI picked it somewhat at random off my roommate\u2019s shelf, though I was familiar having seen it on my parents\u2019 bedside tables in the early 2010s. It\u2019s been both an escapist and consuming read. I can\u2019t put it down, which is what I\u2019m looking for in a book these days, something gripping enough to soften the tug of my phone screen. Set in the early aughts, the themes still feel too relevant, given post-9\/11 politics, the rise of the internet, and decimation of the environment, but the tenderness at its core has left me feeling hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel Saslow<\/p>\n
Arts & Culture reporter<\/p>\n
What she\u2019s reading: I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been mainlining celebrity memoirs. This one, by New York City restaurateur Keith McNally of Balthazar fame, is propulsive and wry, and dishes the goods on McNally\u2019s famous customers, such as Anna Wintour, Patti Smith and Lorne Michaels. If escaping into 40-year-old gossip is wrong, I don\u2019t want to be right. I also can\u2019t handle anything too heavy lately, so the fact that I Regret Almost Everything opens with McNally attempting suicide in 2018 after a stroke and I still kept reading\u2014no problem\u2014shows that my capacity for darkness is seriously warped right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Toni Tringolo<\/p>\n
Executive director, Give!Guide and Friends of Willamette Week<\/p>\n
What she\u2019s reading: Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know much about Lafayette going into this biography, other than he was important to both the American and French revolutions. And even then, I didn\u2019t know the particulars. My blind spot is making this a thrilling read despite the pedantic writing. Lafayette\u2019s achievements seem never ending, and it\u2019s incredible to see his ideals play out.\u201d <\/p>\n
Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. <\/p>\n
Help us dig deeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Buckingham Copy editor What he\u2019s reading: The Helen West Mysteries by Frances Fyfield \u201cThe plot descriptions of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-40643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}