Reading List: May 2023

What to read this month according to Adams Morgan staple Lost City Books. 

Lost City Books, an Adams Morgan staple, holds books from all genres on its two-and-a-half levels. The shelves are lined with small press books, literary journals and translated works, along with all the classics, children’s books and contemporary works patrons are more familiar with — all in new and used condition. The store hosts book clubs and reading series and supports local writers as often as possible. As a go-to for many D.C. residents, District Fray got to speak with Corinne Acosta, book floor manager and children’s book buyer, and Eliza Hamburger, gift and card buyer, about what’s new and notable this month. 

“Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

This novel about the prison industrial complex “deals with the idea of abolition explicitly,” Hamburger says. At Lost City, people often venture upstairs to find books on diversity and racial reckoning. “But there’s so many fiction books you can learn from in a different way,” Acosta says. “Even though they’re fiction, they’re based on a lot of reality. So, I feel like this is another good example of that.” Pub date: May 2.

“Greek Lessons” by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith + Emily Yae Won

International Booker Prize-winner Kang secured a cult following for her book “The Vegetarian,” and now with “Greek Lessons” hot off the press (published April 18 of this year), Lost City expects the books to fly off the shelves. The novel tells the story of a Greek teacher in Seoul and his student who has lost her voice, and how they come together in a time of anguish. Available now.

“The Illiterate” by Ágota Kristóf, translated by Nina Bogin

This translated memoir goes over Kristóf’s life: her escape from Hungary in 1956, working in factories and finding her voice in writing. “I’m often enamored with writers who can do more with less,” says Ryan Phillips, shift supervisor at Lost City. “I think no one better captures that feeling than Kristóf. Her struggle with losing her native language as a writer forced her to create something so sparse yet so full of emotion that it’s hard to imagine needing words at all.” Available now.

“The Language of Trees” by Katie Holten

Published by Tin House, this literary anthology will give readers a new vocabulary when it comes to talking about nature. With an introduction by Ross Gay, the book includes essays by contemporary authors and those of the past (like Plato), all ruminating on the magic of trees, the folklore of the forest and cave paintings of our early relationship to the natural world. Available now.

“Out of the Sugar Factory” by Dorothee Elmiger, translated by Megan Ewing

This nonfiction book details the sugar industry’s reach across the globe. “Like how it’s been such a driver of the transatlantic slave trade, but also enriched a lot of Europeans,” Hamburger says. Published by Two Lines Press, Elmiger researches and collects stories to learn more about this complicated historical issue. Pub date: May 9. 

“Yellowface” by R. F. Kuang

Kuang is big in the sci-fi/fantasy world, but this novel takes readers back to our world. “It’s sort of a satirical takedown of the publishing industry after [Kuang’s] experience getting her other books published,” Hamburger says. The novel deals with the erasure of Asian-American voices in publishing, and it doesn’t hold back. Pub date: May 16.

Lost City Books: 2467 18th St. NW, DC; lostcitybookstore.com // @lostcitybooks

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Abi Newhouse