Portland as ground zero for a zombie plague. Bisexual exes on a romcom food and wine tour. And how pointless it is to try to guess what happens next in a MIranda July novel. It's the Mercury's favorite books of 2024! by Andrea Damewood We greet you, dear reader, upon the great launch of our society into holiday waters. Even if you aren't religious, you probably have some days off scheduled in the weeks ahead. And if you don't get to cook (please let me knead the dough; I promise not to eat all of it again) you might find yourself present, between two relatives like a Zach Galifianakis between two ferns. YOU'LL NEED A BOOK. If you aren't actively embroiled in one, consider nipping something up during the last-minute gift-buying deluge. Here are a few suggestions from Mercury culture section regulars. All Fours, Miranda July I picked up All Fours thinking it was going to be some novel about menopause. Instead it descended into total madness. Where I expected bon mots about hot flashes, I got modern dance, adultery, graphic cunnilingus, and lessons in hotel remodeling. I consider none of these elements spoilers; you have NO IDEA how this all plays out. Months after reading Miranda July’s second novel (she is also an acclaimed filmmaker) I’m still thinking about All Fours. I'm alternately furious about how ridiculous this novel was, and fascinated by my inability to put it down. For the duration, the unnamed main character’s manic, obsessive energy transferred to me as a reader. Everyone and their mom is reading this in their book club, which is wise because you’ll get one hell of a discussion out of it. ANDREA DAMEWOOD A Brilliant Red Thread: Revolutionary Writings from Don Hamerquist, edited by Luis Brennan Good political writing is incendiary. It strikes a balance between the historian and the propagandist, while also (ideally) not coming off as the ravings of a complete crank. Northwest writer Don Hamerquist never wrote for a mass audience; he mostly organized behind the scenes of the American revolutionary left. A "Red Diaper Baby,” born to communist parents, Hamerquist joined the party during the red scare of the '50s, and later the influential leftist collective Sojourner Truth Organization in the '60s and '70s. A Brilliant Red Thread is a collection of Don’s work that could have easily disappeared in the cloud, had editor Luis Brennan not set out to compile some of Hamerquist’s most important ideas and advice—given to generations of activists over the past 20 years, amidst political listservs, email chains, and obscure blogs. For those feeling politically lost, or like much of the response to an emboldened global right wing is ineffective, Hamerquist writes clearly and critically about what is to be done. Most importantly, it comes with a powerful hopefulness, a feeling that despite our losses we are living agents in history, that together our actions can change it. CAMERON CROWELL Be Ready When The Luck Happens, Ina Garten Watching Ina Garten’s cooking show always feels like visiting your most glamorous friend’s mom’s house where she pours you a big glass of wine and insists you do nothing but keep her company while she cooks. Garten’s memoir has the same effect—it’s inspiring and aspirational, and I will happily immerse myself in every single corner of Ina’s world. Does her privileged coastal grandma vibes-filled existence have anything to do with my life? No. Did I still develop extremely strong feelings about Parisian camping trips and herb gardens and dinner party successes and feel like I deserve to be on a first-name basis with her husband, Jeffrey? Absolutely. It’s the perfect escapist read, which seems as important now as ever because my reality isn’t nearly as good as Ina’s. No one’s is—except maybe Jeffrey’s. MELISSA LOCKER The Devil by Name, Keith Rosson The Devil by Name is Keith Rosson’s continuation of 2023’s Fever House, in which Portland becomes the beginning of a worldwide zombie apocalypse. Rosson’s books are about a lot more than just zombies, though. In his world, the Rose City is the epicenter of a rock and roll occult epic that features X-Files-inspired spooks, an extremely fucked-up angel, and evil severed limbs with minds of their own. Both novels abound with vividly drawn characters whom you come to love despite (or maybe because) they are some of the worst people to ever live. The two books aren’t merely set in Portland: Both of them really feel like they come from someone who knows the city, and loves it enough to fill it with hordes of zombies, violent cops, and the kind of nasty, noirish decay that’s both repulsive and beguiling. JOE STRECKERT Doppelganger, Naomi Klein In the fall of 2023, Naomi Klein's Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World struck book culture like a well-reviewed wave. There was even an excerpt of the book, published in Vanity Fair, that set up the contention through Klein's own riveting prose: Online and in public, the progressive author and analyst has found herself confused with feminist author turned conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf. The mixup happens often enough that it led to "a viral poem, first posted in October 2019, that has been shared many thousands of times: If the Naomi be Klein / you’re doing just fine / If the Naomi be Wolf / Oh, buddy. Ooooof." Descriptions of Klein's book were positive and engaging, they also overwhelmingly gave an impression that this was a less-serious work than her books on globalization or capitalism, that it was devoted merely to the humorous confusion between two women authors named Naomi. Instead, when I finally cracked the cover this summer, I found that Doppelganger contains some important and prescient critical observations about our political and cultural landscape that I dearly wish I'd had rattling around my head far before election season was underway. It's not just about two women who some may think it laughable to compare. It's about the growing right-wing movement in the US, a pipeline of publicly-shamed individuals that feeds into that movement, honesty from voters as well as politicians, and, most-importantly, society's relationship with the other, the stranger. I still haven't decided if Klein's own voracious curiosity is something she's modeling for the reader or merely admitting to, but if you're trying to read something good and also still trying to wrap your head around how we ended up with Donald Trump as president again, Doppelganger is your winter read about everything. SUZETTE SMITH The Pairing, Casey McQuiston  Casey McQuiston’s fourth novel is their most queer and horny one yet, even as it ia also, in many ways, a classic literary romantic-comedy. The Pairing follows two exes stuck on the same wine and food tour through Europe as they fall back in love (and lust) against a backdrop of Renaissance art, heady wines, and multi-course meals. But like an aged wine, complex and surprising notes abound: This is also a love story that celebrates non-monogamy and honors each protagonist’s proudly slutty nature, casts a trans character’s gender journey as a becoming rather than a change, and lets its bisexual characters revel in their desires, rather than struggle with them. At its heart, The Pairing is about two people who have finally learned to be themselves on their own, and now are ready to join their lives together again. It’s about the expansive nature of love. Also, it’s sexy as hell. BLAIR STENVICK