Adele Bertei's Recommended Reading
To celebrate the UK publication of Twist: An American Girl, discover legendary musician and author Adele Bertei's recommended reads.
“One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read” (Mary Gaitskill), iconic rock-and-roll musician Adele Bertei’s memoir Twist is her harrowing and electric story of transforming trauma through art, pluck, and imagination, as told through the inimitable voice of her young alter ego, Maddie Twist.
US Release: Mar 14, 2023 • UK Release: May 22, 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 9781736309339 • $28 • 256 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9798988670049 • $18 • 264 pages
Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust
Jerry Stahl
Talk about gallows humor—Stahl speaks to the bone-deep despair of “seeing our own reflection in the hellhouse mirror.” His razor-sharp humor will have you howling one moment, breathless the next.
The Devil's Treasure
Mary Gaitskill
Gaitskill's most recent is a beauty, proving once again (have you read The Mare?) how the doyenne of lit kink transcends her identity box with a compassionate brilliance that flies beyond all categorizations.
The Last Days: A memoir of faith, desire and freedom
Ali Millar
A poetic, riveting memoir of life inside—and escape from—the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses while waiting for Armageddon in the Scottish Borders.
I Fear My Pain Interests You: A Novel
Stephanie LaCava
Favorite fiction story of this year so far. Another writer described LaCava’s voice here as “hard, clipped, and cool" but it's the liquid flush of the voice undulating beneath the veneer of the book’s punky mask that drew me in.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Rick Rubin
"Everyone is a creator." Rubin's treatise on the nature of art and why humanity in general, and each one of us individually, requires its inherent expression. This book should be mandatory reading for everyone. Especially those who imagine AI as a good thing.
The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War
Jeff (Dartmouth College) Sharlet
Shartlet's book about where we're at as the American Empire waxes necrotic is an essential read. In brilliant reportage and dazzling prose, his insights into the mood of the nation will make you catch your heart with new insights about what we're living through.
Adele Bertei began playing music in Cleveland with Pere Ubu’s legendary Peter Laughner, and as an original member of the Contortions, produced by Brian Eno on No New York. She was the pioneering creator of The Bloods—the first out, queer, all-women-rock band. Her singing and songwriting career includes recording, performing live, and writing for such diverse acts as Thomas Dolby, Tears for Fears, Culture Club, Whitney Houston, Scritti Politti, Sheena Easton, Jellybean Benitez, Lydia Lunch, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, the Pointer Sisters, and John Lurie. Bertei played a lead role in Lizzie Borden’s seminal feminist sci-fi film Born in Flames. She is the author of two previous books: Peter and the Wolves (a memoir) and Why Labelle Matters, a finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards. Twist: An American Girl is her origin story.