May staff picks

Promise's Pick: The Gospel of Thomas 

​“And he said: Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die. Jesus said: The seeker should not stop until he finds. When he does find, he will be disturbed. After having been disturbed, he will be astonished. Then he will reign over everything."  

Part of the notorious Nag Hammadi Library, The Gospel Of Thomas is considered by many to be the most important Gnostic Gospel. Dated around the same time as the writing of the New Testament, this Gospel contains a radically different version of Jesus, an acetic Christ who preached that salvation was within oneself. This is a wonderfully annotated edition filled with the sayings of what Thomas calls "The Living Jesus", whose words will be more familiar to students of Buddhist, Hindu, and other mystic lines of thought than students of the Bible.

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Robin's Pick: The House on Mango Street 

​"My father says when he came to this country he ate hamandeggs for three months. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hamandeggs. That was the only word he knew. He doesn't eat hamandeggs anymore."

This book, written in 1984, has been one of my favorites since the first time I read it when I was seventeen years old. It tells the story of a girl I related to, Esperanza, as we shared a similar cultural upbringing and we were roughly the same age. I read this story at a time when I was also reading a lot of political theory and it touches on a lot of important themes like Marxism, sexism, racism, and abuse all of which were, and still are, very important themes in my own life. It's emotionally compelling and well written in a very accessible vernacular.

Patrick's Pick: The Eighth 

​The Eighth To toot our own horn: we're all really proud of this at the shop. We compiled, edited, designed, and contributed to this collection, but I still maintain that the best part is that so many folks came out of the woodwork to share their weird stuff. This collection is the symbolic beginning of Revolution Records' poetry imprint, 8th street publishing guild. There's plenty of Kansas City writing here, but just as much from the rest of the US. My hope is that this collection will inspire a number of Kansas City's quieter, stranger voices to find articulation among like-minded friends.

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