August Staff Book Report: Luis Salomon Rodriguez
Each month we ask our staff to share their latest reading recommendations and give us a sneak peek into their reading habits by answering your favorite bookish questions. In August, we hear from Luis Salomon Rodriguez, Sales Associate, International Sales. Read ahead for Luis’ trusted reading recommendations, the books at the top of his TBR list and more.
Luis Salomon Rodriguez, Sales Associate, International Sales
Cookbooks
Cooking – food in general – is one of my all-time favorite things! There’s nothing quite like sharing a good meal with someone and connect. The below titles are the ones I reference the most in my own kitchen and would 100% recommend if you’re looking to widen your repertoire/give someone a thoughtful gift!!
I have recently taken to pickling over the new year and was recommended Six Seasons which has so many incredible recipes, in addition to many creative ways to prepare foods that hit the spot year-rounds.
In addition to pickling, can’t talk enough about The Noma Guide to Fermentation! Having worked on the bookstore side of things, this was one of my favorite pitches when it first came out and am I over the moon to work with the team that made it happen! Def recommend if you want to up your gastronomic knowledge.
Fiction
I’m a huge sci-fi/fantasy reader, I learned English by listening to the Harry Potter cassette tapes as I read along! As I’ve grown, one of the things that led me to publishing was to also play a part in sharing the stories of my fellow Latine people, across the world.
Our Shadows Have Claws was another great title recommended by a wonderful colleague and sates the itch for Latin American mythology. Each short story is wonderfully written and accompanied with incredible art!
Nonfiction
What is the weirdest thing you’ve used as a bookmark?
A 1996 Olympic Atlanta bus pass!
Do you have a go-to comfort read?
The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown is my all-time favorite book series! I must have read the first book over 20+ times and spent the equivalent of a week relistening to the audio version.
If you owned a bookstore, what would you call it?
A Page Past Midnight.
What books are at the top of your TBR right now?
What is your favorite book cover from the past year why?
*Chef’s Kiss* Simple, yet packs a punch.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a provocative reframing of the abortion issue in post-Roe America.
In a series of 28 brief arguments, Blair deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women’s bodies and instead directs the focus on men’s lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Highly readable, accessible, funny, and unflinching, Blair builds her argument by walking readers through the basics of fertility (men are 50 times more fertile than women), the unfair burden placed on women when it comes to preventing pregnancy (90% of the birth control market is for women), the wrongheaded stigmas around birth control for men (condoms make sex less pleasurable, vasectomies are scary and emasculating), and the counterintuitive reality that men, who are fertile 100% of the time, take little to no responsibility for preventing pregnancy.
The result is a compelling and convincing case for placing the responsibility—and burden—of preventing unwanted pregnancies away from women and onto men.
