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Verge Favorites: Jacob Kastrenakes

Verge Favorites: Jacob Kastrenakes

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The Verge staffers aren't just people who love technology. They're people who love stuff. We spend as much time talking and thinking about our favorite books, music, and movies as we do debating the best smartphone to buy or what point-and-shoot has the tightest macro. We thought it would make sense to share our latest obsessions with Verge readers, and we hope you're encouraged to share your favorites with us. Thus a long, healthy debate will ensue where we all end up with new things to read, listen to, or try on.

Andre Dubus — 'Selected Stories'

Dubus

I’m always on the lookout for great short fiction. When I came across Dubus’s collection in a bookstore, the rich language on page one was enough to grab me. In my favorite piece of the collection, we watch a couple who have just held up a convenience store celebrate at a bar with friends — and then sweat it out after a cop enters the scene. Dubus’s stories deal with passionate love and violence, and how they sometimes relate. This is his Selected Stories, and each one is masterful.

Girls

girls

Can we talk about how good Girls is? Because it’s really, really good — and this season has had some of the best half-hours of television that I’ve ever seen. Lena Dunham’s show presents the ugly, glamorous, dull, and thrilling lives of a handful of 20 and 30-something men and women as they figure out sex, love, work, and what to do with their lives. Borrow your friend’s HBO Go password, and start watching.

Into the Dead

Josh_album

This first-person infinite-runner is actually kind of terrifying. The game has you running straight through forests filled with moans and fog and increasingly thick swarms of zombies — and with its eerie, nearly black-and-white style the game is seriously spooky. It’s one of the few games supported by in-app purchases that isn’t limited by the mechanic — and you can play a round in about three minutes and be done with it, which is perfect for a casual player like myself. Oh, and good luck getting through that second cornfield.

Scribner's Hemingway paperback covers

sunalso

Scribner’s current run of Hemingway paperbacks give the author’s books the gorgeous treatment they deserve. Each cover is stark, bright, and dominated by one or two brilliant colors — and they’re basically too irresistible for me to not pick up. Collecting each of the paperbacks has been a great excuse to reread novels that I’ve forgotten, and to make my way through an incredible bibliography.

Peanut M&M's

peanutmms

Please email me if you know how I can buy these in bulk.

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