Ruth Madievsky – All Night Pharmacy

With her debut novel, talented writer Ruth Madievsky garnered well-deserved accolades. A wild and delightfully weird story about sisters, set in the underbelly of LA, bursting with sex and drugs, addiction, queerness and mysticism. On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears. Falling deeper into the life she cultivated with her sister, our narrator gets a job as an emergency room secretary where she steals pills to sell on the side. Cue Sasha, a Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union who arrives at the hospital claiming to be a psychic tasked with acting as the narrator’s spiritual guide. With prose pulsing like a neon sign, Ruth Madievsky’s All-Night Pharmacy is an intoxicating portrait of a young woman consumed with unease over how a person should be. As she attempts sobriety and sexual embodiment, she must decide whether to search for her estranged sister, or allow her to remain a relic of the past.

Ruth Madievsky’s writing appears in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Cut, GQ, Guernica, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of a poetry collection, Emergency Brake, and a Tin House Summer Workshop scholar. She cofounded the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers whose identities have been shaped by immigration from the Soviet Union to the United States. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care clinical pharmacist.

Gillian Gaar – Tom Petty – The Life & Music

Twenty-eight Billboard Top-10 singles, induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a string of best-selling studio albums … nearly a decade after his passing, Tom Petty remains one of rock’s most beloved figures. In Tom Petty: The Life & Music, veteran rock journalist Gillian G. Gaar reveals this rock icon through 75 career releases, performances, and accolades. Beginning with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1976 self-titled debut LP and continuing right through the band’s final release, Hypnotic Eye in 2014, Tom Petty is one of the most beloved performers and musicians in rock ’n’ roll history, influencing countless acts for decades. This lavish slipcased hardcover format is filled with stunning concert and candid offstage photography, images of memorabilia and of course Gaar covers it all, from Petty’s childhood in Florida; his relationship with notable rock figures such as Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Johnny Cash, and Stevie Nicks. Plus, Petty’s struggles with addiction and his untimely passing. 

Gillian G. Gaar has written for numerous publications, including Mojo, Rolling Stone, and Goldmine. She is the author of more than 20 books about rock ‘n’ roll and a frequent guest at Life Elsewhere.