The 20 Best Books for Distancing Yourself From Reality Right Now

If you're looking for an escape from your Coronavirus quarantine, pick up one of these and transport yourself to rural Maine or to Mars. If you have trouble reading this message, [view it in a browser](. [The Best Books for Distancing Yourself From Reality Right Now]( Books inform us, educate us, enlarge us—but they also transport us. Now more than ever, many of us are looking to literature for an escape from the ails of restlessness and anxiety. For some, now is the time to brush up on hard-hitting nonfiction about pandemics, but for others, now is the time to get lost in the balm of another world. If you’re in the latter group, we’ve rounded up a collection of engrossing reads that will take you to another place, another time, or another state of mind. From speculative and historical fiction to soulful works of nonfiction, these transporting books are the best medicine for strange times.[Read More]( [All the President*'s Excuses for Not Using the Defense Production Act Were Absolute Moonshine]( On the electric twitter machine Tuesday, Jonathan Martin of The New York Times blew off a complaint from an actual epidemiologist named Gregg Gonsalves, a guy who was on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic, because Gonsalves objected to a both-sidesish piece about the president* on which Martin had shared a byline. Martin tweeted that Gonsalves should "move along," and Gonsalves proceeded to take Martin downtown, to the roaring cheers of the homebound. This was the first shot in a daylong fight to keep the elite political media from bringing us another performance of the famous opera bouffe, The Day He Became President*.[Read More]( [Quentin Tarantino Learned the First Rule of Directing Brad Pitt: Don't Tell Him How to Take His Shirt Off]( Somewhere, in every intro-level college film course, there really should be a day on the syllabus marked, "Brad Pitt Shirtless in Movies." When you tally how many blockbuster films the guy has taken his shirt off in, you get to thinking it’s a fundamental part of the modern moving image—think of Fight Club, Troy, Allied, Fury, Snatch and most recently, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.[Read More]( [Support Your Favorite Local Restaurants and Bars by Buying Their (Very, Very Good) Merch]( The rapid spread of the coronavirus over the last few months has impacted every aspect of the economy, but the hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard. As restaurants across the country pivot from full dining rooms to offering takeout to temporarily shutting down operations altogether, the future of your favorite neighborhood joint might sadly be in serious jeopardy. Luckily, there's more ways than one to support the spots that have been there for you in your own personal times of crisis (over and over again), and copping some sweet, sweet merchandise is one of the best ways to do it.[Read More]( [OK But Why Are Members of Congress Allowed to Play the Stock Market in the First Place?]( Donald Trump's ascension to the presidency was the alarm going off in the bank. Smash the glass and grab everything you can. This is true with regard to the First Family, who are relentlessly monetizing public office through a rolling series of conflicts-of-interest. It's true of many in the president's Cabinet, who often nakedly represent the interests of the industries they're tasked with regulating—and which they will likely (re-)join in some capacity, with appropriate compensation, when they leave government. But it's also true of many outside the executive regime. Maybe it's not so much that the alarm is going off, but that the president has demonstrated the security guards are fast asleep.[Read More]( [Samuel L. Jackson Reading Stay the F**k at Home Is a Gentle Reminder to Stay the F**k At Home]( When adults aren’t doing what they need to be doing in times of a crisis, sometimes it’s permissible to talk to them like children. Enter: the thoughtful vocal stylings of the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson. The actor joined Jimmy Kimmel via live stream for a quarantine message from the Jackson household, but don’t expect him to offer the same tone-deaf celebrity attempt at unification. No, Samuel L. Jackson is here with one blunt thesis statement, and he's debuting it in the form a children’s book everyone should be reading right now: Stay the F**k at Home.[Read More]( [Read More on Esquire.com]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Notice]( esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019