First Annual 100m Mid

Summer-Fall Reading List

Cup Giveaway Extravaganza

Funtime Spectacular 🚨📚

To commemorate our remaining summer break, each of the 16666666.6667 of us at 100m (6 of us) compiled 1-3 books each to recommend to our internet consuming friends.

We love these books so much we’re giving away a hand-altered gold lettered 100m porcelain mug, a 100m sticker, and a very fun special surprise (!) to the first 6 people who read 4 of our 12 book recommendations! 😉ALL YOU HAVE TO DO 😉 is dm or email us pictures of the books with your face beside it by October 1 😉

You can pick up your prizes at the opening of the exhibition Reading Room on October 4.

See below for the list and our brief book synopsis and reviews.

*This is open to all, however, if you live outside of KC you need to pay shipping (we can discuss!)

SUMMER READING

SELECTIONS

Adams:

Cats Hate Cops by Research and Destroy

Free pdf download https://researchdestroy.com/

https://archive.org/details/cats-hate-cops

“150 years of cats attacking cops. 62 pp. 2013” This collective has compiled all actual incidents from the New York Times where cats attack or harass cops.  A must read in these f-d up times. One of the best zines in existence.

The Heat Will Kill you First by Jeff Goodell

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-heat-will-kill-you-first-life-and-death-on-a-scorched-planet-jeff-goodell/19058263

Noelle lent me this book a year ago and since then I feel like I cite it in conversation once a week.  The premise is that in our climate changed times, we worry about fires, terrible storms and flooding-major catastrophes, but the #1 killer is heat.  It discusses many implications of a very hot planet and how we are all facing it together with reliance on a faulty privatized power grid thats not going to cut it.  I’ve read this twice now and it's really good.  A good/startling read for a hot day.

Brother Brontë by Fernando A. Flores

https://bookshop.org/p/books/brother-bronte-fernando-a-flores/21424964?ean=9780374604165&next=t

I’m a big fan of dystopian scifi-ish books and this one is set 15 years from now where reading has been outlawed and the 2 main characters are the last 2 literate people in the fictional Texas border town they live.  In it books are a ray of hope in a dark dystopian world. Books are banned, they’re shredded, and yet they persevere underground—and maybe transmit an ethos of resistance.  Im like 1/3 of the way thru so don’t spoil it for me.

Noelle:

I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying by Youngmi Mayer

https://bookshop.org/p/books/i-m-laughing-because-i-m-crying-a-memoir-youngmi-mayer/21112709

Hilarious and tragic. I wish I could read this again for the first time. Mayer is a stand-up comedian by way of growing up in Saipan (mixed race) and so much of the generational trauma passed down to her is regarded with perfectly toned humor and reverence– into the successes/challenges of Mission Chinese and mothers/mothering and FOLLOWING YOUR DREAMS. Literally in the intro she’s like “sure, my story is probably not super diff from other Asian American stories but this one is about me” and “do you think every white guy in the last hundred years writing about a hot girl thought wait has someone done this before?”. 

A Separation by Katie Kitamura

https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-separation-katie-kitamura/9699238

A woman goes to find her husband after a secretly long separation. She contemplates her independence, attachments, and tries to articulate feelings of love and agency as she stretches out time not actually looking for him. The run-on sentences are so beautifully crafted. The rhythm stayed with me long after I finished. 

David: 

Hello, the Roses by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge

https://www.ndbooks.com/book/hello-the-roses/

Poetry that feels like the most accurate representation of the sensorial experience of being alive/human. I reread this every so often.

Shadow Act: an Elegy for James Foley by Daniel Brock Johnson

https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/shadow-act-an-elegy-for-journalist-james-foley

This summer has held a deep sadness, partially emanating from politics and a callous disregard for the effects of violence specifically in the form of war/militaristism. This book shows the personal, heartbreaking consequences of that devaluing of human life. It is an elegy for the poet’s late friend, a journalist who was taken hostage, and two years later, publicly executed. 

Merry:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

https://bookshop.org/p/books/convenience-store-woman-sayaka-murata/7393087

A short read about a convenience store, a woman, and masked abnormality within societal expectations (read it with a coffee and bodega sandwich). This book made me reexamine my own presence within the various roles I attempt to carry out (in a casual, non-existential kind of way).

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 

https://bookshop.org/p/books/covenant-of-water/18668163

A long read about familial ties, water, generational trauma, and love (read it slowly and carefully over the course of many days while regularly drinking water). This book engulfed me fully as I watched the story unfold through decades of personal histories (and I called my parents and told them I loved them after I finished reading it).

Cooper:

Existential Physics by Sabine Hossenfelder

https://bookshop.org/p/books/existential-physics-a-scientist-s-guide-to-life-s-biggest-questions-sabine-hossenfelder/17778084

A brief dive into the crossroads of contemporary physics, metaphysics and philosophy. A pretty accessible take on very large complex topics. Super quick read that covers a lot.

Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution by Carlo Rovelli 

https://bookshop.org/p/books/helgoland-making-sense-of-the-quantum-revolution-carlo-rovelli/15589649

A book about the cutting edge of quantum theory and where it places humans philosophy and historically. Rovelli does a great job of making something very theoretical, exciting and consequential.

Mu:

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Free pdf download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QugG2SnnmnL891LdylHNHIEqKrIZZtQt/view 

https://bookshop.org/p/books/flowers-for-algernon-daniel-keyes/6683258

This novel explores what it means to be intelligent, and whether intelligence alone leads to happiness. Charlie Gordon’s arc: from intellectually disabled to genius and back again, reveals the fragility of intellect when it's divorced from emotional maturity, social acceptance, and human connection.

It makes us think: What makes someone truly human—intellect, memory, emotion, or something else entirely? It’s tragic, beautiful, and quietly haunting.

Tonight I’m Someone Else

By Chelsea Hodson

https://brooklynrail.org/2018/10/books/Chelsea-Hodson-Dares-Us-to-Desire/

is a deeply atmospheric and intimate collection of lyric essays that explores desire, performance, power, vulnerability, and selfhood. Chelsea writes with a kind of stripped-down intensity—every word feels intentional, and there's a sense of quiet daring in how she reveals herself without necessarily offering resolution or full clarity. The work is nonlinear and impressionistic, more concerned with evocation than explanation. Its introspective and elliptical style isn’t for everyone. Some readers might find it emotionally cool or elusive. But for those drawn to confessional writing that resists oversharing and instead probes at the limits of language and persona, it’s a memorable, haunting read.