Recommended Reading: Tacky and Dancing Queen

by Brandon Wetherbee

Rax King’s new collection of essays embraces the otherwise dismissed. It begins with Creed, ends with Guy Fieri and dives into Cheesecake Factory and Meat Loaf along the way. But all that stuff is just an entry point for the author to get personal. It’s an oftentimes dark collection I consumed quite quickly.

The book landed on multiple best of 2021 lists for good reason. If you’re a fan of Samantha Irby, you’re most likely going to like Tacky. But in all of the praise, I didn’t find another book suggestion. I like Tacky and want to read more like Tacky. So I asked King for the book helped form Tacky. 

Rax King: Above all the book by essayist Lisa Carver, Dancing Queen (1996). It’s also an essay collection and the essays in it are also dedicated to pieces of pop culture that the author loves, much like mine is. 

I’ve been a huge fan of Lisa’s for many, many years. I think that nobody has a better voice. Every book she puts out I buy immediately.

I think that people who read Dancing Queen after reading my book will realize just how much my book was, frankly, ripped off from hers. 

Buy Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva and Rax King will be at Lost City Books in Washington, D.C. on January 27.

Buy Dancing Queen: The Lusty Adventures of Lisa Crystal Carver by Lisa Carver.

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