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Quick Pick: December 2, 2016

A spotlight on one of the week's best new releases: Searching for John Hughes by Jason Diamond.

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Liberty Hardy

Senior Contributing Editor

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

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searching for john hughesSearching for John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know about Life I Learned from Watching ’80s Movies by Jason Diamond

Diamond’s charming, honest story of a broken home and big dreams will resonate with any child of the 1980s. While growing up in an abusive household in Chicago, Diamond religiously watched the films of John Hughes, hoping to some day escape to NYC and write a book about the director. This is his story about how following your dreams can take you in unexpected directions while quietly leading you to where you need to be, and why no one can dictate who you are or what you’ll become. As Ferris said, “It’s so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

Backlist bump: Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from Eighties Movies (and Why We Don’t Learn Them from Movies Anymore) by Hadley Freeman