P.J. Blumenthal’s Book Notes music playlist for his story collection Self Portraits

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. The stories in P.J. Blumenthal’s collection Self Portraits are wonderfully diverse and fascinating. Elfriede Jelinek wrote of the book: “When you book Blumenthal, your trip is fully guaranteed. Adventure galore in the unknown known: first-class entertainment, funny and serious-just as it should be. Book now!” In his own words, here is P.J. Blumenthal’s Book Notes music playlist for his story collection Self Portraits: Self Portraits is a collection of 23 stories, all quite diverse and strung together like a string of beads. The introductory piece is like the “guru” bead on a Buddhist mala, the “pappas” on a Greek komboloi, the “imame” on an Islamic tesbih or the “cruciform” bead on…