Ghosts Of Booksellers Past
While these booksellers themselves aren't necessarily ghosts, their recommendations still stand even after they've left our stores.
I had two copies of this book and now I have none because I’m forcing all my friends to read it. Some classic nonfiction from Sheila Heti, this book explores the question of having children and what that choice means in a way that feels like an exercise in expanding your mind. Sheila follows a practice of the i ching by tipping coins to answer very complicated questions. It is a delight.
-- Emily
I’m pretty sure this book is a living breathing creature. If you want to embark on Lispector, a criminally under-read genius, this is where to start.
-- Emily
Tarta Westover was raised entirely isolated in a Mormon-survivalist family, barely home schooled, shuffled around, and somehow made it all the way to Cambridge. In her first college years she had never heard of the Holocaust and she thought summer was called “canning season.” This is her story.
-- Emily
100 Years of Solitude meets Persian culture / pans / modern day fertility clinic. This book is an epic family tale, politics and myth through the eyes of the Sadrs. All told from the perspective of one daughter in the waiting room of a clinic, but stretching back hundreds of years. If someone as cool as Rivka Galchen is a fan, you will be too.
Favorite play, favorite translation, favorite author. Antigone is the most performed play from the western world for a reason, and Anne understands her better than anyone else. Forget Hegel. What is a nick?
The cover of this book is deceptive. It makes you think you are about to embark on a peaceful journey through mystical Ireland. That is not this book. Your journey will be more of the harrowing, soul-cleansing variety, guided by Anne Enright's strange and stunning writing. In The Green Road, Enright tells the story of the Madigan family while bypassing every cliche of a family saga. It will haunt you in the best of ways.
-- Emily
THIS BOOK MESSED ME UP + I mean that in the best possible way!
-- Josie
A bare and brutal protest novella that will leave you flat out on the floor.
-- Josie
An absolute roller coaster of a novel, somehow simultaneously brilliant, surprisingly hysterical and deeply tender.
-- Josie
Clearly deviating from his previous work, this beautiful little volume is a sketchbook in itself - briefly painting scens of love, lust, and violence in Michelangelo's fabled travels.
-- Josie
Absolutely wild.
-- Josie
Thesestories are quietly fierce, settling over you for days before crawling under your skin.
-- Josie
The obsssive nature of first love! Trauma from needless war! Lonliness in small towns! Mermaids?!
-- Josie
Dark, disturbed + twisted little stories unearthed from the banality of daily life in South Korea. Driven entirely by atmosphere and aesthetics, this collection is utterly strange and fantastic.
-- Josie
Chew-Bose’s poetic essays are dense, rhythmic, and astoundingly lovely. Her explorations of personal and creative identity are fresh and intimate, revealing a growing confidence without falling into self-congratulation.
-- Josie
Absolutely judge this book by its cover, it’s all about the aesthetics. The tension - between generations, between national identities, between all kinds of lovers - is a living thing, hovering around you. Coupled with a vividly portrayed Dagestan and brilliant linguistic rhythm, you’ll feel this book for days after it’s done.
-- Josie
A collection of raw, resilient poetry that deals with the trauma of sexual abuse and the process of survival. Rupi Kaur’s voice demands to be heard. While it’s a fast read, the poems stay with you long after the book is closed.
-- Tanwaporn
Queen of the Tearling is like Tamora Pierce's best for adults. Johansen creates a dynamic, complex protagonist in Kelsea. Tearling blends all of your favorite fantasy elements while bringing in a sci-fi aspect that makes the tale all the more chilling. I couldn't put this book, or the sequel (Invasion of the Tearling) down
-- Tanwaporn
Holy shit.
-- James
Originally published in 1968 in the run-up to Nixon's presidency, it is no wonder it is being re-printed in 2018. In both this book and 1977's "The Public Burning," Coover has proved himself a prophet by imagining an America so ridiculous that it couldn't help but become reality. (Definitely NOT for kids!)
-- James
