Ghosts Of Booksellers Past
While these booksellers themselves aren't necessarily ghosts, their recommendations still stand even after they've left our stores.
I love this little comic novel, in which a former ballet dancer turned NYU Performance Studies postdoc becomes drawn into a wonderfully absurd mystery involving YouTube and the deaths of various dance world luminaries. If any part of that summary piqued your interest, then yes, you should definitely read this book.
--Caitlin
In 1949, twelve men died fighting a forest fire in Monatana. Today few people remember the Mann Gulch tragedy, but Norman MacLean never forgot about it, and forty years later he wrote this amazing book about it. Part memorial to lives lost and forgotten, part inquiry into memory itself; one of my very favorite books.
--Caitlin
Muriel Spark is the master of the novella. Leave it to her to deliver a book so unexpected, so devastatingly shocking, in under 100 pages. Just read it!
--Caitlin
Full disclosure: I've only read this book once, which any serious fan will tell you is not enough to really "get it," but here goes. This book, the fictional memoir of Alden Weer, written by scifi master Gene Wolfe, can almost be read as straight-up literary fiction. A hundred pages in, I thought I had it figured out: the house that Weer is living in is a metaphorical house of memories, and as he wanders from room to room, he travels back to different periods in his life and narrates his story.
When I reached the end, though, I realized how much more was going on; under the surface of this lyrical memoir is a very creepy, and entirely different, story.
Recommended for people who like literary puzzles!
--Caitlin
Fink's story of a New Orleans hopsital during Katrina should be required reading for anyone who works in--or has any interest in--our healthcare system. It deals with profound questions of medical ethics and the ability of our current system to function in an emergency. This book made me so angry I cried every day on my way to work, and it's stayed with me ever since.
--Caitlin
What a strange little book! If you're looking for something to curl up with and read all in one sitting, this one's for you. A young boy coaxes a story out of an older, unrelated woman who seems to be on her deathbed. What's going on? How do these two know eachother? It's not always clear, but the sense of urgency and mystery are unforgettable.
--Caitlin
My favorite novel of 2016. This semi-autobiographical work upends the all the conventions of the "recovery memoir," delivering something uniquely visceral and weird.
--Caitlin
Janet Malcolm could make any topic interesting--not that it's especially challenging in this case, given the dramatic subject matter (a murder trial in Queens). This is a great meditation on truth, justice, and the trial-by-jury system. You really can't go wrong with Malcolm, but this is a great place to start.
--Caitlin
The mountain of the title is Yucca Mountain in Nevada, at one time a proposed nuclear waste storage site. D'Agata explores the problems inherent with trying to store nuclear waste from several different angles, including some personal ones. The chapter about the panel tasked with figuring out how to keep our curious descendents from meddling with the deadly site for tens of thousands of years is worth the price of admission alone.
--Caitlin
The most fun you'll ever have reading about a (fictional) African dictatorship. Ngugi tackles greed, corruption, magic, and post-colonial politics with humor and imagination in this satire. His funniest book.
-- Caitlin
I read this book years ago and have never stopped thinking about it. This story of a young teacher's affair with her teenage student, narrated by her equally deluded friend, is merciless with its characters, sly in its humor, and totally unforgettable.
-- Caitlin
Enrigue defies almost all of the conventions of the novel here to give us something delightfully different. Objects and ideas bounce back and forth across continents, empires, and eras like the tennis ball in the game between Caravaggio and Quevedo that frames the story. The cast of characters is truly impressive -- I never thought I would read a book that starred both Galileo and Cuauhtémoc, but here it is!
--Caitlin
If Edgar Allan Poe had written a fantasy trilogy akin to J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," this would be it. The text is thick with poetry, the world is rich and dark, and the characters are utterly unforgettable. A++++++
-- Stephanie
Milo is on his 9,995th life and only has 5 more chances to achieve perfection. The lives he leads take place both thousands of years before our time and also thousands of years after (and of course, many in the middle). Part historical fiction, part science fiction, part romance - this book is absolutely heartbreaking, undeniably hilarious, and easily found a spot on the list of my top 10 favorite books ever. Think Neil Gaiman meets Tom Robbins meets David Mitchell, and expect to be hooked from beginning to end.
-- Stephanie
How do we protect our children? Our loved ones? Ourselves? And how do we find our way back to each other after failing to do so? Yes, this is a modern retelling of the changeling fairy tale, but it is also loaded with love, folklore, social criticism, and a little bit of horror while remaining steadfastly literary throughout. LaValle asks a lot of difficult questions in this novel. He also writes like an angel. You fall into his prose from the beginning - and you'll desperately want his characters to succeed despite knowing that things will go very, very wrong first.
-- Stephanie
Both witty and gripping, this is easily the best piece of historical fiction I have ever read. The Saint Elizabeth Flood hits Holland in 1421 - drowning thousands of people and entire towns. It is in this flooded realm and amid an ongoing civil war that a cut-throat, a con man, and a feral girl weave a (very) dark and intoxicating tale. It's so good that I missed my subway stop twice!
-- Stephanie
Espionage, secrets, perpetual rain, and a criminal mastermind plotting to put an entire city to sleep; this books feels like a meticulous dream. If you like good ol' detective fiction with a heavy dash of surrealism then this is the book for you.
-- Stephanie
In "Palimpsest," Valente's characters unexpectedly find themselves traveling to a strange and wonderful city in their dreams. The catch is they can only get there by having sex with other travelers before falling asleep. As the city begins to feel more and more like home, their struggle to get there and stay - so that they won't have to wake up and return to our world - gets harder. "Palimpsest" is the most visceral and erotic portal fantasy I've ever read - the desperation of every character is as palpable as if it were your own. Valente is better known for her Middle Grade books ("The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" etc.) but this adult novel is not to be passed over.
-- Stephanie
Think George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" but set in the East and with a smaller cast of characters. Fast-paced, memorable, and beautifully written.
-- Stephanie
Unsettling, poetic, and playful - Jeffrey Ford has an otherworldly talent for turning the familiar into the strange and the strange into the familiar. He is probably writing your dreams. If you are looking for something dark and thoughtful and completely unlike anything else you've read, look no further than these 13 stories. (Particularly good for fans of Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, and China Mieville)
-- Stephanie
