Ghosts Of Booksellers Past
While these booksellers themselves aren't necessarily ghosts, their recommendations still stand even after they've left our stores.
The first in a trilogy, Wideacre introduces us to Beatrice Lacey, beautiful, ambitious, strong willed and willing to do anything to keep possession of her beloved Wideacre. Beautifully written and as close to a sweeping English epic that one can get in the modern age of shorter is better, Philippa Gregory has given us one of the most intriguing books I have read in a very long while. This book is full of twists, turns, surprises, betrayals, love and secrets and it is just the beginning.
-- Sara
A incredibly intricate tale of a widower who moves to the English countryside to try to move on and rediscover his love of collecting and restoring rare books. When he comes across an old painting that resembles his wife he begins a journey to discover its origins. What he finds is a centuries old mystery that tries to answer a question that has been plaguing scholars for years, did Shakespeare write the plays he became famous for? When the people he enlists for help begin to disappear Peter starts to worry that maybe what he stumbled upon may be something left unanswered. Written between three time periods and traveling all over England and all over time The Bookman's Tale is a mystery wrapped in an adventure story and tied up with delicious literary intrigue. Well written and beautifully put together this is a great book for those that love books, Shakespeare or a good mystery.
-- Sara
This is the first in a truly brilliant fantasy trilogy. Starting in our world five university students meet a man named Lauren Silvercloak. He tells them that not only is magic real but that there are other worlds and he asks that they come to his world to celebrate the fifth decade of their king. Scared, skeptical and a little intrigued the five decide to take him up on his strange offer and away they go to Fionavar and an adventure that they never could have seen coming. This novel blew me away and after I finished it all I wanted was more. So perfectly written and incredibly timed I have to recommend this book to anyone and everyone that loves not only a good fantasy but a good story in general.
-- Sara
A dark and terrifying retelling of Alice in wonderland Christina Henry takes us into the darkest parts of our minds and just let us sit there. I loved this from the twisted opening to the dark and uncomfortable end. Every part of this story looked at the sweet Alice in Wonderland tale in a brand new and very grimy light. A great read if you enjoy a little hair raising terror. Read with the lights on. You will regret nothing!
-- Sara
If ever the old adage of 'don't judge a book by its cover' (or in this case its title) stands true it is for this fantastic sci-fi/fantasy novel. Diana Bishop is a perfectly ordinary professor. Or so she tries to be. She is on sabbatical at Oxford so that she can spend some time doing research into old Alchemical texts at the Bodleian library. When she sees a rare text with illustrations that she has never come across before she thinks she has just gotten lucky and discovered a rare find. How wrong she is. An incredibly well written adventure full of love, mystery, magic and characters that leap off the page. For anyone that likes even a touch of the mystical this book is the way to go. First in a trilogy so be prepared for a long and incredible journey.
-- Sara
A truly incredible story, told from Death's point of view about, a young girl that even in the darkest times discovers a way to find happiness. 'The Book Thief' shows us the true magic of books and how reading can take us into different worlds. This is a book for anyone that wants to fall in love with reading all over again. Well written, beautifully crafted and perfectly put together 'The Book Thief' is a must read.
-- Sara
A group of young boys are playing in the streets one fateful afternoon when a couple of 'cops' come by. One of the boys is taken away and so begins a dark and harrowing journey that changes the lives of the entire town. Dark, mysterious and shocking in so many ways 'Mystic River' is a truly wonderful read. Dennis Lehane takes the mystery and suspense genre and turns it on it's head in this novel. Perfectly written and truly edge-of-your-seat-stay-up-all-night good this is a perfect pick for anyone who wants a ride on the dark side.
-- Sara
If the title being a reference to a Radiohead song (and a Gertrude Stein quote) isn't enough of an indicator of how good Tommy Orange's debut novel is, I'll keep going. This book is urgent, haunting, and incredibly important. It will leave you wanting to stay with the characters that will, by the end of the book, really break your heart. Orange's monumental first work is worth your time.
In this undeniably timely and elegiac essay, author Valeria Luiselli recounts her experiences as an interpreter for child immigrants, describing our present United States as, “a country as beautiful as it is broken.” Through the lenses of mother, immigrant, and activist, Luiselli exposes the atrocities migrants overcome both crossing the border and the unending limbos they’re forced into upon arrival.
-- Sarah
I chose this book as one of my summer staff picks. I should also preface that I generally enjoy psych/self-help/mind-and-body books (Year of Yes, Braving the Wilderness, You Are a Badass, and Big Magic are some of my favorites) so I knew this would be delectable going in.
Reader, I can't even tell you how highly I recommend this book. What was once just a tidbit of wisdom to her friend at a poetry-slam competition turned into a work, a manifesto, and a movement. The Body Is Not an Apology is a guide for anyone who has ever questioned the validity of their physical being. An intersectional, sex-positive, self-love manual is what you have in front of you. What are you even waiting for.-- Sarah
Looking for something to break your heart? Search no further. In a mere 203 pages McEwan takes hold of your heartstrings then snips them one by one as the Fates would. Good old masochistic fun!
In witnessing the rise and fall of characters Edward and Florence, the reader is left with a very important lesson: if you let good love get away you will inevitably be left alone on a rocky English beach.-- Sarah
First of all, ignore the title. This is a brilliant collection of confessional essays ranging from Chee's time as an AIDS whistleblower in the Castro District of the 90s to the connection between personal trauma and art to working as a waiter/caterer for Mr. and Mrs. William Buckley in the Upper East Side. In short, it's not a how-to guide but an offering to past and present selves.
-- Sarah
Being a Georgian lady myself, Flannery has always had a very special place on my bookshelf. Her mastery of the short story has yet to be beat; merging southern gothic with human grotesques, her characters are so far ethereal they almost seem inhuman (and sometimes are likened to vegetables, in fact). O’Connor sums up her work the best: “Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by a northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be realistic.” Enjoy!
-- Sarah
If you are like me and relish in the worlds of Austen, Eliot, and the Brontë sisters, this novel is for you. Hardy paints a pastoral masterpiece that achieves what so many male novelists of his time strive to do – he gives his readers a realistic depiction of a young woman vacillating between the pulls of her head and her heart.
-- Sarah
Oh man…this one is great if you’re young and fresh in the city. It’s also great if you’re not. Laing follows five artists who struggled with loneliness in NYC, studying their solitude to find comfort in her own. Laing beautifully elaborates on the light and noise-filled beast that is NYC – that monster we love to live with but sometimes leaves us feeling lonely.
-- Sarah
There has been a glaring omission withheld from the teaching of our history that can found in the tale of Toussaint L'Ouverture and the slave rebels of Haiti. This, the only successful slave revolt in history was on the one hand opposed by America as it was feared that the news would spur uprisings in the Carolinas, but also so broke Napoleon's will that he was driven to selling us the Louisiana Purchase for only sixty-eight million Francs. A debt, then, I think needs to be paid and honor most certainly owed to the brave men and women who dared to stand to their full height, and I can thin of no better place to start than CLR James' magisterial account found in "the Black Jacobins."
-- Jacob
I hope it shouldn't sound too self-pitying, but the tale of the weaver of Raveloe is the sort of thing that gives me the rather lugubrious sense that I shouldn’t be in the writing business every time I revisit its pages. While I'm not entirely sure if George Eliot is my favorite author, I do believe there is quite enough evidence to suggest that she is the best author, which is a distinction I think is readily proved in "Silas Marner." Never since Shakespeare has there been someone who has truly struck the essence of the human experience and understood why and how we behave in the way that we do.
-- Jacob
This book! It's just so incredible and so perfect. I can't believe it even exists. It plays into all of your absurdist desires, and then some. I can't stop thinking about it.
-- Josh
This book! It's just so incredible and so perfect. I can't believe it even exists. It plays into all of your absurdist desires, and then some. I can't stop thinking about it.
-- Josh
I was not expecting to love this play as much as I did. It's just actual genius. It hits home in so many ways, it's extremely intimate, it's extremely lonely, it's..... just perfect.
-- Josh
