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Staff Recommendations
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What To Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!
by Barbara Kerley
Scholastic
Our Price: $16.99
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Alan H. suggests...
Anyone who knows me (or has read my recommendation of Stacy Cordery’s recent biography) is aware of how much I like Alice Roosevelt and the way she broke all the rules so stylishly during her 96 years. So there is little more I can say in praise of this book other than to observe that they NEVER had neat kid’s history books like this when I was growing up!
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Baseball Haiku
by Cor Van Den Heuvel
Our Price: $19.95
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Alex M. suggests...
Browse through Baseball Haiku and you'll realize it was no coincidence that the Red Sox held 2008's opening day in Japan. American and Japanese culture meet and intertwine beautifully in these haiku of grass, dirt, and summertime.
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Grayson
by Lynne Cox
Harvest Books
Our Price: $13.00
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Amanda N. suggests...
Reading this book was like treading water; I couldn't stop, or terrible things would happen. Will Lynne and Grayson be able to find Grayson's mother? How long will Lynne be out swimming in the cold, March ocean? How does she manage to say afloat for so long? As someone who sinks like a stone, and starts hyperventilating when in a body of water with no visible bottom, I found this book to be both terrifying and fascinating. I read it in a single sitting, and enjoyed every minute of it. Author Lynne Cox describes in beautiful detail the vast and colorful world of underwater life she encountered in the Pacific early one morning, and how she befriended one of it's larger inhabitants.
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Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Penguin Classics
Our Price: $15.00
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Ann M. suggests...
There are authors that just make you feel better about living in the world, and this author is one of mine. Akutagawa's corpus is I guess divided neatly into early historical fantastical tales and later autobiographical experiments. I find this range quite refreshing, and like very much that this collection represents both kinds. Also, did you know there was a Buddhist Hell? Like something out of Dante. This is some creepy, sweet, sad fun. If it leaves you hungry for more Akutagawa, there is more and more newly in English to be found all the time.
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Half A World Away
by Libby Gleeson
Arthur A. Levine Books
Our Price: $15.99
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Ariel R. suggests...
Amy and Louie are not only neighbors, they are the best of friends. Sometimes Louie climbs through the hole in the fence to visit Amy, and sometimes Amy climbs through the hole in the fence to visit Louie, but no matter where they are, they always have a lot of fun. Together they build “towers as high as the sky” and dig “holes deep enough to bury bears.” They dress up in costumes made from capes, rain boots, and the less ordinary, flippers, colanders and Kleenex boxes. They even have a secret language with which they communicate. When Amy and her family move far away, Louie wants to call to Amy in their secret language, but he doesn’t know if she’ll be able to hear. You’ll have to read this story, and take the time to delight in its classic illustrations, to discover how it ends. As someone who moved a lot as a kid, this book touches my heart with every reading.
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Wall and Piece
by Banksy
Random House UK
Our Price: $22.95
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Ben N. suggests...
Self-effacingly clever and brave, Banksy’s Wall and Piece is—well, it’s different. It’s graffiti, it’s performance art, it’s an essay. Banksy takes aim at social constructions, “normal” ideas, propriety, culture. This book is full of powerful thought. Whether or not you agree with any of the statements Banksy paints into existence and shapes into form, the stuff makes you think (and then re-think).
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Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer
by Tracy Kidder
Random House
Our Price: $14.00
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Carole H. suggests...
Like John McPhee, Kidder can interest me regardless of his topic. Finally he has a subject whose importance matches his considerable talents: Dr. Paul Farmer, infectious-disease expert, anthropologist, winner of a MacArthur grant, founder of Partners in Health, brilliant and tireless worker in brining health care to the world's poorest people. Farmer understands the political economy of disease and poverty, he believes that radical change is possible and he has proved it with his work in Haiti. The story is fascinating -- awe-inspiring, engrossing, funny and yet deadly serious.
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Run
by Ann Patchett
Harper
Our Price: $25.95
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Cat B. suggests...
So. Ann Patchett. You know what she's good at? Making extremely unlikely events seem quotidian. After all, haven’t you been taken hostage at a state dinner & fallen in love with your fellow hostage and opera singer who also happens to be your idol? Man, I thought everybody had. In Run, Patchett does the same thing. Well, not with the hostage bit, but you know. I mean, haven’t you ever saved the son you gave up for adoption twenty years ago from being run over by an SUV & thus set in motion a chain of events that drives the entire storyline? Come on, give it a shot.
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Ice (New York Review Books Classics)
by Vladimir Sorokin
NYRB Classics
Our Price: $23.95
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Churchill P. suggests...
I'm discovering that I am a big fan of recent science fiction from Russia. I've read the Strugatsky brothers and Emtsev, but I think the genre has really benefitted from the fall of communism. Ice is a great example of what I mean. The narrative spans the twentieth century, following the disciples of a cult that surrounds the ice left behind by the Tunguska event. They are ruthless and creepy in a Heaven's Gate kind of way, but I still wished I was a member. Anytime I read a novel about a cult and by the end I wish I was in it, that's a good book.
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Rock 'n' Roll 39-59
by Charlie Gillett
Steidl / Edition7L
Our Price: $80.00
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Clare M. suggests...
I had the karmic misfortune of being born way after the great musicians featured in this book, and yet have developed a hobby bordering on obsession with collecting as much knowledge as possible about early rock and roll music…I need not look any further. This book was produced from an exhibition for the Foundation Cartier in Paris in 2007, and focuses on what Alain Dominique Perrin (chief curator) considers to be a seminal period in rock and roll—from 1939 (the beginning of WWII in Europe and the “boogie woogie” craze), through Elvis’ departure from the army in 1959—when rock transitioned from a distinctly American-driven phenomenon, with strong roots in blues and country music, to a mainly British-dominated scene. Rock ‘n’ Roll begins with snapshots of the poor, agricultural, segregated South (suggestive of its true origins), then documents the entrance of the US into WWII after Pearl Harbor and the great economic boom of the 50s that resulted. Photographer Alfred Wertheimer’s snapshots of Elvis, taken before he became a legend, offer rarely seen portraits of a young man kissing his mother on the cheek, tinkering with a portable turntable in a train car, and napping on a couch. Rock ‘n’ Roll engages with blues, country and jazz vinyl covers, concert posters and photographs from this musical period as critical objects of art and American material culture, and makes evident the controversial ways in which the genre was mixing black and white way before the civil rights movement gained momentum. This book is a must-have for any rock fiend's collection.
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Without a Map: A Memoir
by Meredith Hall
Beacon Press
Our Price: $24.95
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Frank K. suggests...
Appalling and infuriating, yet uplifting and inspiring, Without A Map pulls you into Hall’s personal experience of sudden rejection and expulsion from her only sources of sustenance and connection. As an adoptive parent I cried and cheered for her through her exile and return to a very different home. Meredith Hall is a hero of awesome courage and eloquence.
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No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
by Miranda July
Scribner
Our Price: $23.00
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Jane D suggests...
July's stories are wonderful. The narrators vary in age and between genders, but each has a self-knowledge that is very appealing. July puts onto paper private human phenomena--things we've experienced but never discussed--illogical thoughts, insecurities, desires, rituals. This book is funny, often R-rated, and hard to put down. Enjoy!
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I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World
by Trevor Paglen
Melville House
Our Price: $22.95
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Jen C. suggests...
Written by one of the co-authors of Torture Taxi (on the practice of extraordinary rendition), this bizarre little book might seem fun and slightly ridiculous with its tactile cover and small size, yet it is also fascinating and frightening, because it hints at the deadly serious operations and undertakings of a vast, top-secret military infrastructure - our own. Paglen has tracked down and documented the badges/symbols that the Pentagon creates for its classified "black budget" programs. They represent a strange cornucopia of projects with peculiar names ("Goat Suckers," "None of Your Fucking Business," "Tastes Like Chicken") and unknown purposes. Their operatives collect and display these badges, behaving like a bizarre cross between Boy Scouts and gang members.
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The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York
by Claudia Roden
Knopf
Our Price: $35.00
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Josh W. suggests...
I was planning on waiting until the holiday season to write a recommendation for this book (it certainly would be a very good Hanukkah gift,) but the onset of summer forced my hand. Sumptuous North-African feasts, perfect for warm lazy afternoons, are just some of the recipes you will find in The Book of Jewish Food. When you think of “Jewish food” you probably think, as I did, of matzo ball soup, pastrami, pickled herring, knishes, bagels and bacon-cheeseburgers (just seeing if you were paying attention.) Roden's cookbook does include these Eastern-European recipes, but the majority of the book is devoted to the relatively unknown cookery of the non-Ashkenazi Jewish world: wonderful Spanish, Italian, North African, Mesopotamian, Ethiopian and Indian dishes are all represented. While the recipes are certainly very good, Roden's stories introducing the different regions are just as delightful. You may find yourself starting a cooking session and spending all the inactive time reading about “The Babylonian Jews in the Land of the Two Rivers” or the “Lost Jews of China.” Finally, you may have as much fun as I did discovering how Jews from other parts of the world celebrate familiar holidays. Two years ago, instead of making fish for Rosh Hashana, I made Iraqi Kofta Mishmisheya, or Meatballs in Apricot Sauce because in Sephardic communities, “Round foods, such as meatballs, green peas, chickpeas, and round or ring-shaped breads and pastries, embody the aspiration that the year is full and rounded” (29).
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Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook
by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Marlowe & Company
Our Price: $27.50
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Julia M suggests...
Veganomicon is my favorite cookbook and I'm not even vegan. It's full of delicious and not-too-difficult dishes made with easy-to-find ingredients that are scrumptious by their own right rather than as vegan substitutes for cheese and meat. Some highlights include red lentil-cauliflower curry; quinoa salad with black beans and mango; and green pea and lemon risotto with roasted red peppers. There's even a recipe for cholent! There are easier ones too, like hummus, guacamole, and an entire section of single-vegetable dishes. And don't worry, there are also some excellent recipes for “cheesy sauce” and vanilla (or green tea) ice cream. If you're interested in becoming vegan, or just in eating fewer animal products (like me) or if you're vegan already, this is a perfect addition to your cookbook collection. And it's fun to read, too! (See the description of the Snobby Joe on page 98.) Happy cooking/saving the world!rn
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The Letter Home
by Timothy Decker
Front Street Inc
Our Price: $16.95
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Kari P. suggests...
I am aware this book is a tough sell. First, this is a picture book about war. More specifically, this is a picture book set firmly in World War I. Rather than miring the book in history and rendering its message obsolete, the very humanity of it makes Letter’s message universal. Decker’s pen and ink illustrations are a beautiful complement to the sparse text of a letter from a medic in the trenches home to his son near the end of the war. They capture the loneliness, despair, horror, and boredom of warrnso intricately, and, more importantly, they remind us that there is hope, even in the darkest hour. While we may be growing unfamiliar with the images of trench warfare, we are still bombarded daily with images of armed conflict. On the surface, this might appear to be a book for children that is stuck in the past. Look closer, my friend. This, this is a book for any age.
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The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
by Jeanne Birdsall
Yearling
Our Price: $6.50
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Liz G. suggests...
The four Penderwick sisters, Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty, are going for a three-week trip to a new summer cottage with their father and their dog, Hound. The cottage is owned by an extremely wealthy woman named Mrs. Tifton, who lives in the adjacent mansion. The girls quickly discover that somewhere inside this mansion is the very intriguing Jeffrey, Mrs. Tifton’s son. Soon the Penderwicks find themselves caught up in the fight to save Jeffrey from military school and the other pitfalls of his grandfather’s legacy. A very deserving winner of the National Book award, Penderwicks is a delightful romp of a tale. It’s rare these days to come across a story that is so genuine and fun. Each character has his/her own charms. Penderwicks returns us to the days of Summer of the Monkeys and The Egypt Game. It’s the kind of story you read stretched out on your belly in the summer grass or that is read to you by a grandfather whose hands still smell just a little of the fish you pulled out of the lake that afternoon.
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How the Dead Dream: A Novel
by Lydia Millet
Counterpoint
Our Price: $24.00
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Megan S. suggests...
This dreamlike tale of a young man with an unraveling life really touched a nerve with me. As a child, T. discovers that he has a gift for making money; Money and the world of finance provide him with a sense of balance and purpose. He becomes a real estate developer in L.A., but lives a lonely life until he meets Beth. Soon his world begins to unravel—his dog disappears, his mother begins to breakdown after his father leaves her, his beloved girlfriend is taken away suddenly. T. finds solace by breaking into zoos to spend time with the animals in their cages. Ultimately, he goes to the jungle in a journey reminiscent of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Millet's combination of lyrical prose and flashes of humor really worked for me.
Read all of Megan S.'s recommendations
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A Photographic Guide to Seashore Life in the North Atlantic: Canada to Cape Cod
by J. Duane Sept
Princeton University Press
Our Price: $19.95
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Melissa H. suggests...
This book could be the field guide to my childhood on the shores of Southeastern Massachusetts. Now I know that the seaweed varieties most useful for flinging at my brother and dad have names (rockweed and sea staghorn), that toenail shells are also called jingles, that the burrowing creatures I dug out of the sand with my toes in the surf of Horseneck Beach are called (aptly) mole crabs, and that the unavoidable thousands of small pink shells that toughened my feet over the course of a summer belong to the elegantly named slippersnail. The bright, clear photos and concise and informative text make this the perfect little book to take to the shore, whether you are an old salt or a novice clamdigger.
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Play It As It Lays, Second Edition: A Novel
by Joan Didion
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Our Price: $13.00
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Mike C. suggests...
I don’t think for a second that Joan Didion is overlooked by American readers, but I get the feeling her fiction doesn’t garner as much attention as her nonfiction. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but I still think you should read Play It As It Lays. The blurb on the cover compares Didion to Nathanael West. Play It As It Lays evokes the same sense of doom and a dangerous boredom as Day of the Locust. Maria is a failed actress with a failed marriage trying to find some meaning in the vapid, dried-out wastelands of 1960s Hollywood and Las Vegas. Sex, drugs, and psychoses.
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The World Doesn't End
by Charles Simic
Harvest Books
Our Price: $13.00
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Rachel B. suggests...
This collection of prose poetry by the current Poet Laureate is spare, playful and amazing. Each piece is like a well-constructed riddle that, each time you read it, has a different answer. My personal favorites are those on pages 13 and 17, but open to any random page and enjoy.
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by
Our Price: $0.00
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Stefanie suggests...
A wise, unique book. Thank god it's still in print. For those with dreams and/or nightmares of writing.
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Magic for Beginners
by Kelly Link
Harvest Books
Our Price: $14.00
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Steve P. suggests...
A tremendously entertaining collection. Smart, clever, magical stories. Lots of fun.
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