Sally
No modern writer better describes the larger than life but everyday characters of the deep South than Gilchrist. This book of short stories, her latest collection, pairs middle class protagonists with huge challenges, and they all rise to the occasion. It’s reassuring and uplifting, clever, wise and tender – like all of her writing.
I couldn’t put down this Booker Prize winner from Atwood – a little different from some of her other novels. It’s a mystery within a mystery about the death of a sister and the liaison of two lovers, one an author, set against the back-drop of World War II. Just great story-telling.
I cried and laughed out loud reading Noah’s remarkable memoir. Set against the backdrop of Apartheid, late-night TV star Noah, who was raised in South Africa, details his youth in a wonderful and moving homage to his mom.
A middle-aged female concierge befriends an awkward young girl who lives in her apartment complex in Paris. Both hide their smarts from the world around them, but their shared loved of reading, art, and the power of learning provide a personal connection that is both heartbreaking and life-affirming.
A debut novel, this book stayed with me long after I first read it. A young teenage girl loses her uncle, and closest friend, to a strange illness, about which her mother will not speak. That illness, AIDS, leads to a discovery about her family and the importance of empathy and friendship that shapes her world view. Named a top ten book of 2012 by the Wall Street Journal and on multiple best book lists for that year.
Mat
Sharon Olds writes odes to everyday things; flip through the titles, read a few, and you'll see what I mean. Her attention to detail to the things that matter, why they matter, and how funny it is that they matter is anything but ordinary.
WARNING: If you read this book, you'll just want more poetry and more Olds!
WARNING: If you read this book, you'll just want more poetry and more Olds!
August's story is told in parts from the perspective of those around him, as well as his own- which makes the story not just a child's but a story also of friends and family of different ages. This is a GREAT book for the whole family.
To make the unnoticed into the unmistakably beautiful is the work of the poet. But Barnett does this through enthralling storytelling. It doesn't matter if you care for rain or not, this is a book for lovers of story and connection.
Liz
In a word: atmospheric. This page-turner set in Australia is heavy with humidity and the protagonist's desperate need to clear his good name. With characters worth rooting for and twists that will keep you guessing, this is a perfect summer read for any mystery fan!
Fans of Avatar: the Last Airbender will love this magical, multicultural whirlwind of a tale! Set in an Asian-inspired group of kingdoms, this stand-alone fantasy checks so many boxes: a diverse cast of 3D characters, steady pacing with plenty of action, and endless sociopolitical intrigue.
Jeffers wrote and illustrated this fantastic book shortly after the birth of his son, and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes! This should be read by absolutely everyone. Its messages about kindness, acceptance, and environmentalism are more important now than ever. We're all here together on this one earth, and this book is a reminder of how incredible that gift is.
Wonderfully whimsical and gorgeously illustrated, this peaceful graphic novel is perfect for all ages. Readers will be enchanted by the sweet dragons and the diverse cast of characters! My personal favorite is the peppermint tea dragon. In a world so full of fear and uncertainty, here is an imaginative story to help us feel safe and calm for a while.
The worldbuilding in this brilliant Nigerian-inspired fantasy is nothing short of epic. Onyebuchi deftly weaves together themes of justice, inequality, class struggle, and belonging in a coming-of-age story that will leave you wanting more. Beware: the cliffhanger is a doozy, so you'll want to have the second book close at hand!
Tanya
Hustvedt's feminist perspective on art, science and women's place in the world provides for a fascinating read.
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction
Finalist for the 2017 PEN Faulkner Award
Finalist for the 2017 PEN Faulkner Award
Fuller provides a fascinating, beautiful and harrowing tale of growing up in South Africa.
Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Amen uses nuclear brain imaging to diagnose and treat behavioral problems. He explains how the brain works, what happens when things go wrong, and how to optimize brain function.
I read this book as a young girl and love this story now as much as I did then.
Alexis
I actually picked this book up from another indie bookstore's staff picks and I absolutely loved it! I read almost half of it on the short plane ride back. These short stories explore a different variety of topics- some being humorous and others serious. It's a great collection that got me thinking.
If I could pick one book that I would want everyone to read it would be this book! It's a self-help book that is humorous and gives you the courage to create the life you want to live. It's funny and inspirational at the same time all while giving meaningful advice.
David Sedaris is the kind of author that you want to be best friends with because when you read his writing you can't help but fall in love. He's the king of humor and Calypso doesn't disappoint. Sedaris mainly focuses on family in this one but you'll still be laughing so hard your sides hurt.
This is the best YA book I have ever read! Cath is a shy college freshman who struggles to make friends. Online, though, she has a huge following writing Simon Snow fan fiction. Her random roommate helps to bring Cath out of her shell and helps her navigate college. Every single person I've ever talked to who has read this book has loved it and I totally understand why.
This book not only won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, but it is also one of Barack Obama's favorite books! Gilead is a peaceful story all about self-reflection, identity, and coming to terms with life. I highly recommend this read for those ready to embrace identity and understanding with their own lives.
One day Dana is suddenly transported back into time in the antebellum South. She doesn't know what is going on or why she is there, but she does know that she must protect a little boy's life in order to ensure her own. This was my first sci-fi novel and I was hesitant at first but I ended up not wanting to put it down.
Katie
New essays on theological, political, and contemporary themes, by the Pulitzer Prize winner.
The story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley. Dillard sets out to see what she can see.
Her personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot. In the summer, Dillard stalks
muskrats and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons.
Her personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot. In the summer, Dillard stalks
muskrats and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons.
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage--and a life, in good times and bad--that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.
At the center of this novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. A second marriage to Clara Bowden quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life. Samad's late-in-life arranged marriage produces twins whose separate paths confound Iqbal's every effort to direct them. Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.
Whitney
For lovers of short stories, women writers, activist writers, feminism, and character-driven humor, there is Grace Paley. Her voice-driven short stories will delight you. Often the characters are opinionated women, wives and mothers, going to the butcher, or confronting their husbands, or gossiping.
Her voice changed my understanding of what a story can do and taught me more about writing than any book about craft. Most of her work is out of print, so this collection is a blessing.
Her voice changed my understanding of what a story can do and taught me more about writing than any book about craft. Most of her work is out of print, so this collection is a blessing.
A young girl living on the Mississippi gulf coast narrates Jesmyn Ward's novel of Hurricane Katrina, which won her the first of two National Book Awards. The physical world is vivid to Esch, a young teenager with the fresh eye of a child who’s been through a lot. She is also growing up faster than her brothers know. A beautiful novel of family, place, and natural disaster. Ward creates exquisite novels from voices we don't hear enough of in contemporary, award-winning fiction. Become a fan of her writing, and enjoy the anticipation of her future work with me.
I loved the experience of reading this subtly funny book. It’s one that you have to make yourself read in doses -- you won’t want it to end. Selin is a Turkish-American Harvard freshman who arrives like a blank slate, attends classes, points out all the strange assumptions that college life makes, and hates to drink. She ends up following strange paths, striking up an asexual, email-based relationship with an older boy who ultimately nudges her to visit Turkey.
The writing is delightful and slow, easy to relish and enjoy. You can see where she was coming from in this manifesto about novels. The voice and sensibility enchanted me from the first sentence. You have to read it to see why you can’t put it down.
The writing is delightful and slow, easy to relish and enjoy. You can see where she was coming from in this manifesto about novels. The voice and sensibility enchanted me from the first sentence. You have to read it to see why you can’t put it down.
Joan Didion's first memoir begins with tragedy and outlines the hum of grief that follows with striking insight and mesmerizing honesty. If only everyone’s journal were as reflective, clear-eyed, detailed, and caring. To me, this is nearly a sacred text -- I am comforted knowing that, should I find myself grieving, I won’t be without Didion’s insight.
Groff’s introduction says it best: Nobody has heard of Nancy Hale, one of the most prolific and artistic short story writers of the 20th century. This collection reads like a museum retrospective, where we see the writer evolve with the weight of American history in the back of our minds. Most of these stories were written from the 1930s-1950s, and like the best texts, offer glimpses into the lives of those living through wars and the development of today’s United States. Most exciting to me about reading this is that I got out of it what I never got out of Fitzgerald or Hemingway: An acute glimpse at the interior lives of white Americans living in the early 20th century.
The Vanderbeekers are a big family living in a Harlem brownstone with a dog, a rabbit, a mom, a dad, and five kids. The first in the series introduces you to a cast of loveable characters, who all have one common goal: to charm their mean old landlord The Biederman into NOT evicting them from their apartment, where they’ve spent their whole lives. In the process, they enlist the whole neighborhood, and dig up some information that helps them empathize with Mr. Biederman.
This is a wonderful read for kids who are reading chapter books, around age 8 and up. Three books in this series are currently released, with a fourth and fifth promised in the next few years.
This is a wonderful read for kids who are reading chapter books, around age 8 and up. Three books in this series are currently released, with a fourth and fifth promised in the next few years.
Darrell
Morgan Parker has given us a GIFT in this contemporary work of art. Here she fulfills the ultimate goal of the poet: to critique the culture and society around her. This book is fulfilling, challenging, hilarious, and forward-thinking. She is among the generation of poets ringing in the future of poetry. I cannot praise this collection loud enough!
I read books like Harry Potter when I was young and I could not get enough. I loved the magic and adventure, but what I really, really loved were the characters. So fun and rambunctious and brave and kind! But then I grew a little and read classics and loved true stories, history, memoir. I thought I had outgrown fantasy worlds and magic. Well, let me tell you what! This book blew my socks off! It is fun, unexpected, funny, violent; the perfect book if you like GREAT books.
History and true crime are two of my favorite genres and this is a perfect overlap of those two interests. As someone who knew very little about this case, and who was not alive to remember the social climate of this time, this text proved to be truly AMAZING. It walks its reader through the events leading up to and following Emmett Till’s death, examining context and implications of both trial and murder. A difficult but very important read.
Stamped From the Beginning is a phenomenal resource for American historians. Ibram X. Kendi has crafted this immeasurably valuable text that provides a readable explanation about the spread of racism and prejudice in the United States. Delving through history and reexamining events with a more critical eye, Kendi will change the way you think about race. He has also been published in our local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat!
This is an amazing experimental poetry collection. Bhanu Kapil tried to write an investigative study on the migration and mental health of individuals displaced from their countries of birth. However, once she realized her book failed to achieve what she intended, she THREW THE BOOK OUT HER WINDOW! She buried it in the ground outside her Colorado home for a year and wrote a book of poetry from the remaining visible text. Haunting, beautiful, and dissociative describe this groundbreaking book.
I HIGHLY recommend this book to those who enjoy Cloud Atlas and family sagas. It is a heart wrenching tale of alienated family members and individuals who are bound together by the difficult and beautiful shared experience of life along the Mexican and United States border. Sáenz's lyrical writing and masterful storytelling guarantee that you will have a hard time parting with these enchanting characters. This is a book I read at least once a year, to revisit the friends I made within its pages.
Jill
A Southern Classic! Pat Conroy was a master at captivating the complexities of family life - the characters and their love or hate for each other is unforgettable!
P.S. The book is MUCH better than the movie!
P.S. The book is MUCH better than the movie!
The first guidebook to Thoreau's most defining place. Using this guide, both armchair readers and trail-walkers alike can join Thoreau devotee Robert M. Thorson on an amble around the pond. Pause to explore people, events, and the natural world with Thoreau as our constant companion. Stop by stop, the place of his book will merge with the book of his place. Abundantly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and maps, this guide is a must-have for a meaningful, engaging tour of Walden Pond.
With courage, grace, and insight, Hannah illuminates an intimate part of World War II history seldom seen: the women's war. This is the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, France--a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. A novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
Hush has to turn over a new leaf: her only alternative to the dreaded "juvvie" is a job at Miz Tromp's Nursery. There Hush gets more than she bargained for: she learns for the first time how to make good things grow.
But soon Hush realizes something strange is happening to her: she can actually see people's pain and take it away. Soon Hush and Desiree are on a mission to rid their town of pain. What could possibly be the downside to that?
But soon Hush realizes something strange is happening to her: she can actually see people's pain and take it away. Soon Hush and Desiree are on a mission to rid their town of pain. What could possibly be the downside to that?
When the red moon rises over the heart of the Okefenokee swamp, legend says that the mysterious golden gator Munch will grant good luck to the poor soul foolish enough to face him. But in 1817, when TWO fools reach him at the same time, the night's fate is split. With disastrous consequences for both, and their descendants.
Now, Tumble Wilson and Blue Montgomery are determined to fix their ancestors' mistakes. They're going to face Munch the gator and reclaim their destinies.
Now, Tumble Wilson and Blue Montgomery are determined to fix their ancestors' mistakes. They're going to face Munch the gator and reclaim their destinies.