Staff Recommendations

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Barely Missing Everything Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781534404458
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books - March 5th, 2019

RECOMMENDED BY JENNIFER

This book was so good I couldn't put it down. I recognized the characters that read like people I know, and my own community. I cheered for Juan, JD, and Juan's mom. The combination of pressures from living in a poor neighborhood, trying to avoid gang members and the police, have them boxed into a corner it feels very hard to escape. The end was a surprise and left me heartbroken. I hope this book is a success and that Matt Mendez keeps writing. I'm recommending this book to everyone. 

My favorite quote from Juan's abuelo "You know why they took the draft away? The draft turned everyone into something. A draft-dodger. A prisoner. A protester. Or a soldier. The war got everyone, one way or another. Now, no one even notices the war. Because no one notices poor people."


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Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness Cover Image
$11.95
ISBN: 9781937226978
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Torrey House Press - November 6th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY JENNIFER

This is the first book I have read by Amy Irvine, but now I’m a member of her fan club. I devoured Desert Cabal in just one sitting. Amy Irvine’s writing is so fluid and absorbing that I found myself turning pages quickly, so packed with description that I had to read some sentences more slowly in order to fully absorb them. Her honesty kept me engaged, and her wilderness experiences as a woman, with family, boyfriends, husbands, and finally by herself, may remind you of your own. She puts out there as an uncomfortable truth: the disconnect between activists and their lifestyle choices (including Abbey’s) at the same time that she acknowledges the complexity and paradox of humans and their needs. Her voice is the first of all those in environmental writings that I have identified with in a movement that is dominated by white men and men’s writing. Her lack of reverence for Edward Abbey, in the land of people who revere him as one of the Gods of the environmental movement, I found refreshing. Thanks to Amy Irvine for the courage to write this at the 50th anniversary of Abbey’s Desert Solitaire as a critical, vital new generation of writing in the west.


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The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781501173240
Availability: Backordered
Published: Scribner - January 2nd, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY CONNIE

The cover is not flashy, but it is realistic and comforting much like the book itself.  The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson takes the reader by the hand and says, really you must look at the things around you an make some decisions.

After closing the book at the end, I was actually able to open the door of my dreaded, "I will get to that" closet.  I released my button and playing card collections from their dusty boxes.  I wistfully realized I had left behind lovely pieces of fabric that were purchased in anticipation of sewing projects.

Magnusson nudges those reluctant to do so to take on the project of easing future stress by starting to hand off some of the household accumulations now.  I came away from reading the book feeling that a competent and wise person had just offered memories of her own life and important advice applicable to so many lives including my own. 

In my true, collector's spirit, I hope she writes more books!


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My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love Cover Image
By Dessa
$26.00
ISBN: 9781524742294
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dutton - September 18th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY BRENNA

As a long time Doomtree fan, I’ve been excited about Dessa’s book for quite a while. But My Own Devices does not require previous knowledge of her music career. Even anticipating this book, I was floored by how good it is. Dessa tells the story of love that won’t quit even when you want it to, artistic passion, and family with grace and humor. She writes sentences that stun, and the cumulative impact of each essay builds to a crescendo in the moving “Call Off Your Ghost.” Here Dessa flexes her love of science and explains the brain and its processes in relatable prose, finally begging the question: can you make yourself fall out of love? She gives it a shot through the use of neurofeedback. One of the best essay collections I’ve read in a long time—Dessa belongs on your shelf. 


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Where the Crawdads Sing Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780735219090
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - August 14th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

This lush, amazing story is the first fiction Owens, a wildlife scientist, has written. It surrounds the reader with the beauty and brutality of the North Carolina coastline as well as delivering a first class mystery. Kya is abandoned by her entire family in the marshes of North Carolina during the sixties when classism between townies and the marsh people is clearly defined. She must raise herself and in doing so discovers her talent as a naturalist and artist studying the animals, insects and plants of her marsh. Though the behavior of nature makes sense to her, her ability with humans, especially men, causes her nothing but grief. When the town's favorite son is found dead in the marsh, she becomes the prime suspect. The twists and turns of this story are as convoluted as the coastline Owens writes about so beautifully. And the ending is just great.  


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Clock Dance: A novel Cover Image
$26.95
ISBN: 9780525521228
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - July 10th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY ELAINE

Anne Tyler is always a pleasurable read with a little underlying discomfort. In this story, a very likable woman makes some slightly wrong choices, especially in her relationships and lives a life we wish she could and would change. She sees and doesn't want to see what her life is and yet for most of the book, just doesn't seem to consider doing it differently. Strange circumstances ultimately precipitate change.


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Warlight: A novel Cover Image
$26.95
ISBN: 9780525521198
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Knopf - May 8th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY ELAINE

Warlight is a challenging read and worth the effort. Siblings deal with absent parents and care taking by assorted strange and interesting characters who shape their lives. Only late in life do they understand exactly how their parents choices have impacted them. The characters are all flawed and believable. It is only when we reach the end of the story that we are allowed to look back and put all the pieces together.


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The Glitch: A Novel Cover Image
$26.95
ISBN: 9780385542784
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Doubleday - May 22nd, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

I heard there were women like our heroine, Shelly Stone. Wife, mother and ruthless CEO. A woman who divides her time into psychotic increments of work and more work. At first she just seems nuts and then we begin to understand why she is this way, why her world is so chronically unglued. Cohen's writing is funny, very descriptive, poignant, and by the end, Shelly wins me over with her sincere attempt of doing it all. This book is a wonderful glimpse into the millennial world of high tech.  


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The Last Equation of Isaac Severy: A Novel in Clues Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781501175121
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Atria Books - March 6th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY ELAINE

This is a very unusual story based on a family whose life is built around around mathematics, studying it, teaching it, developing it and being somewhat torn apart by it. A granddaughter, who owns a bookstore and is the only family member not involved in mathematics, is left to find a missing equation and in the process uncover the underlying and surface quirks of her family, Very good read.


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The Italian Teacher Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780735222694
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Viking - March 20th, 2018

RECOMMENDED BY ELAINE

The Italian Teacher is actually about art. It is about a very famous artist who has numerous wives, affairs and assorted children, and who rampages through their lives as he feeds his own ego. The story centers on one son who adores his father and whose life is changed forever by one sentence uttered by the artist. To be truthful, I stopped reading when I got to the last 30 pages because I didn't see how the author could resolve this book in a way I could handle. But when I went back a few days later, I liked the ending very much.


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I'm Fine...And Other Lies Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780735212602
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - October 3rd, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY MARINA

The perfect mix of comedic memoir and self-help book, Whitney accomplishes something remarkable in this work: being both informative AND funny. Woven into stories from her life, she shares interesting and helpful information about neurology, recovery from co-dependency, and healing from trauma. And she does it with the wit and humor of a stand up comedian.


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Akata Witch Cover Image
$10.99
ISBN: 9780142420911
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Speak - July 11th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY MARINA

This book has everything I've loved in young adult fiction since I was a young adult: magical realism, relatable teenage characters, and a tense struggle between the forces of good and evil. What this book has that others don't is deep roots in Nigerian mythology. The details, colors, and flavors are thrilling and able to share underrepresented cultural themes in an exciting and accessible way. And yes, I meant what I said about flavors: the description of plantains fried in coconut oil was so enticing I learned to cook this dish after reading Akata Witch!


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Young Jane Young: A Novel Cover Image
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ISBN: 9781616205041
Availability: Out of Print - This Title is Unlikely to be Available.
Published: Algonquin Books - August 22nd, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

This is a novel about four women's involvement of a scandalous story, and the repercussions they all endure because of it. It is also a story about women in politics, mothers and daughters, regret and revenge, and acceptance and forgiveness. The characters are fully realized, the dialogue sharp, funny and poignant, the ending satisfying and realistic. It describes the brutal world of politics in a very personal way and was a great read.  


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Home Fire: A Novel Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780735217683
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - August 15th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY DEB

Wow! Good thing I didn’t have to work the day after I brought this book home, because I couldn’t put it down. I loved some of Kamila Shamsie’s characters, and hated others, but either way, I had to find out what happened to them. Told in five voices, each distinct and engaging, this novel will grip you from the first page. It is timely, in that it tells the stories of families caught in cultural clashes. Are they British first, or Muslim first, and how do they navigate, or not, in either community? It is also timeless, in that it tells the stories of the struggles of families to love and trust and accept each other, or not. Home Fire is a book that will burn itself into your mind and heart.


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The Marsh King's Daughter Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780735213005
Availability: Hard to Find
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - June 13th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

This tightly plotted, beautifully written story keeps the reader on edge for 300 pages. Told first person
by Helena, our deeply disturbed, yet cunning heroine, we follow her story through the wilds of
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as she tracks her father, a man who abducted her mother and kept her
prisoner in the forest for twelve years, raising a daughter to be just like him. Helena was reared like a
Native American at the turn of the century, hunting, fishing, leaving solely off the land, never knowing
why her mother was so meek and miserable, never knowing her life was based on violence and
captivity. Now, years later, as an adult and a mother herself, she must find her father, who has escaped
from prison and gone on a killing spree, because she is the only one who understands who he is. It is a
fast, intense read, with a satisfying ending.


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Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780735220683
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Pamela Dorman Books - May 9th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY DEB

If you loved Backman's Ove, meet debut author Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant. You may start out wondering why you should go through Eleanor's extremely structured days with her, but as the structure begins to crumble and more and more of Eleanor is revealed, you will be glad you came to know her. She may break your heart a little, but she'll make you laugh too, and she may even inspire you in her own eccentric way. The rest of the cast of characters are well drawn, but Eleanor is the star and you'll enjoy watching that star start to shine.


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There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce Cover Image
$14.95
ISBN: 9781941040539
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tin House Books - February 14th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY AMANDA

This debut poetry collection explores the current African American experience in America. Issues around exoticism, racism, and feminism pervade Parker's polished poems. The author weaves in pop culture icons, hip hop, jazz, personal history, and politics for an inspired look at the intersections of lust and rejection, oppression and resistance, mythology and history. Highly recommend!


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All Our Wrong Todays: A Novel Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781101985137
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Dutton - February 7th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

A science fiction story focused around time travel, and alternative realities, this book begins with a wonderful question. What if the world of the future was the way we imagined it in the 50’s, the Jetson’s version of progress and technology. What if that had actually happened? And with that we are off and running with Tom Barren, a man from another reality, who because of his own failings has gotten stuck in this very imperfect 2016. The external story is quite complicated, using laymen’s terms of the science of time travel in a very palatable way. I’m not at all scientific and I could follow it. But the internal story, is about insecurity, the fine line between passion and obsession, and the many layers of love that can seduce and deceive us. It is funny, scary, poignant, and wise. Tom is brutally honest with his confusion, guilt and regret about much of his life, and as with all great characters, I found myself cheering him on through all his human frailties. It is a great read and I really enjoyed all the twists and turns.

 


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The Blue Hour Cover Image
$10.00
ISBN: 9781619028487
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Counterpoint LLC - February 14th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY DEB

The Blue Hour takes you to a tiny town nestled into big mountains. Laura Pritchett's prose are crisp and elegant, her characters' voices are clear and true, and the pictures she paints of the Colorado mountains and meadows are beautiful. This book speaks to things people are too often afraid to talk about. It is quietly courageous. 


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The Girl Before: A Novel Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780425285046
Availability: Special Order - Price and Availability Subject to Change
Published: Ballantine Books - January 24th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY AMANDA

First attracted to this book because of its focus on architecture, I immediately was swept up into its dark love story. A troubled, nearing-middle-age woman, Jane, is desperate to start over after a heartbreaking miscarriage. Emma has lived through a traumatic break-in, and is looking for a new place to lay down roots. Both ladies' fates revolve around the apartment at One Folgate Street, a highly coveted living space that requires endless applications and personal revelations and commitments to become a tenant. A state of the art, brutalist smart house designed by the mysterious Edward Monkton, One Folgate becomes a character herself as the twisted fates of each of these ladies vis a vis its architect are played out. A psychological thriller not to be missed.


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The Trump Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Living Through What You Hoped Would Never Happen Cover Image
$9.99
ISBN: 9780062686480
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Dey Street Books - January 10th, 2017

RECOMMENDED BY DEB

This is a very readable book (even enjoyable, which says a lot given the subject matter) that gave me good information and great ideas for how to stay informed and take positive action. It's helping me transform my angst into action. Pick it up, use it, and we'll get through the next four years together.


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The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802124944
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Grove Press - April 12th, 2016

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

I don't often read war novels. But I wanted to see why this first time novelist won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature this year. It is because he is a fantastic writer and he tells an amazing story. It is the end of the Viet Nam war and the Americans are pulling out taking only a select number of supporters with them. Our unlikely hero, is one of the lucky ones. Born of a Vietnamese mother and a European Catholic priest father, he is also a double agent, trained in warfare and torture by the CIA and yet reporting regularly to the communist regime. And he is trying to live in America. His first person monologue on war, on being Asian, on being Asian in America, and on Americans in general is so wise, so profound and so true, I found myself reading passages over again, just to fully understand his insights. And the story is great as well. Caught up in the delusions of the general he serves still in the bay area, and his own feelings about the superior nature of communism, he agrees to return to Viet Nam to try to retake his country. This is a story so full of human frailty and imperfection, that all humans can relate to it. It's not an easy read, but it is a great story by a writer who has much to say about the human condition.


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The Never-Open Desert Diner: A Novel Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781101906521
Availability: Special Order - Price and Availability Subject to Change
Published: Crown - March 22nd, 2016

RECOMMENDED BY DEB

The Never-Open Desert Diner is a mystery peopled with characters who’ve lost themselves along a lonely road in the Utah desert. Ben, the character who ties them all together, is a truck driver who brings this cast of fugitives from the law, and life, everything from motorcycle spare parts to butter brickle ice cream. The desert itself is also a character, sometimes hauntingly beautiful and sometimes harsh, even deadly. In this intriguing debut novel, Author James Anderson engages his readers with poetic prose that paints a picture of both the beauty and desolation of the desert, and entertains them by revealing the stories of the unlikely neighbors along Utah highway 117.


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Between the World and Me Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780812993547
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Spiegel & Grau - July 14th, 2015

RECOMMENDED BY AMANDA

Coates is one of the brightest stars in social journalism today. This letter to his 15-year old son was prompted by the recent violence against young African American men that prompted his son to say "I gotta get out of here" and prompted the writer to contextualize the experience against his own and centuries of African American exploitation in our country. His focus is on the body, the destruction and conquest and pillaging of the black body from slavery to present day. Highly recommended for anyone interested in learning more about our ethnic history or seeking solutions to the grave problems confronting us.


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Night at the Fiestas: Stories Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9780393352214
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - March 7th, 2016

RECOMMENDED BY PAT

It is very rare that a young writer makes her literary debut with a collection of short stories, but Ms. Quade has won me over with her amazing eloquence of the human condition.  These stories, most taking place in the Southwest and specifically central and Northern New Mexico, deal with the layered complexities of youth, betrayal, disillusionment, and the frailties of the human heart.  Mixed in beautifully are the subtleties of our rich Hispanic culture, so specific to this area.  A small town girl's fantasies about Fiesta, the bloody Good Friday ritual of a man confused by his entire existence, the sting of economic disparity between the rich and those who serve them, and the heartbreaking allegiance to family, no matter what the consequences, are a few of the themes running through this thought provoking collection.  Her ability to see beyond the surface and dig deeply into both character and action left me wanting more, as if any of these stories could become whole novels.  Look forward to seeing what this gifted writer does next.
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