Staff Picks

You're sitting in a very large, silent room. It's uncertain how long you've been there exactly, but you know it's been a while. It is completely quiet and you're starting to have that all-by-yourself feeling. Suddenly, you find a little radio in an unchecked corner of the room. You pick it up, examine it, turn it on. To your surprise, what comes out is not music you've heard before or have even been aware of. What comes out is music that you've always, subconsciously, dreamed of hearing. The room ceases to feel so large and unshakably silent. That radio is The Crisis of Infinite Worlds.

 

(Jarrod)

I reread this because I had only really remembered that I loved it. (This lack of memory has nothing to do with the book. I can't remember anything.) Anyway, it was such a thrill. I'd be hard-pressed to find a better book to recommend to anyone 9-12. Let's make that 9 to infinity. This book is about two girls full of curiosity and imagination, who start the Egypt Game, the coolest game ever played by anyone. It taught me how much fun knowing stuff is, and the amazing potential inherent in a vacant lot. I love vacant lots to this day.

 

(Annie)

I am a sucker for fiction that weaves biology and nature into the story (because, as Darwin might agree, nature is rich narrative territory). I am also a sucker for novels that weave multiple stories together. This book follows the lives of two women, in different eras. Both set out for Easter Island, one preceding WWI and the other sixty years later. Both are on personal and scientific quests. Back in time, Elsa follows her sister to the island but once there, discovers science as her true calling. In the contemporary story Greer pieces her life back together and recovers from the death of her husband. Together though, spanning across time, both unravel some of the mysteries surrounding Easter Island.

 

(Rebecca)

Emma Straub has to be one of the nicest writers in Brooklyn, but her legendary congeniality is not the only reason I chose Other People We Married for my staff pick. I hear she makes a mean tray of brownies, but more than that, her writing is elegant, well-developed, relatable, and gently probing. I was romanced by the clout of these stories, and I am appreciative that a wonderful young writer, and fellow bookseller, could deliver such a poignant collection (and maybe a plate of cookies?)

 

(Brette)

CrimethInc.is a collective of anarchists and "ex-workers" ...but don't let that scare you away from this book! Work is a well-researched, relatable, comprehensive, and critical examination of capitalism. CrimethInc. tells the story of the society we live in, including an easy-to-understand breakdown of recent economic crises. Work invites us to reflect on our own experiences in a system that doesn't seem to be working very well.

 

(Allegra)

Alexander Vvedensky, along with Daniil Kharms, was the ringleader of the OBERIU--a small collective of Russian avant garde writers and artists whose work coincided with the onset of the first Soviet era.  Vvedensky was continually persecuted and jailed for his involvement in the OBERIU's "anti-Soviet" activities. He died on a prison train at the age of 37. Aside from the work he did as a children's author, none of his writing was published during his brief lifetime. Today, echoes of Vvedensky's writing, exploits and misfortunes can be heard in the Pussy Riot debacle.  These poems tackle time, death, and the universal elements that fetter us all, with a language of sublime nonsense, humor, and protest. Kindly RSVP.   

 

(Jarrod)

This brilliant, funny, challenging book recreates a consciousness grappling with its surroundings, helped along by little bumps of cocaine. With a pace that swerves between lightning and paralysis, this book will simultaneously make you feel smarter and stupider.

 

(Michael)

Originally published in 1759, the pleasures of this very strange, lovely book successfully transmit across the centuries. By subverting Enlightenment Reason, using disjunctive narrative and focusing on textual materiality, Tristram Shandy firmly establishes itself as a major fore-runner to the contemporary novel. Also, the use of impotency as a theme puts The Sun Also Rises to shame.

 

(Michael)

Like Where’s Waldo? without the objectives.

 

(Geo)

I've wanted to make Pink Elephant by Rachel McKibbens my staff pick for the entire three years I've worked here but was super horrified to write a wack blurb for such a rad book. AND I STILL AM. But, y'all, you need this book of poems in your lives STAT. Pink Elephant is a monster. It will eat all of the other books on your shelf for brunch. It's the anti-debut debut because the poems in this book are seamless and perfectly toned and bold and will live in your brain for days/weeks/years after reading them.

 

(Angel)

The best gift poetry can give is a clear view of the world through another's heart. Some give you a clear view through many hearts and, with that, many truths. This knockout debut gifts us again and again with the chance to discover the languages of legend, legacy, and the war of and for home. What can be learned here about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rivals what I've learned from nearly any American newspaper. "What kind of woman goes searching and searching?" So begins the book. To search and search with ferocity and grace.

 

(Angel)