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Staff Pick

Thief of Always

Thief of Always

Barker, Clive
$16.99

"Menacing demons, wondrous miracles, sinister magic, and vivid characters make Thief a compulsive, lightning-paced tales that almost begs to be read aloud." -- Miami Herald

One of horror master and perennial bestseller Clive Barker's earliest novels--the tale of a haunted house with many a dark secret.

Mr. Hood's Holiday House has stood for a thousand years, welcoming countless children into its embrace. It is a place of miracles where every childhood whim may be satisfied. There is a price to be paid, of course, but young Harvey Swick, bored with his life and beguiled by Mr. Hood's wonders, does not stop to consider the consequences. It is only when the house shows its darker face--when Harvey discovers the pitiful creatures that dwell in its shadows--that he comes to doubt Mr. Hood's philanthropy.

But the house and its mysterious architect are not about to release their captive without a battle. Mr. Hood has ambitions for his new guest, for Harvey's soul burns brighter than any he has encountered in ten centuries . . .

Ren says: From the imagination behind Hellraiser, comes a cautionary tale on the power of wishes that is scary enough for kids and adults. 

Big Swiss

Big Swiss

Beagin, Jen
$17.00
NATIONAL BESTSELLER AND CULT FAVORITE

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, Time, NPR, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post, NBC News, Lit Hub, theSkimm, Condé Nast Traveler, Town & Country, and more!

"One of the funniest books of the last few years" (Los Angeles Times) about a sex therapist's transcriptionist and her affair with one of the patients.

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss.

One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss's voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she'll do anything to sustain the relationship...

"A fantastic, weird-as-hell, super funny novel" (Bustle), Big Swiss is both a love story and a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more--from an amazingly talented, singular voice in contemporary fiction.

Big Swiss

Big Swiss

Beagin, Jen
$27.00
NATIONAL BESTSELLER AND CULT FAVORITE

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, Time, NPR, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Huffington Post, NBC News, Lit Hub, theSkimm, Condé Nast Traveler, Town & Country, and more!

"One of the funniest books of the last few years" (Los Angeles Times) about a sex therapist's transcriptionist and her affair with one of the patients.

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss.

One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss's voice in town and they quickly become enmeshed. While Big Swiss is unaware Greta has eavesdropped on her most intimate exchanges, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she'll do anything to sustain the relationship...

"A fantastic, weird-as-hell, super funny novel" (Bustle), Big Swiss is both a love story and a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more--from an amazingly talented, singular voice in contemporary fiction.

Roxanne says: With Big Swiss, Beagin ventures into a new character and setting, where a California transplant named Greta finds herself in the dichotomous Hudson New York, known for its quirky artists as well as its newer gentrified populace.    

Her sardonic writing voice is certainly her signature and here she brandishes the comedy in Greta’s ‘profession’ as a transcriptionist for a sex therapist named Om.  

Vacuum in the Dark

Vacuum in the Dark

Beagin, Jen
$17.99
From the Whiting Award-winning author of Pretend I'm Dead and one of the most exhilarating new voices in fiction, a "thoroughly delightfully, surprisingly profound" (Entertainment Weekly) one-of-a-kind novel about a cleaning lady named Mona and her struggles to move forward in life. Soon to be an FX television show starring Lola Kirke.Mona is twenty-six and cleans houses for a living in Taos, New Mexico. She moved there mostly because of a bad boyfriend--a junkie named Mr. Disgusting, long story--and her efforts to restart her life since haven't exactly gone as planned. For one thing, she's got another bad boyfriend. This one she calls Dark, and he happens to be married to one of Mona's clients. He also might be a little unstable. Dark and his wife aren't the only complicated clients on Mona's roster, either. There's also the Hungarian artist couple who--with her addiction to painkillers and his lingering stares--reminds Mona of troubling aspects of her childhood, and some of the underlying reasons her life had to be restarted in the first place. As she tries to get over the heartache of her affair and the older pains of her youth, Mona winds up on an eccentric, moving journey of self-discovery that takes her back to her beginnings where she attempts to unlock the key to having a sense of home in the future. The only problems are Dark and her past. Neither is so easy to get rid of. Jen Beagin's Vacuum in the Dark is an unforgettable, astonishing read, "by turns nutty and forlorn...Brash, deadpan, and achingly troubled" (O, The Oprah Magazine). Beagin is "a wonderfully funny writer who also happens to tackle serious subjects" (NPR).

Roxanne says: Vacuum in the Dark is a irreverent, touching, a no holds barred look at the house cleaning industry and the strange voyeurism and relationships that develop when someone sees your ‘dirty side’.

When You Wonder, You're Learning: Mister Rogers' Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids

When You Wonder, You're Learning: Mister Rogers' Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids

Behr, Gregg
$28.00
Bring the lessons of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood into the digital age, as this book helps guide parents to raise more creative, curious and caring kids--from the founder of the acclaimed education network Remake Learning.

Playful and practical, When You Wonder, You're Learning introduces a new generation of families to the lessons of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. By exploring the science behind the iconic television program, the book reveals what Fred Rogers called the "tools for learning" skills and mindsets that scientists now consider essential. These tools--curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and more--have been shown to boost everything from academic learning to children's well-being, and they benefit kids of every background and age. They cost next to nothing to develop, and they hinge on the very things that make life worthwhile: self-acceptance; close, loving relationships; and a deep regard for one's neighbor.

When You Wonder, You're Learning shows parents and educators the many ways they might follow in Rogers' footsteps, sharing his "tools for learning" with digital-age kids. With insights from thinkers, scientists, and teachers--many of whom worked with Rogers himself--the book is an essential exploration into how kids and their parents can excel at what Rogers taught best: being human.

Bryn says: Let's add this to the "required reading" list for grown-ups. The research studies described within will tickle your spine and really stick with you, as will the wisdom. These authors make big concepts seem so simple and make goodness, so attractive.

And After the Fire

And After the Fire

Belfer, Lauren
$17.99

Georgia says: And After the Fire, a novel by Lauren Belfer, uses a fictional cantata as a device to reveal the story of Johann Sebastian Bach and his actual extreme anti-semitism, which was shared by his compatriots. This is a beautifully told story that weaves the present day with the past--part mystery and part love story.

Praised everywhere from NPR’s Fresh Air to The New Yorker, this spellbinding novel from Lauren Belfer, the New York Times bestselling author of A Fierce Radiance and City of Light, spans centuries and continents to reveal the secret history of a long-lost musical masterpiece—and the two women bound together by its troubled past
“A different species of suspense tale…. Evocative, deeply researched…. Manage[s] to dazzle while delving into dark places.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
Sara Itzig Levy, the daughter of Frederick the Great’s banker, counts herself among the élite of late-eighteenth-century Berlin. A gifted harpsichordist, she hones her musical talents under Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, a son of Johann Sebastian Bach. The elderly maestro and his protégée enjoy a close friendship, but their time together is running out. Friedemann’s final gift to his dearest Sara is the original score of one of his father’s cantatas—yet, as she reads its libretto, her gratitude turns to horror....
In present-day New York City, Susanna Kessler enjoys a seemingly charmed life with a loving husband and a terrific job. Then a random, devastating act of violence tears it apart. Just as she’s beginning to recover, her beloved Uncle Henry kills himself. He leaves behind a cryptic note alluding to his haunting World War II experiences as an Allied soldier in Germany, and to an artifact he took from the war-ravaged country before returning home.
Framed by Susanna’s urgent search for the truth about the disturbing musical score her uncle bequeaths to her, Sara’s richly atmospheric narrative—studded with vibrant, real-life musical figures from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach to Beethoven to Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn—reveals the passions and politics of Enlightenment—and Romantic-era Berlin.
And while Susanna attempts to fight her demons by plunging deeper and deeper into Sara’s world, harrowing questions about her own family’s past begin to surface....
City of Thieves

City of Thieves

Benioff, David
$18.00

From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over and co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival -- and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.

 

During the Nazis' brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

 

By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, the New York Times bestseller City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Benjamin, Walter
$17.99
A selection of works from one of the most original cultural critics of the twentieth century--as selected by Hannah Arendt and including a classic essay of her own about Walter Benjamin's life and philosophy.¶ "There has been no more original, no more serious critic and reader in our time."--George Steiner ¶ An icon of criticism, Walter Benjamin was renowned for his insights on art, literature, and philosophy. This volume includes his views on Kafka, with whom he felt a close personal affinity; his studies on Baudelaire and Proust; and his essays on Leskov and on Brecht's epic theater. Illuminations includes two of Benjamin's best-known, deeply enlightening essays, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and "Theses on the Philosophy of History," as well as Hannah Arendt's own essay about her subject's life as a German-born Jew during a dark era.

Scott says: Where else can you enjoy the clear and compelling writing of two celebrated cultural critics and philosophers in a single volume all for the price of lunch? "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" alone is a priceless, piercing essay for our time and all time.

Vanishing Half

Vanishing Half

Bennett, Brit
$27.00

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE* VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR

2021 WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST

"Bennett's tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it's especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison's 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye." --Kiley Reid, Wall Street Journal

"A story of absolute, universal timelessness ...For any era, it's an accomplished, affecting novel. For this moment, it's piercing, subtly wending its way toward questions about who we are and who we want to be...." - Entertainment Weekly

From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.

Elsie says: Really fascinating!

Postcard

Postcard

Berest, Anne
$18.95

A BEST BOOK OF 2023
TIME MagazineNPRLibrary JournalThe Globe and MailLilithForward MagazineToronto StarThe New Yorker


"A testament to the power of imagination and an investigation of empathy."--Vogue


"Stunning."--Leslie Camhi, The New Yorker


"A can't-miss novel."--Chicago Review of Books


"Compelling."--The Washington Examiner


Anne Berest's The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. It is at once a gripping investigation into family trauma, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life.


January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest's maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques--all killed at Auschwitz.


Years after the postcard is delivered, the heroine of this novel is moved to discover who sent it and why. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the travails of the twentieth century and partly restored through the power of storytelling.