Ambergris: City of Saints and Madmen; Shriek: An Afterword; Finch (Hardcover)

By Jeff VanderMeer

$35.00

ISBN: 9780374103170

Availability: On Our Shelves

Published: MCD - December 1st, 2020

I nearly got fired at my first-ever job because I couldn't stop reading City of Saints and Madmen at the register. When I told David I picked the Ambergris collection, he seemed surprised. "Isn't Vandermeer kind of mainstream?" Like I'm unhappy an author I love has seen success? On reflection, that statement's a perfectly justified stealth roast re: me and my (contrary! deliberately obscure!) tastes. Ambergris is enough of a deep cut that at one time you could bring City to a Vandermeer signing and he'd look at you like excuse me, where did you find this roadkill? But finally-- the whole Gormen-ghastly, delirious, Nabokovian sprawl is back in print. Yes, there are fungi.

--Emily

Hamnet (Hardcover)

By Maggie O'Farrell

$26.95

ISBN: 9780525657606

Availability: On Our Shelves

Published: Knopf - July 21st, 2020

Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell, is an imagined account of the family of William Shakespeare, who reside in Warwickshire while he is off writing and producing plays in London. Little is known about them and O’Farrell imagines a credible and loving relationship between him and his free spirited wife Agnes, an herbalist and healer, and their three children. Central to the novel is the death by plague of 11-year-old Hamnet. O’Farrell recounts in gorgeous language the passion, grief, and ultimately, reconciliation with this loss. O’Farrell’s sentences have been described as having a music-like cadence that make the book pure pleasure to read. It is one of those rare books you will want to read and reread and to share with friends.

--Jean

The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel (A Thursday Murder Club Mystery #1) (Hardcover)

By Richard Osman

$26.00

ISBN: 9781984880963

Availability: On Our Shelves

Published: Pamela Dorman Books - September 22nd, 2020

Please take me away from pandemics. And Osman does. He took me right to over-the-hill folks solving murders and being amusing as well. A great read. People being both smart and wise.

--Kathy

Luster: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Raven Leilani

$26.00

ISBN: 9780374194321

Availability: On Our Shelves

Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - August 4th, 2020

This novel felt like a story I was being told by my closest girlfriend over glasses of wine. Leilani's prose give a unique and realistic perspective to black female sexuality, feminism, extramarital relationships, and microaggressions in modern society. Hilarious, thought-provoking, and intimate.

--Milan

Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Kawai Strong Washburn

$27.00

ISBN: 9780374272081

Availability: Not in Our Store - Available to Order

Published: MCD - March 3rd, 2020

This is the story of the Filipino-Hawaiian Flores family. Life is a near constant struggle for Malia and Augie. But they have each other, their children, and the beautiful Big Island. With the collapse of the sugar cane industry and the declining financial condition of the family, the three children make their way to the mainland to attend university and to pursue lives there, not all happily. When tragedy revisits the family in Hawaii, they’re all forced to reevaluate their beliefs and the meaning of family. This book is so gorgeously written, the story and the characters will stay with me for a long time. One of my favorites this year.

--Nick