Book Lists

This category is for lists of books (example: Top 10 Books for Summer Reading)

Keaton's Top 10 Just Plain Good Books

I’m not gonna lie. This year has been a dumpster fire for me personally. Between raising a young child in this ongoing pandemic and trying to maintain the shelves here at the B, I had a helluva time focusing on reading for myself. Suffice it to say, I read far fewer books this year than at any point previous in my bookselling career. Call it exhaustion, I guess.

Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution By Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre (Translated by), Simon Carnell (Translated by) Cover Image
By Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre (Translated by), Simon Carnell (Translated by)
$20.00
ISBN: 9780593328880
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Riverhead Books - May 25th, 2021

The cutting-edge Italian physicist returns to recount the odyssey of quantum mechanics, beginning on a small island in the North Sea where a young man has an astounding idea with the power to destroy the world, redefine consciousness, and ultimately upend the very notion of reality itself. This is where truth really does become stranger than fiction...  


When We Cease to Understand the World By Benjamin Labatut, Adrian Nathan West (Translated by) Cover Image
By Benjamin Labatut, Adrian Nathan West (Translated by)
$17.95
ISBN: 9781681375663
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: New York Review Books - September 28th, 2021

But why should the truth have all the fun?! Labatut’s debut novel takes several key (and very real) scientific discoveries as its starting point to examine what happens to society and the individual mind when the world as we know it changes irrevocably. A page-turning feat of imagination, featuring some of the greatest minds of the 20th century, including some very interesting crossover with Helgoland. Consider reading both together!


Murder Maps USA: Crime Scenes Revisited; Bloodstains to Ballistics, 1865 -1939 By Adam Selzer Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9780500252598
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Thames & Hudson - December 7th, 2021

This is not for the squeamish. Replete with grisly, actual crime scene photos, this second installment in the Murder Maps series is a grand tour through American bloodlust and infamy. From outlaw icons like Bonnie and Clyde to long forgotten crimes of passion and opportunity, consider this an illicit treasure trove of true crime!


Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? By Eric Powell, Harold Schechter, Eric Powell (Illustrator) Cover Image
$29.99
ISBN: 9781949889048
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Albatross Funnybooks - August 24th, 2021

Back in the 1950s, Ed Gein’s notorious crimes and house of horrors in rural Wisconsin became the archetype for the modern American monster-next-door. This graphic novel explores his macabre legacy through stark black and white images accentuating Gein’s warped psychological state and the abject terror lying just beneath America’s sanitized mid-century image of itself.     


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This Thing Between Us: A Novel By Gus Moreno Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780374539238
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: MCD x FSG Originals - October 12th, 2021

The first great 21st century ghost story involves a young couple whose lives are being terrorized by a possessed smart speaker. What may sound kitschy at first blush turns out to be a dark tour through our inability to connect with one another in our hyperconnected world. Timely, horrifying, and psychologically intense.


Bewilderment: A Novel By Richard Powers Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9780393881141
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 21st, 2021

A beautiful, tragic ode to the love between a father and son that spans from the deepest recesses of the human heart to the farthest reaches of the universe in a search for hope in a dying world. What would you do with boundless emotional intelligence? How would you cope? Could you? These are the questions posed by one of America’s greatest living authors in his latest offering. 


Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness (Pantheon Graphic Library) By Kristen Radtke Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781524748067
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pantheon - July 13th, 2021

A revelatory work. Proof positive that graphic novels are every bit as powerful as any other form of literature. Radtke’s words and images form a cultural, personal, and critical excavation of loneliness that perfectly captures our moment in time. Sad and yet full of hope, this is the book we need right now. 


The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights (The Annotated Books) By Yasmine Seale (Translated by), Paulo Lemos Horta (Editor), Paulo Lemos Horta (Introduction by), Omar El Akkad (Foreword by), Robert Irwin (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Yasmine Seale (Translated by), Paulo Lemos Horta (Editor), Paulo Lemos Horta (Introduction by), Omar El Akkad (Foreword by), Robert Irwin (Afterword by)
$45.00
ISBN: 9781631493638
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Liveright - November 16th, 2021

I’ve been waiting for this book for five years, and now it is finally here! Norton’s annotated classics are total literary candy, full of background info and historical context, not to mention tons of amazing images. This newest translation of The Arabian Nights -- the first ever translated by a woman -- is a thing of beauty. It’s an indispensable addition to any library of world classics.


Lady Joker, Volume 1 By Kaoru Takamura, Allison Markin Powell (Translated by), Marie Iida (Translated by) Cover Image
By Kaoru Takamura, Allison Markin Powell (Translated by), Marie Iida (Translated by)
$28.95
ISBN: 9781616957018
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Soho Crime - April 13th, 2021

This first volume from one of Japan’s seminal works of contemporary literature is based on true events surrounding a corporate kidnapping that remains unsolved to this day -- the case of “the Monster with 21 Faces.” But this epic crime drama only begins there, spinning out to expose the ethnic tensions, corruption, and greed hidden beneath the sheen of the country’s late 20th century success. Get started now, because the concluding volume is set to release in 2022!


The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell By Brian Evenson Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781566896115
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Coffee House Press - August 3rd, 2021

Simply put, Brian Evenson is the most terrifying writer working today. His skill for compression and psychological suspense is unparalleled, so that each of his stories becomes its own suffocating capsular nightmare. He has already made a believer out of horror luminaries like Stephen King and RL Stine. If you are a fan of the spookies, read every word this man writes. 


Joy's Top 10 Books That Moved Me

Here are ten books that have stuck in my brain this year. Most of them are children’s books. If you’re not reading children’s lit, you should be. Kidlit authors are (in my humble opinion) far more dedicated than much of adult lit to representing the full spectrum of the world and the people in it. Also, even the most literary of kidlit generally has a plot, which I can’t say for all adult literary fic. Not that a slice of life fic with no discernable scaffolding other than stream of consciousness is a bad thing. I just prefer a narrative arc.

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People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present By Dara Horn Cover Image
Unavailable from Brazos Bookstore
ISBN: 9780393531565
Availability: OUT OF PRINT - Not Available for Order
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 7th, 2021

A searing and sometimes darkly funny set of essays on anti-Semistism that is a must read for everyone. There’s also a podcast that’s equally brilliant called Adventures with Dead Jews. Dara Horn is a brilliant scholar with a keen sense of both history and the absurd.


All These Bodies By Kendare Blake Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062977168
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Quill Tree Books - September 21st, 2021

When the ‘bloodless murders’ come to a small town in the 1950s, the sheriff’s son finds himself in the midst of the investigation. And the blood-soaked survivor he meets that one fateful night? She may not be what he thinks. Think: vampires meet Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.


One Last Stop By Casey McQuiston Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781250244499
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: St. Martin's Griffin - June 1st, 2021

This one’s a love story with a time slip. What if you saw the girl of your dreams on the NYC subway? What if she’d been stuck there since the 70s? What would you do to be with your true love? Romantic and wonderful. Think Kate and Leopold meets LGBTQ fiction.


The Adventure Is Now By Jess Redman Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780374314712
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) - May 4th, 2021

Milton P. Greene has had the worst school year ever. All he wants to do is hide in his room all summer and play his handheld game but his parents send him to Lone Island with his eccentric scientist uncle. Milton P. Greene is about to have the best summer of his life. Maybe. This is a happy, wonderful middle grade novel that will leave you cheering.


The House That Wasn't There By Elana K. Arnold Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062937063
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Walden Pond Press - March 30th, 2021

A boy named Alder and a girl named Oak. Two families with a connection that will slowly reveal itself. Stir in magic universal mysteries, time-portal kittens, and knitting, and you’ve got a heartwarming classic of a middle grade novel by one of the best authors writing today. 


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Vampenguin By Lucy Ruth Cummins, Lucy Ruth Cummins (Illustrator) Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781534466982
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Atheneum Books for Young Readers - July 20th, 2021

This picture book is for everyone. An infinitely clever ‘switcheroo’ as the Dracula family visits the zoo and baby Drac and baby penguin change places -- and no one notices... except the reader! The clever narration tells one story and the clever illustrations tell the real story. Love. Love. Love.


Inside Cat (Brendan Wenzel) By Brendan Wenzel (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Brendan Wenzel (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781452173191
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Chronicle Books - October 12th, 2021

Exquisitely and whimsically illustrated, Wenzel follows the perspective of a cat peering at the world outside its window. Simple yet profound. A picture book for all ages.


Amos McGee Misses the Bus By Philip C. Stead, Erin E. Stead (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Philip C. Stead, Erin E. Stead (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781250213228
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Roaring Brook Press - November 23rd, 2021

Zookeeper Amos is back again in this follow up to Stead’s Caldecott winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee. This time Amos misses the bus and loses his hat, but the faithful zoo animals are there to help. The illustrations by Stead’s wife Erin E. Stead are simply stunning. Kind and gentle -- a perfect balm these trying times. 


Zorrie By Laird Hunt Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781635575361
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - February 9th, 2021

Spare and moving and wonderful, Laird Hunt’s Zorrie is nuanced and layered. If like me (see my intro above) you like your literary-ish fiction with a plot line, you will love this story of a woman named Zorrie whose life unfolds against the backdrop of historical events from the Depression on up over the decades. Filled with hope and tenacity and longing.


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Pablo By Rascal, Rascal (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Rascal, Rascal (Illustrator)
$16.99
ISBN: 9781776573240
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Gecko Press (Tm) - May 4th, 2021

Pablo is a chick about to hatch from its egg. The book is lovely and clever, the artwork swoony. I bought this one for my four-year-old grandson. We read it together, he loved it, and I said, “Hey. Since Pablo the chick eats a croissant and drinks some hot chocolate to get ready for hatching, why don’t I take you to Starbucks and we’ll split a croissant and sip some hot chocolate?” So we do just that, and he says, “I’m thirsty,” so I get him an ice water and say “Sip it slowly,” but of course he sucks down 12 ounces. If you’re a parent you know where this is going. Back to the car (his mother’s car because I’m babysitting and that’s where the car seat is) I buckle him in and as soon as I click that belt tight I hear a stomach gurgle. I try to unbuckle him. Not fast enough. Luckily his mother is a smart woman and keeps a change of clothes and cleaning supplies in the trunk. But still. You should all buy Pablo


Mark's Top 10 Books Under the Radar

With thousands of books released every year it can be difficult for a single book to be noticed or gain recognition. Oftentimes being a bookseller seems like a passion project, an enterprise focused solely on getting those undiscovered gems in people’s hands, perhaps the book with a small publisher or the book not endlessly lauded in the major newspapers and websites. Below is a list of some incredible books that may have been missed, perhaps received some acclaim but not, in my opinion, nearly enough.

The Things We've Seen By Agustín Fernández Mallo, Thomas Bunstead (Translator) Cover Image
$21.95
ISBN: 9781913097301
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Fitzcarraldo Editions - August 3rd, 2021

This novel is easily my favorite book of the year as well as a sad statement about the lack of curiosity (or sense of possibility) for major US publishers. How this was largely ignored by American publishers is embarrassing. It's a groundbreaking novel whose themes accumulate slowly until one understands the web Mallo has spun. This novel incorporates history (our own and the world’s): the moon landing, the Spanish Civil War, and moves literally everywhere, from Brooklyn to Florida to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Complex, but never complicated. Ideal for fans of Roberto Bolaño and the films of David Lynch.


Cremation By Rafael Chirbes, Valerie Miles (Translated by) Cover Image
By Rafael Chirbes, Valerie Miles (Translated by)
$20.95
ISBN: 9780811224307
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: New Directions - November 2nd, 2021

A dense, bitter book about family, money, and the lies we tell ourselves. Told by a chorus of voices, the different characters slowly begin to blend, leaving the reader immersed in the echoes of the greed that took place following the dictatorship in Spain. Ideal for fans of Faulkner.  


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The Breaks By Julietta Singh Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781566896160
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Coffee House Press - September 7th, 2021

What is family? What is it supposed to look like? In stunning prose Singh walks us through a humane and new way of seeing oneself in the world. Told as a letter to her daughter, this book-length essay is tender, loving and filled with some of the most beautiful writing. While never ignoring the social, environmental, and political problems we face, this is a magical and singular book.


Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time (Berlin Family Lectures) By Teju Cole Cover Image
$22.50
ISBN: 9780226641355
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: University of Chicago Press - October 27th, 2021

One of America’s great writers returns with a collection of essays ranging from art to subjects as vast as photography, epiphany, and family. A stunning collection that contains essays read at the University of Chicago.


Gallery of Clouds By Rachel Eisendrath Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781681375434
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: New York Review Books - May 11th, 2021

A light and luminous collection that feels like a dream. Steeped in the pleasures of books and reading, Eisendrath focuses on Sir Philip Sidney’s 16th century pastoral romance, Arcadia. Yet the reader needs no knowledge of this work as the essays inside are universal and uplifting. 


Trafik By Rikki Ducornet Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781566896061
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Coffee House Press - April 13th, 2021

Rikki is an American treasure. Her novels and essays are some of the most original and singular works in the last two decades. This tiny novel bursts with imagination and a love of language. A post-earth, cosmic adventure, Quiver (mostly human) and her sidekick robot, Mic travel through space until they find themselves on the run. Evoking a longing for a planet they never knew, Quiver and Mic search for the fabled planet Trafik. An entire galaxy in under 100 pages. Magnificent. 


The Western Contingent (American Literature) By Jesse L. Anderson Cover Image
$13.95
ISBN: 9781628972825
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Dalkey Archive Press - July 6th, 2021

Based largely on events which took place during the Chinese Civil War, Anderson’s brief novel is a powerful statement on the futility, mania, and waste of war. A group of young civilians are conscribed to fight a mysterious enemy and, once indoctrinated, they travel. This, in fact, is all they do: travel. Amidst skirmishes and death the soldiers slowly realize no one is in charge and never has been. Even more frightening, they realize there is no safe haven in their own country. A haunting little novel.


Last Summer in the City: A Novel By Gianfranco Calligarich, Howard Curtis (Translated by), André Aciman (Contributions by), André Aciman (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Gianfranco Calligarich, Howard Curtis (Translated by), André Aciman (Contributions by), André Aciman (Foreword by)
$26.00
ISBN: 9780374600150
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - August 10th, 2021

A classic of contemporary Italian literature, this is Calligarch’s first novel translated into English. A young man moves to Rome as a freelance journalist. He mostly drinks, attends parties, and reflects on his circle of friends writing and living in Rome. A love letter to youth, aimlessness, and the classic Italian city. 


Migratory Birds By Mariana Oliver, Julia Sanches (Translator) Cover Image
By Mariana Oliver, Julia Sanches (Translator)
$15.95
ISBN: 9781945492525
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Transit Books - June 22nd, 2021

A thoughtful, provoking meditation on nature, migration, and the spaces we inhabit. This book is both grounded and yet light, with essays on the Berlin Wall, Revolutionary Cuba, and more. Delightful and quietly profound.


Insignificance By James Clammer Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781552454343
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Coach House Books - September 7th, 2021

 A day in the life of a plumber and yet so much more. It’s the plumber’s first day back at work after a nervous breakdown. The plumber is also a married father whose son went to prison for attempting to kill his mother (yes, the plumber’s wife) believing she was an imposter and not his ‘real’ mother. This novel's inner monologue is as funny and manic as it is sad and human. A tender look at masculinity and mental health. 


The Texas Bluebonnet Award 2021-2022 List

The Texas Library Association has officially announced their list for the 2021-2022 Bluebonnet Award! You can find their list here on the Brazos website!

Each year, 20 books are chosen for the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List. Schools and libraries around the state participate in the program, encouraging students to read a minimum of five books from the list. In January, students vote for their favorite title and the books with the most votes win!

Act (A Click Graphic Novel) By Kayla Miller, Kayla Miller (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Kayla Miller, Kayla Miller (Illustrator)
$12.99
ISBN: 9780358206354
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Clarion Books - July 21st, 2020

The Best of Iggy By Annie Barrows, Sam Ricks (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Annie Barrows, Sam Ricks (Illustrator)
$13.99
ISBN: 9781984813305
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers - January 21st, 2020

Black Brother, Black Brother By Jewell Parker Rhodes Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316493802
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - March 3rd, 2020

The Canyon's Edge By Dusti Bowling Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316494694
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - September 8th, 2020

Efrén Divided By Ernesto Cisneros Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780062881687
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Quill Tree Books - March 31st, 2020

The Elephant's Girl By Celesta Rimington Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780593121221
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Crown Books for Young Readers - May 19th, 2020

Follow Those Zebras: Solving a Migration Mystery By Sandra Markle Cover Image
$33.32
ISBN: 9781541538375
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Millbrook Press (Tm) - April 7th, 2020

A Hatful of Dragons: And More Than 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems By Vikram Madan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781684371501
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: Wordsong - March 18th, 2020

Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera By Candace Fleming, Eric Rohmann (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Candace Fleming, Eric Rohmann (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780823442850
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Neal Porter Books - February 4th, 2020

The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter By Aaron Reynolds Cover Image
$13.99
ISBN: 9781368051835
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - April 28th, 2020

Lexi Magill and the Teleportation Tournament By Kim Long Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780762466986
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Running Press Kids - October 1st, 2019

The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read By Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Oge Mora (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Oge Mora (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781524768287
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Anne Schwartz Books - January 7th, 2020

Our Friend Hedgehog: The Story of Us By Lauren Castillo Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781524766719
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Knopf Books for Young Readers - May 5th, 2020

Scary Stories for Young Foxes By Christian McKay Heidicker, Junyi Wu (Illustrator) Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781250181428
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) - July 30th, 2019

The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver By Gene Barretta, Frank Morrison (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Gene Barretta, Frank Morrison (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062430151
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Katherine Tegen Books - January 14th, 2020

Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello By Monica Brown, Elisa Chavarri (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Monica Brown, Elisa Chavarri (Illustrator)
$20.95
ISBN: 9780892394234
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Children's Book Press (CA) - August 18th, 2020

Someplace to Call Home By Sandra Dallas Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781585364145
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: Sleeping Bear Press - October 1st, 2019

Rick Riordan Presents: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky-A Tristan Strong Novel, Book 1 By Kwame Mbalia Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9781368042413
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Rick Riordan Presents - September 22nd, 2020

Ways to Make Sunshine (A Ryan Hart Story #1) By Renée Watson, Nina Mata (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Renée Watson, Nina Mata (Illustrator)
$16.99
ISBN: 9781547600564
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Bloomsbury Children's Books - April 28th, 2020

Words on Fire By Jennifer A. Nielsen Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781338275476
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Scholastic Press - October 1st, 2019

Brazos Bestsellers

Here's a list of the top selling books at Brazos Bookstore this week!

Apeirogon: A Novel By Colum McCann Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781400069606
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Random House - February 25th, 2020

Migrating to Prison: America's Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández Cover Image
$24.99
ISBN: 9781620974209
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: New Press - December 3rd, 2019

Staff Pick Badge
Reinhardt's Garden By Mark Haber Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781566895620
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Coffee House Press - October 1st, 2019

Scammed (Vale Hall #2) By Kristen Simmons Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250175830
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Tor Teen - February 4th, 2020

The Light Here Changes Everything: A Novella By Patrick Stockwell Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781680031928
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Texas Review Press - September 24th, 2019

Where the Crawdads Sing: Reese's Book Club (A Novel) By Delia Owens Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780735219090
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - August 14th, 2018

Homie: Poems By Danez Smith Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781644450109
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Graywolf Press - January 21st, 2020

A History of the Cat in Nine Chapters or Less By Anis Shivani Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781936196968
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: C&r Press - October 15th, 2019

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In the Dream House: A Memoir By Carmen Maria Machado Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781644450031
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: Graywolf Press - November 5th, 2019

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Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas (The Texas Bookshelf) By Stephen Harrigan Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9780292759510
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: University of Texas Press - October 1st, 2019

Brazos Staff Share Their Favorite Books from Childhood

Look at these photos! We were all undeniably adorable and we were also all incredible bookworms! Here are some of our all-time favorite books from when we were kids. Take a look, relive those golden days of childhood, and check out our picks in-store on the green cube outside the kid's room! Feeling nostalgic? Come on in and tell us about your most beloved stories!

Redwall: A Tale from Redwall By Brian Jacques, Gary Chalk (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Brian Jacques, Gary Chalk (Illustrator)
$10.99
ISBN: 9780142302378
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Firebird - September 30th, 2002

 SONIA

High fantasy and talking animals? Yes, please! The once and future Sonia will always have a soft spot for the lovely little critters that populate Brian Jacques's Redwall series. The first book in particular, propelled by the threat posed to the picturesque Redwall Abbey by Cluny the Scourge and the unlikely heroism of the mouse Matthias, holds a special place in my heart. A great read for adventurers of all sizes and species!


Hitty Her First Hundred Years By Rachel Field, Dorothy P. Lathrop (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Rachel Field, Dorothy P. Lathrop (Illustrator)
$8.99
ISBN: 9780689822841
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Aladdin - September 1st, 1998

 LAURA M.

1. This is an almost forgotten children's book written long before my actual childhood, but it was one of my favorites growing up. In the vein of Edward Tulane, this is the tale of a little wooden doll and her many adventures, from her first home in a small New England town to her voyage across the ocean all the way to India. Loved the gorgeous woodcut illustrations and imagining the secret lives of my own toys.


The Fledgling: A Newbery Honor Award Winner By Jane Langton Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9780064401210
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: HarperCollins - January 22nd, 2002

2. This book and the movie Fly Away Home inspired my OBSESSION with geese as a kid. This is the charming story of a girl growing up on the shores of Walden Pond, who one night is visited by a Canada goose who teaches her how to fly. A beautiful, poignant book about the power of imagination, generosity, and the quiet kind of strength.


The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Classic Fantasy Adventure Series (Official Edition) (Chronicles of Narnia #2) By C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator) Cover Image
By C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator)
$9.99
ISBN: 9780064404990
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: HarperCollins - January 2nd, 2008

MARK

*note: Mark did not provide a baby photo, so this was chosen for him. It is still an accurate depiction of him as a child.


A Picture of Freedom (Dear America) By Patricia C. McKissack Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780545242530
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Scholastic Press - January 1st, 2011

 LYRIC

I compulsively read and re-read the Dear America books when I was in middle school in 2001. At the time there were dozens, now there are only 5 available to order. You should be able to find the rest at your local library, as I did all those years ago. I recently revisited A PICTURE OF FREEDOM, and it handled difficult, complex subjects beautifully, while remaining true to historical reality. The series were just some of the many books that instilled in me a love of reading and writing and imagining!


Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing By Judy Blume Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9780142408810
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Puffin Books - April 5th, 2007

 KEATON

*note: This is the photo Keaton provided. Any issues with accuracy must be taken up with Keaton.

I don't know what is was about this book. Maybe it just found me at the right time, but TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING is the first book I ever read that really resonated with me as a reader--even if I didn't know what that meant at the time! The feelings of being overlooked and overwhelmed as a child trying to build a sense of individuality, the horrors of a younger sibling, the earliest twinge of social awkwardness developing at school. What can I say? Judy Blume just GOT 9-10 year old Keaton! It's one of my earliest memories of feeling seen in a work of fiction, and I still love TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING to this day.


The First Horror (Fear Street #1) By R.L. Stine Cover Image
$7.99
ISBN: 9780671885625
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Simon Pulse - August 1st, 1994

 ALANA

Fear Street. I specifically remember checking out The Prom Queen. The girl on the cover was wearing a very 80s/early 90s puffy sleeved dress and her reflection in the window/mirror WAS A SKULL. Trippy. So someone is murdering all the prom queen candidates at Shadyside High. Teen hijinks and murder ensue. I'm not sure why 11 year old Alana liked reading spooky things, but here we are.


Catwings By Ursula K. Le Guin Cover Image
$5.99
ISBN: 9780439551892
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Orchard Books - May 1st, 2003

 CASSIE

This book is all about a group of kittens who were born with wings. They decide to escape the danger of city life and fly away. Country life, however, is not as easy as they expect. I remember being completely spellbound by the illustrations, and my mom could get me to read anything if it was about a cat.


Half Magic (Tales of Magic #1) By Edward Eager, N. M. Bodecker (Illustrator), Alice Hoffman (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Edward Eager, N. M. Bodecker (Illustrator), Alice Hoffman (Introduction by)
$9.99
ISBN: 9780544671720
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Clarion Books - May 24th, 2016

 JOY

When I was eight I discovered Edward Eager's HALF MAGIC, which is about British siblings who, one boring summer, find a magic amulet on the ground which allows all sorts of amazing wishes to come true... but only half way. I adored this book. I read it over and over, scouring our Chicago neighborhood, hoping to stumble on a magic amulet and make my own boring summer with my younger brother become magical. I mean, who doesn't want to transform into a quippy British kid who finds magic? I'm still waiting, only slightly bitter.


Feelings By Aliki, Aliki (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Aliki, Aliki (Illustrator)
$9.99
ISBN: 9780688065188
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Greenwillow Books - May 21st, 2019

 TRACI

I've always had a lot of them. Feelings. 


The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet (The Secrets of Droon #1) By Tony Abbott, Tim Jessell (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Tony Abbott, Tim Jessell (Illustrator)
$5.99
ISBN: 9780590108393
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Scholastic Paperbacks - June 1st, 1999

 LAURA G

1. I have never once met anyone else who's read THE SECRETS OF DROON, but everyone should know about it! This chapter book series has magic, adventure, llamas with six legs, and talking pillows called Lumpys! If that doesn't strike your fancy I don't know what will!


The Girl Who Could Fly (Piper McCloud #1) By Victoria Forester Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9781250072467
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Square Fish - October 27th, 2015

2. Piper McCloud can fly. Just like that. Easy as pie! This is a soaring tale of a farm girl who's just a little bit different. It's odd, it's sweet, it's one of my all-time favorites! Just read the first page and tell me you're not in love! You just can't keep a good girl down!


Spring Has Spring: Books That Celebrate Springtime, Revival, and Nature

Spring has sprung and we’re excited to share a list of our favorite reads representing springtime, revival, and nature!

Laura G Recommends

Staff Pick Badge
Pond By Claire-Louise Bennett Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780399575907
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Riverhead Books - July 11th, 2017

This is a complete and utter escape en par with a certain other Irish writer's stream-of-consciousness masterpiece. Contemplative, rich, and an absolute delight - pure natural aesthetic pleasure!


Nightlights By Lorena Alvarez Cover Image
$10.99
ISBN: 9781910620571
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Nobrow - March 5th, 2019

Filled with rich, jewel-toned comic pages as well as luscious, dizzyingly detailed spreads, Alvarez brings the imagination to life in her latest graphic novel! Filled with nature-inspired imagery, this book is a gorgeous work of art for people of all ages!

Keaton Recommends


The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things --- Stories from Science and Observation By Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst (Translator) Cover Image
$24.95
ISBN: 9781771643887
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Greystone Books - March 5th, 2019

Everyone's favorite German tree whisperer rounds out his groundbreaking nature trilogy with his latest insightful deep dive into the world around us.


Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves By Frans de Waal Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9780393635065
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - March 12th, 2019

This book by primatologist, atheist and philosopher De Waal will break your heart and fill it with wonder. Using the life of chimpanzee matriarch Mama as a case study, his ever empathetic and brilliant mind explores the complex emotional life of our animal cousins.

Laura M Recommends


Staff Pick Badge
The Overstory: A Novel By Richard Powers Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780393356687
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - April 2nd, 2019

Out in paperback 4/2! A masterpiece. This dizzying tale draws together several strangers and the natural world that is fading around them in an epic struggle for the future of American forests. Engaging and timely without being didactic, THE OVERSTORY is Powers at his best.

Richard Powers will be with Tayari Jones for an event with Inprint on 4/22!


Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America By Jon Mooallem Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780143125372
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Penguin Books - May 27th, 2014

Mooallem dives deep into our conflicted relationship with animals, and the extreme lengths we will go to save endangered species. A beautiful, tender book that reveals much more about us than it does about the creatures we are trying to save.


The Oldest Living Things in the World By Rachel Sussman, Carl Zimmer (Memoir by), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Memoir by) Cover Image
By Rachel Sussman, Carl Zimmer (Memoir by), Hans Ulrich Obrist (Memoir by)
$60.00
ISBN: 9780226057507
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: University of Chicago Press - April 14th, 2014

Artist and scientist Rachel Sussman set out to photograph the old living things in the world. This stunning coffee table book reminds us how fleeting and precious a single human life is against the backdrop of mosses, lichen, and tree systems that have lived for centuries.

Joy Recommends


Where the Crawdads Sing: Reese's Book Club (A Novel) By Delia Owens Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780735219090
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - August 14th, 2018

This latest pick for Reese Witherspoon's Book Club is part coming of age story and part murder mystery, set against the backdrop of the lonely North Carolina marsh lands, so vividly depicted they serve as their own sort of fully-realized and mesmerizing character.


Angel Thieves By Kathi Appelt Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781442421097
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books - March 12th, 2019

Set in Houston both past and present, ANGEL THIEVES intertwines the stories of a father and son eeking out a living stealing cemetery angels, an escaped slave and her daughters, an ocelot, a marble carver, a teenage girl, and the ever-present, ever-moving Buffalo Bayou, which sees them all in Newbery Award winner and National Book Award nominee Appelt's lyrical, gorgeous new YA novel. We are hosting Kathi Appelt on 4/24! Join us!

Katie Recommends


The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish By Katya Apekina Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9781937512750
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Two Dollar Radio - September 18th, 2018

Each character in this novel are extremely flawed, facts become blurred as the Louisiana humidity and swamps take over a mother with mental illness and her two daughters are left to understand what has happened. A story of family and the dark cloud our past and the choices our family make that effect our past present and future.


A City Inside: Hardcover Edition By Tillie Walden Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781910395417
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Avery Hill Publishing - October 15th, 2018

A story that shifts between the surreal and the everyday as a woman looks back on her childhood and growing up, ultimately about discovering who we are and want to be in life while not having just one coming-of-age, but multiple in a lifetime. A beautiful reminder that who we are in this moment does not define who we can become.


Aesthetica Botanica: A Life with Plants By Sandu Publications (Editor) Cover Image
By Sandu Publications (Editor)
$45.00
ISBN: 9781584236863
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Gingko Press - September 15th, 2018

Green thumb or not this book will inspire you to create a garden of your own no matter where you live. Full of gorgeous photos and inspiration for all types of spaces.

Sara Recommends


Staff Pick Badge
Reinhardt's Garden By Mark Haber Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781566895620
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Coffee House Press - October 1st, 2019

Our very own Habes has the jungle down pat in his exploratory, lucid adventure story. Life, death, renewal, past, present — all is represented in this obsessive and philosophically driven novella. Out this fall. Sorry, you'll have to wait for this one!


Spring Garden (Japanese Novellas #2) By TOMOKA SHIBASAKI, Polly Barton (Translated by) Cover Image
By TOMOKA SHIBASAKI, Polly Barton (Translated by)
$13.95
ISBN: 9781782272700
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Pushkin Press - November 7th, 2017

Taro is one of the last residents in a 12-apartment complex slated for demolition, each home named after a zodiac symbol. He becomes friends with a woman in his complex who is obsessed with the beautiful and unusual house next door. This book beautifully encompasses themes of growth, rebirth, and nostalgia.


Binstead's Safari By Rachel Ingalls Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9780811228466
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: New Directions - February 26th, 2019

This incredible feminist writer just passed away, and her works have been woefully under-worshipped. In BINSTEAD’S SAFARI, a woman finds agency during a trip to Africa with her husband. As they travel, she transforms from a rather bland woman to a fabulous social butterfly who is able to find satisfaction wholly separately from her self-indulgent husband. Tongue-in-cheek and utterly pleasing, this book engages the mystique of the local fauna (it is Rachel Ingalls, after all... hint, hint).

Alana Recommends


The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea By Jack E. Davis Cover Image
$29.95
ISBN: 9780871408662
Availability: UNAVAILABLE
Published: Liveright - March 14th, 2017

Take a deep dive into the Gulf of Mexico with this Pulitzer Prize-winning work of ecological history. Davis weaves a rich narrative that looks closely at the people, industries, and wildlife that call this sea home.

Lyric Recommends


The Color Purple By Alice Walker Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9780156028356
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Mariner Books - May 28th, 2003

Celie's story is like a blooming flower: out of traumas imposed by men, and the violence of the Jim Crow South, she comes into the love that can exist between people who care for one another. All of this pivots on her lover Shug's theology of nature, rooted in the sensuality of fields of flowers, rain, wind and the sky.


Women's History Month: What's the Staff Reading Right Now?

The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II By Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear (Translated by), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translated by) Cover Image
By Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear (Translated by), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translated by)
$18.00
ISBN: 9780399588747
Availability: BACKORDERED
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 3rd, 2018

Winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, Ukrainian author Svetlana Alexievich is an utterly original voice in modern writing. Her books are described as "oral histories" where Alexievich interviews people from every facet of society: farmers to government officials to soldiers. Her books look bravely into the abyss of the 20th and 21st century, seeing the brutal reality of events like the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, war and its aftermath. There's very little in modern writing as visceral and urgent as her books; they're as important as they are moving.

- Mark


Herstory: 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World (Stories That Shook Up the World) By Katherine Halligan, Sarah Walsh (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Katherine Halligan, Sarah Walsh (Illustrator)
$21.99
ISBN: 9781534436640
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - September 11th, 2018

Written and Illustrated by two women this picture book is not only beautiful but full of amazing powerful women from around the world. From artists to activists, this book guarantees to teach you about an important woman in history you maybe don't know.

- Katie


The Changeling By Joy Williams Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781941040898
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Tin House Books - April 10th, 2018

A drunken heroine meets a dark and mysterious stranger, who whisks her away to an isolated island estate overrun with near-feral children. What unfolds is a haunting and utterly odd take on the modern fairy tale from one of America's greatest living writers.

- Keaton


Madame Victoria By Catherine LeRoux, Lazer Lederhendler (Translator) Cover Image
$14.95
ISBN: 9781771962070
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Biblioasis - November 13th, 2018

This translated book cuts to the heart of what it is to occupy a female body - the fear, the joy, and the rage. Twelve speculative stories demonstrate a vast range of emotion - at times they are uplifting and peaceful before diving back into the narrative's constantly present, violent underbelly. Haunting, visceral, and so important.

- Laura


Recitation By Suah Bae, Deborah Smith (Translator) Cover Image
By Suah Bae, Deborah Smith (Translator)
$14.95
ISBN: 9781941920466
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Deep Vellum Publishing - January 24th, 2017

RECITATION charts the travels of a mysterious traveler and voice actress after she arrives at an empty train station in Europe. As the book’s pages creep by, the lone woman’s narrative becomes ever more tangled in her personal identity, family past, and the imagined collective past of city dwellers in general. Bae Suah weaves a lyrical exploration of self-discovery through the eyes of what could be any number of female identities. This is a remarkable book that manages both experimentation and nonlinearity and thoughtful, deliberate plot.

-Sara


LitHaus: A Goethe Pop-Up Houston Reading List

Brazos Bookstore is excited to partner with the Goethe-Institut's Houston pop-up for a year of cultural events in our city.

The Goethe Pop Up Houston presents LitHAUS, a monthly reading series for contemporary German literature. Each month’s selection will be accompanied by a talk or discussion around the work and its wider themes. Reading the work is encouraged but not required. Everyone is welcome to join in! Find more information about Goethe Pop Up Houston here.

Memoirs of a Polar Bear By Yoko Tawada, Susan Bernofsky (Translated by) Cover Image
By Yoko Tawada, Susan Bernofsky (Translated by)
$16.95
ISBN: 9780811225786
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: New Directions - November 8th, 2016

Memoirs of a Polar Bear stars three generations of talented writers and performers. Famous stars of the literary world, the circus, and the zoo, they happen to be polar bears who move human society. In part one, the matriarch, enjoying “the intimacy of being alone with my pen,” accidentally writes a bestselling autobiography in the Soviet Union. In part two, her daughter Tosca moves to East Germany and pioneers a thrilling circus act. And Tosca’s son—the last of their line—is Knut, born in part three and raised by a human keeper in relatively happy circumstances in the Berlin zoo.


Staff Pick Badge
Before the Feast By Sasa Stanisic, Anthea Bell (Translated by) Cover Image
By Sasa Stanisic, Anthea Bell (Translated by)
$15.95
ISBN: 9781941040393
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Tin House Books - June 14th, 2016

It’s the evening before the feast in the village of Fürstenfelde. The village is asleep. Except for the ferryman—he’s dead. And Mrs. Kranz, the night-blind painter, who wants to depict her village for the first time at night. A bell-ringer and his apprentice want to ring the bells—the only problem is that the bells have gone. A vixen is looking for eggs for her young, and Mr. Schramm is discovering more reasons to quit life than to quit smoking. Someone has opened the doors to the Village Archive, but what drives the sleepless out of their houses is not that which was stolen, but that which has escaped. Old stories, myths, and fairy tales are wandering about the streets with the people. They come together in a novel about a long night, a mosaic of village life, in which the long-established and newcomers, the dead and the living, craftsmen, pensioners, and noble robbers in football jerseys bump into one another. They all want to bring something to a close, on this night before the feast.


Bricks and Mortar By Clemens Meyer, Katy Derbyshire (Translator) Cover Image
By Clemens Meyer, Katy Derbyshire (Translator)
$25.00
ISBN: 9781910695197
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Fitzcarraldo Editions - May 8th, 2018

Bricks and Mortar is the story of the sex trade in a big city in the former GDR, from just before 1989 to the present day, charting the development of the industry from absolute prohibition to full legality in the twenty years following the reunification of Germany. The focus is on the rise and fall of one man from football hooligan to large-scale landlord and service- provider for prostitutes to, ultimately, a man persecuted by those he once trusted. But we also hear other voices: many different women who work in prostitution, their clients, small-time gangsters, an ex-jockey searching for his drug-addict daughter, a businessman from the West, a girl forced into child prostitution, a detective, a pirate radio presenter…


The Fox and Dr. Shimamura By Christine Wunnicke, Philip Boehm (Translated by) Cover Image
By Christine Wunnicke, Philip Boehm (Translated by)
$15.95
ISBN: 9780811226240
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: New Directions - April 30th, 2019

The Fox and Dr. Shimamura toothsomely encompasses Japan and Europe, memory and actuality, fox-possession myths and psychiatric mythmaking. The novel begins near the story’s end, in Dr. Shimamura’s retirement. A feverish invalid, he’s watched over by four women: his wife, his mother, his mother-in- law, and a nurse (originally one of his psychiatric patients). As an outstanding young Japanese medical student at the end of the nineteenth century, Dr. Shimamura is sent—to his dismay—to the provinces: he is asked to cure scores of young women of an epidemic of fox possession. He considers the assignment a joke, believing it’s all a hoax, until he sees a fox moving under the skin of a beauty. He comes to believe not just in fox possession, but also that he in fact “cured” the young woman with a kiss, by breathing in the fox demon (the root of his lifelong fever). Next he travels to Europe and works with such luminaries as Charcot, Breuer and (briefly) Freud himself.


All Russians Love Birch Trees: A Novel By Olga Grjasnowa Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781590515846
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: Other Press - January 7th, 2014

Set in Frankfurt, All Russians Love Birch Trees follows a young immigrant named Masha. Fluent in five languages and able to get by in several others, Masha lives with her boyfriend, Elias. Her best friends are Muslims struggling to obtain residence permits, and her parents rarely leave the house except to compare gas prices. Masha has nearly completed her studies to become an interpreter, when suddenly Elias is hospitalized after a serious soccer injury and dies, forcing her to question a past that has haunted her for years. With cool irony, Grjasnowa’s debut novel tells the story of a headstrong young woman for whom the issue of origin and nationality is immaterial—her Jewish background has taught her she can survive anywhere. Yet Masha isn’t equipped to deal with grief, and this all-too-normal shortcoming gives a particularly bittersweet quality to her adventures.


River By Esther Kinsky, Iain Galbraith (Translator) Cover Image
By Esther Kinsky, Iain Galbraith (Translator)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781945492174
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Transit Books - September 4th, 2018

A woman moves to a London suburb near the River Lea, without knowing quite why or for how long. Over a series of long, solitary walks she reminisces about the rivers she has encountered during her life, from the Rhine, her childhood river, to the Saint Lawrence, and a stream in Tel Aviv. Filled with poignancy and poetic observation, River is an ode to nature, edgelands, and the transience of all things human.


Sand By Wolfgang Herrndorf, Tim Mohr (Translated by), Michael Maar (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Wolfgang Herrndorf, Tim Mohr (Translated by), Michael Maar (Afterword by)
$18.95
ISBN: 9781681372013
Availability: Unlikely to Be Available
Published: NYRB Classics - June 12th, 2018

North Africa, 1972. While the world is reeling from the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, a series of mysterious events is playing out in the Sahara. Four people are murdered in a hippie commune, a suitcase full of money disappears, and a pair of unenthusiastic detectives are assigned to investigate. In the midst of it all, a man with no memory tries to evade his armed pursuers. Who are they? What do they want from him? If he could just recall his own identity he might have a chance of working it out. . . .


I Called Him Necktie By Milena Michiko Flasar, Sheila Dickie (Translator) Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9781939931146
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: New Vessel Press - September 9th, 2014

Twenty-year-old Taguchi Hiro has spent the last two years of his life living as a hikikomori—a shut-in who never leaves his room and has no human interaction—in his parents’ home in Tokyo. As Hiro tentatively decides to reenter the world, he spends his days observing life around him from a park bench. Gradually he makes friends with Ohara Tetsu, a middle-aged salaryman who has lost his job but can’t bring himself to tell his wife, and shows up every day in a suit and tie to pass the time on a nearby bench. As Hiro and Tetsu cautiously open up to each other, they discover in their sadness a common bond. Regrets and disappointments, as well as hopes and dreams, come to the surface until both find the strength to somehow give a new start to their lives.


Go, Went, Gone By Jenny Erpenbeck, Susan Bernofsky (Translated by) Cover Image
By Jenny Erpenbeck, Susan Bernofsky (Translated by)
$16.95
ISBN: 9780811225946
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: New Directions - September 26th, 2017

Go, Went, Gone tells the tale of Richard, a retired classics professor who lives in Berlin. His wife has died, and he lives a routine existence until one day he spies some African refugees staging a hunger strike in Alexanderplatz. Curiosity turns into compassion and an inner transformation as he visits their shelter, interviews them, and becomes embroiled in their harrowing fates. Go, Went, Gone is a scathing indictment of Western policy toward the European refugee crisis, but also a touching portrait of a man who finds he has more in common with the Africans than he realizes.


My Father Was a Man on Land and a Whale in the Water By Michelle Steinbeck, Jen Calleja (Translator) Cover Image
By Michelle Steinbeck, Jen Calleja (Translator)
$12.95
ISBN: 9781850773184
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Darf Publishers - October 18th, 2018

A child attacks Loribeth with an iron while she is sleeping. In retaliation Loribeth throws the iron onto the child from an upstairs window, packs the damaged body into a suitcase and sets off on her travels. Thus starts Steinbeck’s unusual, poetic novella about a young woman’s transition from childhood to adulthood. Loribeth and her suitcase begin an odyssey through nightmarish locations in search of her absent father. What ensues is a Freudian adult fairytale.


The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine By Alina Bronsky, Tim Mohr (Translated by) Cover Image
By Alina Bronsky, Tim Mohr (Translated by)
$15.00
ISBN: 9781609450069
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Europa Editions - April 26th, 2011

Rosa Achmetowna is the outrageously nasty and wily narrator of this rollicking family saga. When she discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter, “stupid Sulfia,” is pregnant by an unknown man she does everything to thwart the pregnancy, employing a variety of folkloric home remedies. But despite her best efforts the baby, Aminat, is born nine months later at Soviet Birthing Center Number 134. Much to Rosa’s surprise and delight, dark eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through and instantly becomes the apple of her grandmother’s eye. While her good for nothing husband Kalganow spends his days feeding pigeons and contemplating death at the city park, Rosa wages an epic struggle to wrestle Aminat away from Sulfia, whom she considers a woefully inept mother. When Aminat, now a wild and willful teenager, catches the eye of a sleazy German cookbook writer researching Tartar cuisine, Rosa is quick to broker a deal that will guarantee all three women a passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the uproariously dysfunctional ties that bind mother, daughter and grandmother begin to fray.


Playing Around in the Spaces Between: Improvising Poems

In improvising poetry, aka a live-action cento, aka fashioning a poetry jam band, I start with a makeshift canon. Like throwing a party, you put different poets, different styles at play with/in each other, and see if it takes off. Like throwing a party, I try to be well-rested and hydrated before I host. I spend time thinking of who to invite. I light a candle. I open the space up. I have party games ready in case it gets awkward. There is some noise, which starts out steady and comforting, before we trust each other enough to get real weird.

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 By Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison (Foreword by), Kevin Young (Editor) Cover Image
By Lucille Clifton, Toni Morrison (Foreword by), Kevin Young (Editor)
$40.00
ISBN: 9781934414903
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: BOA Editions - August 28th, 2012

A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)Tics By Caconrad Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781933517599
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Wave Books - April 3rd, 2012

Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (Vintage Contemporaries) By Anne Carson Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780375701290
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 27th, 1999

Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965-1990 Complete By Alice Walker Cover Image
$25.99
ISBN: 9780156028615
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: Amistad - May 17th, 2004

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds By Adrienne Maree Brown Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781849352604
Availability: NOT ON OUR SHELVES. Usually Arrives in 4-7 Business Days
Published: AK Press - April 18th, 2017

Other recommended texts include Sun Ra's This Planet is Doomed: The Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra and CA Conrad's Ecodeviance: (Soma)tics for Future Wilderness.

Elena Gonzales Melinger is a poet and writer. Her work has appeared in the Texas Review, Glass Mountain and Dangerous Constellations. She has performed most recently with Public Poetry and Poetry Fix. Her chapbook, Write What You Know, and zine, Light Skinned Tears, will be available at Brazos Bookstore on February 8th, 2019 for her event.

 


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