Sadie (Hardcover)

By Courtney Summers

$17.99

ISBN: 9781250105714

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Wednesday Books - September 4th, 2018

A dead girl. A sister’s revenge. A podcast. A powerhouse and now bestselling novel with two narrative strands from an author you should all be reading.

The Hate U Give (Hardcover)

By Angie Thomas

$18.99

ISBN: 9780062498533

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Balzer + Bray - February 28th, 2017

Technically this one came out last year, but the movie arrived a few weeks ago. If you haven’t read it, read it. A girl with a foot in two worlds. A senseless shooting. Our sadly pervasive racial divides. Standing up for the truth. Starr’s story is so much more than a ‘ripped from the headlines’ read.

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (Hardcover)

By Mackenzi Lee

$18.99

ISBN: 9780062795328

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Katherine Tegen Books - October 2nd, 2018

Felicity Montague is going to achieve her dream of becoming a physician-- even if it’s the 1700s and the world expects nothing more of her than to be a wife and raise a brood. Adventure. Lady Pirates. Girl power. And organically seamless LGBTQ representation in this companion to last year’s GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE.

Moxie: A Novel (Paperback)

By Jennifer Mathieu

$9.99

ISBN: 9781250104267

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Square Fish - September 18th, 2018

Another title that’s been out since last year, but which had to be on this list, both for its brilliance and for Houston author Mathieu’s own tireless political advocacy work. A teen girl fights institutional misogyny through her initially anonymous Moxie zine. A feminist primer.

A Room Away From the Wolves (Hardcover)

By Nova Ren Suma

$18.95

ISBN: 9781616203733

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Algonquin Young Readers - September 4th, 2018

No one writes twisty disturbing , angry girl stories quite like Nova Ren Suma, who like Elana K. Arnold and Margo Lanagan and others goes fearlessly after her themes. This one’s a little Gothic, a lot mysterious, and a willingness to create flawed girls whose determination to break free makes them beautiful.

Out of Print Book Nerd Socks

$12.00

SKU: 704907495692

Brazos has been carrying Out of Print before I even became the gift buyer. Established in 2010, with every purchase they donate books to support literacy programs around the world. One of my favorite items from Out of Print is their incredible socks. This year they have expanded the line to include kids' sizes! 

Two of my favorites are the adult Book Nerd and kids Library socks. For the kids' socks, the "return dates" on the bottom are actually grips.

Musee Bath Sage and Tobacco Candle

$26.00

SKU: 617353292626

Thu and I discovered Musee while we were in New York for the gift expo NY. I not only fell in love with their amazing line of bath balms, soaps, and candles but also their philosophy regarding helping their community. Musee Bath is a natural bath and candle company in Madison County, Mississippi. Mussee Bath hires women in recovery, individuals with disabilities, and people that haven’t had the opportunities to receive an education. Each of their bath balms features either a fun surprise or a reusable water activated light. The candles come in amazing packages that features a great quote; when burned, the scent fills a room. The soaps are made from essential oils that not only smell great but also leave your skin moisturized.

eeBoo Crazy Kitten Puzzle

$8.00

SKU: 689196506413

eeBoo is a woman-owned and -run company that features educational games and gifts. They have 100% original artwork, which means they’re able to commission the artwork from well-known children’s book illustrators! Crazy Kitten Puzzle is by far my favorite item of the holidays for kids. Featuring artwork by Monika Forsberg, this portable puzzle contains 20 jumbo pieces –– a perfect size for little hands. The cord handle makes it easy to take anywhere, anytime.

Autobiography of Death (Paperback)

By Kim Hyesoon, Don Mee Choi (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9780811227346

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: New Directions Publishing Corporation - November 27th, 2018

I love Kim Hyesoon’s poetry. Her spectacular, grotesque book All the Garbage of the World, Unite was a favorite of mine in 2011, when it came out. In Autobiography of Death, Kim Hyesoon has compiled 49 poems, each of which represents a day a soul experiences on earth between death and reincarnation. Again, Hyesoon delves into the gross squall of bodily decomposition (in the first poem, the spirit watches as the body dies and has her personal belongings burgled), while also mourning the way society responds to major structural crises.

The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories (Paperback)

By Yukiko Motoya, Asa Yoneda (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781593766788

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Soft Skull Press - November 6th, 2018

My favorite thing about these stories is that they’re all set in mundane every day places — homes, supermarkets, boutiques — and yet form a bridge between the familiar and the alien. These characters are tied together by a sense of longing or frustration that cannot be satisfied by their typical rigamarole. The Lonesome Bodybuilder’s vignettes will appeal to lovers of the surreal, but also to people who never stopped seeing magic in the everyday. Motoya allows the strange and mystical to become an often joyous part of life; without judgement, the abnormal and normal are able to merge.

The Taiga Syndrome (Paperback)

By Cristina Rivera Garza

$16.00

ISBN: 9780997366679

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Dorothy a Publishing Project - October 1st, 2018

All of the paranoia that Yukiko Motoya renounced is here, in this book. An unnamed ex-detective comes out of retirement to venture deep into a strange forest an with eerie pull. Her intent is to find a man’s ex-wife, but once inside the forest her mission becomes splintered. This book is a freak show, a Little Red Riding Hood story, a fairy tale. It’s all wrapped up into a slim package that will immerse you and leave you desperately confused but thrilled.

Comemadre (Paperback)

By Roque Larraquy, Heather Cleary (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566895156

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Coffee House Press - July 10th, 2018

This little book accomplishes so much in 150 pages. The book ricochets from a failed, morally-dubious experiment in a 1907 asylum to the performance art scene in the early 2000s. If you’re looking for a wild ride, this might be your dream novel. Mixing lowbrow and highbrow, science and art, Comemadre has everything from frog figurines to talking heads to identical artists, all of which culminate in investigating the questions: do we have a soul? When does the body die? What is transcendence?

On a Sunbeam (Paperback)

By Tillie Walden

$21.99

ISBN: 9781250178138

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: First Second - October 2nd, 2018

Tillie Walden always does a spectacular job with world-building. In her newest graphic novel, a girl crosses space and time to find her long-lost lover. The narrative is deeply moving, but the best thing about ON A SUNBEAM is how INCREDIBLE it is as a visual object. Walden uses rich colors to share emotion and atmosphere in frames where characters are fairly quiet.

See my interview with Tillie here!

After the Winter (Paperback)

By Guadalupe Nettel, Rosalind Harvey (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566895255

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Coffee House Press - September 4th, 2018

This quiet yet incisive, death-tinged love story explores how even the briefest relationships can affect us utterly and forever. Nettel’s best yet to find its way into English translation.

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: Stories (Hardcover)

By Denis Johnson

$27.00

ISBN: 9780812988635

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Random House - January 16th, 2018

An unintended swan song for a true American original. Johnson was still at the height of his powers when he died just before the release of this collection. There is no barrel scraping here. Just whip smart, funny, heartfelt, perfectly crafted short fiction.

Friday Black (Paperback)

By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

$14.99

ISBN: 9781328911247

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Mariner Books - October 23rd, 2018

A full throttle debut collection that reads like a hybrid of Vonnegut and Paul Beatty. Adjei-Brenyah writes piercing, darkly satirical tales for our troubled times. Just read the first story, and see if your jaw doesn’t drop.

and the winner is...FRIDAY BLACK!!!!!

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...and the nominees for Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 are:

 

The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath (Hardcover)

By Leslie Jamison

$30.00

ISBN: 9780316259613

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Little, Brown and Company - April 3rd, 2018

This is not an addiction memoir. Although, Jamison does recount her trials with alcoholism, this stunning work is instead a learned and experienced critique of the perceived link between substance abuse and creative genius.

The Overstory (Hardcover)

By Richard Powers

$27.95

ISBN: 9780393635522

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: W. W. Norton & Company - April 3rd, 2018

A singular work of fiction from one of America’s most undersung authors. Powers has achieved something no other writer has before. He’s written a truly environmental novel where humans are not the most interesting thing about it. Instead, the multiple characters are envisioned as part of a larger, more inclusive system of life. Spanning centuries and crisscrossing the country, the devastation of the last virgin forests is the backdrop of a climatic struggle for the future of the natural world. An absolute masterpiece.

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Honorable Mentions: 

Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857-2017 (Hardcover)

By Helena Reckitt (Editor), Lucinda Gosling (Text by), Hilary Robinson (Text by), Amy Tobin (Text by), Maria Balshaw (Preface by), Xabier Arakistain (Foreword by)

$45.00

ISBN: 9781452169927

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Chronicle Books - October 23rd, 2018

An amazing large art book that is essential for the feminist art lover in your life. THE ART OF FEMINISM follows the feminist movement and the ways in which the visual arts and media have propelled the movement and the women creating it. This book has a little bit of everything—illustrations, paintings, photography, performance, and graphic design. Accompanying the works are essays about the art and the artist. Feel empowered reading this book and get out and create some fierce art!

Perennial (Paperback)

By Kelly Forsythe

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566895170

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Coffee House Press - August 7th, 2018

I read COLUMBINE this year by the journalist Dave Cullen after steering clear of it for a long time, but with all the terrible issues surrounding gun control I realized it was something I needed to read and understand as an event that sparked a continued issue in American culture. In her absolutely standout poetry collection, Kelly Forsythe uses the post-Columbine world to show the changes in both the youth from that moment forward and her and understanding of herself as a young girl. This collection is incredibly moving, and Forsythe writes about the tenderness of youth, growing up, and how we become aware of grief and loss at a young age.

The Reckonings: Essays (Hardcover)

By Lacy M. Johnson

$26.00

ISBN: 9781501159008

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Scribner - October 9th, 2018

Where do I even begin! I have highlighted and written all over my copy of THE RECKONINGS and continue to reread chapters months after finishing the collection of essays. It’s a fantastic continuation or introduction to Johnson’s works concerning the subject of her own sexual assault which she writes about in her memoir THE OTHER SIDE. Through the twelve essays Johnson draws from art, history, philosophy, mythology and many other subjects to discuss our current era of sexual assault, harassment, police brutality, school shootings, and issues with incarceration. This collection focuses on what is wrong and how we should try to fix where society has fallen short. Johnson does not suggest pointing the finger or demanding vengeance, rather embracing honesty and the acknowledgement of all people and the pain they have experienced at the hands of others, society, and the law. An overarching theme of this collection is hope and finding hope even and grabbing on even when it seems impossible…this has been and will continue to be my mantra.

Pantone: 10 Notebooks (Diary)

By Pantone Inc.

$19.95

ISBN: 9781452149783

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Chronicle Books - August 16th, 2016

PANTONE 10 NOTEBOOKS These notebook are fun and awesome! Ten notebooks seems like a lot, but they are the perfect size for a stocking stuffer or meeting a friend for coffee during the holidays! Keep one notebook in your car, at work, on your nightstand, and in your bag. The sleek design and gorgeous pantone colors make these a must have for Holiday gift giving.

Leuchtturm 1917 Dotted Notebook - Orange

$19.95

SKU: 4004117394157

My personal favorite journal. This journal goes everywhere with me, I bullet journal in this, draw, write, and fill it with daily thoughts and ideas. I love the bright color of this journal and it’s simple design and perfect size to carry everywhere.

The Ensemble: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Aja Gabel

$26.00

ISBN: 9780735214767

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Riverhead Books - May 15th, 2018

How often do we get to grow along with and spend the greater part of our lives with another person? Does persistence and proximity pull us closer? Would creating and nurturing something together help us anticipate and strengthen our bonds? Can loss and change define relationships? Aja Gabel’s The Ensemble affords us this rare opportunity to witness bonds that surpass time and what defines and strengthens them through the lives of Jana, Henry, Brit, and Daniel, who form the Van Ness String Quartet.

Strange Weather in Tokyo (Paperback)

By Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781640090163

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Counterpoint LLC - November 14th, 2017

Hiromi Kawakami’s Strange Weather in Tokyo is not quite your typical love story. A treat for fans of Haruki Murakami’s love stories (i.e., Norwegian Wood), SWT thoughtfully renders humanism where Murakami’s other-worldly characters miss. In addition, read it for the vivid Tokyo cityscape and drool-worthy Japanese meals.

Number One Chinese Restaurant: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Lillian Li

$27.00

ISBN: 9781250141293

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Henry Holt and Co. - June 19th, 2018

Two reads, interview, and a panel discussion later, Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant is the one that did it for me and for the record is my ‘Number One Favorite Book’ of 2018. A rich and heartfelt story about a Chinese restaurant and the colorful lives of the people who breathe life into it, Li’s intention and brilliance shine through every page and gives me hope for the future of Asian and Asian-American stories. Read my interview with Lillian here! 

Convenience Store Woman (Hardcover)

By Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator)

$20.00

ISBN: 9780802128256

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Grove Press - June 12th, 2018

For 18 years, fluorescent lighting, beeps and chimes, ebb and flow, and even the food of the convenience store courses through Keiko’s veins. The convenience store provides for her and it’s the life she knows. But when this life clashes with her family’s wishes for her to meet society’s standards, she is resigned to conform. An entertaining and refreshing critique on the pressures of society.

Chemistry: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) (Paperback)

By Weike Wang

$16.00

ISBN: 9780525432227

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Vintage - April 3rd, 2018

What do we know about the unnamed narrator in Weike Wang’s Chemistry? She has roughly a year to finishing her Ph.D. in chemistry (and fulfilling her parents dreams), her boyfriend Eric proposed (twice), but all she can think is how she’s not up to the task. Hilarious, smart, penetrating, and poignant, Wang’s narrator is brilliant albeit lacking in social skills whose relentless and polarizing sensibilities makes her the greatest unsung hero. I love this book!

The Wrong Heaven (Hardcover)

By Amy Bonnaffons

$26.00

ISBN: 9780316516211

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Little, Brown and Company - July 17th, 2018

I often struggle with short story collections. By the time I get invested in one story, it’s over, and I have to go through the whole process again. That wasn’t the case with THE WRONG HEAVEN. I read this weird and wonderful collection in one sitting! Each protagonist faces a dizzying array of strange problems. These women have sex with angels, are scolded by Jesus and Mary shaped lawn ornaments, and take injections to be turned into horses. And yet, among all the unnatural occurrences are kernels of love, loneliness, and growing up. These little moments, profound partly because they are amplified by the strangeness, stay with you long after you close the book. I hope you will end up loving this strange little book as much as I do!

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Summer:

Tales from the Inner City (Hardcover)

By Shaun Tan, Shaun Tan (Illustrator)

$24.99

ISBN: 9781338298406

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Arthur A. Levine Books - September 25th, 2018

It’s only mildly embarrassing to admit that Shaun Tan is one of those authors I have to read in small doses, because if I’m not careful I get overwhelmingly jealous of his creative brain. The stories in the book are like snow globes, each one so perfectly crafted (and stunningly illustrated), they are like little worlds unto themselves. Each one takes a slice of urban life and adds just enough strangeness and nostalgia to make you marvel. An eagle at an airport terminal. Crocodiles on the 87th floor of a high-rise. Bears seeking legal representation. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Shaun Tan knows how to work magic.

City of Crows (Paperback)

By Chris Womersley

$17.00

ISBN: 9781609454708

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Europa Editions - September 18th, 2018

The weather is getting cooler, the light fades faster in the evening, and more than ever I want to curl up with something atmospheric, engrossing, and a little creepy. I found all three of those things in CITY OF CROWS. Set in 17th century France, it follows Charlotte, a woman who makes a deal with the devil in order to find her kidnapped son, and Lesage, a traveling con man in search of treasure. All roads lead to Paris, the City of Crows, and Charlotte and Lesage find themselves increasingly drawn into the underworld of magic and trickery. What I loved most was the author’s exploration into the strange mix of religion and magic that pervaded this time period: plague and hardship was kept at bay by a fearful belief in both, and the way Womersly interweaves the two is absolutely fascinating.

Heart Spring Mountain: A Novel (Paperback)

By Robin MacArthur

$16.99

ISBN: 9780062444431

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Ecco - November 6th, 2018

This book is by the author of a short story collection that made it onto my top ten last year, so naturally it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2018. It did not disappoint! This rich, layered novel follows three generations of women who make their home on the same rural farm in Vermont. It carries us through one year, jumping back and forth between different timelines and revealing long lost family secrets. But more than the revelations you uncover, this book is about resilience and isolation, loneliness and community, and the slow destructiveness of climate change. The reason I chose winter and not spring (as the title suggests) is that the Vermont winters are so intense that they seem to expand to encompass the whole book, intensifying both the starkness of the landscape and the warmth inside.

Rekonect Notebook - Black

$29.95

SKU: x9030

This is the journal that is going to revolutionize journals. No, seriously. It’s a game changer. Why? The Rekonect notebook has magnetic pages, which allows you take them out and re-organize them at will. Maybe you want your to-do list to always be the first page. Maybe you need a way to re-organize notes in a way that makes more sense to you. No longer are you bound by the confines of static notebook pages! You can take pages out and scan them without worrying about the bulge from the spine. You can tear them along the perforated magnetic strip and have a loose sheet of paper. You can take a page out of your notebook and stick it right on your fridge! The possibilities are endless. What’s more, the journal is surprisingly sturdy - one tug and a page comes free of the binding, but open the covers and shake, and nothing falls out. It’s kind of magical, and it truly is the notebook of the future!

River (Paperback)

By Esther Kinsky, Iain Galbraith (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781945492174

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Transit Books - September 4th, 2018

Did Esther Kinsky visit any of the rivers that flow through her spellbinding novel RIVER? More importantly though, did any of these rivers happen to flow through the borough of Brooklyn? Luckily for us the places exquisitely written about in RIVER are located in England, Israel, Canada and other locales in Europe. Even when the narrator of this masterclass in melancholic nature writing makes it onto American shores the rivers discussed aren’t even in New York! This absolutely incredible book hovers on the vague and ineffable borders of memory and time, proof that a novel can be almost entirely devoid of plot and still capture the imagination. Essay, memoir and fiction blend seamlessly into a book of quiet and profound beauty. The translation is stunning too; each chapter a meditation on memory, experience and the world around us. Esther Kinsky, unlike Jonathan Safran Foer, does not and has never lived in Brooklyn.

After the Winter (Paperback)

By Guadalupe Nettel, Rosalind Harvey (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566895255

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Coffee House Press - September 4th, 2018

I was already an enormous fan of Guadalupe Nettel before reading her most recent book, AFTER THE WINTER, in English. Somehow, it’s her best book, with more depth and breadth than her masterful story collection, NATURAL HISTORIES and fictional memoir, THE BODY WHERE I WAS BORN. Focusing on two relationships, Nettel shows us the fragility of our lives as well as the arbitrary nature of love. Filled with sadness, longing and a gorgeous sense of place (Paris and Cuba among them) Nettel exposes the physical and emotional borders of life, love and longing. Although Nettel promoted AFTER THE WINTER in New York and parts of the novel take place in New York, Brooklyn is eschewed entirely and this, if nothing else, is proof of her genius.

Eleanor, Or, the Rejection of the Progress of Love (Paperback)

By Anna Moschovakis

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566895088

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Coffee House Press - August 14th, 2018

My next book is the wonderfully original and inventively deceptive ELEANOR by Anna Moschovokis. Thankfully (thankfully!) Anna does not live in Brooklyn, New York but (by our good fortune) lives and works in an entirely different part of New York that is, not only not very close to Brooklyn, but doesn’t rhyme with, resemble or carry any relevant kinship to Brooklyn besides, of course, being in the same state as Brooklyn. Trust me, I did the research*. Anna, by the skin of our collective teeth, you made the list! What can I say about this incredibly moving novel, a story about Eleanor as well as Eleanor’s author, a missing laptop and people trying to connect in a world replete with technology but lacking in authentic ways to connect? This is a book of the times that manages to be both experimental and accessible. Lovely.

*Editors' Note: Mark did not do the research. Moschovakis may, in fact, be thoroughly devoted to the creative community in Brooklyn, going so far as to even have started a Brooklyn-based publishing collective. However, to this day, Mark breaks out into hives when anyone so far as even mentions a word beginning with the letter "B." If any newspaper that crosses his path includes the word "Brooklyn," his wife must manually snip the word out with a pair of scissors hanging from the mailbox specifically for that purpose. Thus, we're unable to confirm the veracity of many of his claims or fact-check with Mark himself. 

Comemadre (Paperback)

By Roque Larraquy, Heather Cleary (Translator)

$16.95

ISBN: 9781566895156

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Coffee House Press - July 10th, 2018

Dark and grotesque, yet brimming with irreverent humor, this compact book has two halves, both which look at history, art and the human body through its two tales which take place a century apart. Beginning in a sanatorium in 1907 and moving deftly to the art world of Buenos Aires in 2009, Argentine author Roque Larraquy manages to tell a fascinating story that considers science, medicine, history and humanity’s dogged pursuit to move forward at any cost. Roque Larraquy has never set foot in Brooklyn I’m happy to report and although the brilliant translator Heather Cleary is a native New Yorker the last time she was in Brooklyn was for jury duty in 2006.

Villa Amalia (The French List) (Hardcover)

By Pascal Quignard, Chris Turner (Translated by)

$24.50

ISBN: 9780857424785

Availability: Not On Our Shelves. Usually arrives in 1-5 Days

Published: Seagull Books - April 15th, 2018

A musician suspects her husband of cheating and follows him to a strange house in the Paris suburbs. Sounds like a thriller, right? Well Quignard’s book is certainly not a thriller but, instead, an examination of a woman’s life, a meditation on betrayal, lifelong friendships and reinvention. This was my first book by Quignard which I quickly followed up by reading A TERRACE IN ROME. The setting of this book goes from France to the Mediterranean; the writing is stunning and the story never quite goes where the reader suspects. An absorbing and intriguing read that has in no way anything to do with Brooklyn, New York. In fact, I assure anyone who reads this incredible book that not the thinnest, slightest wisps of Brooklyn will enter one’s consciousness.