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1 2 >>>     sort list by author | publication date The Barbary Coast An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld Herbert Asbury You're standing right in it! The Barbary Coast. 150 years ago this area was a den of such vice and iniquity that it would've made even the Marquis de Sade blush. Find out why... Big Sur Jack Kerouac An interesting biography of what happens when fame and age taint the dream of being "on the road" in the life of this aspiring poet. The book details Kerouac's descent into alcoholism and hope for salvation. I think this is one of his greatest... Building Stories Chris Ware This graphic novel is quite an achievement; multi-layered stories that focus on the people who live in an apartment building in Chicago. The detail of the drawings and the real life anxieties take you inside the lives and hearts living day to day. A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess Oh my brothers, viddy your glazzies on this book, it's quite horrorshow! Written in the first person, using a language called nadsat that Burgess adapted from Russian, this dystopian future is filled with sex, violence and youthful droogs in their... Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury The temperature at which book paper combusts! Written in 1951, this dystopian novel is a must-read in today's world of disappearing bookstores and young readers who have never held an actual paperback. —Recommended by Don, City Lights Books I'm Your Man The Life of Leonard Cohen Sylvie Simmons Beautifly written, impossible to put down, and an absolute must for any Cohen fan! Or, for that matter, for any fan of the worlds of travel, religion and poetry, as well as the inner workings of the music industry. Cohen was such an interesting man... John Barleycorn Jack London I would say that London is one of the best fiction writers to ever hold the pen. But these tales are more of a memoir of the man himself--a poor Bay Area native whose words of travel and woe and drunkenness and poetry would later give birth to the... The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Sherman Alexie This is a great start to the Alexie oeuvre: a collection of interconnected stories of native American life on and around a reservation near Seattle. Humorous, surreal imagery; poetic storytelling. You can't go wrong with any Sherman Alexie! The Magicians A Novel Lev Grossman A wonderfully-written novel of fantasy for adults. For any of fan of Narnia, Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, but with a drunken, drugged-out edge. The true-to-life characters take you through the whirlwind of going to a university for magic... The Nick Adams Stories Ernest Hemingway Written in the 1920s and 30s, these short stories follow protagonist Nick Adams and his family through periods of his life, jobs, and the war from his childhood to adulthood. One story was made into the classic film-noir of the 40s The Killers. The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski This controversial novel shows the horrors of a young boy who goes into hiding, running from the atrocities of the Holocaust in the beginning of WW2. Deeply moving with sadness & violence, it's a book you’ll not soon forget. The Psychopath Test A Journey Through the Madness Industry Jon Ronson You may be one. But if you're not, someone you know is! An intriguing read. —Recommended by Don, City Lights Books The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played... Ready Player One Ernest Cline If you are a geek for 80s popculture taking place in Virtual Reality in the futuretime of 2044, solving videogame mysteries to win the ultimate prize, then this book is for you. I loved it to bytes! —Recommended by Don, City Lights Books Rule by Secrecy The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids Jim Marrs You can believe this book or not -- but first you must read it, so that you can contemplate your misunderstanding of the past. This is a book of disturbing secret societies that have run the world as we know it for too long. After you finish you will... 1 2 >>>