Staff Recommendations

A listing of current favorites, recommended by the bookstore staff. Check back for new recommendations each month as we bring you the best of what we're reading. Browse by title, author or staff member!



  Anah
  |  Andy
  |  Dia
  |  Don
  |  Elaine
  |  Elaine Kahn
  |  Garrett
  |  Gent
  |  Jeff
  |  Jolene
  |  Layla
  |  Linda
  |  Lawrence
  |  Luke
  |  Maia
  |  Matt
  |  Nancy
  |  Paul
  |  Peter
  |  Scott
  |  Stacey
  |  Tân

   
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    sort list by title | author | publication date


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The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Ayana Mathis
The arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction. A debut of extraordinary distinction: Ayana Mathis tells the story of the children of the Great Migration through the trials of one unforgettable family.
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The Polish Boxer
Eduardo Halfon
This strange and beautiful book at the outset defies definition. It is neither a collection of short stories or a novel but rather a tapestry of loosely connected movements that, when taken together, compose something haunting and enigmatic...
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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...
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El Narco
Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency
Ioan Grillo
The world has watched, stunned, the bloodshed in Mexico. Forty thousand murdered since 2006; police chiefs shot within hours of taking office; mass graves comparable to those of civil wars; car bombs shattering storefronts; headless corpses heaped...
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Gone to the Forest
A Novel
Katie Kitamura
From the critically acclaimed author of The Longshot comes this gripping saga about the destruction of a family, a home, and a way of life. Set on a struggling farm in a colonial country teetering on the brink of civil war, Gone to the Forest is a tale...
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The Boy at the End of the World
Greg van Eekhout
Watch out for Greg van Eekhout! His first book, Kid vs. Squid, was wonderful but so bizarre I'm not sure I could accurately describe it. Not so his sophomore effort, The Boy at the End of the World. This is about as good as science fiction for young...
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Every You, Every Me
David Levithan
A powerful exploration of those intense relationships we form in high school, relationships we assume (no, not assume, know) will define our lives. And those assumptions are always wrong. This realization tears apart a group of friends as they try to...
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My Name Is Mina
David Almond
The prequel to the author's award-winning Skellig, which I haven't read and which one doesn't need to read to appreciate this little masterpiece. Almond basically takes us into the mind of a special child, an innocent, not yet corrupted by society's...
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Imaginary Girls
Nova Ren Suma
A tense thriller, full of supernatural overtones, and completely impossible to describe without giving away the story. You will either love it or hate it! Me? I couldn't put it down. Dark and challenging. (For ages 14 and up) —Recommended by Jeff
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Liesl & Po
Lauren Oliver
Lauren Oliver's second book for younger readers, The Spindlers, absolutely blew me away, forcing me to reread this, her first. An adventure, a story of friendships, but also a meditation on coming to terms with loss, on letting go of and remembering...
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Little Bird
Germano Zullo
Beautiful. —Recommended by Tân, City Lights Books. A man drives his truck up to a cliff's edge. Unable to go any further, he opens the back door of his truck and a flock of birds flies out, but, as the man soon discovers, a small timid bird remains.
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Violence Girl
East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story
Alice Bag
The proximity of the East L.A. barrio to Hollywood is as close as a short drive on the 101 freeway, but the cultural divide is enormous. Born to Mexican-born and American-naturalized parents, Alicia Armendariz migrated a few miles west to participate...
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The Spindlers
Lauren Oliver
Decades from now Lauren Oliver will be remembered as one of the best and brightest children's authors of this generation. The Spindlers is her second novel for younger audiences and is destined, in my estimation, to become a classic.
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Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of...

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