Gift Certificates How to Order

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!   Andy   |  Chris   |  Don   |  Elaine   |  Garrett   |  Gent   |  Jackson   |  Jeff   |  Lawrence   |  Layla   |  Linda   |  Matt   |  Michael   |  Nancy   |  Paul   |  Peter   |  Scott   |  Stacey   |  Tân   |  Vanessa

<<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>>     sort list by title | author | publication date The Book of Other People Zadie Smith If "hell is other people" (as Sartre once said), then this book affirms just the opposite. To raise money for 826 New York, Zadie Smith commissioned 22 of today's most provocative contemporary writers to "make somebody up." The result? A diverse collection of fantastic character sketches that both entertain and arouse the imagination. An Unnecessary Woman A Novel Rabih Alameddine One of the Middle East's most celebrated voices, Rabih Alameddine follows his international bestseller, The Hakawati, with an enchanting story of a book-loving, obsessive, seventy-two-year-old "unnecessary" woman. Aaliya Saleh lives alone in her Beirut apartment, surrounded by stockpiles of books. Godless, fatherless, childless, and divorced... Annihilation Southern Reach Trilogy Book 1 Jeff VanderMeer The first part of a near-future trilogy that initially devastated me both conceptually and narratively, and then went off in a direction I didn't want to acknowledge. I've heard that the next installment will pull me back where I want to go, but either way it's a ride I'm looking forward to... —Recommended by Jeff, City Lights Books To Die in Mexico Dispatches from Inside the Drug War John Gibler On-the-ground reporting and behind-the-scene stories from Mexico's drug war by Mexico-based journalist, John Gibler. Chicken Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent David Henry Sterry I've never read anything quite like this memoir. David Henry Sterry performs a high-wire act in his vaudevilliain telling of life as a prostitute in 70s Hollywood. Alternately sad and hilarious, Sterry provokes serious thinking about family, sexuality, and addiction. —Recommended by Stacey, City Lights Books The Trip to Echo Spring On Writers and Drinking Olivia Laing Olivia Laing took an epic road trip across the states, to various spots that were previously associated with famous alcoholic writers, in an effort to understand all the ways that booze affected them - their lives, their loved ones, and ultimately, their writing. Laing is a fantastic writer, having successfully dissected a tragic illness that is.. Tenth of December Stories George Saunders George saunders has this ability to pair the grim with the quirky, the brutal with the bizarrely hopeful, so that his stories never tip over completely into darkness. He captures the nastiness of violence, consumerism and sexism while keeping the tone satirical—but not light—and creating that uncanny feeling of the familiar gone strange. It's... The Flamethrowers A Novel Rachel Kushner Kushner's writing is authoritative and vivid, as exciting to read as the worlds she writes about. I could not put this down; it was intoxicating reading about a young woman making her way in worlds in which women don't usually get to exist, even in fiction. A cinematic, unstoppable, alienated and kick-fueled adventure. The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas David Almond David Almond strikes again with yet another crazily-inventive, oddly off-kilter, and utterly and bafflingly English fable about how we all really do fit in... somewhere. A must-read. (For ages 9-12) —Recommended by Jeff, City Lights Books Nina's Book of Little Things! Keith Haring Really fun art activity book. —Recommended by Tân, City Lights Books A book of imagination for the little Nina in all of us. Make a little mess, collect some little snowflakes, and draw the things a little bird might say in this book that asks its owner to make his or her mark on every page. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie A Novel 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. In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for The Great War July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme Joe Sacco From "the heir to R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman" (Economist) comes a monumental, wordless depiction of the most infamous day of World War I. Launched on July 1, 1916, the Battle of the Somme has come to epitomize the madness of the First World War. Almost 20,000 British soldiers were killed and another 40,000 were wounded that first day, and... Long Division A Novel Kiese Laymon Kiese Laymon's debut novel is a Twain-esque exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in Post-Katrina Mississippi, written in a voice that's alternately funny, lacerating, and wise. The book contains two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a... The Last Werewolf A Novel Meet Jake. A bit on the elderly side (he turns 201 in March), but otherwise in the pink of health. The nonstop sex and exercise he's still getting probably contribute to that, as does his diet: unusual amounts of flesh and blood (at least some from friends and relatives). Jake, of course, is a werewolf, and with the death of his colleague... <<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >>>