New Staff Picks
A wild ride that brought ancient cities back to life while recontextualizing our modern urban sprawl. Wilson gives a surprisingly hopeful view of cities, showing their ingenuity and resilience over the past 6,000 years.
— Ben
For lovers of Greek mythology, here's a heartbreaking yet beautiful retelling of Medusa's story. No victim-blaming, only empathy from her fellow Gorgon sisters. With multiple POVs, both mortal and immortal, who decides what is a monster?
— Asia
An insane, intense revenge story. Two women both contemptuous and angry at men for different reasons, go on a murder spree through France enacting their revenge. What follows is an extreme tale of disgust and depravity about two women who have become so disillusioned they are unafraid to go to any limits.
— Morgan
Holy crap! If you're a writer, this is the book on writing you've always wanted written: not on craft, but on the forces involved in the creative act, our convergent and divergent desires and drives, and our attempts to resolve inner life with the world. Phillips is a poet, but all writers should read it.
— Aurora
A quirky little time capsule into the 1970's, specifically into many icons of photography's kitchens. The recipes are paired with images that will often make you stop, look, think and maybe even salivate.
— Maria
The only predictable thing about this book is that Evenson was excommunicated from the Mormon Church for writing stuff like this.
— Darcie
A charming and witty view of 1920s New York. Bemelmans captures the Great Gatsby style excess of the guests alongside the Fawlty Towers esque foibles of the hotel staff.
— Ben
A truly astonishing novel of the American frontier. There's something timeless about Diaz's prose, both modern in its vertiginous probing of inner spaces and almost classical in its precision and austerity. Totally transporting, In the Distance belongs without a doubt on any list of Great American Novels.
— Nick
Sex, drugs, and organ theft. Indiana's novel captures the grunge & ecstacy of NYC in the early 90s through the eyes of a 25 y/o male prostitute whose tricks descend into dangerous territory. For fans of Burroughs, unreliable narration, crime/noir, and lots of juicy NSFWness.
— Janell
A lovely way to always remember that it takes time to heal your soul and wounds. Chapata digs deep on the topic of loving yourself when no one else can, dealing and coping with loss in multiple different ways.This poetry book will not only enlighten your mind but open up your heart as well to a new chapter of life.
— Corin
An epistolary breakup poem written to "you" — the "you" of poetry, not the "you" of life. A poem that doesn't back away from any feeling, it climbs inside and crawls around each one's humiliating and devastating core. Some call this a "cult classic," and truly, I would follow Ariana Reines anywhere, even to my demise.
— Maslen
I laughed, I cried, I got strangers taking photos of me reading this on the subway. Ketamine-induced vignettes that follow Baer in her early transition, as she navigates her museum of memories and artifacts, articulating every thought I’ve ever felt about gender in the most striking way possible.
— Jazmin
Might seem like a breezy read, but this mountain lion's inner monologue keeps haunting me. I had to take breaks to process this cat's heartbreak like my own. Humiliating. Best character I've ever read. Long live P-22.
— Darcie
A festival of questionable decision making and the spiraling consequences. There's a nun with a serious mean streak, a cringe-worthy game show, and human organ trafficking! Everyone is a monster in this twisted and hilarious story about the mess humans make of our lives.
— Jess
The Nursery is a devastating and visceral depiction of early postpartum days of a new Mom, a time of unraveling and transformation, of a person losing their identity to become a body, its only function to sustain life. In powerful & precise prose it reveals the private madness and demands of motherhood. Required reading.
— Alina
Many writers talk about studying craft, but few dive as deep as Maylis de Kerangal, a writer interested in many different kinds of craftspeople. Painting Time is small yet feels just as expansive as the frescos the main character creates, as tense as the muscle cramps she experiences after a long day of painting.
— Peter
Leave it to Europa to always give us the best in Italian lit. To those recovering from Ferrante Fever, Donatella di Pietrantonio is your girl. Flashbacks, familial tension, sun-soaked days at the beach, everything I love in a tense little novella. Always unique and surprising, I was enthralled the whole way through.
— Peter
A woman afraid of “today,” carried off into legend by a new dress, she doesn’t take drugs, she takes books, and reads them all lying down, as fast as possible, signs letters “an unknown woman" though never sends any. I love her, I fear her, I am her. She lives in me now and can live in you too. Read Malina. I dare you.
— Maslen
Imagine a world where everyone’s life story is like an episode of the Twilight Zone and they can’t wait to tell you about it. Well, you’re in it, but let Bolaño peel back the curtain. You’ll think of these stories long after at random moments and it’ll make you grateful literature exists.
— Joaquin