The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel (Paperback)

By Michael Chabon

$18.00

ISBN: 9780812983586

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - June 12th, 2012

One of the most influential novel's I've ever read. The comic book aspect drew me in, but I the depth of the characters gave it the lasting impact. We are all searching for oursevles. We all have a secret identity. We are all trying to escape something. We all want to change the world. Chabon's characters struggle along with the rest of us with the medium of comic books as their backdrop. One of the most impressive feats is Chabon's ability to verbally paint for us what his characters are painting in their own fictional world within world. They say that readers of fiction have a greater ability to empathize with the people. You can't read this book without feeling empathy. You can't help but realize how much you and these people share in your own ways. "Forget about what you are escaping from. Reserve your anxiety for what you are escaping to."

 

Exit West: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Mohsin Hamid

$26.00

ISBN: 9780735212176

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Riverhead Books - March 7th, 2017

This book left me breathless, heartbroken, and hopeful. Exit West is one of those rare titles that quietly speaks truth in the face of chaos and crisis. By bringing the refugee crisis to our own doorstep with magical realism, Hamid's narrative demands empathy for people whose struggles are otherwise filtered through political agenda. Nadia and Saeed help us to understand what it means to be forced into change despite overwhelming adversity, to be loyal to a past that is all but lost, and to finally find a new home in hope and love. Mohsin Hamid has given us a lens into the hard reality of our time while suggesting that with some humility, tenderness, and revision, we might just arrive to a new future battered but in tact and looking forward.

All Our Wrong Todays: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Elan Mastai

$26.00

ISBN: 9781101985137

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: Dutton - February 7th, 2017

Pardon the temporal drag, but I believe that's future me declaring this my favorite book of 2017.
I am so grateful for the few months I have to digest this novel so I can present it to customers without dissolving into squeals and feels (Because if you review the audio of me reading the last 50 pages of this book, I very loudly experience the full range of human emotion)! 


Where this book is science fiction, it is smart and quirky, as fresh as a lemon tart and just as delicious. When it starts getting too complicated, our narrator reminds us that he doesn't really get it either.
But WAIT, this book is more than time travel. It is the consequences of our actions, the hope for a better tomorrow, the strength to be our best selves, the guilt we endure, and the love we live for. 
Plus it's REALLY fun, and is going to make an amazing film some day. 5 stars, plus a little gold star sticker on the side.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel (Paperback)

By Neil Gaiman

$15.99

ISBN: 9780062255662

Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - June 3rd, 2014

Ocean at the End of the Lane was the most gripping novel on my 2015 list, occupying my time on two flights to and from Orange County. Complicated and heart-wrenching, it had me squirming in my seat. I found myself horrified and in awe of this young boy whose innocence allows him to recognize a danger that no "grown-up" can while leaving him feeling incapable of confronting its authority. Sitting on that plane, I felt both enlightened and powerless.

This book knows what it means to be a child.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Hardcover)

By Anthony Marra

$26.00

ISBN: 9780770436407

Availability: Special Order

Published: Hogarth - May 7th, 2013

I usually struggle with plots that move back and forth through space and time, but this book flowed unlike any I've ever read.  It is beautifully written and very moving.  You'll also learn a lot about Chechnya.

-Karrie-