New Staff Picks


 

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James: A Novel By Percival Everett Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780385550369
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Doubleday - March 19th, 2024

Forget your to-be-read pile and pick up this instant American classic from one of the most incisive, unique writers working today. I don't expect there to be a sequel, but I would devour one - James' narrative voice should go down as one of the most engaging in American literature, right alongside Huck's own. Like a catfish pilfered from a Mississippi trotline, you'll be hooked.

— Nick F.


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Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972 By Adrienne Rich Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9780393346015
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - April 1st, 2013

This evocative collection of poetry from Adrienne Rich is a deep-dive, if you will, into the anger and complexities of the natural and political. With rage and passion in every line, Rich truly brings to light just what it means to survive in an unforgiving world.

— Katie M.


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Harlequin Butterfly (Japanese Novellas) By Toh EnJoe, David Boyd (Translated by) Cover Image
By Toh EnJoe, David Boyd (Translated by)
$14.95
ISBN: 9781782279778
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Pushkin Press - March 5th, 2024

Someone called Tomoyuki Tomoyuki has been writing books in every language, and no one knows who he is or how he does it or what is next. A mind-bending linguistic thriller that excites, delights, and lays bare our very conceptions of things like "plot" and "characters"—EnJoe reads like the most feverish and wild of Nabokov, Calvino, or Eco, and I will henceforth jump down any hole he digs for me.

— Kyle W.


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Running (Practices) By Lindsey A. Freeman Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781478019657
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Duke University Press - March 14th, 2023

I love books about running. Am I a runner? No. Are you? You'll like this book. You're not? You'll like this book.

— Abby G.


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Imaginary Lives By Marcel Schwob, Chris Clarke (Introduction by), Chris Clarke (Translator) Cover Image
By Marcel Schwob, Chris Clarke (Introduction by), Chris Clarke (Translator)
$14.95
ISBN: 9781939663344
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Wakefield Press - March 27th, 2018

Schwob made history his muse—in his hands, the past is made strange, wicked, sensual. Here, figures both familiar and forgotten are joined in a grand procession: grifters and magicians, kings and false prophets. Each one is imbued with a startling inner life, an emissary of their epoch.

— Enzo E.


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Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 By Joe Sacco, Christopher Hitchens (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Joe Sacco, Christopher Hitchens (Introduction by)
$24.99
ISBN: 9781560974703
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Fantagraphics - January 17th, 2002

The great graphic journalist, Joe Sacco, went to Bosnia during the Bosnian War, collecting stories, letting people talk. Sacco's style is always so detailed and beautifully cartoony. But the stories he reports are anything but...If you value the voices of the afflicted - here from those surrounded by the Bosnian Serb Army - look no further than Sacco's masterpiece of 20th century war reporting.

— Jules N.


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I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times: Poems By Taylor Byas Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781593767419
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Soft Skull - August 22nd, 2023

Ease on down the road with this stellar poetry collection as it takes you on a journey full of love and a search for a greater truth as it relates to the speaker’s identity and womanhood. Chicago’s south side is well represented as a home that will always welcome you with open arms no matter how far or how lost you may be.

— Pedro R.


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Fangirl Down: A Novel (Big Shots #1) By Tessa Bailey Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063308367
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Avon - February 13th, 2024

A fun and spicy read about a professional golfer and his biggest fan that manages to make golf sexy. It’s fast paced, funny, and so heartfelt. She might be his biggest fan, but he is a man obsessed. He’s grumpy, she’s sunshine, need I say more?

— Hannah C.


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Blood on the Tracks 15 By Shuzo Oshimi Cover Image
$12.95
ISBN: 9781647293017
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Vertical Comics - December 5th, 2023

20 years have passed since Sei's mother pushed his cousin from a cliff, but questions still linger. This volume finally gives readers a look into the psyche of the terrifying mother figure that the series centers around.

— Nick G.


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Those Who Walk Away By Patricia Highsmith Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802126924
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Grove Press - July 11th, 2017

In Highsmith’s hypnagogic anti-thriller two men pursue each other through the twisting streets of Venice. One is out for revenge while the other is trying to prove his innocence. The action protracts and meanders as motivations shift and blur in this strangely sleepy game of cat-and-mouse!

— Andrei H.


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The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary By Caspar Henderson Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780226213200
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: University of Chicago Press - November 10th, 2014

A very insightful introductory book on some of my favorite creatures: axolotls, dolphins, turtles, snakes, waterbears, and more! I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about them and I loved the inclusion of their scientific names and biological classifications, alongside beautiful illustrations!

— Asia F.


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Was By Geoff Ryman Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781931520737
Availability: Not On Our Shelves - Available to Order
Published: Small Beer Press - August 11th, 2015

This book made me miss my stop on the train and made me want to keep reading till the end of the line. Ryman explores the themes of the Wizard of Oz with a dark realism and child like fantasy that fit snugly like ruby slippers.

— Ben R.


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They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us By Hanif Abdurraqib, Eve L. Ewing (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Hanif Abdurraqib, Eve L. Ewing (Foreword by)
$16.99
ISBN: 9781937512651
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Two Dollar Radio - November 7th, 2017

A breathtaking exploration of music as a vessel for social and political understanding that completely shifted the way I think about language, violence, and healing in relation to sound. I will never listen to something the same way again!

— Livia O.


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New York Bars at Dawn By Daniel Root, Rosie Schaap (Foreword by), Suzaan Boettger (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Daniel Root, Rosie Schaap (Foreword by), Suzaan Boettger (Afterword by)
$40.00
ISBN: 9780789214775
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Abbeville Press - October 31st, 2023

What an incredible document. These photographs are a much-needed archive of spaces we usually only see through a pint glass darkly. Flipping through this fantastic collection is a pub crawl without the hangover, and a real flashback to the joints that've since shuttered.

— Darcie V.


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Y/N: A Novel By Esther Yi Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781662602740
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Astra House - February 20th, 2024

A book about obsession and love, in the form of K-Pop idol named Moon, that you can't antcipate the lengths the main character will go to understand it.

"The question is no longer ‘Who are the people who will accept my unusual love?’ but rather ‘How do I make my love more unusual and more unacceptable?”

— Maeve O.


Lost Connections By Johann Hari Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781632868312
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - December 3rd, 2019

This book explains clearly and concisely why our mental health struggles can’t just be solved with pills. Through fascinating case studies, Hari expands our definition of what an anti-depressant actually is, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for healing and progress. If you’ve ever questioned the efficacy of how you handle your mental health, read this.

— Greg N.


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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde By Tia Williams Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9781538726709
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Grand Central Publishing - February 6th, 2024

Magical, literally and figuratively, Williams had me willing Ricki and Ezra off the page into real life because, what a shame for this kind of love to exist only in the pages of fiction. LOL hilarious, with a robust supporting cast and Harlem history that brought so much life and also so much grief at how much has been lost. The journey to the HEA has rarely been so satisfying.

— Genay J.


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The Vet's Daughter By Barbara Comyns, Kathryn Davis (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Barbara Comyns, Kathryn Davis (Introduction by)
$15.95
ISBN: 9781590170298
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: NYRB Classics - April 30th, 2003

Comyns is everything you'd never expect and nothing you might expect. We witness the dreary, grotesque realities that make up our young narrator's life - perhaps digestible only through her wry humor and quiet hopefulness. The violence of life is relentless and Alice is determined to escape, one way or another. Not for the faint of heart but certainly for anyone read to be stunned by brilliance.

— Julianne DV.


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Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life By Theodor Adorno Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781788738538
Availability: On Our Shelves
Published: Verso - March 31st, 2020

With great foresight, Adorno unwittingly predicted his own backslide into the reactionary with Minima Moralia, diagnosing culture's weakness against moral erosion. The Adorno of this rich polemic would have balked at his late '60s counterpart, the latter symptomatic of that derided bourgeoise intellectualism. The most truthful, honest--and ridiculous--of A1 haters.

— Patrick P.