Kester Smith is a Master Bookseller here at BookPeople. He also leads two of our book groups: New & Noteworthy and Required Reading Revisited. In addition, he is a regular rival for BookPeople Karaoke Champion, facing stiff competition from folks like Nolan, Jamie, and, in a surprise surge to the forefront at this year’s Holiday Party, Manfred.
Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan
Sullivan has been as essayist for some time now, but this first collection of his essays was my introduction to his work. It is, quite simply, one of the best collections of essays that I have ever read. Reminiscent of David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing…, it’s a brilliant combination of personal stories and top notch reportage. Pulphead is my favorite book of 2011.
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
As a long time fan of Murakami’s, I was excited by and then disappointed in his 2005 release Kafka On The Shore. However, his most recent work is the one that I’ve been waiting for. The story of two people caught in an alternate reality to 1984, 1Q84 stands alongside Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Elephant Vanishes as some of his best work.
Ready Player One by Ernie Cline
I challenge you to find a book that was as exciting or as fun as Ernie Cline’s debut Ready Player One. Set in a not-too-distant dystopian future, Ready Player One is the story of the quirky inventor of the greatest online reality of all time and how his death kicks off a contest to see who will unlock the clues to his massive fortune. A romp, a thrill-ride, an epic adventure; Ready Player One combines gamer and pop culture to hilarious effect.
Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswalt
As a fan of Oswalt’s stand-up, I expected this collection of fact and fiction to be wry and witty, and it was. What I wasn’t prepared for was it being sad and thought-provoking and profound. It is all these things and more. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland is proof that Patton Oswalt is one of the sharpest comedians around.
Galore by Michael Crummey
It may be sort of obvious to call this “a whale of a tale,” but it is as fantastic a fish story as I have ever read. When a beached whale washes up on the shore of a 19th century village in Newfoundland, the villagers begin to carve up the whale, only to discover a live man inside. The man either cannot or will not speak, but the result is the same; a story filled with magic and mystery, deeply human and full of heart
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