Bruce is one of our newest intrepid booksellers. He’ll go to any length to find your book on our shelves, under beds, wherever those pages are hiding. With his pal Sparky by his side, there’s no book Bruce can’t find! Here are his top five reads of 2012….
Remembrance of Things Past: The Guermanates Way & Cities of the Plain , Vol 2 by Marcel Proust
Reading a Proustian sentence is like riding a triple loop roller coaster that finally, after 10 commas, ends up in a tunnel somewhere in the deep cerebral recesses where you’ve stashed all your freshman geometry proofs. Reading 1000 pages of Proust leaves you tropeless and amazed.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
I’m not a lesbian, or a woman, or a graphic novel fan, but I found a lot to relate to in this wonderful, rich literary treatment (lots of Proust references) of coming of age and of family dynamics. I heartily recommend it.
The Information by James Gleick
“It from bit,” changed my whole way of thinking. Who controls whom. Also an engrossing history of how we communicate. And welcome to the Noosphere.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
In the movie Man for All Seasons – Cromwell is bad, bad. Moore good, good. In Wolf Hall, Cromwell good, good. Moore bad or not so good. Very interesting. Mantel, as a writer, is good… very good.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
It’s got to be the girl’s attitude – a wise beyond her years, smart stoicism – that makes this book sidestep the expected sappiness, and keeps it from just being another book about cancer. Like the Leonard Cohen line, “it’s the crack in everything that lets the light in,” her attitude is cracked enough to let in life and a relationship. That’s what really makes this book soar.
BookPeople 