What We’re Reading

KATHLEEN

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
“I’m really enjoying this book so far. It is set in Afghanistan in various moments since the 1950’s. There are many seemingly disconnected characters whose stories overlap and intersect in someway. It pulls in elements of history and current events into the fiction, marking time by the changing climate in Afghanistan. It’s easy to get lost in Hosseini’s writing, it’s fast paced and gorgeous.”

We still have signed copies of And The Mountains Echoed, get yours while supplies last. 

RAUL

The Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton“This is a great book. It’s kind of hard to describe because it’s over 1,000 pages (but well worth the time investment). The story follows a woman who has been imprisoned after 14 people turn up dead on a distant planet. After some time a person is killed on earth in the same way and it’s clear she couldn’t have been the killer. From the beginning she claimed it was an alien, that it had tried to kill her but she escaped. Now in order to find this creature they must go to a previously lifeless planet in order to stop the killings. Hamilton generally does series, this book is a stand alone and it’s fantastic!”

DOC

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
“This book is out in November, and it’s a must read. I’m a big fan of Amy Tan from The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses, so I grabbed a reader of this as soon as I could. I had heard that this was a difficult novel for her to write, but she didn’t dissapoint. The Valley of Amazement is true to her form. Incredibly sexy, it is all about courtesans. The book follows a half American half Chinese girl growing up in Shanghai. Her mother owns a very unusual house for courtesans. The title is definitely a double entendre. It’s a great time.”

Pre-Order your copy of The Valley of Amazement today!

SHAPPY

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
“Ghost World is a great summer read. It’s all about two teenage girls, during the summer after their graduation from high school. Neither knows what she’ll be doing the next year. I love the way Clowes writes from the perspective of a teenage girl, he has said he funneled a lot of himself as a teen into the main character, Enid.  This must be the 10th time I’ve read Ghost World. It’s almost 20 years old, but still feels really fresh to me. I think I like it because it deals with nostalgia in a really cool way. It’s this little window into a 90’s subculture that is impossible to recreate, from a shop devoted entirely to zines to Enid’s search for a childhood record that era is long gone with the invention of the internet. And of course, it is hauntingly rendered by Mr. Clowes in an ever present delightfully creepy shade of blue.”

CASSIE

You’re Not Doing It Right by Michael Ian Black
“I think Michael Ian Black is hilarious and I’m a sucker for any celebrity memoir/autobiography. I like seeing famous people being real. In the last section I read Michael was going to an A list party that he was kind of accidentally invited to and he felt really anxious and awkward. What’s more relatable than that? A friend of mine gave me this book because he loved it so much that he wanted someone else to have to talk about it with. It’s that good. It’s so funny and Michael Ian Black’s voice really comes through.”