HARDCOVER FICTION
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Consuelo’s pick of the day! “The Buried Giant is a fantastical tale about the power and pain of memory. Its protagonists, elderly couple Beatrice and Axl, are both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Their quest starts with simply wanting to find their son, and leads to adventures bigger than they, or the reader, could imagine. Ishiguro is a stylistic master whose story will endure in the realm of folklore and fable.”
Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss
Raul’s pick of the day! “A pastiche of the best 19th century horror and a fiendishly clever murder mystery, the book is also extremely humorous and impossible to put down. When retired librarian Alec Charlesworth receives a package from a colleague containing details about a talking cat named Roger, what follows is a thriller all about the secret lives of cats – especially talking, quasi-immortal cats with special powers. Alec is thrust into an adventure to thwart the dark powers of the Captain, a black cat who may or may not be to blame for the death of his wife and countless others. Truss really gets into the mythology of the species – which serves both lovers and haters of cats -and provides a diabolical illustration of just why cats have nine lives. Fans of literary horror rejoice – you will never look at your cat the same way after reading this book (Seriously, where is your cat right now?).”
The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth
Raul’s other pick of the day! “It is rare for a debut novel to take on a genre and literally rewrite its mainstays while forging a powerful and engaging story that is unforgettable; Unsworth takes the detective novel to Hell and succeeds in creating a character that one can empathize with. For Thomas Fool, an Information Man of Hell, the case starts off innocuously enough: a dead body is pulled from a lake, but what follows has no precedent in the Infernal Realm. Murders are common in Hell as are other brutalities, but the Bureaucracy requires Fool to investigate only certain ones, and these have a disturbing pattern, for the murders are of extreme brutality and savagery even for Hell, and there may be something stalking the nightmare land that has not been seen for thousands of years. Provocative and engaging on deeper philosophical grounds, it is impossible to not be changed by reading this book.”
Murder on The Champ de Mars by Cara Black
Paris, February 1998: Aimée Leduc has her work cut out for her—running her detective agency and fighting off sleep-deprivation as she tries to be a good single mother to her new bébé. The last thing she has time for now is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche (French Gypsy) boy.Set in the seventh arrondissment, the quartier of the Parisian elite, Murder on the Champ de Mars takes us from the highest seats of power in the Ministries and embassies through the city’s private gardens and the homes of France’s oldest aristocratic families. Aimée discovers more connections than she thought possible between the clandestine “Gypsy” world and the moneyed ancien régime, ultimately leading her to the truth behind her father’s death…
Crow Fair: Stories by Thoms McGuane (Signed First)
Set in McGuane’s accustomed Big Sky country, with its mesmeric powers, these stories attest to the generous compass of his fellow feeling, as well as to his unique way with words and the comic genius that has inspired comparison with Mark Twain and Ring Lardner. The ties of family make for uncomfortable binds: A devoted son is horrified to discover his mother’s antics before she slipped into dementia. A father’s outdoor skills are no match for an ominous change in the weather. But complications arise equally in the absence of blood, as when life-long friends on a fishing trip finally confront their dislike for each other. Or when a gifted cattle inseminator succumbs to the lure of a stranger’s offer of easy money. McGuane is as witty and large-hearted as we have ever known him — a jubilant, thunderous confirmation of his status as modern master.
Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy (Mystery People New Release Pick)
The area surrounding Cashiers, North Carolina, is home to people of all kinds, but the world that Jacob McNeely lives in is crueler than most. His father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. Jacob has always been resigned to play the cards that were dealt him, but when a fatal mistake changes everything, he’s faced with a choice: stay and appease his father, or leave the mountains with the girl he loves. In a place where blood is thicker than water and hope takes a back seat to fate, Jacob wonders if he can muster the strength to rise above the only life he’s ever known.
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
Girl In the Dark: A Memoir by Anna Lyndsey
A gorgeous memoir of an unthinkable life: a young woman writes of the sensitivity to light that has forced her to live in darkness, and of the love that has saved her. During periods of relative remission she can venture cautiously out at dawn and dusk, into a world that, from the perspective of her normally cloistered existence, is filled with remarkable beauty.
And throughout there is her relationship with Pete. But she cannot enjoy a normal life with him, cannot go out in the day, and even making love is uniquely awkward. With gorgeous, lyrical prose, Anna brings us into the dark with her, a place from which we emerge to see love, and the world, anew.
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette
In the annals of consumer crazes, nothing compares to Beanie Babies. With no advertising or big-box distribution, creator Ty Warner – an eccentric college dropout – become a billionaire in just three years. And it was all thanks to collectors. The end of the craze was just as swift and extremely devastating, with “rare” Beanie Babies deemed worthless as quickly as they’d once been deemed priceless. Bissonnette draws on hundreds of interviews (including a visit to a man who lives with his 40,000 Ty products and an in-prison interview with a guy who killed a coworker over a Beanie Baby debt) for the first book on the most extraordinary craze of the 1990s.
Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership by Susan Butler
Roosevelt and Stalin tells of the first face-to-face meetings of the two leaders over four days in December 1943 at Tehran, in which the Allies focused on the next phases of the war against the Axis Powers in Europe and Asia; of Stalin’s agreement to launch another major offensive on the Eastern Front; and of his agreement to declare war against Japan following the Allied victory over Germany. Butler’s book is the first to show how FDR pushed Stalin to reinstate religion in the Soviet Union, which he did in 1943; how J. Edgar Hoover derailed the U.S.-planned establishment of an OSS intelligence mission in Moscow and a Soviet counterpart in America before the 1944 election; and that Roosevelt had wanted to involve Stalin in the testing of the atomic bomb at Alamogardo, New Mexico. A fascinating, revelatory portrait of this crucial, world-changing partnership.
In Moody Bitches Dr. Holland offers readers a guide to our bodies and our moodiness that includes insider information about the pros and cons of the drugs we’re being offered, the direct link between food and mood, an honest discussion about sex, practical exercise and sleep strategies, as well as some surprising and highly effective natural therapies that can help us press the reset button on our own bodies and minds.
In the tradition of Our Bodies, Our Selves, this groundbreaking guide for women of all ages will forge a much needed new path in women’s health—and offer women invaluable information on how to live better, and be more balanced, at every stage of life.
PAPERBACK FICTION
It’s 1938 in San Francisco: a world’s fair is preparing to open on Treasure Island, a war is brewing overseas, and the city is alive with possibilities. Grace, Helen, and Ruby, three young women from very different backgrounds, meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub.The girls become fast friends, relying on one another through unexpected challenges and shifting fortunes. When their dark secrets are exposed and the invisible thread of fate binds them even tighter, they find the strength and resilience to reach for their dreams. But after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, paranoia and suspicion threaten to destroy their lives, and a shocking act of betrayal changes everything.
An Exaggerated Murder by Josh Cook
Private investigator Trike Augustine may be a brainiac with deductive skills to rival Sherlock Holmes, but they’re not doing him any good at solving the case of a missing gazzilionaire because the clues are so stupefyingly—well, stupid.
Meanwhile, his sidekicks—Max the former FBI agent and Lola the artist—don’t quite rise to the level of Dr. Watson, either. For example, when a large, dead pig turns up on Trike’s floor in the middle of the night, none of them can figure out what it means.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking as the astronomical reward being offered diminishes drastically every day.
That, plus the increasing reality that their own lives are in danger, lift this astonishing debut beyond its hilarious premise—a smart man befuddled by the idiotic—and turns it into something more than just a smart homage to Sherlock (with maybe a touch of early Jonathan Lethem thrown in). It becomes a compelling and compulsive thriller . . . with the added bonus that the prose is often as breathtaking as the tale.
Every day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole
A young Nigerian living in New York City goes home to Lagos for a short visit, finding a city both familiar and strange. In a city dense with story, the unnamed narrator moves through a mosaic of life, hoping to find inspiration for his own. He witnesses the “yahoo yahoo” diligently perpetrating email frauds from an Internet café, longs after a mysterious woman reading on a public bus who disembarks and disappears into a bookless crowd, and recalls the tragic fate of an eleven-year-old boy accused of stealing at a local market. In spare, precise prose that sees humanity everywhere, interwoven with original photos by the author, Every Day Is for the Thief—originally published in Nigeria in 2007—is a wholly original work of fiction. This revised and updated edition is the first version of this unique book to be made available outside Africa.
PAPERBACK NONFICTION
In The Disease Delusion, Dr. Bland explains what Functional Medicine is and what it can do for you. While advances in modern science have nearly doubled our lifespans in only four generations, our quality of life has not reached its full potential. Outlining the reasons why we suffer chronic diseases from asthma and diabetes to obesity, arthritis and cancer to a host of other ailments, Dr. Bland offers achievable, science-based solutions that can alleviate these common conditions and offers a roadmap for a lifetime of wellness.
Gluten Is My Bitch: Rants, Recipes, and Ridiculousness for the Gluten-Free by April Peveteaux
Living gluten-free is not a whole lot of fun, but at least April has managed to make it funny. Gluten Is My Bitch is a brutally honest, entertaining look at what living a gluten-free life entails. As an antidote to the tragic news that, no, you will never eat regular donuts again, April provides 40 gluten-free comfort food recipes and a bonus 20 new recipes in the paperback edition that will make even the most frustrated gluten-intolerant smile with relief. In the new paperback, April addresses the challenges of sustaining a gluten-free lifestyle once you’ve transitioned from the gluten-filled world. With updated resources and brand-new recipes for everyday meals, the paperback offers a complete look at living gluten-free for life.
If there’s one thing that New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Dave Barry is an expert on, it’s raising a daughter.
…which means he’s not an expert on much considering the breadth of his knowledge on that subject fills only a single chapter of a book. However, what Dave Barry is good at is giving unsolicited advice on topics he’s definitively not an expert on.With trademark wit and unmatched insight into the insanity of everyday life, Dave Barry presents a series of hilarious, never-before-published essays on the trials and tribulations of living and laughing in the modern age.
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Reblogged this on DEXAKETO.
Reblogged this on Jin Okubo and commented:
Nice, I still remember getting my first books in my hands
Uh oh! I’m walking into that dangerous place. It looks like I need to visit my book store. With what money? Well, I don’t have to eat this month!