Staff Picks

Christine, owner
Most recent staff pick: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Manhattan, New Year’s Eve, 1938: A time where men eagerly lit a woman’s cigarette and heated debates over art and literature were the norm. Two twenty-something girls out on the town looking for adventure meet Tinker Grey, a young man of means, and their lives are changed forever. I’m a sucker for New York City nostalgia as it is, but Amor Towles’s book had me completely hooked from the start. The characters are vibrant and alive, and the descriptions of New York are poetic, so much so that the city is a character in and of itself. I loved every minute of it. 

Stephanie, manager
Most recent staff pick: By Blood by Ellen Ullman. This was just the book I didn't know I wanted. It's an unnerving story in an eerie setting about some odd people. The story: a professor overhears a woman telling her therapist about her life and gets personally involved in manipulating her life out of a somewhat sincere desire to help (and dislike for her therapist). The setting: 1970s San Fran, home of the Zodiac Killer and the crumbling remnants of the Swinging Sixties. The people: the woman, her therapist, and our narrator, the professor, who is one of those characters who becomes creepier and yet somehow more understandable the more time you spend with him. It's about Nazis but it's not about Nazis; it's about feminism but it's not about feminism. It's about figuring out who you are and whether that even matters in the grand scheme of things. It's fantastic.

Adrian, the world's only illiterate bookseller
Most recent staff pick: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. Our good friend in Atlanta sent Adrian this for his 2nd birthday recently and it's an awesome, sing-songy read aloud. Pete's shoes start out white then he steps in mud, strawberries and other various-colored items so his shoes change color. The text is repetitive and fun to read, and it comes with a CD!

Jenn, events manager

Simone
Most recent staff pick: Let's Pretend this Never Happened  by Jenny Lawson. WOAH this starts really funny and then goes crazy hilarious. Jenny's over the top but still spot on tales of growing up in rural Texas run along side stories and glimpses of her present day life with her husband and daughter. Much chaos and many injuries follow. You'll be laughing out loud I promise. 

Molly
Most recent staff pick: