Staff Favorites
The New York Times Bestseller
A Winner of the Alex Award, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco ChronicleThe Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything--instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond its walls. Rendered with irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.
While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing "Of Mice and Men" (1937), creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal; a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.
What was it really like living as a woman in rural Ohio before, during, and after the Civil War? Beckley's grandfather's grandfather was the son of an unpretentious woman who did just that. Unknowingly, she became a family matriarch; and through the use of family documents handed down over the generations, along with governmental archives, and courthouse documents, Beckley is able to reconstruct her life. His research leads him to overgrown vacant lots, dilapidated cemeteries, and down many dusty gravel roads between Ohio and Kentucky, where on the 156th anniversary of the Perrysville Battle, he lies on the ridge where his distant ancestor's brother dies in combat.
No effort is spared to reveal the emotion, life, and times of this woman who is long forgotten and yet one who should be forever remembered, thanked, and loved for her devotion to her family.
"This book is a light at the end of the tunnel." --The Paris Review
Far from home, in the confines of a dim New York apartment where the oppressive skyscrapers further isolate her, Jazmina Barrera offers a tour of her lighthouses--those structures whose message is "first and foremost, that human beings are here."
Starting with Robert Louis Stevenson's grandfather, an engineer charged with illuminating the Scottish coastline, On Lighthouses artfully examines lighthouses from the Spanish to the Oregon coasts and those in the works of Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe, Ingmar Bergman, and many others.In trying to "collect" lighthouses by obsessively describing them, Barrera begins to question the nature of writing, collecting, and how, by staring so intently at one thing we are only trying to avoid others. Equal parts personal memoir and literary history, On Lighthouses takes the reader on a desperate flight from raging sea to cold stone--from a hopeless isolation to a meaningful one--concluding at last in a place of peace: the home of a selfless, guiding light.
This compelling novel will resonate for people everywhere who find their livelihood threatened by "Dollarmen" -- property speculators advocating golf courses, high rises, shopping malls, and tourist attractions. In Potiki, one community's response to attacks on their ancestral values and symbols provides moving affirmation of the relationship between land and the people who live on it.
"Purple America" brings us a family in extremis: a son is summoned home to care for his mother, who has long been sick, after she is abandoned by her husband. Over the course of a single weekend night, the son, Hex Raitliffe, sees his good intentions annihilated by a phalanx of opposing forces - not least of them his own predilection for strong drink. Hex confronts his stepfather, stirs up the heat of an old attraction, and tries to accommodate his mother's demands. What begins as a mission of mercy leads, one fatal step after another, to confusion, debauchery, old wounds reopened, and the stinging revelations that only a visit home can bring. The story arrives in the voices of Hex, his mother, his stepfather, and others whose paths they cross this night. Through their thoughts and their memories we see also, amazingly, a portrait of the family in its heyday: the joy of new love, the innocence of young families, and the optimism that brings people together with the idea of creating something new. Even as Hex reels through the catastrophic present, amid tears and confrontations and the shadow of death, the novel shows with great tenderness the beauty of everyday longings for shelter, for company, for family, for peace.
An essential guide for parents and caregivers to raising queer-friendly children in a gender-affirming space.
In the face of so many injustices across society for LGBTQ+ people, it can be easy for parents of young children to feel helpless and hopeless. While they may not be able to address every problem across the country, there's a simple place to start: right at home. Rainbow Parenting is an indispensable stepping stone for adults who want to raise and teach kids in a queer and gender-affirming way, but might not know how. Lindz Amer, the creator of Queer Kid Stuff, an award-winning LGBTQ+ educational webseries for children and families, is an expert guide, leading readers through practical applications, important LGBTQ+ history, key lessons in intersectionality, pronouns, social justice, and more. Divided by sections that address kids' individual ages--from infancy to kindergarten--this joyful and approachable book shares a bit of hope and starts with the understanding that anyone can spread queer joy. By giving parents and their kids a vocabulary to express themselves, Rainbow Parenting ultimately aims to create more empathetic adults--and spreads a message of radical acceptance in a world where it's sometimes dangerous to just be yourself.
Winner of the Ilube Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel 2024. Nominated for the World Fantasy Award. A Washington Post top 10 best science fiction and fantasy book of 2023 "A heist caper with sex, violence, and superpowers popping off every technicolor page." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Defiantly ambitious...an action-packed thrill ride." --The Washington Post A mythic tale of disgruntled gods, revenge, and a heist across two worlds, perfect for fans of Nnedi Okorafor, Marlon James, and Karen Lord Shigidi is a disgruntled and demotivated nightmare god in the Orisha spirit company, reluctantly answering prayers of his few remaining believers to maintain his existence long enough to find his next drink. When he meets Nneoma, a sort-of succubus with a long and secretive past, everything changes for him. Together, they attempt to break free of his obligations and the restrictions that have bound him to his godhood and navigate the parameters of their new relationship in the shadow of her past. But the elder gods that run the Orisha spirit company have other plans for Shigidi, and they are not all aligned--or good. From the boisterous streets of Lagos to the swanky rooftop bars of Singapore and the secret spaces of London, Shigidi and Nneoma will encounter old acquaintances, rival gods, strange creatures, and manipulative magicians as they are drawn into a web of revenge, spirit business, and a spectacular heist across two worlds that will change Shigidi's understanding of himself forever and determine the fate of the Orisha spirit company.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR "[A] skillfully crafted gothic mystery . . . Johnson pulls off a great feat in this book." --Financial Times
"It reminded me, in its general refusal to play nice, of early Ian McEwan." --The New York Times Book Review
"Johnson crafts an aching thriller about the dangers of loving too intensely." --Time From a Booker Prize finalist and international literary star: a blazing portrait of one darkly riveting sibling relationship, from the inside out. "One of her generation's most intriguing authors" (Entertainment Weekly), Daisy Johnson is the youngest writer to have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Now she returns with Sisters, a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins. Born just ten months apart, July and September are thick as thieves, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. In their new, isolated life, July finds that the deep bond she has always shared with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behavior--until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the girls' past and future. Written with radically inventive language and imagery by an author whose work has been described as "entrancing" (The New Yorker), "a force of nature" (The New York Times Book Review), and "weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling" (Celeste Ng), Sisters is a one-two punch of wild fury and heartache--a taut, powerful, and deeply moving account of sibling love and what happens when two sisters must face each other's darkest impulses.
"It reminded me, in its general refusal to play nice, of early Ian McEwan." --The New York Times Book Review
"Johnson crafts an aching thriller about the dangers of loving too intensely." --Time From a Booker Prize finalist and international literary star: a blazing portrait of one darkly riveting sibling relationship, from the inside out. "One of her generation's most intriguing authors" (Entertainment Weekly), Daisy Johnson is the youngest writer to have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Now she returns with Sisters, a haunting story about two sisters caught in a powerful emotional web and wrestling to understand where one ends and the other begins. Born just ten months apart, July and September are thick as thieves, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. In their new, isolated life, July finds that the deep bond she has always shared with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behavior--until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the girls' past and future. Written with radically inventive language and imagery by an author whose work has been described as "entrancing" (The New Yorker), "a force of nature" (The New York Times Book Review), and "weird and wild and wonderfully unsettling" (Celeste Ng), Sisters is a one-two punch of wild fury and heartache--a taut, powerful, and deeply moving account of sibling love and what happens when two sisters must face each other's darkest impulses.
Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka brings John Keats's words to whimsical life in the poet's only work written for children. He was a naughty boy,
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be. English poet John Keats is remembered for his great odes and sonnets -- making this lighthearted, little-known poem a special treat. As written in a letter to his young sister when he was feeling homesick on a visit to Scotland, Keats runs his rhymes up and down and all around, leading the reader on a playful chase in and out of language and meaning while caricaturing both himself and what it means to be an aspiring poet. In perfect synchrony, the celebrated Chris Raschka illustrates Keats's droll words with his signature vibrant, energetic watercolors.
A naughty boy was he,
He would not stop at home,
He could not quiet be. English poet John Keats is remembered for his great odes and sonnets -- making this lighthearted, little-known poem a special treat. As written in a letter to his young sister when he was feeling homesick on a visit to Scotland, Keats runs his rhymes up and down and all around, leading the reader on a playful chase in and out of language and meaning while caricaturing both himself and what it means to be an aspiring poet. In perfect synchrony, the celebrated Chris Raschka illustrates Keats's droll words with his signature vibrant, energetic watercolors.