Staff Picks

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Heaven By Mieko Kawakami, Sam Bett (Translator), David Boyd (Translator) Cover Image
By Mieko Kawakami, Sam Bett (Translator), David Boyd (Translator)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781609457457
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Europa Editions - August 16th, 2022

Such a stunningly raw and lyrical piece of Japanese literature!! This book will leave you absolutely heartbroken alongside the characters, while still reeling in the uplifting beauty of a story of two teenagers who find friendship in the midst of social isolation. (The bullying scenes can be a bit difficult to read, but it’s well worth it.)

- Alyssa


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Cousins By Aurora Venturini, Kit Maude (Translated by) Cover Image
By Aurora Venturini, Kit Maude (Translated by)
$17.95
ISBN: 9781593767297
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Soft Skull - May 16th, 2023

This irreverent, dark comedy coming of age story about a young artist in 1940s La Plata, Argentina made me chuckle. Don’t want to take my word for this strange posthumous translation? Then let the introduction by Mariana Enríquez persuade you.

- Katie H


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The Tale of Genji: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) By Murasaki Shikibu, Royall Tyler (Translated by) Cover Image
By Murasaki Shikibu, Royall Tyler (Translated by)
$36.00
ISBN: 9780142437148
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Penguin Classics - November 26th, 2002

This fits into the category of books where reading it increasingly becomes a life experience. Royall Tyler's translation, notes, and appendices are the perfect blend of the scholarly and literary. And for anyone looking to get ahead on their holiday shopping, this is a beautiful edition and would make a lovely gift (although I’m not sure it would fit in a stocking).

- James


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Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street By Victor Luckerson Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593134375
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Random House - May 23rd, 2023

This closely focused history Tulsa's Greenwood neighborhood, starting with the Tulsa Massacre, shows how thoroughly racism shaped and shapes American society. Though a history of tragedy, it is also a history of how people can triumph despite the systemic forces against them.

- Josh


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Life Is Not Useful By Ailton Krenak, Alex Brostoff (Translator), Jamille Pinheiro Dias (Translator) Cover Image
By Ailton Krenak, Alex Brostoff (Translator), Jamille Pinheiro Dias (Translator)
$14.95
ISBN: 9781509554058
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Polity Press - May 16th, 2023

This book is my go-to when I start spiraling over climate change and capitalism. For hope & determination without self-delusion, there is no better teacher than Ailton Krenak, an Indigenous leader who has survived decades of colonial oppression in Brazil.

- Murphy


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The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year By Margaret Renkl Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9781954118461
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Spiegel & Grau - October 24th, 2023

Organized like a devotional prayer book, Renkl’s fifty-two, short meditations closely observing the wonders of nature in her small backyard is a perfect book to daily turn to reconnect with the web of life sustaining us.

- Dale


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The Writer's Garden: How gardens inspired the world's great authors By Jackie Bennett, Richard Hanson (By (photographer)) Cover Image
By Jackie Bennett, Richard Hanson (By (photographer))
$40.00
ISBN: 9780711277168
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Frances Lincoln - September 26th, 2023

Lose yourself in the beauty and imagination of literary gardens (and see if you can guess what garden belonged to which writer).

- Stacey


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The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century By Olga Ravn, Martin Aitken (Translated by) Cover Image
By Olga Ravn, Martin Aitken (Translated by)
$14.95
ISBN: 9780811234825
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: New Directions - February 7th, 2023

Inspired by the sculpture of Danish artist Lea Guldditte Hestelund, this experimental, philosophical sci-fi consists of a smattering of HR interviews from humans and humanoids aboard a spaceship. Among topics discussed are the nature of humanity, mortality, and the uncanny objects that have been brought on board and seem to hold a mysterious sway over the psyches of the crew. Eerily beautiful, this novel is as spare and cryptic as Hestelund’s art.

- Rachael


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Land of Milk and Honey: A Novel By C Pam Zhang Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593538241
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Riverhead Books - September 26th, 2023

Fine dining in a blighted world. Zhang’s new book is mysterious, engaging and the most delicious dystopian novel you’ll ever read. A 1984 Chianti—dark, rich, and densely layered with thematic notes of consumption, conservation and the violent, primal pleasures we take in eating the flora and fauna of a dying planet. 

- Sam


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The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works By Helen Czerski Cover Image
$32.50
ISBN: 9781324006718
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - October 3rd, 2023

Currents, waves, tides, physics -- all about how the ocean moves water (and everything else) around the world

- Sarah


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Special Topics in Calamity Physics By Marisha Pessl Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780143112129
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Penguin Books - April 24th, 2007

Because you loved The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

- Wendy


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The Little Frog's Guide to Self-Care: Affirmations, Self-Love and Life Lessons According to the Internet's Beloved Mushroom Frog By Maybell Eequay Cover Image
$11.99
ISBN: 9781837991013
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Summersdale - September 5th, 2023

Affirmations already make me cry, but now you have a frog in a mushroom hat and high heeled boots telling me them?? Tissues are sold out everywhere.

- Jane


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At the Edge of the Woods By Kathryn Bromwich Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781953387318
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Two Dollar Radio - June 6th, 2023

As a girl who dreams about running away and living alone in the woods at any minor inconvenience, I had been searching for a book like this for a while! This novel reads like a poetic breath of fresh air, and a unique decent into madness, all set in the Italian Alps. Strange, stunning, and beautifully written; you wont want to put this book down, or live alone in the woods.

- Emma


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Starling House By Alix E. Harrow Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9781250799050
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Tor Books - October 3rd, 2023

"I dream sometimes about a house I’ve never seen. I should be scared, but in the dream I don’t hesitate. In my dream, I’m home." Starling House is a contemporary Southern Gothic novel about a small town, a haunted house, and a young woman trying desperately to be a Good Adult; it also happens to be my favorite 2023 release! Charming, heartbreaking, delightfully creepy, and hilariously romantic, this is a great addition to everyone's fall to-be-read list!!!

- Engel


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The Children on the Hill By Jennifer McMahon Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982153960
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Gallery/Scout Press - October 25th, 2022

Told in split timelines, this novel of epic suspense will keep you hooked from page one. From simple childhood summers in 1970s Vermont, to hunting a kidnapper across the country in the 2010s, we follow this cast of characters to hell and back. You'll truly question your own morality and be left wondering who the real monsters are.

- Jen


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