Staff Picks

Staff Pick Badge
The Inferno By Dante, Robert Hollander (Translated by), Jean Hollander (Translated by) Cover Image
By Dante, Robert Hollander (Translated by), Jean Hollander (Translated by)
$19.00
ISBN: 9780385496988
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Anchor - January 8th, 2002

When it comes to Halloween reading, it doesn’t get much better than the Inferno. The notes and commentary by Robert Hollander illuminate the history and composition of the poem, and I love that his wife Jean (a poet) did the translation, which she renders skillfully into verse. Dante's Italian is also presented on the facing page for those who would like to explore the original text.

- James


Staff Pick Badge
Foul Heart Huntsman (Foul Lady Fortune) By Chloe Gong Cover Image
$21.99
ISBN: 9781665905619
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Margaret K. McElderry Books - September 26th, 2023

In Foul Heart Huntsman, cameos are made, hearts are broken and healed, and many, many tears are shed (mostly by me). Drawing her readers in for a bittersweet ride, Chloe Gong masterfully weaves a vicious plotline with her classically tough-on-the-outside-but-oh-so-tender-on-the-inside characters to bring her debut series to a close. Pick up this book with the knowledge that the only time you'll put it down is to reach for your tissues.

- Cindy


Staff Pick Badge
Shiver-by-the-Sea 1: Bella and the Vampire (Shiver by the Sea #1) By Erin Dionne, Jenn Harney (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Erin Dionne, Jenn Harney (Illustrator)
$14.99
ISBN: 9781645951674
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Pixel+Ink - August 1st, 2023

I absolutely tore through this sweet paranormal story of friendship. When Bella moves to Shiver-by-the-Sea with her mom, she meets Cooper and his dog Casper. The two of them soon come across a cute little bat in the theater that Bella's mom has just bought, and are shocked to discover that it's actually a young vampire named Bram! The adventure to get Bram back to his mom and dad will pull in any young kid this Halloween season! 10 out of 10 would recommend!

- Halle


Staff Pick Badge
My Year of Meats: A Novel By Ruth Ozeki Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780140280463
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Penguin Books - March 1st, 1999

I honestly didn't think I'd be interested in this book based on the description (the focus on meat didn't sound particularly appealing), but I read it in two days. A captivating story about media, meat, sex, fertility and love with beautiful prose and strong female characters.

- Alyssa


Staff Pick Badge
The Long Form By Kate Briggs Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781948980210
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Dorothy, a publishing project - October 3rd, 2023

A single mother reads Fielding's Tom Jones as she cares for her newborn. Briggs is brilliant, covering incredible narrative & conceptual distances in the few turns around the living room it takes to soothe her baby. It's quiet in some ways, explosive in others.

- Josh


Staff Pick Badge
The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt By Riel Nason, Byron Eggenschwiler (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Riel Nason, Byron Eggenschwiler (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780735264472
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Tundra Books - September 1st, 2020

Most of the ghosts are sheets, but one little ghost is a quilt -- and one Halloween, that's something to be proud of instead of something to hide.

- Sarah


Staff Pick Badge
I Love You as Big as Boston By Rose Rossner, Joanne Partis (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Rose Rossner, Joanne Partis (Illustrator)
$9.99
ISBN: 9781728274423
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Hometown World - August 1st, 2023

A sweet little book filled with love and Boston!

- Alyssa


Staff Pick Badge
The Garden Witch By Kyle Beaudette Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781777791841
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Eye of Newt Books - October 10th, 2023

Witches, crazy plants, sentient vegetables, and a twisted twist make this a book you won't forget.

- Stacey


Staff Pick Badge
Shark Heart: A Love Story By Emily Habeck Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781668006498
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books - August 8th, 2023

I know it sounds a little crazy to say that a story about a man transforming into a great white shark is actually a moving love story - but it is. It is not a weird fantasy about marine anatomy, but rather a compelling story about change, heartbreak, passion and connection. I've never read such a moving novel based on such an unlikely premise.

- Dina


Staff Pick Badge
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories By Lucia Berlin Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781250094735
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Picador - August 2nd, 2016

Collected posthumously by her friends in the literary world, this sometimes brutal, sometimes transcendent book is an emotional journey through the life of an artist struggling with addiction.

- Wendy


Staff Pick Badge
Wide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys, Edwidge Danticat (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Jean Rhys, Edwidge Danticat (Introduction by)
$14.95
ISBN: 9780393352566
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - January 25th, 2016

Have you ever wondered how Jane Eyre’s Bertha became “the mad woman in the attic”? Even if you haven’t, you owe it to yourself to check out this classic of postcolonial fiction. A young woman comes of age amidst a political upheaval that throws the social dynamics of race, class and gender into flux. Humanizing the cipher we only glimpse in Bronte’s 1847 novel, Jean Rhys traces her protagonist’s descent into madness—a thought-provoking tragedy told through a truly unique blend of high-modernism, gothic romance, fan fiction and feminist thought.

- Sam


Staff Pick Badge
The Art of Loving By Erich Fromm Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780061129735
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Harper Perennial Modern Classics - August 6th, 2019

This is one of those books I read excerpts from for years before the time finally came to read it through. For anyone who wishes to be a little wiser about that wonderful thing we call love.

- James


Staff Pick Badge
Happiness Falls (Good Morning America Book Club): A Novel By Angie Kim Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593448205
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Hogarth - August 29th, 2023

A family story, a whodunit, an exploration of neurodiversity, and a trip back to the summer of 2020, all in one captivating novel.

- Sarah


Staff Pick Badge
Housekeeping (Fortieth Anniversary Edition): A Novel By Marilynne Robinson Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781250769763
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Picador - August 4th, 2020

Marilynne Robinson's debut novel is exquisite. Housekeeping is the story of sisters Ruth and Lucille, dropped off on the doorstep of their grandmother's house after their mother drives a borrowed car off a cliff. The town of Fingerbone, quiet and cold and stolid amidst all of the death that swirls around the girls, is an impeccably constructed setting for their coming-of-age. Gorgeously atmospheric- think windswept, candlelit nights, the sound of a train whistle in the distance, the commingled freedom and restriction that comes with girlhood in a small town- and full of achingly beautiful sentences.

- Catherine


Staff Pick Badge
The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers By Adam Sass Cover Image
$12.99
ISBN: 9780593464793
Availability: In Stock: Click Title to See if it's in CAMBRIDGE or BOSTON
Published: Viking Books for Young Readers - August 15th, 2023

[REDACTED] Don't worry, it didn't have anything to do with the book anyway.  ~ Stacey

-- Picked by Pia, Writer in Residence


Pages