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Staff Recommendations

Amanda N.'s Recommendations

Nasa/Art
by James Dean
Harry N Abrams Inc

Our Price: $40.00

"Important events can be interpreted by artists to give a unique insight into significant aspects of our history-making advances into space. An artistic record of this nation’s program of space exploration will have great value for future generations and may make a significant contribution to the history of American art."

This book, as you can clearly see, is made of AWESOME.

In 1962, four years after NASA?s birth, administrator James Webb started a program by which artists were given free range of the facilities, with the purpose of recording the ?emotional impact, interpretation, and hidden significance of?events which lie within the scope of the artist?s vision.? This book is a compilation of works that came out of that program, from the likes of Rauschenberg, Warhol, Rockwell and Leibovitz.

The fact that a government agency realized the value of having artistic documentation of our other-worldly endeavors is enough to make me love this book. The rad hologram on the cover is simply the icing on the cake.

The Produce Bible
by Leanne Kitchen
Harry N Abrams Inc

Our Price: $29.95

If you’ve ever come away from a farmer’s market with a pint of currants, a bunch of beets, or a bundle of swiss chard that you just had to get because it looked SO GOOD, only to arrive home and think, “What on earth am I going to do with these things?” this book is for you.

Also, if you’ve ever wondered, “What is celeriac?” or “What can I do with kumquats?” or “How do I make pickled ginger?” this book is for you.

With hundreds of pages of information and recipes for everything from almonds to zucchini blossoms, the produce bible is just that: an informative reference guide for fruit and veggie lovers.

Vermeer's Milkmaid And Other Stories
by Manuel Rivas

Our Price: $21.95

This is a collection of beautiful and poetic stories depicting rural life in northwest Spain by Galician author Manuel Rivas. Three of the tales contained within [Butterfly’s Tongue, Saxophone in the Mist and Carmiña] were the inspiration for the 1999 film, The Butterfly’s Tongue, which tells of the Spanish Civil War. The human element is powerfully and touchingly present throughout this book.

The Knight
by Gene Wolfe
Tor Books

Our Price: $14.95

‘If you don’t read this book, you’ll have missed out on something important and wonderful and all the cool people will laugh at you.’-Neil Gaiman

Gene Wolfe is one of the best fantasy writers of all time. In all of his books, he weaves a complex yarn that is so visually compelling that the reader is left feeling as though they’ve just watched a spectacular film in their mind. The Wizard Knight, along with his series The Book of the New Sun, literally changed the scenery and scope of my dreams. There are images from these books that I could swear I’ve seen in real life; I can picture them with such clarity. Also, Wolfe is a master when it comes to the use of the Unreliable Narrator, and if you’ve never read any of his work, you really are missing out.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie
Penguin (Non-Classics)

Our Price: $14.00

"My fault again,’ Haroun thought wretchedly. ‘ I started all this off. What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true. I asked that question and it broke my father’s heart. So it’s up to me to put things right. Something has to be done."

Published in 1990 and written for his son, Zafar, [read the dedication; it’s wonderful] this was Salman Rushdie’s first novel to come out after the uproar over The Satanic Verses. Young Haroun is the only child of the storyteller Rashid Khalifa, also known as the Ocean of Notions and the Shah of Blah. One day, something terrible happens and Rashid loses his ability to tell stories, to disastrous ends. Haroun takes it upon himself to help his father get back his storytelling abilities, and sets off on an amazing adventure to Earth’s secret, second moon, Kahani, where he finds that the Sea of Stories, the source of all the fables in the whole world, is being poisoned by Kattam-Shud, the ‘Arch-Enemy of all Stories, the Prince of Silence, the Foe of Speech.’

Magical, silly, and delightful, Rushdie captures his audience with this modern day fairytale (which is filled with fairytale references, as well). Fans of classics like The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice in Wonderland will not be able to resist Haroun and his comical companions.

Novels in Three Lines (New York Review Books Classics)
by Felix Feneon
NYRB Classics

Our Price: $14.00

A staff rec. in three lines:

Composed in 1906, for the newspaper Le Matin,
the vivid news briefs of M. Fénéon, anarchist,
would have been lost, but for a sentimental lover.

The Book of Words (New Directions Paperbook)
by Jenny Erpenbeck
New Directions

Our Price: $14.95

‘What are my eyes for if they can see but see nothing? What are my ears for if they can hear but hear nothing? Why all this strangeness in my head?’

In flowing prose, Jenny Erpenbeck writes of Argentina’s Dirty War through the filter of a girl’s childhood innocence. The resulting story is seemingly light and whimsical, layered over the dark and mysterious events that surround said girl as she grows up. It is a captivating and complex tale that I enjoyed the whole way through.

Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories
by
W. W. Norton & Company

Our Price: $11.95

Hello, tiny book of short [short!] stories! This anthology brings together nearly a decade’s worth of winners and finalists from the ‘World’s Best Short Short Story Contest.’ There are 54 stories crammed into this book! Try ‘Hostess’ by Amy Hempel on page 100, or ‘Grief’ by Ron Carlson on page 82, or ‘Wallet’ by Allen Woodman on page 128. Go on, they’re short.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel
by David Wroblewski
Ecco

Our Price: $25.95

I read this book in three days, and then gave it to my mom, saying, “You have to read this book.” When I asked her later if she had finished, she said she’d gotten halfway through and then stopped. “What?! Why?” I asked. “Because I don’t want it to end,” was her answer. She read the second half in tiny bits, slowly, while reading other books to keep herself occupied. It’s really that good. I am definitely going to read this again.

The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Snow Lion Publications

Our Price: $16.95

‘Just as dream images can be transformed in dream, so emotional states and conceptual limitations can be transformed in waking life. Challenge the boundaries that constrict you. The purpose of these practices is to integrate lucidity and flexibility with every moment of life, and to let go of the heavily conditioned way we have of ordering reality, of making meaning, and of being trapped in delusion.’

This is a clear and gentle guide to the practice of dream and sleep yogas. If you’re even remotely interested in Buddhism or dreams in general, you really should read this book.

Grayson
by Lynne Cox
Harvest Books

Our Price: $13.00

Reading this book was like treading water; I couldn't stop, or terrible things would happen. Will Lynne and Grayson be able to find Grayson's mother? How long will Lynne be out swimming in the cold, March ocean? How does she manage to say afloat for so long? As someone who sinks like a stone, and starts hyperventilating when in a body of water with no visible bottom, I found this book to be both terrifying and fascinating. I read it in a single sitting, and enjoyed every minute of it. Author Lynne Cox describes in beautiful detail the vast and colorful world of underwater life she encountered in the Pacific early one morning, and how she befriended one of it's larger inhabitants.

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