Recommendations

Black Hawk Down
by Mark Bowden

Hold on to your adrenaline glands 'cause this book really kicks things into overdrive! Anyone who is either an occasional Tom Clancy fan or a serious student of warfare must read this dramatic and detailed account of the battle that lasted less than a day, but redefined American foreign policy in the post- Cold War era. --Josh

An Underachiever's Diary
by Benjamin Anastas

A Cantabridgian tale of generation X. If you are a Slacker and proud of it, this book is for you. If you have slacker kids, this book will help you get to know them. If you've never seen the Fresh Pond golf course as a great place to make out, this book will open your eyes. --H.B.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
by Michelle Alexander and Jeannie Long

For anyone who wants a quick read and a good laugh -- this is your book... Michelle Alexander and Jeannie Long combine their quirky stick figure drawings with a ten day plan on how NOT to meet a guy or sustain a long-lasting relationship. This book is entertaining and still makes me chuckle after multiple reads. --Amy

Blue Heaven
by Joe Keenan

If Jane Austen met Oscar Wilde this would be the result! Blue Heaven is a witty comedy of manners that takes on the mafia, Broadway musicals, and New York life and makes you laugh out loud. From start to finish (the most hilarious mob wedding ever), this book is a delicious treat. --Laura

Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets
ed. by Maura Dooley

Afraid to be overtly poetic? Under the misconception that all rhyme schemes have been exhausted? No, don't let all that mushy general stuff get you down -- pick up this book. rhyming selections by brown, Garrett and Oswald sound completely contemporary, almost as if the rhyme is incidental, in the traditions of Millay's sonnets. Other selections are deliciously imaginative, candid and sensual. Take advantage of this collection, because it's usually difficult to find these wonderful writers' works in the US. New, fun and gratifying --Jen

Count d'Orgel
by Raymond Radiguet

In the preface to the novel, Jean Cocteau, the author's closest friend and lover,writes: "Raymond Radiguet was born on June 18, 1903. He died, without knowing it, on December 12, 1923, after a miraculous life." Like Rimbaud, Radiguet was a youth gifted with literary genius. By the age of twent, he had written a volume of peotry and two novels, of which Count d'Orgel's Ball is the undisputed masterwork. A story of psychological adultery, this book is a "chaste novel as scabrous as the least chaste." Written with exacting prose -- only what is violently necessary is said -- Count d'Orgel's Ball convinces us while we are reading it that the profoundest pangs of love take place entirely in one's own head. --Jeni

The Romantics
by Pankaj Mishra

Set in India in the late 1980s, this novel follows a young Brahmin man's journey through the westernized world and his resulting experiences with the formerly alien emotions of passion and love. Mishra writes poignantly of longing for the absolutes of solitude and passion and the middle ground between them which composes our lives. Both a commentary on the romanticism and westernization which have shaped India and an extremely personal narrative of the search for self, this beautiful novel is sure to be only the beginning of an impressive career for Pankaj Mishra. --Lida

Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler
by Joe Queenan

Ever wonder: What's with all the similar-themed movies coming out of Hollywood having similar-sounding titles? Why do Sylvestser Stallone and Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen each always play the same role? The answers are presently manifest before you. Joe Queenan picks out cinematic redundancies, blatant and subtle, and uses them as fodder for his hilariously insightful essays. Ferociously, he delves into the bizarre trends appearing in contemporary films. And his astounding perspicacy is ushered in on the glorious chariots of cynicism. If Janet Maslin, Roger Ebert and David Sedaris had a cyber-lovechild, Joe Queenan would be him. --Liza

White Teeth
by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith's first book, set in London, features a loveably imperfect cast of characters from two confused families. The Jones and the Iqbals are linked through the two patriarchs' unlikely war friendship. The handsome Iqbal twins and the not-so-pretty bi-racial Jones daughter grow up together, challenging their parents' old-country ideas at every turn. This novel is both hilarious and thought-provoking, as the Jones and Iqbal offspring become involved in Muslim fundamentalism, animal rights activism, hair straightening procedures, premarital sex, cloning, and dentistry. --Kate

Emperors of Chocolate
by Joel Brenner

Brenner explores the fascinating (and amazingly secretive) world of candy-making in this compelling history of the Hershey and Mars companies. If you are interested in business, chocolate or history (or just a good read), you will enjoy this book. --Laura

Homo Faber
by Max Frisch

This novel was recommended to me by a customer, and now a number of us have read it. On a simple level, it seems like a bizarre modern mix of Lolita and the story of Oedipus. Like them, it's a tale of the psychological journey of aging and discovery. What makes it worth reading is its existential angle--the same question, but directed to the (post-?)modern wo/man. --Josh

George Bush, Dark Prince of Love
by Lydia Millet

A Canadian writes an obsessive love story involoving an ex-con and George Bush. Need I say more? This nove is hysterical. If you're not laughing when Millet describes Rosemary's (the ex-con's) construction of a George Bush effigy in her G.B. love den, check your pulse. --Lida

Jakob von Gunten
by Robert Walser

Of the novel's main character, Christopher Mddleton writes, "Essences of Rimbaud, Holden Caulfield, and Walter Mitty flit in and out of him." The hero, on the other hand, describes himslef with pointed impudence: "How fortunate I am, not to be able to see in myself anything worth respecting and watching! To be small and to stay small." Bolstered by a lowliness that he has deliberately cultuvated, Jakob confronts a world evocative of the most bewildering aspects of Kafka's imagination. In Jakob von Gunten, Robert Walser has created a novel populated by enigmatic figures of authority, aimless pupils, and one mysteriously compelling institution. But by the last page everything has been turned on its head, and the only thing that remains is Jakob, redolent in his cheekiness. --Jeni

Black Girl in Paris
by Shay Youngblood

In 1986, the City of Light was darkened by terrorism. The response by French law enforcement was severe, arbitrary...anyone without white skin was suspect. Enter Eden, a young American writer retreading the expatriate path, seeking her literary hero (James Baldwin) and her own inspiration. In Black Girl in Paris, Shay Youngblood revitalizes an overdone genre through Eden's honest and compelling voice. --Alex

Geeks
by Jon Katz

This book is a must read for anyone who works with, is friends with, or even remotely knows a geek. Katz writes with compassion and knowledge on the subject of being a geek and the important role of geeks in our society and culture. In an age of increasing isolation and random acts of violence, Katz lends an amazing level of insight as to why society both needs and rejects geeks, and the role they play. It is also an amazing tale of two young men and their courage to push themselves into the next level of their lives. --Elizabeth

A Trip to the Stars
by Nicholas Christopher

Here is a book in which you can truly lose yourself. Christopher interweaves the plausible with the arcane and fantastic to stunning effect, and the result is a conjuring act that brings to mind Iris Murdoch, Robertson Davies and John Cowper Powys. --Chuck