Thick: And Other Essays

In November 1974, Werner Herzog received word of the imminent death of film historian Lotte Eisner. He resolved to walk from Munich to be at her side in Paris, in the faith that by essaying this trek, 'our Eisner mustn't die, she will not die, I won't permit it'; furthermore, that 'when I'm in Paris she will be alive. She must not die. Later, perhaps, when we allow it.' -- Spiros

Tomato Red

Daniel Woodrell

$14.99 $13.79

Sammy Barlach is a drifter with the words 'fuck up' writ large upon him. He is a stray dog, blessed with brilliant turns of phrase, cursed with an abnormal degree of self-awareness, always on the lookout for 'those that will have' him; in essence, he is trying to find a family. And in finding the Merridews, boy does he ever find one. This novel might offer the most succinct explanation of why those at the bottom of the ladder can't climb their way up: they are all too busy clobbering each other. -- Spiros

The Leopard

Giuseppe Di Lampedusa

$16.00 $14.72

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change" is the keynote paradox propounded by Tancredi Falconeri to his uncle, Prince Fabrizio Salina, as the young impoverished nobleman goes to join the Garibaldini to fight for an independent Sicily and a unified Italy. Don Fabrizio is taken aback; he, after all, lives his life on a Copernican paradigm, with himself at the center of the universe. Tancredi is representative of a Darwinian world, with his ability to adapt to changing circumstances, such that we modern readers, unlike the prince, are occasioned no surprise when Tancredi renounces the sans culottes for a position of power in the new regime. Tancredi rises to ever greater heights, while Don Fabrizio is left in melancholy contemplation of the passing of an old order which he knows was unworthy of mourning. This is an absolutely wonderful, elegiacal work, leavened throughout with moments of great humor. -- Spiros

The City & the City

China Miéville

$17.00 $15.64

The Thin Man

Dashiell Hammett

$14.95 $13.75

Ubik

Philip K. Dick

$15.99 $14.71

We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction

Joan Didion

$35.00 $31.50

I moved to San Francisco when I was 18 and quickly discovered the most amazing bookstore I had ever been to (spoiler it was Green Apple). I'll never forget the sense of discovery I had on that first trip and the joy I had after finding Joan Didion's beautiful behemoth of collected writings We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live. It was the feeling of the rest of your life opening up before you with possibility. -- Emily

The Lover

Marguerite Duras

$12.95 $11.91

This is probably (and when I say probably I really mean definitely) my favorite book of all time. Haunting, sparse, beautiful, The Lover chronicles the lifespan of an affair from its tumultuos beginning to its inevitable end. Somehow I always find myself coming back to this book. It is that first love you always remember, never quite get over. -- Emily

Last Night in Montreal

Emily St John Mandel

$15.95 $14.67

I love this book!! Mandel's writing will cast a spell on you. This is the story of a girl unable to stay in one place and the pain of trying to love someone in flight. I'm sure you will be as entranced with this book as I was. -- Emily

In the Sierra: Mountain Writings

Kenneth Rexroth

$18.95 $17.43

Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Herman Melville and Tony Millionaire

$20.00 $18.00

A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube

Patrick Leigh Fermor

$16.95 $15.59

"This beloved account about an intrepid young Englishman on the first leg of his walk from London to Constantinople is simply one of the best works of travel literature ever written."

Eileen

Ottessa Moshfegh

$16.00 $14.72

eileen emotive evocative empathetic embittered enigmatic entirely excellent -- FS

Letters to Emma Bowlcut

Bill Callahan

$16.95 $15.59

required reading for the unrequited -- FS

The Dakota Winters

Tom Barbash

$16.99 $15.63

barbash shines a light on a wired/paranoid nyc circa 1980 reads like a breeze that chills you -- FS

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry

$18.00 $16.56

Bastard Out of Carolina (Anniversary)

Dorothy Allison

$18.00 $16.56

The OG Hillbilly Elegy, but way better. beautiful & sad, and so worth it for the awareness of U.S. class issues. -- Sara

While Standing in Line for Death

Caconrad

$22.00 $19.80

This book is bonkers good. Imagine the edge most contemporary poets try hard to force not sounding contrived and hyperbolic. Imagine then what the emotive quality might actually be if one poet allowed the reader in with true courage. Conrad is notoriously brave, always 100% themselves, and clearly an outlier genius in modern American poetry. Famous for their somatic exercises, Conrad delivers a truly bright and bewildering collection. -- Nick

Leviathan Wakes

James S. A. Corey

$17.00 $15.64

Considered the 'Game of Thrones' of space (but I like it more). Taking place in the near future, in a colonized solar system, political factions are at odds, complicated notions of identity fuel this epic space opera - the story is compelling, the problems facing the characters feel real, but the context of everything remains speculative, fantastic - a band of heroes, anti-heroes, thugs, corporate control - and long, great, vast distances. -- Nick

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Svetlana Alexievich

$19.95 $18.35

Nothing I can say will do this justice. Nothing. One of the most unbelievable books you will read this year. Incredibly moving, poignant, even topical. This book won the Nobel Prize in Lit, because of Alexievich's journalism, which doesn't happen often, but what stands out to me, beyond content that will absolutely envelop you, is the masterful translation and editing. 20 years of oral history fieldwork, as much research, and an approach to voice that rivals any oral history I've ever read. It's the best book you'll read on Chernobyl ever. Poetic, direct, unadorned. This will humble, make you question, maybe cry in public. -- Nick

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

Stephen Greenblatt

$13.95 $12.83

Of all of the books that have come out trying to explain the last few years, Tyrant is hands down my favorite. It is also a very good piece of literary criticism. I should warn you that Stephen Greenblatt is not unbiased...but then neither was Shakespeare. -- Martin

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Ken Liu

$17.99 $16.55

These are some of the best short stories I've recently read. And while you may be thinking 'but I don't like science fiction', these stories transcend genre in the way very few writers are able to do. And so far, there is not a single story in this collection that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. If you are in any way a fan of well written short stories, then I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. -- Martin

Eggshells

Caitriona Lally

$16.99 $15.63

So many reasons to love this book. Great writing, interesting narrator , and the best literary stroll around Dublin since Joyce. -- Martin

Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco

Gary Kamiya

$18.00 $16.56

There have been many histories written about the transformation of San Francisco from a muddy hamlet of 800 people in 1848 into one of the world's great metropolises. What makes this one special is Kamiya's synthesizing of the personal memoir with a walking tour of the historic, the geographic and the geologic, all rolled together in a witty and accessible style. Kamiya not only obviously spent countless hours deep in the library stacks doing diligent research, but he must also have worn out several pairs of shoes walking the far-flung corners, alleys, dirt paths and hills of San Francisco. Along the way he points out the little remnants of the past--buried stream beds and old trails that became our modern roads; local characters past and present; spots where the old has been replaced by the new without being completely erased. Even if you think you know all you need to about this cool gray city of love, Gary Kamiya will surprise you with his passionate mash note to San Francisco. -- KPR

The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime

Jason Turbow and Michael Duca

$16.95 $15.59

One of the best insider baseball books I've ever read. Based on interviews with hundreds of players from the last 50 years of baseball, along with great historical anecdotes, The Baseball Codes reveals the unseen game: what offenses cause a pitcher to intentionally hit a batter; what recourse that batter has; what's ok and what's not ok when it comes to stealing signs; how to properly celebrate an accomplishment without earning the ire of the opposing team; what actually constitutes 'running up the score'; what is proper decorum for a rookie in the clubhouse. Best of all, the authors are both local, so many of the tales involve the Giants. -- KPR

Every Man Dies Alone

Hans Fallada

$16.95 $15.59

Set in Berlin in 1940. The city is still functioning mostly normally: there is food in the stores, people go about their business. But it is a city where everyone feels they are being watched, where information can be traded to the Gestapo for a price, where citizens who won’t join the party are looked upon with suspicion or worse. When Otto and Anna Quangel’s son is killed on the French front, this ordinary German couple decide it is time to resist the totalitarianism suffocating their country. How they decide to resist seems almost comically minor at first glance, but the reader soon realizes that no act of defiance is minor in such a time and place. And this act of defiance soon sets loose a chain of events that catches others, innocent and not-so-innocent, in its deadly web. Chilling, brilliant, written by a man who lived through it and based on a real Gestapo file, Every Man Dies Alone is a street-level view of life in a totalitarian state. -- KPR

The Seas

Samantha Hunt

$19.95 $18.35

The ethereal novel drips fog, walks a line between the real and mythical, and will leave you wanting to talk about it with someone else. Buy one for you AND one for your literary pal. It's mysterious but full of yearning; set in a very particular coastal town but universal; lyrical but still page-turning. -- Pete

Tenth of December: Stories

George Saunders

$17.00 $15.64

This short story collection is the perfect marriage of head and heart. The stories are sometimes witty or quirky, but always deeply rooted in empathy. Some of them have stuck with me for YEARS. Even if you don't normally read short fiction, this will be a balm for your soul. -- Pete

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Cass R Sunstein and Richard H Thaler

$18.00 $16.56

Nudge is a terrific book for anyone interested in how we make choices, public policy, politics and behavioral science. The way that governments and companies frame choices affects our behavior and well-being, often on a subtle level. A 'nudge': if Americans defaulted to donating organs upon death (with an option to opt out, of course) thousands of lives would be saved annually. -- Pete

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Flannery O'Connor

$15.99 $14.71

Whatta me and Harold Bloom have in common? Nothin', I thought. I was wrong! We both love Flannery O'Connor. A Good Man Is Hard To Find hilights her amazing talents -- for dialogue and dialect, for proporiety contrasted with the ghastly, and a rather dark sense of humor. -- Jeff

Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon

Bronwen Dickey

$16.00 $14.72

A much-needed exposé of the fallacy of breed-specific legislation. Research shows that a dog's appearance and ancestry frequently don't coincide, and that dogs are classified as 'pit bulls' by the media solely because they bit someone. Contains many cute pictures and a few sad ones. Very highly recommended. -- Jeff

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Ottessa Moshfegh

$16.00 $14.72

Sabrina

Nick Drnaso

$27.95 $25.16

The first graphic novel long listed for the Man Booker Prize has no synopsis on its cover. To tell you it follows the community of people closely (and not-so closely) affected by the disappearance of a woman, Sabrina, would suggest nothing of what it says about desensitization to violence and discerning fact from fake news in the internet era. The simple line art invites readers to speculate into its ambiguities while reflecting a pervasive feeling of dullness on the outside and screaming on the inside. Unnerving in the best way. -- Casey

The Octopus Museum: Poems

Brenda Shaughnessy

$25.00 $22.50

"This collection of bold and scathingly beautiful feminist poems imagines what comes after our current age of environmental destruction, racism, sexism, and divisive politics."