May 2018 Staff PicksLike this list

17 items

• Asymmetry

  a Novel

  Halliday, Lisa,

  Add Asymmetry to your for later shelf

  Already a sensation in literary New York, this brilliant debut novel is written in 3 parts: in part 1 ("Folly"), Alice, a publishing assistant in her 20s is approached one day in Central Park by a highly celebrated author in his 70s named Ezra…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Before We Were Yours

  a Novel

  Wingate, Lisa,

  Add Before We Were Yours to your for later shelf

  On a stormy night in 1930s Tennessee, the five Rill children are abducted from their poor but happy life on a Mississippi River shanty-boat while their mother is away giving birth to their newest sibling. They are taken to the Tennessee Children’s…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bella Figura

  How to Live, Love, and Eat the Italian Way

  Mohammadi, Kamin,

  Add Bella Figura to your for later shelf

  Kamin is a writer whose recent misfortune gives her the opportunity to trade in her hectic life in London for a glorious year in Florence. As she makes her way among the beautiful church towers and narrow streets of her temporary new neighborhood,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Blackfish City

  Miller, Sam J.,

  Add Blackfish City to your for later shelf

  The lives of four strangers intersect in a post-apocalyptic world largely destroyed by climate change and rising water levels. The setting is Quaanaaq, an eight-armed steel grid city built above the Artic Sea, where each arm houses different…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Everything Here Is Beautiful

  Lee, Mira T., 1970-

  Add Everything Here Is Beautiful to your for later shelf

  Miranda and Lucia are sisters raised by their widowed Chinese mother in New York. Miranda, older than Lucia by seven years, has always been the protective and nurturing sister while Lucia has been a dreamer and traveler, never settling down in one…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Feather Thief

  Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

  Johnson, Kirk W.,

  Add The Feather Thief to your for later shelf

  The Feather Thief recounts the enthralling story of a young, gifted musician who robbed the British Museum at Tring of more than a million dollars' worth of rare bird specimens for their beautiful feathers, coveted by fly tiers like himself.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Feel Free

  Essays

  Smith, Zadie,

  Add Feel Free to your for later shelf

  Zadie Smith is back with a collection of essays which not only look back but also forward. Fans of Smith will enjoy falling into her thought processes and how she examines and analyzes different areas of her life, including book reviews, art,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Heart Berries

  a Memoir

  Mailhot, Terese Marie,

  Add Heart Berries to your for later shelf

  Intergenerational trauma comes to the forefront in this best-selling memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot. Mailhot grew up on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in British Columbia. The first chapter, titled Indian Condition, begins, "My story was…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• I'll Be Gone in the Dark

  One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

  McNamara, Michelle, 1970-2016,

  Add I'll Be Gone in the Dark to your for later shelf

  At the time of her death, Michelle McNamara was working on a book about the still unsolved case of the Golden State Killer. Mere months after the posthumous publication of McNamara's engrossing, assiduously researched book, a suspect has been…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Love and Ruin

  a Novel

  McLain, Paula,

  Add Love and Ruin to your for later shelf

  In December, 1936, Martha Gellhorn, a fledgling writer from St. Louis met Ernest Hemingway at the now iconic Sloppy Joe's Bar while on a family vacation in Key West, Florida. Hemingway, at this point the celebrated novelist of A Farewell to Arms and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Mars Room

  a Novel

  Kushner, Rachel,

  Add The Mars Room to your for later shelf

  A former dancer at a San Francisco strip club called The Mars Room winds up in prison in this thoughtful novel that considers the causes, effects and toll of incarceration. In kaleidoscopic fashion the story presents chapters of Romy's life growing…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Merry Spinster

  Tales of Everyday Horror

  Lavery, Daniel M.

  Add The Merry Spinster to your for later shelf

  In this collection of disturbing tales, Mallory Ortberg expands on the "Children's Stories Made Horrific" that they wrote for the late, lamented website, The Toast. Familiar storybook characters like The Velveteen Rabbit, Mr. Toad of Toad Hall and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Mother of Black Hollywood

  a Memoir

  Lewis, Jenifer,

  Add The Mother of Black Hollywood to your for later shelf

  If you've seen Jenifer Lewis in any of her acting roles, then you know that she's hilarious. Be careful where you read her book because you will be laughing out loud. Nothing is off limits, including her difficult childhood and being diagnosed with…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Odd Child Out

  a Novel

  Macmillan, Gilly,

  Add Odd Child Out to your for later shelf

  This story centers on two very different 15-year-old boys who are best friends. Noah, who is seriously ill with cancer, is British-born and from a privileged background while Abdi is a Somali refuge attending a private school as a scholarship…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

  a New History of a Lost World

  Brusatte, Stephen,

  Add The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs to your for later shelf

  Responsible for the recent discovery of 15 new dinosaur species, paleontologist and Chicagoland native Brusatte has painted a new picture of the dinosaur as highly intelligent and adaptable, capable of evolving through 150 million years of volcanic…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• That Kind of Mother

  Alam, Rumaan,

  Add That Kind of Mother to your for later shelf

  Alam's sophomore novel is a piercing narrative of motherhood. Rebecca Stone is a fledgling writer and wife living in affluence in late 1980s Washington, DC when she gives birth to her son. Unprepared for the emotional and physical toll she endures…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• You Think It, I'll Say It

  Stories

  Sittenfeld, Curtis,

  Add You Think It, I'll Say It to your for later shelf

  Sittenfeld's story collection simmers with unrest with ten stories set mostly in a middle-class milieu and featuring primarily female protagonists. In the biting "The World Has Butterflies," a woman has misjudged the feelings of a male friend she…Read moreRead more of this annotation