Hilary's Picks

One of the Boys (Paperback)

By Daniel Magariel

$15.00

ISBN: 9781501156175

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Scribner Book Company - March 6th, 2018

One of the Boys is a stark portrait and unforgiving look at a young boy’s coming-of-age. It is also a survival story of two brothers under the care of their drug-addled, abusive, and manipulative father. He pits the boys against their mother, then against one another, in an attempt to gain their unrivaled love and support. All along, all the narrator wants is to be loved and to be, as his father frequently says, “one of the boys.” But this desire to belong creates unforeseen consequences as both the narrator and his brother get caught up in their father’s manic behavior and, at times, go to reprehensible lengths to try to prove themselves worthy. With sharp, simple language Magariel conveys the confusing feelings of two boys who desperately try hold their father together despite his impending self-implosion. With amazing insight and beautifully raw language One of the Boys transcends its bleak subject matter to become its own kind of distilled novelistic triumph. 

Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel (Paperback)

By Jesmyn Ward

$17.00

ISBN: 9781501126079

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Scribner - May 8th, 2018

My favorite book of 2017. Ward is master storyteller and so graceful in showing us the depths of grief, the pain of emotional suffering, the grip of sadness. We see generation after generation of a family endure loss. Smell the blood of those gone and see it spill from those still here. Witness not just with eyes, but with heart, the hardship of those that came before and those that come after. But the novel is equally adept at showing us love, not matter how subtle. We see how love can be carried, not matter how small, and can become a tiny gem that allow the characters to bear what life brings. Even with the heavy weight of sorrow running through the novel, the book is somehow lightened through Ward’s generously beautiful prose. She shows us what it is to live, to love, to die. What an extraordinary book. One I will take with me the rest of my life. 

Too Loud a Solitude (Paperback)

By Bohumil Hrabal

$11.99

ISBN: 9780156904582

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Mariner Books - April 27th, 1992

For thirty-five years, Hanta has been compacting wastepaper and books, and it's his love story. Set in Prague under Communist rule, Hanta sees thousands of books destroyed under his watch. But he "saves" as many as he can and collects them in his home. He may be simple, and at times just plain foolish, but he loves his books as ardently as any intellectual. My favorite book of all time, I reread this book over and over again, and its beautiful, rambling sentences become my own kind of devotional. I absolutely love this book for its silly, misguided narrator and his compulsive love for the written word.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness (Paperback)

By Susannah Cahalan

$16.00

ISBN: 9781451621389

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Simon & Schuster - August 6th, 2013

I dare  you not to finish this book in one sitting. Everyone I know who has read it, including myself, has been unable to put it down. The author chronicles her battle with a rare autoimmune disease that swiftly attacked her brain with symptoms that included psychotic breaks, seizures and catatonia. The doctors didn't know the cause and raced against time to find a cure. A fascinating look at how we diagnose and treat disease -- and how family, friends, and doctors came together to save a life.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel (Paperback)

By Anthony Marra

$16.00

ISBN: 9780770436421

Availability: On Our Shelves Now

Published: Hogarth - February 4th, 2014

One of the best debut novels I've ever read. Period.