Dear Customers,
Happy September. Here in the store, we're feeling the back-to-school buzz. It's exciting to see everyone kicking into high gear, stocking up on last minute summer reading books, and putting on a brave face for a school year unlike any other.
On the events front, we've just about got a handle on the early Fall calendar and will be coming back to you next Friday with an events round up. In the meantime, our first partnership event is a three-part discussion series with Everwell inspired by Zadie Smith's brilliant new book, Intimations. For more information and to join free of cost, click here and enter the code BARRETT when registering.
Be well.
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Because we're heading into a school year that promises to be anything but normal, we're offering up books that share the common theme of school with something a wee bit off, reminding us that despite the times, things could be worse.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro follows protagonist Kathy and her relationship with two school friends. Sounds like your run-of-the-mill coming-of-age novel, right? Wrong. Telling you much more would ruin the slow reveal of what distinguishes these school chums from other children but we'll give you a starting hint: genetic engineering plays a starring role.
Hailed by Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel as "stunning," The Dreamers is a book we have difficulty shelving. The publishers deem it literary fiction but we keep it nestled among the mystery and suspense books. It begins with a young woman who, feeling mildly unwell, lies down for a rest. Soon the college campus where she resides becomes ground zero for entire dorms lying down and and days later, failing to wake. A pandemic ensures, swallowing an entire town in California. Makes the current situation feel a little less daunting.
The Gifted School follows four families, close friends since moving to Crystal, Colorado more than 10 years prior, caught up in a magnet school frenzy. Admission-only based on testing and interviews, the school creates divisions within a seemingly tight-knit community as children snap up coveted spots. Jealously festers and questions about what makes for an equal education loom.
Zadie Smith's third novel, On Beauty, published in 2005 is a tribute to E. M. Forster's
Howard's End, updated to explore current culture through the lens of two families tied to a fictional college outside of Boston. Though suggested the school doesn't identify as an Ivy League institution, the reader will see more than a passing similarity to Harvard, Cambridge, and similar bastions of liberal academic greatness. Smith deftly explores questions of race, class, religion, and politics through a compelling storyline. A timeless narrative perfect for the current moment.
On the recommendation of The New York Times, I'm adding Abigail to my TBR stack. A New York Review of Books translation released in January of this year, Abigail was penned by Hungarian writer Magda Szabo in 1970 and is so popular in her home country, it's been turned into a musical and television series. At the center of the action stands Gina, the daughter of a Hungarian Army general shipped off to an austere boarding school with zero explanation. Stripped of everything she knows, Gina finds herself first skeptical of and later drawn to a garden statue rumored to help any girl in need. A slim, celebrated volume.
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New on the Shelf: Fiction |
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*Pro tip: You can click on any of the images below and travel to our website where you can read synopses, reviews, and place an order for in-store pick up or delivery. Most books are in stock but if we don't have a copy on the shelf, we can easily order one for you! |
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New on the Shelf: Non-Fiction and Memoir |
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