Staff Recommendation, Week of December 28, 2021

Here it is, the last staff recommendation of the year!

Boswellian Kay Wosewick recommends Once Upon a Time We Ate Animals: The Future of Food, by Roanne van Voorst, translated by Scott Emblen-Jarrett. And Kay says: "Partially written as if from the future, Van Voorst imagines a world of vegans who cannot believe humans ever ate meat. The environmental reasons for being vegan are compelling: the use of animal meat, dairy, and eggs are responsible for more greenhouse gases than all modes of transportation combined. These industries also use and pollute more water than any other industry and account for almost one-half of land use. Meat-like vegan foods are rapidly coming on the market and are usually reasonably easy to prepare. Choose two nights a week to eat vegan, and you will, indeed, make an important difference."

See you next year, readers! Hope you had a great year of books, and here's to more good reading in 2022.

Top 10 Books of 2021- a New Decade

It's that time of year...the end of the year best-of lists. Everyone has Top 10 books of the year, from New York Times to the Washington Post! Obama even gave us a long list of books that he enjoyed this year. I have so many books that I loved that only 10 is difficult, especially in 2021. 2021, the year that publishing overflowed with great works due to books being delayed due to Covid to books being written because writers had nothing to do buy write during Covid. 

It is one of the only good things to come out of 2020 for me (that and curbside pickup at grocery stores--I am not a fan of shopping). There are a lot of books on this list I wish were here, and a lot of books I wished I had read that would be consider for this list. Anyway, here is my imperfect, but very in the moment, top 10 books of 2021:

10) Outlawed by Anna North

A reworked Western novel that mixes equal parts alt-history and feminism into a stellar story. With no future at home Ada has to escape and make it on her own. She meets up with the Hole in the Wall Gang, and the rest is brilliant.   

9)  Hitler and Stalin by Laurence Rees

My only history book that truly came out this year that I finished. I'm partway through so many others. This book examines how Hitler and Stalin compared to each other leading up to World War II, during the war and afterward. It's a sobering look at absolute power. 

8) Tales from the Café by Toshiikazu Kawaguchi

The second book in Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, where we follow four new customers that want to use the café to time travel. At first I was nervous that this would be more of the same and not very unique, but I was wrong. Questions are answered that left off in the previous book and the individual stories are very emotional. Supposedly, there is a third one out in the world waiting for translation, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. 

7) Appleseed by Matt Bell

Here is my eco-fiction title for the season, narrowly beating out Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. This book is spread out through time: the first section follows a pair of brothers in eighteenth-century Ohio planting apple trees in the path of colonization of the new territories; the second part takes place fifty years in our future, where climate change has ravished the earth; the third part takes place a thousand years from now, where North America is covered by ice sheets and a lonely being is attempting to find life on the bleak planet. Loved this book! 

6) When the Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash

Wiley Cash comes up with ideas like no other. In a quiet east coast town, a plane crashes and starts off a startling series of events. The novel is like an onion, peeling away the story and the community which each layer, until the startling ending comes rushing out of nowhere. 

5) The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

A heart breaking novel based on true events. After the 2011 tsunami in Japan, a phone booth appeared in which loved ones could make calls to those they've lost. Their messages thrown into the wind. Yui hears about the pilgrimages of of the grief stricken and mourning going to the 'wind phone,' for a bit of closure. Yui lost both her mother and daughter to the tsunami and has been in anguish ever since. The phone booth appears as a beacon of hope that she must confront. 

                                                     

4) The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier

One ordinary day, a plane appears on the radar. Okay so far, however, upon further inspection, ground control recognizes the plane as one that had already landed three months beforehand. A completely identical plane, including passengers. It's a bit like the TV show Manifest crossed with the book Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I've reread this book twice, two thumbs way up.

3) Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This is the best Science Fiction novel I read all year. It's a SF novel that has many tropes of the genre: first contact, space exploration, extinction level events, alien languages. Andy Weir only does it better. So much science exists in this book, and Andy Weir makes it understandable and easy to follow in a funny, entertaining way. An unputdownable book!

2) The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman 

This is the best Fantasy novel I read all year. I've loved everything Christopher Buehlman has written, which has been mostly horror before this book. Don't think he gave up on the horror though, there a nightmares that walk in this book. The Blacktongue Thief has everything you want in fantasy novel: a conflicted hero, a quest, a well-built world full of wonders, villains and monsters. Many, many monsters. You will not be able to put this book down! 

1) All's Well by Mona Awad

I thought Mona Awad's follow up to Bunny wouldn't be nearly as good. I was so wrong. It's just as great, no easy feat. Miranda is a washed up stage actor teaching at a university theater department. She's hooked on painkillers from chronic pain due to a fall she took in a play. She's alienated everyone, her fellow teachers and students, and they rebel against her in a myriad of ways. One night, Miranda meets three mysterious strangers at the local pub, who make her an offer to take her pain away. The rest of the book gets more surreal and fantastical as we follow her on a euphoric journey away from her pain. My favorite book of the year!  


--Jason

Staff Recommendations, Week of December 7, 2021

One blog post, one staff rec!

Out today, and with a write-up from our proprietor Daniel Goldin, it's a debut novel from Milwaukee native (current Paris resident) Rachel Kapelke-Dale: The Ballerinas. Here's Daniel's rec: "Delphine, Lindsay, and Marqaux were inseparable friends and fellow dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet. Now Delphine is back as a guest choreographer, hoping to make Lindsay the star dancer in her new work about Rasputin and the Tsarina Alexandra. But there are a lot of stumbling blocks to this show’s success, like Delphine’s old beaus Jock and Dmitri, Lindsay’s husband Daniel, and Natalie, the head of the company, who wants to push Delphine in a more feminist and modernist direction. So many secrets! So many betrayals! The Ballerinas is a page-turning story of friendship dynamics with an interesting take on the physical tolls and psychological abuses borne by women dancers. Sometimes the author blurbs seem out of left field, but in this case, the Jessica Knoll comparison and the Andrea Bartz recommendation lead readers in the right direction."

Author Kapelke-Dale will join us at Boswell for a hybrid event next week, too - Wednesday, December 15 - click here to visit the Boswell upcoming events page for more info about this event and registration links.

Staff recs are a bit sporadic through the end of the year as we focus on gift book shopping. But keep your eyes on the blog, and we'll keep you updated when we read something we love!

Bookseller Top 5 of 2021 - Part 6

Our final day of top 5 blogging has come. We hope you have enjoyed it. And we super duper hope you've found a book or two or seven or twenty for yourself and maybe even someone else to love or like or just tolerate. We close out the day with our last two booksellers in alphabetical order (surely you noticed that we did this in alpha-order for fairness, right?!) - Thom and Tim.

Thom Clancy opens us today with his top 5 picks.

#1 Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The Arthur C Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time offers up an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all. Authors weight in: from Stephen Baxter: "If Homer had written space opera... Enthralling, epic, immersive and hugely intelligent. This might be Tchaikovsky's best so far, and that's saying something." And from Christopher Paolini: "Adrian Tchaikovsky: king of the spiders, master worldbuilder, and asker of intriguing questions. His books are packed with thought-provoking ideas (as well as lots of spiders; did I mention the spiders?). One of the most interesting and accomplished writers in speculative fiction."

#2 Red Hands by Christopher Golden. When a mysterious and devastating bioweapon causes its victims to develop Red Hands, the touch of death, weird science expert Ben Walker is called to investigate. From The Washington Post: "Tautly written, Red Hands - the third in a series starring Walker - excels not just because of its scare factor (which is high), but also its humane depiction of grief, isolation and fear, growing mistrust of government and even one’s own neighbors." And from the starred Booklist review: "The neck-whipping action and shifting points of view give the reader a wide-angle perspective...invoking maximum terror on every page.. .For fans of horror-thriller series like those by Jonathan Maberry and Mira Grant."

#3 A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new entry in the Monk and Robot series gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. NPR says, "A Psalm for the Wild-Built begins a series that looks optimistic and hopeful, pursuing stories that arise from abundance instead of scarcity, kindness instead of cruelty, and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here."

#4 Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells. Thom loves Murderbot and that's no lie! The  security droid with a heart (though it wouldn't admit it!) is back. When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people - who knew?). Hope you like these notes from NPR, because here's some more: "Martha Wells' newest entry in her award-winning, nerd-charming, trope-bending Murderbot series, Fugitive Telemetry, is a lot of things that you probably don't expect. It is an unadorned whodunit. A cozy mystery garlanded with plasma cannons and spaceships... One of Wells' superpowers has long been her ability to pack an epic's worth of material into a very small package."

#5 The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Buehlman's latest begins a dazzling fantasy adventure unlike any other. We've still (as of this posting) got a few signed copies, too! As well as two other fans in the shop - Ogi and Jason - of this one. From Library Journal's starred review: "Readers of epic fantasy novelists, like Tolkien or Brandon Sanderson, will enjoy this journey, which is by turns fun, magical, or terrifying for the travelers... this title is transporting."

And now, we finish our top 5 picking with Tim McCarthy's favorites of the year.

#1 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. Tim's rec: "Whitehead starkly defines his characters' world as he unwraps their stories with a direct, graceful style and unique symbolism. I met him once at a Boswell Book Company event. I saw the genius in his eyes; the sincerity, too. And he’s funny! Once again, he drops us into another time. Harlem, 1959, was a much harder place than the one where I was born (that same year). Ray Carney is a loving family man with a small furniture company and modest ambitions for upward movement. He stays at the edges of the hustles all around him, but everything heavy pulls at the edges. He “was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked" until his beloved cousin Freddie draws him into a heist. I like Ray, and in Whitehead’s masterful hands he becomes real. I haven’t read a better American novelist, living or dead. He stands with James Baldwin, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, and E. L. Doctorow. Back-to-back Pulitzers ain’t bad. By giving us the past, Whitehead leads us toward the future. He's the new King of American historical fiction, the new voice as powerful as Doctorow’s. The torch of greatness has been passed."

#2 The Beatryce Prophecy by  Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by Sophie Blackall. Tim's rec: "Here two stars have aligned. The first is Kate DiCamillo - a fine storyteller, an original voice in children's literature, a two-time Newbery Medalist. She is not shy. She’ll tell children about the world’s great terrors, then offer characters who rise above their traumas. Sophie Blackall is the second star - a creator of elegant pictures that perfectly suit my eye, a two-time Caldecott Medalist. In this wise and wonderful novel, Beatryce is found, filthy and covered with blood, by a fierce and “uncompromising” goat named Answelica, and by Brother Edik of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing. Answelica abides nobody, so when Beatryce is found, near death, clutching the goat's ear, it's clear that she's special. She has no memory of how she came to this place, but there is a King looking for this dangerous girl of whom the prophecy speaks. It’s a clever story, made warm with humor and love, and it’s a tribute to the power of reading, writing, storytelling, and strong women and girls. I gladly align my fragile star with the strength of theirs."

#3 The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams. Tim says: "Hope can be tough to come by these days, but Jane Goodall certainly has it. She is truly "a beacon of hope." People from all over the world look to her for it, and it's not wishful thinking. She has very specific and detailed reasons to be hopeful, and she thinks what people see in her is an unflinching honesty about the nightmare scenarios we face on Earth combined with a sincere belief that we can still overcome them. She freely admits there are times when she feels down, but at 87 years old, long after her revolutionary studies of African chimpanzees, she still travels the world working with people and nature, collecting the most amazing stories! She believes that hope is a survival trait which humans have developed, but that it must also be nurtured and reinforced. Her travels give her a fierce belief in "the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of young people, and the indomitable human spirit." She discusses each of these reasons for hope in profound dialogues with Douglas Abrams, who wrote The Book of Joy with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This is a book I've badly needed, a renewal of my sense of purpose and possibility from one of our wisest elders!"

#4 Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley. Tim's write up goes a bit like this: "Firekeeper's Daughter is a thriller. We know on the first page, when we’re given a glimpse of what’s to come - a revolver pointed at our narrator's face, but the novel doesn't happen at break-neck speed. It's the very personal story of Daunis Fontaine just after her high school graduation. It's deliberate, like her talent for science, and strong, like her ability to play varsity hockey with the boys. She was born a scandal, but her wealthy, white, sixteen-year-old mother insisted on keeping her Ojibwe father’s family in her life. Daunis balances two worlds, loved by both and never completely fitting with either. Now she’s ready for college, looking to be a doctor in the safe world her money and light skin allow her. It's a life her father's Firekeeper family wouldn't expect to have, and things aren't going as planned. Daunis will fight through traumatic losses and walk straight into danger to protect her people, all while pretending she's not falling in love. She's an impressive character, with a toughness and raw honesty that I wish I had. It’s a powerful teen novel, an eye-opening experience, and I learned so many cultural lessons as I was being drawn into the suspense. This is sure to be one of my top books of 2021!"

#5 Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Tim recommends this book like so: "This book is easy to read, and not because it's simple. Ishiguro creates tremendous emotional depth with a graceful narrative flow. That must be how you win a Nobel Prize: expertly crafting writing that sounds so natural. Klara observes the world and its people with open curiosity, at first untainted by her limited experience, but she’s always learning. Her ability to analyze human behavior with sincerity, consideration, and objectivity is something I would love to possess, but Klara isn't human. She's a machine, waiting for a future with a human family who would buy her as their child's Artificial Friend. She looks forward to being displayed in the storefront window, where nourishment from the sun will make her stronger, and she can see more of the city's intensity. Then there’s a wider world out there, where her status will be friend, family, and possession. Klara feels the effects. She has her own intentions, and her personal story has an unmistakable living warmth. Can Klara love and be loved? Is she ultimately being used for her owners' needs alone, or do they care for her as they would care for a person? One thing I can say without hesitation is that I wish Klara was my friend!"

We sincerely hope you've enjoyed our notes on our favorite books of 2021. Until next year's roundup-list-making-time, happy reading to all of you.

Bookseller Top 5 of 2021 - Part 5

 We're almost to the end of the month, and we've almost run out of top 5 choice - BUT NOT YET! 

Oli Schmitz starts us off with their picks for the year!

#1 Any Way the Wind Blows, the third book in a trilogy from Rainbow Rowell. Oli says: "Rowell has written a Young Adult fantasy series that expertly transitions into a very real adult story in its final volume. Book three is a beautiful exploration of what it takes to stay in love, to fight for relationships, and to accept love and care from those close to you in the aftermath of trauma. Cute and funny moments and stellar character writing abound! This is a story I needed."

#2 Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. A #1 New York Times bestseller and the highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an achingly romantic, tender tale sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi. Two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence. From the starred Booklist review: "Sáenz himself is something of a cartographer, drawing an intricate map of the human heart. The result is a brilliant, character-driven novel that challenges its readers themselves to think about life while falling in love with those two unforgettable characters, Aristotle and Dante."

#3 The Girl from the Sea, a graphic novel by Molly Knox Ostertag. Oli's rec: "This queer summer romance draws on Selkie (human-seal shapeshifter) mythology in a modern setting, on an island off the shore of a coastal Canadian tourist town. Keltie may be the magical sea creature, but island-dweller Morgan also hides parts of herself. This graphic novel tackles issues of family, friendships, identity, and sacrifice, all with compassion and splendid illustrations."

#4 Mystical Stitches: Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishment by Christi Johnson. Oli's rec: "In addition to serving as a fantastic resource on embroidery techniques, this book will also teach you to stitch meaning into your clothes, create talisman patches with intentional symbolism, and add threadcrafting rituals to your art/magic/self-care practice. Mystical Stitches thoroughly appeals to my craft-witch sensibilities!"

#5 You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor (cowriter of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast series, of which I believe it's safe to say Oli is a megafan) and Janina Matthewson (who cowrites the Within the Wires podcast with Cranor). A haunting, provocative novel, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a fictional autobiography in an alternate twentieth century that chronicles one woman’s unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save.

Parker Jensen offers up their top 5 selections next.

#1 The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo. A Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Award finalist, this book is, according to NPR, "Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful... The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling." With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's novel is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.

#2 Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer. Parker's rec: "John Paul Brammer's voice is everything I've been looking for in the many essay collections I've picked up in the last couple of years. Simply put, Brammer's voice is fantastic. He is self-aware in a rare way that allows for the wittiest and most truthful of observations on life, relationships, one's own history, and the world, without crossing into the self-indulgent or self-deprecating. Although, I think he'd say I was giving him too much credit (but I'd wholeheartedly disagree). The essays in ¡Hola Papi! come together to compose a glimpse into the many different phases of Brammer's life, stitching together his coming of age as a gay Mexican boy growing up in rural Oklahoma to the many triumphs and tribulations of life as a gay man across the country and world. As a reader I felt like I was growing up alongside Brammer as he came to reckon with his self, his identities, his past, and his own actions. His own acceptance of the many parts of himself, the many experiences that culminate to make him who he is today, gives me hope and faith. I had to keep sticky notes next to me while I was reading, something I rarely do, to make sure I was saving passages to come back to. Passages that so concisely put into words things I've felt and thought, but so much more beautifully than I could have imagined saying myself. And passages that will stick with me and encourage me to grow. And what marks a better read that something that fundamentally changes the way you think, makes you want to grow, and excites you to see how you too will change and develop in the years to come?"

#3 Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Parker's rec for this one: "Ryka Aoki's Light from Uncommon Stars is an absolute gem of a novel: rare, gorgeous, and unique. This novel defies classification as it seamlessly mixes genres to tell a heartfelt story of acceptance, aliens, deals with demons, antique violins, and yes, donuts. The story follows a group of vastly different characters as their fates intersect in unexpected ways. Katrina Nguyen is a young homeless trans girl who has escaped an abusive situation and found herself unsure of where life will take her next. Shizuka Satomi, a.k.a. The Queen of Hell made a deal with the devil, and now she must deliver the souls of seven violin prodigies or face eternal damnation. And then there is Lan Tran, owner of Starrgate Donut and interstellar escapee of the galactic empire. The ways in which these three's fates intertwine will make readers laugh, swoon, and bite their nails in anticipation of discovering how this story wraps up. Unputdownable and gorgeously written, Light from Uncommon Stars is a page turning masterpiece and my personal favorite 2021 release."

#4 One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. Another bookseller pick for this one! It's a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time. For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

#5 Thisty Mermaids by Kat Leyh. The raucous and literal fishes-out-of-water graphic novel from prolific comic artist and writer Kat Leyh, creator of the acclaimed Snapdragon and coauthor of the Eisner and GLAAD Award–winning series Lumberjanes (a series with fans here at Boswell, too). Fresh out of shipwreck wine, three tipsy mermaids decide to magically masquerade as humans and sneak onto land to indulge in much more drinking and a whole lot of fun in the heart of a local seaside tourist trap. But the good times abruptly end the next morning as, through the haze of killer hangovers, the trio realizes they never actually learned how to break the spell, and are now stuck on land for the foreseeable future.

Rachel Copeland is our next Boswellian with favorites of the year to announce. Here they are!

#1 The Ex Hex, by Erin Sterling. From Rachel: "Vivienne Jones is just kind of a witch, thank you very much, so when she places a vodka-influenced curse on Rhys Penhallow for breaking her heart, she thinks nothing will come of it. Nine years later, Rhys comes calling and the curse returns with a vengeance, along with all of those feelings she tried to suppress. With strange magical events cropping up all over the town, it's up to Vivi and Rhys to save Graves Glen before it's too late. If you are wanting Practical Magic, Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus vibes with a huge helping of banter and off-the-charts chemistry, this is the one for you. With a cast of side characters that have definite sequel potential, you won't want to miss out on the start of this series."

#2 The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang. Rachel's rec: "After her boyfriend declares that they should try an open relationship, YouTube-famous violinist Anna Sun decides to use this as an opportunity to break out of her rut. But her first attempt at a one-night stand with Quan Diep isn't successful, or the second or third, because they both have serious issues to overcome. When Anna's lifechanging diagnosis coincides with a family tragedy, Quan is the only one she can turn to - but can they work past their issues and fight for each other? Wow - I didn't think I could love Helen Hoang and her writing more, but this one blew me away. Anna and Quan's struggles are incredibly relatable and so important to discuss and understand. This is the romance novel to shove in people's hands if they dare say romance novels are too fluffy or sentimental."

#3 Leviathan Wakes - Special 10th Anniversary Edition by James SA Corey. This special hardcover edition celebrates Corey’s modern masterwork of science fiction. From New York Times-bestselling and Hugo award-winning author James S. A. Corey comes the first book in the genre-defining space opera series, The Expanse, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl. George R. R. Martin calls it "Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written."

#4 Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne. Rachel's rec: "Ruthie (responsible, hardworking young manager of a retirement community) and Teddy (flaky, hot mess son of the retirement community owner) are opposites. When once-and-future-tattoo-artist Teddy gets trapped into being a personal assistant for two demanding residents of the community, Ruthie is sure Teddy will be gone the next day. Instead, Teddy thrives, working his way into everyone's hearts with his sweet nature and impulsive, fun personality. With his inevitable departure on the horizon, Ruthie just needs to guard her heart long enough to stay safe in her protective bubble of the retirement community forever. I have to say - this one really got to me. I cared so much about each character, and when I was done reading, I immediately flipped back to my favorite parts to enjoy them again. It's rare to find a romance novel that has both heart and sizzle in equal measure, but Sally Thorne makes it seem easy."

#5 To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters.  Rachel recommends it thusly: "Diana, Lady Templeton, and Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham, are always at each other's throats - he's an incorrigible rake, and she's a wealthy young widow. When Diana wagers that he'll be married within a year, Jeremy is confident he'll win. But then Jeremy's former mistress gives him negative feedback about his so-called skills, and he realizes he needs an honest review from his toughest critic: Diana. As a longtime reader of Regency-era romance novels, I'm ashamed to say I did not know about this series until the second book. If you read romance for the banter, this one is for you - Waters knows the genre well, and she has aptitude for both winking at tropes and using them sincerely. I can't wait to read the next in the series."

Rachel sat down for a virtual interview with Waters this year - click here to watch their great conversation.

More top 5 picks tomorrow!

Bookseller Top 5 of 2021 - Part 4

 Another day, another wonderful trip to the top 5 pick station!

Kay Wosewick is probably our most prolific reader on staff. She claims this is because she doesn't have a television. The rest of us are far too hooked on British baking shows and cooking competitions to give up our boob tubes and find out how much our reading will increase. BUT! When Kay picks a book for her top 5, you can be assured it's because it's great and has beaten out a great many other books she's read.

#1 Bewilderment by Richard Powers, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Overstory. Kay recommends the new Powers novel thusly: "Bewilderment belongs in the hands, head, and heart of every reader. The story is as timely, as wise, and as profound as Power’s Overstory, but Bewilderment is far more tightly packed and decidedly darker. You’ll be pulled into stunningly beautiful as well as haunting applications of cutting edge technologies. You’ll feel the joys and the terrors of parenthood’s rollercoaster. You may or may not anticipate the collapse of the wall of denial, but you’ll surely suffer its soul-crushing aftermath. Richard Powers, you broke my heart. And you will again and again as this book becomes worn from rereading."

#2 Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. Kay loves this one. I have seen her handselling it at least once a day since it appeared on our shelves, and many satisfied customers have thanked her for the rec! Kay says: "Two recent best sellers relied heavily on research pioneered by Suzanne Simard: Richard Power’s Overstory and Peter Wohlleben’s Hidden Life of Trees. Simard’s research proved that clear-cut logging old forests causes virtually irreversible damage to the land. But far more importantly, her research discovered why: the trees live as a community, acting for the good of the forest as a whole. This is accomplished via vast underground networks of roots and mycorrhiza that direct nutrients from healthy to needy trees, send warning signals of coming infestations and disease so trees can prepare defenses, and so much more. Clear-cut the trees, the network dies, and replacement trees won’t grow. Simard pursued her research despite belittlement, false criticism, and even sabotage of her research by a powerful clique of men with vested interests in maintaining existing logging practices in British Columbia. But her research proved popular among fellow academics and students, and eventually became mainstream. Growing up in a multi-generation logging family in British Columbia, Suzanne’s insatiable curiosity started her down this forest road when she was just six years old. I spent several enchanted evenings with Suzanne in beautiful British Columbia as she described her pioneering journey. Thank you for your tenacity Suzanne."

#3 Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Kay says of this one: "This fantastic, genre-bending story includes aliens pretending to be humans running a donut shop, humans making deals with the devil, several LBGQT characters at different stages of self-acceptance, serious foodies, and a crash course in all things violin. Un-put-down-able, loveable, slyly funny, and absolutely unforgettable."

#4 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai WeiWei. Kay has his to say: "Ai Weiwei’s only known artistic influences as a young child living in labor camps were hearing bits of his father’s poetry and pouring over his father’s art books while his father worked nearby. Ai Qing was released from labor camps after Mao died, just as Ai Weiwei was old enough to attend junior high school. He enrolled in numerous art schools and art programs abroad throughout his young adult years, only to drop out soon after starting. His early artistic output thus appears to be mostly self-directed, often evolving dramatically with little apparent reason. When he returned to China, ancient, odd artifacts captured his attention, but it wasn’t long before his art became almost completely politically driven. Since he and his father rarely spoke, Ai Weiwei’s fierce morality seems largely based on observation of his father. Ai Weiwei’s autonomy, brilliance and passion shine throughout his memoir, with minimal presence of ego. Beloved worldwide, this book convincingly depicts how he earned this lofty status."

#5 LA Weather by María Amparo Escandón. Kay has this recommendation of this book: "This LA-set story will quickly set its ​​​​​claws and pull you through a manic year in the lives of a well-off Mexican American family. Father, mother, and all three daughters have crises that vary from much ado about nothing to much-delayed ados about everything. You will smile gleefully as the family completes the eventful year with stronger bonds than ever." We hosted the author of this book for a great virtual conversation this year - click right here to check out the recording of that chat!

Madi Hill's top five is next! 

#1 The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. Madi offers up this recommendation for her top pick of the year: "Lynette just wants to be safe. That's why the only time she leaves her overly secure apartment is to meet with the five other final girls (the women who are left alive after defeating their killer. Think: Laurie Strode in Halloween) and their therapist in a church basement. But when it seems like their monsters are coming back to kill, she is forced to leave her hiding place to figure out why someone is going after final girls again. This was my first-time reading Grady Hendrix's work, and I am already hooked. Imagining classic horror films as if they were the result of tragic realities is done in an extremely original way that leaves you wondering where the story will lead, while trying to match each final girl to the correct classic horror heroine. Hendrix's style is so much fun but surprisingly tense, perfect for the horror fan who doesn't take themselves too seriously."

#2 You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism. From being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey's life in Nebraska is a lightning rod for hilariously ridiculous yet all-too-real anecdotes. People magazine says, "The book is a portrait of one person’s struggle to maintain dignity, strength and self-respect when faced with injustices small and large—all told with Ruffin’s irreverent, sardonic style."

#3 Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, a nonfiction graphic novel by Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, who recounts the tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings​. A 2021 Eisner Award winner, this book recounts the day in 1970 when America turned guns on its own children. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls the book an "expertly crafted chronicle of this defining moment in U.S. history serves as a deeply moving elegy for the victims. Readers may also draw from it sobering parallels to the deep divisions of contemporary times, again dangerously rife with media noise and misinformation muddying the waters."

#4 Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W Moniz. This collection of short stories is one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape which depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all. This one was named to many book-pick lists across the media landscape, including Time, Elle, and Entertainment Weekly, and it was also a Roxanne Gay Audacious Book Club pick this year.

#5 Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King, one of our Gift Guide Paperback Pick selections. An irreverent and charming collection of deeply personal essays about the joys of low pop culture and bad taste, exploring coming of age in the 2000s in the age of Hot Topic, Creed, and frosted lip gloss from the James Beard Award-nominated writer. Madi's rec: "I first picked up Tacky by Rax King because I have a tattoo of a green olive on my ankle, and it matched the cover so well it seemed kismet. Then I started reading through each nostalgia-rich essay, and it was like I time traveled back to the ‘00s in all of their cringing glory. King is unapologetically open about her connection and enjoyment about the things that even in their prime were considered "tacky." Her use of culture that we now recall with groans like Jersey Shore and places as Hot Topic are jumping off points for deeply personal stories about how such sneered-at things had a lasting impact in shaping her life. King's snaking journey to discovering and embracing her sexuality and past mistakes is courageous and admirable. A feminist, sex positive, at times philosophical collection of essays, Tacky lets readers reclaim those interests that are brushed aside as guilty pleasures and embrace them in all their gaudy delight."

Margaret Kennedy (no relation to Jason) is our next Boswellian who offers up these five selections.

#1 Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau. Margaret's rec: "Amidst the clashing viewpoints and lifestyles of 1970s America one teen girl tries to make sense of it all and find out who she wants to be in Mary Jane. The story opens on a 14-year-old girl from a straight-laced, conservative family whose worldview is shaken when she takes a summer nanny job for a doctor. Expecting a family much like her own, Mary Jane is surprised and strangely delighted when the Cones turn out to be a bohemian, openly amorous, rock n' roll couple with a free-spirited 5-year-old. On top of it all, a rock star and his famous wife are living in the attic as the doctor helps the rocker recover from his drug addiction. Throughout the summer, Mary Jane encounters and embraces new music, new clothes, and a new way of looking at herself and what she wants to be, all while inadvertently helping the Cone family and their guests grow as well. A wonderful read about found families and finding yourself - this is already one of my favorites of the year!"

#2 One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. Margaret says: "For all the romance fans that fell head over heels for Red White and Royal Blue, get ready - Casey McQuiston's latest will have you in love all over again. One Last Stop follows August, a practical college student new to NYC with no patience for the 'magic' the city has to offer. That all changes when she meets the mysterious Jane on the subway. Jane is an outgoing, music loving, gay lib punk that acts like she walked straight out of the 1970s - which is not far from the truth. August's subway crush turns out to be trapped in time on the Q train, unable to step off and removed from her original decade. With a menagerie of new friends, including a frog bone sculptor, a hipster psychic, and an army of Brooklyn's finest drag queens, August finds herself breaking out of her shell as she works to get Jane home - but how can she say goodbye to the girl that has her heart? Filled with witty dialogue, beautifully detailed scenes, and music that will have you dancing on the table, Casey McQuiston once again gives us a couple to root for and a book to read again and again."

#3 Several People Are Typing by Calvin Casulke. Margaret says: "Surrealist humor meets monotonous office life in the new book Several People Are Typing. Written in the form of instant messenger conversations, this book had me laughing in disbelief at the absurd and unexplained happenings at this company. Each employee has their own problems, ranging from the mundane to the hilariously insane, but none more so than Gerald - who accidentally uploaded his consciousness into the firm's slack server. But who cares, because his productivity is suddenly through the roof now that he doesn't need to eat or sleep, so does he really have it that bad? With constant, sourceless howling, frighteningly illegible emoji conversations, missing briefs, and a growing sentience in the app's help Bot, Kasulke exaggerates the average American office to seem as crazy as it sometimes feels like in this wonderfully deranged novel."

#4 Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. This one got glowing marks from four of our booksellers this year, including Margaret. From the author of The Martian comes a new tale of  a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster. And how about this write-up from Brandon Sanderson, the New York Times bestselling author of the Stormlight Archive series: "I loved The Martian, but I actually find Project Hail Mary to be Mr. Weir’s finest work to date. It’s somehow both exciting, yet also personal. I’m constantly amazed by how well Mr. Weir continues to write wonderfully accessible science fiction without compromising either the science or the fiction."

#5 The Adventure Zone Vol. 4: The Crystal Kingdom, by Clint McElroy, Carey Pietsch (Illustrator), Carey Pietsch, Griffin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Justin McElroy. Based on the blockbuster podcast where the McElroy brothers and their dad play a tabletop RPG and illustrated by cartooning powerhouse Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom takes this #1 New York Times bestselling series to haunting new heights. A desperate call for help interrupts holiday celebrations at the Bureau of Balance, and sends Taako, Magnus and Merle on a high-stakes mission to find and Reclaim a fourth deadly relic: a powerful transmutation stone, hidden somewhere in the depths of a floating arcane laboratory that’s home to the Doctors Maureen and Lucas Miller. An unknown menace has seized control of the stone, and is using it to transform the lab into a virulent pink crystal that spreads to everything it touches.