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David Shields's new book is a collagist's and lit lover's dream come true. Erudite and thoughtful, if you've ever lived or read a novel, you'll find much to admire and ruminate upon. Books mentioned in this post How Literature Saved My Life David Shields New Hardcover $25.95

Harry Silver commits a sin that will forever change his life, and no amount of foresight could have prepared him for what follows. Harry's brother, George, is suddenly out of the picture, and Harry is left with George's house, his two children, his pets, and all of George's many problems. Harry soon find himself sucked into Internet "dating," trouble at work, [...]

I recently started the unique biography Hemingway's Boat, which explores the mind and passions of the legendary author. Beautifully written, it reads with great promise. Books mentioned in this post Hemingway's Boat: Everything He... Paul Hendrickson New Trade Paper $16.95 Hemingway's Boat: Everything He... Paul Hendrickson Used Hardcover $11.95

This tiny little novella tells the very big story of Cat, a former military medic who lost his foot when he stepped on a landmine during combat. Cat's military service is long over, but he begins to realize that "it was a good foot and we parted so hurriedly..." Leaving his wife and sons, Cat returns to [...]

I love books where the protagonists' stories are told in alternating chapters. That's one reason I'm enjoying Jennifer duBois's intelligent first novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes; it's also richly layered and poignant. Books mentioned in this post A Partial History of Lost Causes Jennifer Dubois Used Trade Paper $10.95 A Partial History of [...]

"I believe I'm one of a kind." In a world full of sentient robots exploited by humankind, Cat knows there is no one else like her childhood tutor, Finn. The tapestry of her life is woven with uncertainty and loss as she makes increasingly poor decisions in her struggle to conform to the expectations of society. [...]

This is a book surrounded by a lot of hype, but fortunately, it is also one that lives up to it. O'Donnell tells the story of two young sisters forced to grow up long before their actual childhood ends. Though each handles it differently, their alternating toughness and determined ignorance both paint a picture of [...]

From the author of the National Book Award winner Slaves in the Family, The Inventor and the Tycoon is about the partnership of Eadweard Muybridge and Leland Stanford — one an eccentric inventor of stop-motion photography, the other a railroad baron with a penchant for racehorses. Murder, ingenuity, wealth, and sensation spiraled out of this [...]

Superb. This memoir is another good example for me of someone who is living a parallel life to my own. I always find solace in knowing that I'm not alone in experiencing trauma from family, love, or life. The voice is wonderful and the artwork is great. Books mentioned in this post Calling Dr. Laura: [...]

As with Nick Flynn's other major prose works, The Reenactments is a compelling, vignette-style memoir. Flynn's 2004 Another Bullshit Night in Suck City was adapted into a film (Being Flynn) earlier this year, starring Robert De Niro, Julianne Moore, and Paul Dano as the young poet. The Reenactments recounts Flynn's time spent on set during [...]

Taxidermy has been a particular fascination of mine ever since I was a small child. My family's favorite pizza parlor was covered with nature's lifeless bounty, as was Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach, Washington, where we had a beach house. With Jake the Alligator Man as a close personal friend, it is no wonder [...]

Having lost both her parents, and subsequently her beloved uncle, 10-year-old Gemma Hardy is left with her uncle's wife. Her aunt despises Gemma and wastes no time dispatching her off to boarding school, where room and board are exchanged for nonstop backbreaking work. Education is an afterthought, but Gemma is a bright and earnest girl. After [...]

Margaret Atwood's haunting companion to Oryx and Crake will leave you hungry for another book in this "speculative fiction" universe. Written in the alternating voices of young and initially naive Ren and nostalgic but wounded Toby, the novel explores themes of ecology, disaster, relationships, and religion in a world that feels eerily familiar. Unlike Oryx [...]

I've just started reading Joan Wickersham's seven-story collection, The News from Spain. I'm loving Wickersham's crisp, unpredictable writing in this smart look at the shimmer, the longing, the downright messiness of love. Books mentioned in this post Portland Noir (Akashic Noir) Kevin Sampsell Used Trade Paper $9.50 Pacific Northwest Reader Carl Lennertz Used Trade Paper [...]

Next time someone makes you mad, just pull out this book and start reading it. Then carefully arch your eyebrows over the cover and whisper "revenge is a dish best served cold." Or you could, you know, read it for the educational value. It's your call. Books mentioned in this post $6.98 Sale Trade Paper add to [...]

Unlike most writers, for whom each work of fiction is a realm only unto itself, Roberto Bolaño freely shared characters, settings, storylines, and major themes throughout his novels and short stories. So it is with Woes of the True Policeman, a novel begun by the late Chilean in the 1980s and left unfinished at the [...]

Perfect for the young and the young at heart, this KAPOW of a craft book has tons of projects and ideas for kids and adults with fresh and modern twists. I think of myself as somewhat crafty, but Kid Made Modern had great and inventive ideas that even I couldn't overcomplicate and could easily reproduce. Books [...]

Despite being nearly half a millennium old, The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes remains eminently readable, charming, and more than a little funny. Published anonymously in 1554 (the authorship debate rages ever on), the novella was banned and later censored as part of the Spanish Inquisition for its allegedly heretical content. The Life of Lazarillo [...]

An honest and interesting look at homeless youth and intersections of class, Anonymity tells the story of Lorelei and Emily, two young women struggling to come to terms with their backgrounds and find their place in the world. In alternating voices, the characters in this riveting book slowly reveal themselves to you — and are [...]

The only prose work from Martín Adán, The Cardboard House was originally published in 1928 when the Peruvian poet was 20 years young. Set in the Barranco district of Lima, The Cardboard House came to be an influential work preceding the Latin American Boom. Nearly plotless, the story follows a young narrator around the city's [...]

How to describe Beautiful Ruins? It's such an odd yet enchanting book. The characters are a quirky mix of the commonplace and the extraordinary: a befuddled innkeeper from a tiny Italian town, a haunted ex-military wannabe novelist, a beautiful but sick young starlet, a hideously nipped-and-tucked aging movie producer, a stranded, strung-out musician, a screenwriter [...]

Graphic, vibrant, and superfun, At Our House is an amazing counting book that tallies unconventional things such as freckles, nostrils, and the lengths of intestines. It subtly and adorably gives a sense of family and togetherness. Reading Oldham's book feels like snuggling on the couch watching cartoons. Books mentioned in this post $12.95 New Hardcover add [...]

In the nearly 30 years since Leonard Cohen first recorded "Hallelujah," it has gone from a largely overlooked album track to one of the most covered songs in recent history. Rock editor and journalist Alan Light traces the improbable trajectory of this now-infamous song from its painstaking birth (it took years to compose) to its [...]

Pixar animator Sanjay Patel presents the major gods and goddesses of Hinduism in a colorful and friendly form, perfect for kids interested in other cultures or mythologies. For example, previously I associated Kali with the Temple of Doom and the sacrificing of hearts, but with this book I learned that the goddess represents time and [...]

Championed by Fernando Pessoa, his long-time friend, publisher, and English translator, António Botto was a Portuguese modernist poet, as well as a dramatist and short story writer. As one of the nation's first openly gay writers, Botto faced controversy in the early 1920s for the homosexual themes in his collection Canções ("Songs"), later disparaged as [...]