Staff Recommendations

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Rebecca West published this gorgeous novel in 1956, but I think of it as a feminist alternative to Charles Dickens. Narrated by twelve-year-old Rose Aubrey, THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS follows the Edwardian adventures of the Aubrey clan—an eccentric family of musicians and writers ruled largely by its women.
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Recommended by Elizabeth Sher



Gavin de Becker's A GIFT OF FEAR means to scare you for your own good. In de Becker's opinion, fear is a gift for sensing danger; it is an important survival instinct that should be respected and, more importantly, acted upon. >> >> more
Recommended by Anne Armstrong



AN IMPERFECT OFFERING by Dr. James Orbinski might be called a “testament” bearing witness to the best and worst of humanity. If the topics it treats were that simple, it could be broken down into digestible bits for learned discussion and forgotten . . . but there is nothing digestible about this book. 
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Recommended by Nicole Martin

  

Jack the Ripper was—if you’ll excuse me—a distant second to William Burke and William Hare of 19th century Edinburgh. Lisa Rosner, a professor of history, has brought them and their world to life in THE ANATOMY MURDERS. It was a widespread practice of the time to dig up corpses in order to sell them to medical men for dissection. >> >> more
Recommended by Jeanie Teare

ALL OTHER NIGHTS plunges into a fascinating and little-known world: the network of Jewish spies who served on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line during the Civil War. From New York’s German-Jewish merchants to the slave-owning families of Richmond and New Orleans, Horn deftly captures an insular yet deeply divided community. >> >> more
Recommended by Elizabeth Sher

 



One of the highlights of my trip to Paris was visiting Victor Hugo’s house. It was beautiful and mysterious and decorated in a style that even in his time must have been unusual. For those of us who are fascinated not with lives of movies stars but authors, now there is a guidebook to their homes and haunts. NOVEL DESTINATIONS takes you to Zora Neale Hurston’s Eatonville.>> >> more
Recommended by Deb Morris



To the uninitiated, Eastern European cuisine calls to mind a bleak, unappealing spread of heavy, colorless dough, unappetizingly pickled fish and flavorless broths: gulag fare. Not so! Eschew these Dr. Zhivago motifs, because the popular Bulgarian-born London chef, Silvena Rowe, brings out the fresh, delicious and unexpected aspects of Central and Eastern European cuisines. >> >> more
Recommended by Lila Stiff



Laurie Sandell had long suspected that her magnetic, charismatic father—a small-time economics professor who claimed to have advised Henry Kissinger, fought with the Green Berets and corresponded with the Pope—was something of a fraud. But it wasn’t until she was an adult, interviewing celebrities for Glamour magazine, that she uncovered the depths of his deception. >> >> more
Recommended by Elizabeth Sher

We've all read a stack of books with a preternaturally intelligent young person as the protagonist, perfect kids capable of greater depth of insight, genius, or understanding than most grown-ups. These wunderkinder of the literary world can be a bit hard to take at times—they're peaking at 8? 10? 12? Then I met Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet. >> >> more
Recommended by Rebecca Sommerlot

3:15 a.m., a Tangier beach: A group of Moroccans crowd onto a raft bound illegally for Spain. From this uncertain, anonymous departure, Laila Lalami spins utterly captivating tales. The travelers represent every social stratum and hail from the city, suburb, countryside, and slum.>> >> more
Recommended by Elizabeth Sher

When I need a pick-me-up, I flip through NOBODY'S PERFECT and am instantly cheered. Whether he’s pondering high art or gleefully skewering pop culture, Anthony Lane—whom John Updike called the world's "fizziest critic”—is an irresistible companion. >> >> more
Recommended by Elizabeth Sher


Dorothea Brooke swooned in Rome. Stendhal fainted in Florence. Jeffrey Atman, the protagonist of JEFF IN VENICE, DEATH IN VARANASI, is sotted and besotted in Venice. The novel is first, a rushing tale of carnal serendipity and bacchanalian excess at the Venice Biennale, the ultimate junket for a hack arts reporter. >> >> more
Recommended by Michael Allen

 

THE INVENTION OF AIR is so much more than an intellectual biography of Joseph Priestley, one of the brightest stars in the 18th Century political, religious and scientific firmament. It is a spectacular demonstration of that virtue Priestley possessed in superabundance, intellectual curiosity. >> >> more
Recommended by Michael Allen  		  
     
     
     
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