Great Picks From Our Staff!

~ Recommended by Jen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A collection of the year's best short stories from American periodicals are chosen by Pulitzer Prize author Brooks.

~ Recommended by Ross . . . . . . . . . . The eccentric middle-aged Kern brothers have lived out their lives on an isolated backroad in rural Ohio, an area being surrounded by a strip-mining operation. The elder brother Harlan's mistrust of the outside world has led them to sell most of their inherited farmland and live like hermits. Most of the novel concerns the bizarre sloth of the brothers' routine - they haven't worked since their parents died of food poisoning years before; when the living room of their house collapses into a sinkhole, they move into the kitchen; when the whole house falls into the pit, they move into a derelict school bus in the front yard. The focus of the narrative is on the essential difference in character between the brothers. With his venom, Harlan has driven away his long-suffering yet irascible mail-order bride. The younger brother, Erban, who had tried to intervene when Harlan refused to help his wife as she lay seriously ill, nonetheless remains loyal to his sibling in spite of many abuses, and comes to seem in his sweet-natured simplicity a kind of back-country saint.

~ Recommended by Jamie . . . . . . . . . . Infused with capers, car chases, heists, hits, henchmen, and even a bear fight, this story mixes romance, comedy, and tragedy in a true teen coming-of-age adventure--and it's not over until it's "au revoir."

~ Recommended by Elaine . . . . . . . . . . In her elegant, compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles, as nobody has, the conflicting personalities and extraordinary discoveries that shaped the Copernican Revolution. At the heart of the book is her play "And the Sun Stood Still," imagining Rheticus's struggle to convince Copernicus to let his manuscript see the light of day. As she achieved with her bestsellers "Longitude" and "Galileo's Daughter," Sobel expands the bounds of narration, giving us an unforgettable portrait of scientific achievement, and of the ever-present tensions between science and faith.

~ Recommended by Whitney . . . . . . . . . . A new poetry book chock full of unpublished poems and artwork by the beloved Silverstein joins the ranks of the "New York Times"-bestselling poetry collections "Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic," and "Falling Up."