Black Sun Books Staff Picks
2467 Hilyard Street, 541-484-3777
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, Knopf, $30.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean, Simon & Schuster, $28.
My Feminist ABC: An Alphabet of Female (and Human) Values by Irene Pizzolante, Duo Press, $7.95.
Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, City Lights Books, $16.95.
• Love Factually for Single Parents [and Those Dating Them] by Duana Welch, Love Science Media, $15.99 (local author).
Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God: Poems by Tony Hoagland, Graywolf, $16.
• An Object in Motion: Poems by Patrick Newson, Nomadic Press, $12 (local author).
Call Them By Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays), Rebecca Solnit, Haymarket Books, $15.95.
• Beginner’s Luck: Dispatches from the Klamath Mountains by Malcolm Terence, OSU Press, $19.95, paperback.
American Sonnets for My Past & Future Assassin: Poems Terrence Hayes, Penguin, $18.
Tsunami Books Staff Picks and Best Sellers
2585 Willamette Street, 541-345-8986, tsunamibooks.org
Staff picks by Scott Landfield and Emily Poole
The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Simon & Schuster, $25.20. “Orlean’s wholly accessible new book is the commonality of the library experience, and required reading for any book person.”
Overstory by Richard Powers. W.W. Norton, $25.15. “Overstory is a tree lover’s paradise of a book.”
Thank You, Omu by Oge Mora. Little Brown, $17.10. “This heartwarming children’s picture book about sharing and community will make you want to cook a pot of soup and hug your grandma.”
Bestsellers:
BirdNote, illustrated by Emily Poole (Local Artist). Sasquatch Books, $20.65.
• The Parents’ Guide to Climate Revolution by Mary Democker, New World Library, $11.90 (local author).
How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. Random House, $24.30.
Flame by Leonard Cohen. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.20.
Children’s Books at the Eugene Public Library
Eugene Public Library’s recommendations this year celebrate diversity with a selection of children’s books to bring joy to all ages. Visit the Downtown Library, Bethel Branch or Sheldon Branch in person, online at eugene-or.gov/library, or call 541-682-8316. Happy reading!
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales. Holiday House/Porter, $18.99.
A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Li. Little, Brown, $17.99.
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall. Little, Brown, $18.99.
• The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger by Colin Meloy with illustrations by Nikki McClure. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $18.99.
Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera with illustrations by Lauren Castillo. Candlewick, $16.99.
Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey with illustrations by Julia Sarda. Tundra, $17.99.
The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell. Knopf, $18.99.
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices: Words and Images of Hope. Edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson. Crown, $18.99.
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander, with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, with illustrations by Ekua Holmes. Candlewick, $16.99
My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith with illustrations by Julie Flett. Orca, $9.95.
The Duck Store/Book Department Selections
895 E. 13th Avenue, 541-346-9440, uoduckstore.com/books
The Very Marrow of Our Bones by Christine Higdon. ECW Press, $16.95.
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. PGW, $16.
• Weather Woman by Cai Emmons. Red Hen Press $16.95 (local author).
She Felt Like Feeling Nothing by R.H. Sin. Simon & Schuster, $17.99.
• Beer Hiking Pacific Northwest by Rachel Wood. Toysmith, $19.99.
A Winter’s Promise: Book One of the Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos. PGW $19.95
Truck Full of Ducks by Ross Burach. Scholastic, $17.99.
J. Michaels Books’ Favorites
160 E. Broadway, 541-342-2002, jmbooks@mindspring.com
Milkman: A Novel by Anna Burns. Graywolf Press, $16.
The Overstory by Richard Powers. Norton, $27.95.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. Viking, $27.
• The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin. Illustrated by Charles Vess. Saga Press, $59.99. For the first time ever, the complete works of Earthsea in one fully illustrated compendium.
• Weather Woman by Cai Emmons. Red Hen Press, $16.95. Eugene author. An entrancing tale of a woman having the superpower to change the weather.
• The Alehouse at the End of the World by Steven Allred. Forest Avenue Press, $17.95. .
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. Random House, $28.
These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. Norton, $39.95.
All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung. Catapult, $26.
California Landscapes by Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. Rizzoli, $60.
Books For Peace of Mind: Star Gate’s Bestsellers
1374 Willamette Street, 541-342-8348, stargateeugene.com
Practice You: A Journal by Elena Brower. Sounds True, $16.95.
• Hopi Prophecy Now: One Heart Awakening by Adom. Sacred Media $16.95 (local author).
Walking Each Other Home by Ram Dass. Sounds True, $24.95.
Mandala Meditation Coloring Book Sterling Publishing, $14.95.
Chakras Made Easy by Anodea Judith, Hay House, $14.99.
Smith Family Bookstore’s Staff Picks
Campus: 768 East 13th Avenue, 541-345-1651; downtown: 525 Willamette Street, 541-343-4717, smithfamilybookstore.com
Staff picks by Eric Leaf, Joe Pettit, Leigh Toelle, Derek Hill and Evon Smith
How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25.
Montgomery crafted a short but wonderful memoir using her interactions with animals in her life to examine love, loss, empathy and family among other things.
Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin. Bantam, $35.
Although it’s not the Song of Ice and Fire volume the world has been impatiently anticipating, Fire and Blood is a marvelous, albeit tangential, addition to the series presenting the beginning of a 300-year history of the Targaryen conquest and subsequent rule of the Westeros empire.
Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna. Random House, $32.
Part biography, part personal reflection fleshed out with charming anecdotes, Room to Dream is a fascinating stroll into the mind and creative process of one of our homegrown American surrealists and cinematic visionaries. It’s as weird as you’d expect, but it’s also more hilarious, high spirited and revealing on the part of an artist who is notoriously close mouthed when it comes to discussing his work.
The Female Gaze: Essential Movies Made by Women by Alicia Malone. Mango Publishing Group, $19.99.
Film reporter and television host Alicia Malone delivers a corrective to the history of an art industry dominated, and mostly chronicled, by men. The book is designed to be used as part of the #52FilmsByWomen challenge started by the Women in Film organization (womeninfilm.org/52-films/).
There, There by Tommy Orange. Knopf, $25.95.
A devastating debut novel written by a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes told in short, dense chapters with a cast of Native American people in Oakland, California. Nothing is easy to figure out, but pay attention to the novel’s difficult structure beginning with the opening essay, and in the end, you will not want to let go when everything explodes into a cinematic mess.
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. Henry Holt and Co. $18.
If you have followed Lanier’s evolving and persistent criticism of the internet, it’s no surprise he sees current infatuation with social media as feeding the dragon that will eventually eat us. Lanier disagrees with the idea that technology is an objective necessity and outlines why walking away from social media may save democracy if not humanity.
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. Simon and Schuster, $27.
Short-listed for the Man Booker prize, Kushner’s third novel is a sometimes sad and harrowing reading experience — it’s partly set in a women’s correctional facility. But Kushner isn’t interested in simply plunging us into misery. Slivers of warmth, humor, and absurdity also shine through in this otherwise precise examination of how the underclass in America, particularly women, struggle to survive in a system rigged against them.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat. Simon and Schuster, $35.
Practical and useful advice on how to up your cooking game. You need this book if you love food. You will want Nosrat to be your new best friend. I know I do.
Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott. Little, Brown, $27.
Women pushed to extremes. Women pushing back extremely. No writer now is examining the psychological terrain of women in extremis better than Abbott. She is simply the finest American crime writer working today.
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