This is Why I Read - Aggie’s Monthly Picks

Photo of Aggie, Kepler's Buyer   This is why I read - Aggie's monthly picks

 

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The Wishing Game: A Novel By Meg Shaffer Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593598832
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Ballantine Books - May 30th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for June 2023


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Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir By Alba Donati Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781668015568
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Scribner - May 30th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for June 2023


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The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) By Abraham Verghese Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9780802162175
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - May 2nd, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for May 2023

The Covenant of Water is a mesmerizing novel set on India's Malabar coast with storytelling profuse with scents and flavors just like its location in Kerala is bursting with ripening mangoes and coconut trees. Here is a family mythology as magnificent and lavish as India's subcontinent. I'll forever carry fragments of Big Ammachi's life story and the medical mystery of family members dying by drowning. This secret propels the story, but the book's heart lies in the multigenerational family tales of love, grief, and one mother's unthinkable sacrifice. This book triumphantly speaks about the power of medical healing and the healing properties of storytelling and art. 
 


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Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories By Andre Dubus (Editor) Cover Image
By Andre Dubus (Editor)
$28.95
ISBN: 9781567927696
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: David R. Godine Publisher - April 25th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for May 2023

This magnificent anthology features essays of some of the best contemporary writers sharing their admiration for their favorite short stories.  The experience of reading it is like being a member of the best book club in the world.  If you're like me and cannot wait for the release of the Best American Short Stories Anthology every year, this is the perfect book for you!

 


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Old God's Time: A Novel By Sebastian Barry Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593296103
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Viking - March 21st, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for April 2023

This may as well be one of the saddest books I have ever read, but the exquisite beauty of the language kept me enthralled. Tom Kettle is a solitary, retired policeman living in an apartment with a sea view. An unexpected visit propels him into a time warp, and he finally faces the deep wounds from unspeakable child abuse by Irish clergy and the loss of his family. The heart-wrenching ending and Tom Kettle's undying love for the ghosts of his wife and their two children had me undone.


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Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens By Marc Hamer Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9781778400278
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Greystone Books - April 4th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for April 2023

A charming memoir by the author of How to Catch a Mole. Marc Hamer reflects on his childhood and his present life in his sixties. A small garden and a wooden hut where one can find shelter from the spring rain and read amounts to life's happiness. The old gardener knows, "There are infinite ways to live a beautiful life, and this simple one is mine: quietly, peacefully, and with love."


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The Queen of Dirt Island: A Novel By Donal Ryan Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593652930
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Viking - February 28th, 2023

I must admit that I have a particular weakness for Irish writers.  This novel about four generations of women in a small Irish village is filled with love, cruelty, and darkness (it's Irish, remember?). The story is told in 500-word, economical, short chapters, with such pristine, lyrical language, as beautiful and hard as the women and the land of the book. ~Aggie

Aggie's Fiction Pick for March 2023


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To the One I Love the Best By Ludwig Bemelmans, Ludwig Bemelmans (Illustrator) Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781782277934
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Pushkin Press - March 7th, 2023

This pink cupcake of a reissued memoir written by the author and illustrator of the children's book Madeline should be read with a glass of champagne in your hand. It's a charming celebration of his friendship with a legendary interior designer Elsie de Wolfe (who was ninety when he met her). What a delicious, joyous gift from the author who proclaims to be "the lover of life and professor of happiness." Cheers! ~Aggie

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for March 2023


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The World and All That It Holds: A Novel By Aleksandar Hemon Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780374287702
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: MCD - January 24th, 2023

Aleksandar Hemon's new novel The World and All That It Holds follows the devastatingly beautiful love story between two soldiers Rafael Pinto a Bosnian Jew, and a Muslim, Osman Karisik, both mobilized in the Austro-Hungarian army. Stepping into Hemon's world feels dizzying with its epic span and multiple untranslated sentences and songs in Spanjol, Bosnian, and German, but it’s also intoxicating. I was swapped away from 1914 Sarajevo and muddy WWI trenches to decades later in Shanghai and Jerusalem. The musicality of the foreign languages and Pinto’s longing for his home and lover tugged at my heart. This novel is a triumphant symphony of gorgeous sentences. Even though ‘since the war had begun, Pinto had been fully cured of the desire to write poetry’ somehow this novel turned into an epic poem about displacement and enduring love. ~Aggie

Aggie's Fiction Pick for February 2023


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Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age By Reid Mitenbuler Cover Image
$45.00
ISBN: 9780358468325
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Mariner Books - February 21st, 2023

A spellbinding arm traveler's true story about Peter Freuchen, a colossal 6 feet 7 inches tall Danish explorer who, as a young man in 1906, said yes to joining the expedition to Greenland "faster than saints pass through the gates of heaven." After being entombed in snow blizzard conditions, he made a tool out of his frozen feces and dug himself out. He also championed Intuit culture, fought anti-Semitic views, survived a Nazis prison camp, won one of the most popular quiz shows, etc. I wasn't able to put down this thrilling adventure tale. ~Aggie
 
Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for February 2023


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Forbidden Notebook: A Novel By Alba de Céspedes, Ann Goldstein (Translated by), Jhumpa Lahiri (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Alba de Céspedes, Ann Goldstein (Translated by), Jhumpa Lahiri (Foreword by)
$26.00
ISBN: 9781662601392
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Astra House - January 17th, 2023

I received my early copy from the publisher on Christmas Eve, and after reading just a few pages, I clutched it. This book moved and disturbed me, and by the end, I declared it one of the personal treasures on my reading shelf. The Cuban-Italian author Alba de Céspedes died in 1977, yet her exploration of family obligations and creative impulse is alarmingly relevant. It felt as if I had found my forbidden diary. To this day, the best part of us will remain secret unless we find the time and strength to break from the domestic routine and nurture our inner life.

Aggie's Fiction Pick for January 2023


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The Creative Act: A Way of Being By Rick Rubin Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9780593652886
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Penguin Press - January 17th, 2023

Legendary music producer Rick Rubin penned a perfect book for an inspirational January read to begin a new year by boosting our creativity. "The goal of art isn't to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world." I'll keep this gentle mentor by my side throughout the whole year for its grace and spiritual wisdom. 

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for January 2023


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The Passenger Box Set: The Passenger, Stella Maris By Cormac McCarthy Cover Image
$56.00
ISBN: 9780593536049
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - December 6th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for December 2022

 

Cormac McCarthy wrote a true masterpiece! Reading this two-volume set it’s like gazing at the night sky studded with stars, and no matter how long I'm looking at it, its mystery and beauty only expand. 


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The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse: The Animated Story By Charlie Mackesy Cover Image
$32.99
ISBN: 9780063256194
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: HarperOne - December 6th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for December 2022


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Wind, Trees By John Freeman Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781556596483
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Copper Canyon Press - October 25th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for November 2022

Reading these moving poems is like walking on a dark street at night and suddenly spotting a glow in a lighted window. This exquisite collection is a welcoming sanctuary of engaging world news poems and intimate letters to a friend. John Freeman writes with such tender care, capturing our lives' ephemeral moments of love and goodbyes.- Aggie


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Foster By Claire Keegan Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780802160140
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - November 1st, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for November 2022

 

Foster is a tale of majestic beauty set in rural Ireland about a young girl's transformation in a loving home. Claire Keegan writes with such economy and precision that her words seem to stay chiseled into our hearts. Don't miss this unforgettable, spiritual story of the power of kindness and the heartbreak of childhood.  - Aggie


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The Hero of This Book: A Novel By Elizabeth McCracken Cover Image
$26.99
ISBN: 9780062971272
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Ecco - October 4th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for October 2022

The narrator of this warm autobiographical novel is an author who revisits London alone after her mother's death and retraces their shared trip steps from a few years back. As the daughter sifts through the life accumulation of objects and events, she consolidates the essence of her mother's character into a beautiful homage book to an extraordinary woman. At the same time, this book is also a celebration of storytelling and conjuring memories of loved ones before they vanish. ~Aggie


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Stay True: A Memoir By Hua Hsu Cover Image
By Hua Hsu
$26.00
ISBN: 9780385547772
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Doubleday - September 27th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for October 2022

A stirring, coming-of-age memoir about two young men's unlikely friendship in the 90s, the time before the prevalence of the internet and social media. Hua is a lover of alternative culture who frequents used bookstores and record and thrift stores. His college buddy Ken with his perfectly ordinary mainstream taste hunts for a specific Abercrombie and Fitch jacket! Despite belonging to the so-called Asian 'model minority,' they're not assimilating at the same pace. Their friendship grows as they struggle to create their own identity until Ken tragically dies in an armed robbery. Years later, Hua meticulously remembers and collects all the minor details about his lost friend, and the outcome is this cathartic, heartbreaking memory album. A must-read for all, but especially for the readers of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner. ~Aggie


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If I Survive You By Jonathan Escoffery Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780374605988
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: MCD - September 6th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for September 2022


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Woman Without Shame: Poems By Sandra Cisneros Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593534823
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - September 13th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for September 2022


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The Last White Man: A Novel By Mohsin Hamid Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780593538814
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Riverhead Books - August 2nd, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for August 2022


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How to Read Now: Essays By Elaine Castillo Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593489635
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Viking - July 26th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for August 2022


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The Mermaid of Black Conch: A novel By Monique Roffey Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9780593534205
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - July 12th, 2022

The Costa Book of the Year Award winner, this magical realism historical novel is based on Taino indigenous people's legend about a mermaid cursed to eternal sea exile, silence, and loneliness by jealous wives and ancient goddesses. Despite the mythical background of the fictional Caribbean island of Black Conch, the book is set in the 1970s Trinidadian reality. A mermaid, spellbound by a local fisherman strumming on his guitar and singing to himself, gets caught by American tourists from Florida. The fisherman frees her and hides her in his house, but can their love break an ancient curse? The fabulist tale masterfully shapeshifts into a story about colonialism, violence, womanhood, and what it means to be the OTHER whose home and language are taken away. I became lost in the beauty of this marvelous novel and its multi-layered depths. - Aggie

Aggie's Fiction Pick for July 2022


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The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir By Ingrid Rojas Contreras Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780385546669
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Doubleday - July 12th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for July 2022


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Nightcrawling: A novel By Leila Mottley Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593312605
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - April 11th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for June 2022

This year, Leila Mottley might be the brightest star in the constellation of debut authors! Nightcrawling is a dazzling first novel that shines a light on Kiara Johnson, a young black woman from Oakland, and her brother Marcus. Following their father's death and their mother's imprisonment, Kiara must sell her body to avoid eviction. Her story is inspired by real-life events and unflinchingly explores Oakland Police Department sexual abuse case. Despite life brutality, every page sings the blues of Oakland's contemporary urban life and how Kiara makes her own family by caring for the neighbor's abandoned 10-year-old boy. Kiara walks out of the page, so alive, radiant with hope. Say her name. Kiara Johnson is everything.

 


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Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays By Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit (Introduction by)
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593242827
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House - May 31st, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for June 2022

 


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Young Mungo By Douglas Stuart Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780802162120
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - March 21st, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for April 2022


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In Praise of Good Bookstores By Jeff Deutsch Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9780691207766
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Princeton University Press - April 5th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for April 2022


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Groundskeeping: A novel By Lee Cole Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593314784
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - February 14th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for March 2022


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Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation By Maud Newton Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9780812997927
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House - March 29th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for March 2022


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The Family Chao: A Novel By Lan Samantha Chang Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781324050469
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 20th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for February 2022


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The Vanished Collection By Pauline Baer de Perignon, Natasha Lehrer (Translator), Pierre Le-Tan Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781939931986
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: New Vessel Press - January 11th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for February 2022


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The Fortune Men: A novel By Nadifa Mohamed Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593467435
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - November 1st, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for January 2022


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Manifesto: On Never Giving Up By Bernardine Evaristo Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780802160409
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - January 10th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for January 2022


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Small Things Like These By Claire Keegan Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780802158741
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - November 30th, 2021

Aggie's Fiction Pick for December 2021

This little book moved me so much. I have been carrying it everywhere with me, underlying favorite passages (too many!). This book is a prayer, an elixir of courage, a school of life, a healing balm for our sorrows, a song to human kindness, and a gift of hope. --Aggie


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These Precious Days: Essays By Ann Patchett Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780063092792
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Harper Perennial - November 1st, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for December 2021


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The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven By Nathaniel Ian Miller Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316592581
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Back Bay Books - October 4th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for November 2021

 

The story was inspired by a real hunter hermit who lived in Svalbard, in the Arctic Circle, with his dog. Although Sven renounced the rest of the world for a life of hardship and solitude, friendship and love found him in unexpected ways. Superb storytelling! --Aggie


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On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times By Michael Ignatieff Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780805055221
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Metropolitan Books - November 1st, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for November 2021


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A Calling for Charlie Barnes By Joshua Ferris Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316333542
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Little, Brown and Company - June 7th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for October 2021


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Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief By Victoria Chang Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781571313928
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Milkweed Editions - October 12th, 2021

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for October 2021


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Bewilderment: A Novel By Richard Powers Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781324036142
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - November 1st, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for September 2021


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How I Became a Tree By Sumana Roy Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780300268140
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Yale University Press - September 20th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for September 2021

Isn't it magical how certain books find us exactly when we need them?

Reading How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy, with its intricate philosophical musings on trees throughout history, mythology, and literature, was like a portal opening to one’s secret, sacred places. This book is a gorgeous hybrid of memoir and essay form, reaffirming the importance of our connection to mother nature. -Aggie


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Damnation Spring By Ash Davidson Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982144418
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Scribner - May 3rd, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for August 2021


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Pastoral Song: A Farmer's Journey By James Rebanks Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063073241
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Mariner Books - August 16th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for August 2021


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Wayward: A novel By Dana Spiotta Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593312490
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - June 21st, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for July 2021


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Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship By Catherine Raven Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781954118119
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Spiegel & Grau - June 28th, 2022

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for July 2021


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Night Came with Many Stars By Simon Van Booy Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781567927580
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: David R. Godine Publisher - October 18th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for June 2021


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Languages of Truth: Essays 2003-2020 By Salman Rushdie Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780593133194
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - July 12th, 2022

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for June 2021


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Crying in H Mart: A Memoir By Michelle Zauner Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781984898951
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - March 28th, 2023

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for May 2021


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The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story By John Freeman (Editor) Cover Image
By John Freeman (Editor)
$17.00
ISBN: 9781984877826
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Penguin Books - May 3rd, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for May 2021


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The Five Wounds: A Novel By Kirstin Valdez Quade Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781324020219
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - January 25th, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for April 2021


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Philip Roth: The Biography By Blake Bailey Cover Image
$29.99
ISBN: 9781510769724
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Skyhorse - June 29th, 2021

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for April 2021


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Klara and the Sun: A novel (Vintage International) By Kazuo Ishiguro Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780593311295
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - March 1st, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for March 2021


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A Matter of Death and Life By Irvin D. Yalom, Marilyn Yalom Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781503632585
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Redwood Press - April 19th, 2022

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for March 2021


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Milk Blood Heat By Dantiel W. Moniz Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802159441
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - February 8th, 2022

Dantiel W. Moniz writes with such an astonishing force, I don't recall being so excited about a debut short story collection since I read Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. I found myself spellbound and swept away into the sweltering world of contemporary Florida, where 'girls stuff' and femininity are not your ordinary pink stuff. Milk, Blood, Heat is a beautiful and dangerous place, where teenage girls dare to look at the face of death or evil. This ferocity in Dantiel’s characters searching for goodness in themselves mirrors the same power and audacity that makes Dantiel's writing so captivating. I would follow this magnificent voice anywhere.

Aggie's Fiction Pick for February 2021


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Let Me Tell You What I Mean (Vintage International) By Joan Didion Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593312193
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - January 25th, 2022

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for February 2021


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The House on Vesper Sands By Paraic O'Donnell Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781951142988
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Tin House Books - January 11th, 2022

Reading House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O'Donnell, one cannot help but think that books are magical, sacred objects capable of transporting us through time! This London Victorian mystery with supernatural elements, written with such finesse and wit, is a perfect read for Arthur Conan Doyle and David Mitchell fans. A Scotland Yard Inspector Cutter's sarcastic remarks will make you laugh aloud, you'll root for his earnest assistant and divinity student Gideon Bliss to find his lost love Angie, and the smarts of a young journalist, Octavia Hillingdon, will delight you. Brilliant writing and an absolute pleasure to read!
 

Aggie's Fiction Pick for January 2021


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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life By George Saunders Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781984856036
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 12th, 2022

Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, the Booker prize-winning author, is a book I would take to a deserted island. Saunders' in-depth craft analysis of Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol, and Tolstoy's short stories (altogether seven stories with complete texts included) is more than just a creative writing handbook, instructing us how to read and write. It's a school of life, an illuminating guide on how to really be ourselves. The book evolved from Saunders' two decades of teaching writing at Syracuse University..

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for January 2021


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Snow By John Banville Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781335629036
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Hanover Square Press - September 14th, 2021

Aggie's Fiction Pick for December 2020


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The Historians: Poems By Eavan Boland Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781324020226
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - April 5th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for December 2020


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Homeland Elegies: A Novel By Ayad Akhtar Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316496414
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Back Bay Books - May 25th, 2021

Aggie's Fiction Pick 


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Freeman's: Change By John Freeman Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802157836
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - October 13th, 2020

Aggie's Pick


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Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America By Laila Lalami Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780525436041
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - October 19th, 2021

Aggie's Pick


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Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick By Rumaan Alam Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062667649
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Ecco - November 23rd, 2021

It's hard to imagine a more relevant literary thriller for these pandemic times we're living in as Rumaan Alams' brilliant take on race, class, and global threats facing the world in 2020. Amanda and Clay, a white, middle-class couple from Brooklyn, rent a house of their dreams in Hamptons' remote area. The luxurious, tasteful home fits them like a glove. Even their adolescent kids Rose and Archie, are appeased by a heated pool and hot tub in the yard, woods stretching outside the door. Late in the night, there is a knock on the door, and an older Black couple introduces themselves as the house owners, forced to seek refuge in their second home because of the significant blackout reported on the East Coast, possibly caused by the approaching hurricane. As the week goes by, it becomes evident that something more sinister is at stake. They hear distant explosions, and they feel vibrations of the remote bombs. They see strange sightings of animals, thousands of deers on the move, a flock of majestic, pink flamingos descending into the pool. Without working phones or television, deprived of the news, surrounded by unnatural, menacing quiet between the explosions, they had no choice but to turn to each other for comfort and safety. They are like animals, too, on the brink of extinction, but holding on onto their humanity. --Aggie


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Transcendent Kingdom: A novel By Yaa Gyasi Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781984899767
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - July 6th, 2021

 

In the aftermath of her basketball prodigy brother’s death of a heroin overdose, Gifty, a young Ghanaian-American woman, is determined to find the cure for addictive behavior. She’s a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at Stanford, experimenting with the reward-seeking response in mice when her clinically depressed mother moves in with her, reeling still, years after she lost her country, her husband, and finally her son. This beautifully written novel gets even more poignant when we read Gifty’s childhood journal entries, written in the form of letters to God. We learn about her family’s struggle to assimilate in Alabama as black immigrants, her self-loathing, and her spiritual wounds. She uses code names for her father Chin Chin Man after he abandons the family and returns to Ghana, and Black Mamba for her often the angry and suicidal mother who finds solace in evangelical faith. Ultimately, this is a book about redemption, the consolation of work, and how to find the strength to go living is nothing short of a miracle. --Aggie


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Vesper Flights By Helen MacDonald Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802158673
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - July 13th, 2021

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Must I Go: A Novel By Yiyun Li Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780399589133
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - August 3rd, 2021

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Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir By Natasha Trethewey Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062248589
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Ecco - June 1st, 2021

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Miracle Country: A Memoir of a Family and a Landscape By Kendra Atleework Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781643751412
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Algonquin Books - June 1st, 2021

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A Burning: A novel By Megha Majumdar Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593081259
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - June 29th, 2021

Megha Majumdar delivers an unforgetable story about the turbulent lives of three protagonists, Jival, a young Muslim woman from the Kolabagan slums, PT SIr, her former gym teacher with political ambitions, and Lovely, a neighborhood’s transgender woman and an aspiring actress. The igniting event is when Jivan witnesses a terrorist attack on a train in which more than hundred people perish, and she posts a comment on Facebook accusing police of negligence and implicating the government in it. Instead, Jival gets arrested and accused of helping the terrorists. With a clinical precision, Majumdar portrays a harsh world of poverty and extremism where innocence, ambition and yearning get trampled by corruption and greed. As a reader, I was disheartened by the injustice committed against Jival, and more than ever inspired to stand on the side of those who suffer. --Aggie

 


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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures By Merlin Sheldrake Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525510321
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 13th, 2021

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A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories By Daniel Mason Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316477628
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Back Bay Books - January 4th, 2022

 

Mason’s previous novel The Winter Soldier is on my list of favorite books of all time. And now, I’m just as smitten with his latest book of short stories, A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth. What a wondrous collection, bursting with longtime and faraway yarns, richly woven with philosophical and scientific details. Although we find ourselves in the realm of historical fiction, every story resonates deeply with today’s reality; a mother fighting for her child suffering from asthma, lonely telegraph operator in the midst of the Amazonian jungle seeking connection, a bug collector desperately waiting for a letter from Charles Darwin. The title story portrays Arthur Bispo do Rosario, a schizophrenic man interred in an asylum, who makes art out of found objects. Similarly, writers are collectors of human lives, registering our short passage upon the earth, making us see how strong our connections are, how we’re all touched by love and loss. Reading this book is like opening a treasure chest, each of nine short stories belongs in an imaginary museum of historical curiosities. --Aggie


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Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco By Alia Volz Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780358505020
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Mariner Books - April 20th, 2021

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Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life By Lulu Miller Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781501160349
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Simon & Schuster - April 6th, 2021

 

The book was inspired by Miller’s personal journey to understand how to persist in the midst of chaos. This masterful book is impossible to classify; it’s part science, part biography/memoir, part psychological thriller, part self-help manual, interweaving personal and scientific elements in a dazzling way.  It’s about David Starr Jordan, a founding president of Stanford University who devoted his life to studying fish, and how he recovered from losing his life work in the San Francisco 1906 earthquake. What Miller does is astonishing: she painstakingly makes a historical reconstruction of his life; from his enchanting boyhood full of curiosity, making maps of stars, collecting and classifying thousands of fish in his youth and becoming a taxonomist expert; to building the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory on the Monterey Peninsula during his Stanford tenure; to his involvement in covering up Jane Stanford’s mysterious death by strychnine poisoning, and finally to being supporter of eugenics in his old age. What connects all of these threads is Lulu Miller’s inquisitorial mind to understand Jordan’s childlike ‘shield of optimism’ and what made him veer of the course. And yet, the most significant discovery she makes is about the invisible threads of human connection that keep us bound to each other -- possibly the very secret of how to stay defiant and hopeful.--Aggie


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How Much of These Hills Is Gold: A Novel By C Pam Zhang Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525537212
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Riverhead Books - April 6th, 2021

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Writers & Lovers By Lily King Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802148544
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - February 16th, 2021

 

Casey Peabody, a vulnerable, young writer who lives in a potting shed in Boston, pays her bills by waitressing and walking her landlord's dog, but refuses to give up her dream of being a published author one day. She’s reeling from a sudden death of her mother and a breakup with Luke, a fellow writer she met at the artist residency. Casey’s romantic life gets even more complicated when she’s torn between Oscar, an older, famous novelist, widower and father of two boys, and Silas, one of Oscar’s students. Lily King masterfully layers Casey’s hardship with money, loss of her mother, fallout with her father, her own medical scares, her unfailing artistic ambition and tangled love life. At the end, the future looks bright for Casey, and I realized that the book I’m holding is a palpable result of her grief, her sharp insight, and ultimately triumph and happiness. --Aggie


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Shuggie Bain: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) By Douglas Stuart Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802148506
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - October 13th, 2020

 

When you are awestruck, how do you put it into words? Douglas Stuart’s debut novel Shuggie Bain reads like a classic masterpiece, and the main protagonist Hugh Shuggie Bain is one of those unforgettable characters, well on his way to become a household name such as David Copperfield or Holden Caulfield. Shuggi is Agnes Bain’s youngest child, two older siblings gone because of Agnes’ alcoholism and neglect, and their father’s infidelity. The novel takes place in1980s and 1990s Glasgow, Scotland, on the river Clyde, a poverty stricken city during Margaret Thatcher presidency, its abandoned railroads and shipworks resembling “rotted dinosaurs.”  In that deprived, desperate world, what shines is Shuggie’s love and devotion for his Elizabeth Taylor look-alike mother, his desire to help Agnes overcome her addiction. At the same time, while caring for his mother, young Shuggie confronts his own sexuality, loneliness, bullying at school, and hunger at home. I don’t remember rooting so much for a character in a book, like I did for Shuggie, whose innocence and capacity for forgiveness illuminates the darkness of human suffering. Dear Shuggie, I already miss your pure, sweet heart, and sincerely hope Stuart Douglas writes a sequel to this extraordinary book. --Aggie


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Dear Edward: A Novel By Ann Napolitano Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984854803
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Dial Press Trade Paperback - February 2nd, 2021

 

Before his family airplane trip to Los Angeles from New York, twelve-year-old Eddie Addler was just an ordinary boy, with a mother, father, and a fifteen-year-old brother Jordan. After the plane crashes, killing everyone on board, the only survivor Eddie becomes Edward, the miracle boy who lived. His aunt Lacey and uncle John take him in, but his friendship with the young girl Shay next door is his new lifeline. When family members from the other passengers write to Edward because he was the last one to see or remember their loved ones alive, Edward's deeply personal story of recovery becomes alive with universal parallels. Dear Edward is like a lantern leading us out of darkness; a beautiful, poignant story of community and the power of kindness. --Aggie


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Disappearing Earth By Julia Phillips Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780525436225
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - April 7th, 2020

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On Swift Horses: A Novel By Shannon Pufahl Cover Image
$18.70
Not available
ISBN: 9780525538127
Published: Riverhead Books - November 3rd, 2020

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The Dutch House: A Read with Jenna Pick By Ann Patchett Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780062963680
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Harper Perennial - January 5th, 2021

 

The Dutch House tells the story of two loving siblings growing up in a grandiose mansion still filled with the previous owner’s portraits. When their mother disappears without any explanation, the house fills with an aching absence. We follow Maeve and Danny throughout their adult lives as they try to understand why their mother abandoned them. --Aggie


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Inland: A Novel By Téa Obreht  Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812982756
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - May 26th, 2020

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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel By Ocean Vuong Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525562047
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Penguin Books - June 1st, 2021

 

The autobiographical debut novel by Ocean Vuong, a young queer Vietnamese poet, might well be the most beautiful book in the world. Written in the form of a letter to his mother who cannot read, the book is a lyrical, tender testament to the mother/son/grandmother relationship and their immigrant experience. --Aggie


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The Half-Acre Homestead: 46 Years of Building and Gardening By Lloyd Kahn Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9780936070810
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Shelter Publications - March 3rd, 2020

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Children of the Land: A Memoir By Marcelo Hernandez Castillo Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780062825636
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Harper Perennial - September 29th, 2020

Aggie's September 2020 Non-Fiction Pick


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The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir By E. J. Koh Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781951142278
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Tin House Books - January 19th, 2021

Aggie's January 2020 Non-Fiction Pick


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Three Women By Lisa Taddeo Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781451642308
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster - July 7th, 2020

 

The most brilliant, raw, devastating writing on women’s sexuality. This exquisite non-fiction book reads like a page-turning thriller. The three stories about three women capture an entire universe of female longing and desire. Buy an extra copy for your best girlfriend! And your boyfriend, too! --Aggie


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Don't Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems By Stephanie Burt Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781541603615
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Basic Books - May 9th, 2023

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Freeman's: California By John Freeman (Editor) Cover Image
By John Freeman (Editor)
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802147875
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - October 8th, 2019

 

This transcendent anthology, edited by John Freeman, captures all the different voices of contemporary California, allowing us to discover the mythological and geographical heart of this place. The stories and poems gathered here are like the trail of shimmering pebbles left to mark our way home. --Aggie


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The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse By Charlie Mackesy Cover Image
$22.99
ISBN: 9780062976581
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: HarperOne - October 22nd, 2019

The whimsical little book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, reminiscent of treasured classics such as Winnie-the-Pooh and The Little Prince, is full of wonderful things. The conversations between four different creatures about friendship, kindness and courage are depicted with humor and grace. Each page is a small marvel of a simple, yet profound advice. The miraculous and magical ink and watercolor drawings contain hidden stories; this book is to be reread and cherished. We cannot think of a better book to create delight and pleasure in the reader. It should be on everyone’s gift list. --Aggie


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The Measure of Our Lives: A Gathering of Wisdom By Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith (Foreword by)
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525659297
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - December 3rd, 2019

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