This is Why I Read - Aggie’s Monthly Picks

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

 

Staff Pick Badge
Martyr!: A novel By Kaveh Akbar Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593537619
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - January 23rd, 2024

Aggie's Fiction Pick for February 2024

I’m enraptured by the incantatory power and the poetic beauty of this book. Such an ingenious way to depict the novel’s hero, the young Iranian-American poet Cyrus Shams, struggling with addiction and the tragic death of his mother in a passenger plane shot down by Americans. This gorgeous book invokes a sense of bewilderment, just like Sufi’s prayer quoted in it, “Lord, increase my bewilderment.” How did the author successfully convey the mythological background and the contemporary setting simultaneously, the lyricism and the humor, and the head-spinning plot twist towards the end of the book? I was mesmerized! -Aggie

 


Staff Pick Badge
A Woman in the Polar Night (Pushkin Press Classics) By Christiane Ritter, Jane Degras (Translated by), Sara Wheeler (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Christiane Ritter, Jane Degras (Translated by), Sara Wheeler (Foreword by)
$19.95
ISBN: 9781805330899
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Pushkin Press Classics - February 6th, 2024

 In 1934, the Austrian painter Christian Ritter joined her hunter husband in a one-room shack on the Arctic island Spitsbergen. They lived without electricity or running water, but in that scarcity and freezing cold, there was a glorious landscape with Northern Lights and life among polar bears, foxes, and seals. The magic of living fully immersed in nature transformed her, and she discovered "the natural laws of all beings." This little book is the best armchair travel has to offer! -Aggie

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for February 2024


Staff Pick Badge
Poor Deer: A Novel By Claire Oshetsky Cover Image
$26.99
ISBN: 9780063327665
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Ecco - January 9th, 2024

Aggie's Fiction Pick for January 2024

A fable-like, eerie novel from the child's perspective about a tragic childhood accident and a young girl's long journey toward atonement. Short and beautiful, and so captivating! -Aggie


Staff Pick Badge
The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History By Manjula Martin Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780593317150
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Pantheon - January 16th, 2024

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for January 2024

Manjula Martin, the daughter of Northern California woods, writes with such tenderness and wisdom about the worst fire season on record in 2020 in her beloved woods. This book interrogates the causes of this unprecedented burning from different angles, including the climate change influenced by past colonial practices. The author also lovingly tends to her garden in the Sonoma County woods and examines the effects of chronic pain on her body, blending her personal experience with the story of the surrounding nature. -Aggie


Staff Pick Badge
So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men By Claire Keegan Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780802160850
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Grove Press - November 14th, 2023

"Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, considered “among the form’s most masterful practitioners” (New York Times), Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories, newly revised and expanded, together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics. Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and men: a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, and the looming threat of violence. Potent, charged, and breathtakingly insightful, these three essential tales will linger with readers long after the book is closed."

Aggie's Fiction Pick for December 2023
 


Staff Pick Badge
The Farmer's Wife: My Life in Days By Helen Rebanks Cover Image
$29.99
ISBN: 9780785290483
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Harper Horizon - September 19th, 2023

Helen Rebanks' memoir follows two books on farming life, Shephard's Life and Pastoral Son, authored by her husband, James Rebanks. Nobody described it by himself, "A beautiful, gentle book about domestic things that rarely get the respect they deserve  - for what is a good life if not full of caring and love, making a home, and eating well?" 

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for December 2023


Staff Pick Badge
Baumgartner By Paul Auster Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780802161444
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Atlantic Monthly Press - November 7th, 2023

A brilliant, ruminative novel about a seventy-one-year-old philosophy professor at Princeton, Sy Baumgartner, reflecting on his late wife, aging, regrets, and loneliness. And the ending of this book is haunting me, still. -Aggie

Aggie's Fiction Pick for November 2023


Staff Pick Badge
The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading By Dwight Garner Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780374603427
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - October 24th, 2023

I cannot think of a better holiday gift for a book lover, a foodie, or both! The title comes from a critic, Seymour Krim, who referred to his profuse memory as "that upstairs delicatessen of mine." This delightful memoir will serve you a banquet of delicious stories, recipes, and amusing literary quotes such as this one by Edna Lewis: "Ham held the same rating as the basic black dress. If you had a ham in the meat house, any situation could be faced."-Aggie
 

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for November 2023


Staff Pick Badge
North Woods: A Novel By Daniel Mason Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593597033
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House - September 19th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for October 2023

In North Woods, I found my favorite book of this year and most definitely one of the top 10 best books I have ever read. Gentle reader, accept this sacred object, this Holy Grail of a book. Enjoy and welcome! ~Aggie


Staff Pick Badge
Father and Son: A Memoir By Jonathan Raban Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780375422454
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - September 19th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for October 2023

Jonathan Raban's memoir (published posthumously) Father and Son brilliantly evokes his parents' love story through their letters while his father fought in WWII. Raban also reflects on his personal battle in the rehab ward after a debilitating stroke. This book is an intimate meditation told with candor and humor and reads like a long farewell letter to his friends. It made me feel I'm one of them. ~Aggie


Staff Pick Badge
Wednesday's Child: Stories By Yiyun Li Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780374606374
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - September 5th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for September 2023

Li is a truly original writer, an alchemist of opposites: tender and unsentimental, metaphysical and blunt, funny and horrifying, omniscient and unusually aware of just how much we cannot know. Beloved for her novels and memoirs, she returns here to her earliest form, gathering pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker, Zoetrope, and elsewhere.


Staff Pick Badge
Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mystery Writers By Marta McDowell Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9781643261126
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Timber Press - September 5th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for September 2023

This fun, engrossing book takes a look at the surprising influence that gardens and gardening have had on mystery novels and their authors. Meet plant-obsessed detectives and spooky groundskeeper suspects, witness toxic teas served in foul play, and tour the gardens—both real and imagined—that have been the settings for fiction’s ghastliest misdeeds.


Staff Pick Badge
How to Love Your Daughter: A Novel By Hila Blum, Daniella Zamir (Translated by) Cover Image
By Hila Blum, Daniella Zamir (Translated by)
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593539644
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Riverhead Books - July 18th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for August 2023


Staff Pick Badge
How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly By Seneca, Robert Kaster (Translator) Cover Image
By Seneca, Robert Kaster (Translator)
$17.95
ISBN: 9780691238647
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Princeton University Press - June 20th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for August 2023


Staff Pick Badge
The Door-To-Door Bookstore By Carsten Henn Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9781335490858
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Hanover Square Press - July 4th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for July 2023

Books about bookstores and the transformative power of books cast a magic spell on avid readers and booksellers alike! It tells a story of an elderly bookseller Carl whose life was to personally deliver books to people's homes. Carl had an uncanny gift for recommending a perfect book to anyone. Who can resist this, "This book," said Carl, taking one from the pile next to the till, "has been waiting for you since the moment it was unpacked. Set in Provence, and every word scented with lavender." I hope you'll find it irresistible and run into your local bookstore! ~Aggie


Staff Pick Badge
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession By Michael Finkel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780525657323
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Knopf - June 27th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for July 2023

A true crime story that reads like the most gripping mystery novel about Stephane Breitwieser, a young man who stole art from museums across Europe and stored his loot in his mother's attic for his own enjoyment. Finkel masterfully examines Breitwieser's obsessive desire and audacity and how his art collector's passion transformed into pathological thievery.  It's worth mentioning that Finkel's previous book Stranger In the Woods the Extraordinary Story About a Last Hermit, was also one of our staff's favorites. ~Aggie


Staff Pick Badge
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

A perfect summer read for everyone who's found a home in books and reading. But wait, you'll find a romance and a spectacularly happy ending in it, too! It's an excellent book for the beach, airplane, or train ride and for anyone looking for an uplifting, good book to get lost in. -Aggie
 


Staff Pick Badge
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

 

Ever dreamed of opening a bookshop in Italy? Alba Donati did that in her home village in Tuscany of only 180 year-round residents! What a pleasure to read her charming diary about her rose-covered cottage bookshop. It felt like visiting the place and finding yourself under the spell of literature and "inside a fairy tale," like her many visitors attested. -Aggie
 


Staff Pick Badge
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. 
 


Staff Pick Badge
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!

 


Staff Pick Badge
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.


Staff Pick Badge
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."


Staff Pick Badge
The Queen of Dirt Island: A Novel By Donal Ryan Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593652930
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
The World and All That It Holds: A Novel By Aleksandar Hemon Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9781250321893
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Picador - March 5th, 2024

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


Staff Pick Badge
Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age By Reid Mitenbuler Cover Image
$45.00
ISBN: 9780358468325
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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. 


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
The Hero of This Book: A Novel By Elizabeth McCracken Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062971296
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Ecco - October 3rd, 2023

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


Staff Pick Badge
Stay True: A Memoir (Pulitzer Prize Winner) By Hua Hsu Cover Image
By Hua Hsu
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593315200
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Anchor - September 12th, 2023

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


Staff Pick Badge
If I Survive You By Jonathan Escoffery Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250872210
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Picador - September 5th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for September 2022


Staff Pick Badge
Woman Without Shame: Poems By Sandra Cisneros Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780593468111
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - August 22nd, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for September 2022


Staff Pick Badge
The Last White Man: A Novel By Mohsin Hamid Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593538821
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Riverhead Books - June 13th, 2023

Aggie's Fiction Pick for August 2022


Staff Pick Badge
How to Read Now: Essays By Elaine Castillo Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593489635
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Viking - July 26th, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for August 2022


Staff Pick Badge
The Mermaid of Black Conch: A novel By Monique Roffey Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593467350
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - June 27th, 2023

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


Staff Pick Badge
The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir By Ingrid Rojas Contreras Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593311165
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Anchor - July 11th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for July 2022


Staff Pick Badge
Nightcrawling: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) 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.

 


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
Groundskeeping: A Read with Jenna Pick 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


Staff Pick Badge
Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation By Maud Newton Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780812987492
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - June 20th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for March 2022


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
Manifesto: On Never Giving Up By Bernardine Evaristo Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780802160409
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Grove Press - January 10th, 2023

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for January 2022


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
These Precious Days: Essays By Ann Patchett Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780063092792
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Harper Perennial - November 1st, 2022

Aggie's Nonfiction Pick for December 2021


Staff Pick Badge
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven By Nathaniel Ian Miller Cover Image
$17.99
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story By John Freeman (Editor) Cover Image
By John Freeman (Editor)
$17.00
ISBN: 9781984877826
Availability: Usually Arrives at Kepler's in 3-14 Days
Published: Penguin Books - May 3rd, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for May 2021


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
Klara and the Sun: A novel (Vintage International) By Kazuo Ishiguro Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593311295
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - March 1st, 2022

Aggie's Fiction Pick for March 2021


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
Let Me Tell You What I Mean: An Essay Collection (Vintage International) By Joan Didion Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593312193
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Vintage - January 25th, 2022

Aggie's Non-Fiction Pick for February 2021


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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
$20.00
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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 


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick By Rumaan Alam Cover Image
$18.99
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


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

Aggie's Pick


Staff Pick Badge
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

Aggie's Pick


Staff Pick Badge
A Burning: A Read with Jenna Pick 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

 


Staff Pick Badge
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures By Merlin Sheldrake Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780525510321
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 13th, 2021

Aggie's Pick


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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

Aggie's Pick


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
How Much of These Hills Is Gold: A Novel By C Pam Zhang Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525537212
Availability: In Stock at Kepler's Now
Published: Riverhead Books - April 6th, 2021

Aggie's Pick


Staff Pick Badge
Writers & Lovers By Lily King Cover Image
$18.00
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
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


Staff Pick Badge
Writers & Lovers By Lily King Cover Image
$18.00
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