Jasper Fforde
[isbn]
Jasper Fforde's story takes place in a delightful alternate world filled with imagination and humor. It's a world where original author manuscripts are priceless, and ferocious debates about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays occupy the populace. Yep, this is a quite learned alternate universe. The story's protagonist, Tuesday Next, is a detective in charge of monitoring literary crimes. Her job title: LiteraTec. Her nemesis: A former English... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Jane Harper
[isbn]
I so enjoyed Jane Harper's previous novel, The Dry, I immediately wanted to read The Lost Man. Its plot is seemingly simple: two men meet in the remote Australian outback, where their brother has been found dead under odd circumstances. What follows is a convincing family mystery set in a landscape (central Queensland, Australia) so unforgiving that running out of gas while running errands can be fatal. The themes of isolation... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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John Brunner
[isbn]
Presented as an engaging and complex postmodern document, this 1969 novel is stimulating, startling, hilarious, and downright prescient. Ted Gioia noted many of Stand on Zanzibar's remarkable predictions, which include: A president named Obomi; marijuana being decriminalized in the U.S.; America plagued by random acts of violence, often at schools; Europeans forming a union of nations; alternative lifestyles going mainstream; the wide... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Ursula K Le Guin
[isbn]
"The King was pregnant." That phrase, spoken early on in this novel, takes place on Gethen, a planet where humanoid aliens with fluid gender biology/identity have their own complex political and personal rivalries. It's up to a human ambassador to make sense of this world, and to try to form an alliance with it even as war brews. Le Guin offers a deeply imagined world replete with history, anthropology, and lore, as well as a wonderful adventure... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Matt Burgess, Matthew Burgess
[isbn]
Like you perhaps, I'm in the habit of being especially tough on a book in its early going. If it doesn't draw me in or make a valid case for itself, I will set the book aside with only a slight twinge of regret. But with Uncle Janice, I started reading and before I knew it, was on page 100. Matthew Burgess is a born storyteller, and this book is the real deal. It's funny, varied, believable, and thoroughly impressive. Highly recommended,... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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David Simon
[isbn]
Before he created HBO's The Wire, David Simon was a journalist on the murder beat in Baltimore. There, he embedded with a homicide unit for a year. In Homicide, he tells that unit's story through the lives of its officers. It's both a riveting mystery and a brilliant analysis of society, crime, and justice in the United States. The Wire gave viewers a municipal civics lesson in the guise of fiction, but... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Elliott Chaze
[isbn]
Imagine that Raymond Chandler had a nephew named Ellliott who hung around Chandler's LA digs, gleaning noir lore from the master. Said nephew then writes his own novel — but instead of having a tarnished knight like Philip Marlowe as the protagonist, he writes about a mercurial prison escapee who's capable of, well, virtually anything. No spoilers here — suffice it to say that Elliott Chaze's dialogue is hard-boiled, sometimes brutal, and often... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Benjamin Dreyer
[isbn]
Want to know something interesting? The word "namesake" works two ways. That is, if you're named for an older relative, they are your namesake... and YOU are theirs. If you find this sort of information remotely interesting, you'll love Dreyer's English. This witty book is also a bit of a mystery, as I'm hard-pressed to explain how Benjamin Dreyer pulled off the trick of making a writer's guide such a joy to read. Over at the New... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Paul Tremblay
[isbn]
One sign of a successful book is how much you think about it after turning its last page. On that count, Head Full of Ghosts is a resounding success. I've thought of this book many times since finishing it... often on rainy dark nights, when I wonder how in the world the author wove such a believable young narrator in with a story that seems straightforward at first, but becomes increasingly creepy and meta. So yeah, I still think about... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Shane Bauer
[isbn]
This gripping book grew from journalist Shane Bauer's undercover work as a security guard for a private, for-profit prison. From there, Bauer researched the history of corporate American prisons, an appalling story that began back in the 1800s and continues to the present day. Why does the U.S. have a vastly higher ratio of its citizens behind bars than any other nation? There are a host of factors; one is the legacy of a systemic effort to... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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David Wong
[isbn]
If the idea of a talented, funny, irreverent author throwing all of his best ideas about aliens, drug use, horror, and slapstick into a bag, shaking it, and then throwing that hot mess onto the page sounds appealing, then John Dies at the End is for you. Me? I loved the novel's lack of preciousness, its verve, and its outrageous humor. My theory is that this book makes an auspicious gift for anyone you don't know well. It will either... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Jim Bouton
[isbn]
I couldn't tell you who won last year's World Series, because I don't follow baseball. But this sports book has earned a sterling reputation as a classic that transcends the game.
Author/knuckleball pitcher Jim Bouton has the humorist's eye for telling, pithy detail, and the memoirist's courage in sharing honest and sometimes unflattering anecdotes about himself and his teammates. In short, from its opening pitch to the final out, Ball Four... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Julie Schumacher
[isbn]
This novel by a Midwestern writing professor about a Midwestern English professor sounds a bit cliched. So is this just another entry in the tired "writers writing about writing" genre? Nope. In reality, Dear Committee Members is brilliant! The life of Prof. Jason Fitger is glimpsed through an endless number of recommendation letters, memos, and emails that he writes for colleagues, students, and absolute strangers, and it's an... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Aidan Truhen
[isbn]
It’s a testament to how much I enjoyed Aidan Truhen’s funny, brutal, and profane crime novel The Price You Pay that I was willing to overlook its minor felony: dialogue without quotation marks. (Okay, maybe not a felony, but let's say a peccadillo.)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Shaun Bythell
[isbn]
You may be wondering if a Powell's reviewer can really be objective with regard to this this witty, irascible, big-hearted book. After all, of course I'd think that a wry diary by a Scottish bookseller would be a terrific read, right? However, in this case, you can trust me — I was reading and enjoying Shaun Bythell's hilarious bookshop Twitter feed long before I began at Powell's. So when this book arrived, I got it instantly and... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Brian Lies
[isbn]
What should I tell you about this wonderful, funny, touching picture book? That it's perfect for anyone who loves animals and/or just has a big heart? That it made me cry halfway through, or that I was smiling through my tears by the end? So many questions! I guess the best thing I can do is suggest you take a look at Rough Patch yourself, because it's absolutely lovely.
Recommended by Bart K.
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Sergio De La Pava
[isbn]
First off, I'm not a fan of American football, and that game is one of the many ongoing threads of this novel. But it doesn't matter! Lost Empress is a shaggy, wonderful tale; its rough edges and demented interconnectivity are unlike anything you've read before (unless you've read the author's previous book, A Naked Singularity). Come for the snappy dialogue and incisive social commentary; stay for this extraordinary portrait of... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Elif Batuman
[isbn]
I first became aware of Elif Batuman from her reportage and analysis in The New Yorker. Her intelligence, canny use of language, and sly humor distinguished her work there, and are on full display in this novel. My colleagues agree that this book is hilarious and compelling. I've given this book as a gift multiple times — highly recommended!
Recommended by Bart K.
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Tom Drury
[isbn]
This comic masterpiece crept up on me; I made it to page 25 before I realized what a thing of beauty Tom Drury's understated dry humor is. But while the irony may be subtle, there is no cynicism here. Instead, enjoy a novel with great heart and genuine empathy for its Midwestern characters. Highly, highly recommended!
Recommended by Bart K.
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Sergio De La Pava
[isbn]
As I read this novel, I periodically had to stop and wonder, "Who IS this Sergio De La Pava? And why haven't I read more of him?" This book is written with a thrilling, madcap style that has to be experienced to be believed. And not only is this work extraordinarily funny, but it has a conscience as well. Because of its wildly original voice and sprawl, A Naked Singularity is sometimes compared to David Foster Wallace's fiction... but... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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George Orwell
[isbn]
This savagely funny Orwell novel has been semi-ignored, which may be due to its unlikely title. (An aspidistra was once a common British houseplant that thrives on bad light and poor air, and it symbolizes the stuffy bourgeois — so this title is a wry "Hooray for the middle class!") As to the story, Gordon Comstock is a talented copywriter who decides to quit his "good job" and become a poet/bookseller. The results are brutal, but this is Orwell.... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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Jason Rekulak
[isbn]
This sweet, funny story about love and game programming is a lovely callback to the 1980s. It's my go-to recommendation for readers who liked Ready Player One.
Recommended by Bart K.
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Jill Leovy
[isbn]
The short recommendation: This was the best nonfiction I read all year.
The long recommendation: Jill Leovy, journalist for the Los Angeles Times, does a masterful job of tracing the history of crime and law enforcement in LA through the murder of a black teenager named Bryant Tennelle. Her lens widens as she lays out the evolution of a criminal justice system that imprisons millions of inmates yet (in LA, at least) solves only a small... (read more)
Recommended by Bart K.
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