Eleanor Catton

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Maryland

A Novel

"Birnam Wood is terrific. As a multilayered, character-driven thriller, it's as good as it gets. Ruth Rendell would have loved it. A beautifully textured work--what a treat." --Stephen King

"One of the finest writers of our time." --Jonathan Ruppin, The Independent

The Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries brings us Birnam Wood, a gripping thriller of high drama and kaleidoscopic insight into what drives us to survive.

Birnam Wood is on the move . . .

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand's South Island, cutting oﬀ the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam's founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He's intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they're poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both inﬂuences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. A brilliantly constructed study of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is a mesmerizing, unﬂinching consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

Birnam Wood

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Angie Kim

Mystery involving disappearance of adult. 

When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another—both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek. “I fell in love with the fascinating, brilliant family at the center of this riveting book.”—Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful “We didn’t call the police right away.” Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut, Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing-person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.

Happiness Falls

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia

An imaginative retelling of the horror classic The Island Of Dr. Moreau if the island were actually a secluded ranch in the Yucatán peninsula. 

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * From the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a dreamy reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico.

"As alluring as it is unsettling, filled with action romance, and monsters . . . Readers will fall into this tale immediately, enchanted."--Booklist (starred review)

"The imagination of Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a thing of wonder, restless and romantic, fearless in the face of genre, embracing the polarities of storytelling--the sleek and the bizarre, wild passions and deep hatreds--with cool equanimity."--The New York Times

Carlota Moreau: A young woman growing up on a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of a researcher who is either a genius or a madman.

Montgomery Laughton: A melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.

The hybrids: The fruits of the doctor's labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.

All of them live in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Dr. Moreau's patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.

For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and, in the sweltering heat of the jungle, passions may ignite.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is both a dazzling historical novel and a daring science fiction journey.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

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Douglas Westerbeke

Historical fantasy of a young girl who can’t stay in one place for more than 2-3 days before she falls ill. Book cover jacket is a bit worn, but the book itself is in pristine condition. A Currently Reading Indie Press pick from May 2024.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Life of Pi in this dazzlingly epic debut that charts the adventures of one woman as she walks herself around the world many times over trying to outrun a mysterious curse that will destroy her if she ever stops moving—or returns to the same place twice. Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, at the family dinner table, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she discovers that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than three or four days or return to a place she’s already been. From the scorched dunes of the Calashino Sand Sea to the blinding, snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas; from a bottomless well in a Parisian courtyard, to the shelves of an infinite underground library, we follow Aubry through the decades of her life, as she learns what it takes to survive and fall in love, with goodbye always on the tip of her tongue. But the longer Aubry wanders and the more desperate she is to share her life with others, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s… Fierce, hopeful, and full of tender yearning, Aubry Tourvel is an unforgettable character fighting her way through a world of wonders to find a place she can call home. A spellbinding and inspiring story about finding gratitude and meaning in a life that seems otherwise impossible, A Short Walk Through a Wide World reinforces the message that it’s not the destination, but rather the journey—no matter how long it lasts—that matters.

A Short Walk Through a Wide World

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Elif Shafak

Historical fiction about the island of Cyprus and two lovers from different sides of the island.

A rich, magical new novel on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

The Island of Missing Trees

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Camille Gomera-Tavarez

Short story collection of Dominican diaspora.

High Spirits is a collection of eleven interconnected short stories from the Dominican diaspora, from debut author Camille Gomera-Tavarez.

It is a book centered on one extended family - the Beléns - across multiple generations.

It is set in the fictional small town of Hidalpa - and Santo Domingo and Paterson and San Juan and Washington Heights too.

It is told in a style both utterly real and distinctly magical - and its stories explore machismo, mental health, family, and identity.

But most of all, High Spirits represents the first book from Camille Gomera-Tavarez, who takes her place as one of the most extraordinary new voices to emerge in years.

High Spirits

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Robert Jones, Jr.

Historical fiction about two enslaved men who become lovers and the fallout of their relationship on a Deep South plantation. 

Finalist for the National Book Award Instant New York Times Bestseller "May this book cast its spell on all of us, restore to us some memory of our most warrior and softest selves." —The New York Times Book Review “A new kind of epic...A grand achievement...While The Prophets' dreamy realism recalls the work of Toni Morrison...its penetrating focus on social dynamics stands out more singularly.” —Entertainment Weekly A singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master's gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr., fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

The Prophets

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Epistolary novel about the search for the author of a found manuscript. 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Sometimes a book has the power to change your life... When Anne-Lise Briard books a room at the Beau Rivage Hotel for her vacation on the Brittany coast, she has no idea this trip will start her on the path to unearthing a mystery. In search of something to read, she opens up her bedside table drawer in her hotel room, and inside she finds an abandoned manuscript. Halfway through the pages, an address is written. She sends pages to the address, in hopes of potentially hearing a response from the unknown author. But not before she reads the story and falls in love with it. The response, which she receives a few days later, astonishes her... Not only does the author write back, but he confesses that he lost the manuscript 30 years prior on a flight to Montreal. And then he reveals something even more shocking – that he was not the author of the second half of the book. Anne-Lise can’t rest until she discovers who this second mystery author is, and in doing so tracks down every person who has held this manuscript in their hands. Through the letters exchanged by the people whose lives the manuscript has touched, she discovers long-lost love stories and intimate secrets. Romances blossom and new friends are made. Everyone's lives are made better by this book - and isn't that the point of reading? And finally, with a plot twist you don't see coming, she uncovers the astonishing identity of the author who finished the story.

The Lost Manuscript

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Gorgeous hardcover copy of ESJM’s latest in the Station 11 Multiverse. 

"The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from an island off Vancouver in 1912 to a dark colony of the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and planets"--

Sea of Tranquility

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Like new condition, this YA ghost story got a lot of love on the Currently Reading Podcast. Don’t let tge cover deter you from picking up this gem. 

The worldwide phenomenon Wonder showed over 13 million readers how to choose kind. Now, the #1 New York Times bestselling author is back with an enthralling adventure that will show readers how to choose courage. A modern classic about a boy on a quest to rescue his father, with only a ghost as his companion and a mysterious pony as his guide. "Perfection.... Hands-down the best children's book I've read all year." -The Wall Street Journal Twelve-year-old Silas is awoken in the dead of night by three menacing horsemen who take his father away. Silas is left shaken, scared, and alone, except for the presence of his companion, Mittenwool . . . who happens to be a ghost. When a pony shows up at his door, Silas makes the courageous decision to leave his home and embark on a perilous journey to find his father. Along the way, he will face his fears to unlock the secrets of his past and explore the unfathomable mysteries of the world around him. R. J. Palacio spins a harrowing yet distinctly beautiful coming-of-age story about the power of love and the ties that bind us across distance and time. With the poignant depth of War Horse and the singular voice of True Grit, this is one of those rare books poised to become an instant classic for readers of all ages.

Ivy Finkenstadt

@ivy914490

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Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood

Angie Kim

Happiness Falls

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

Douglas Westerbeke

A Short Walk Through a Wide World

Elif Shafak

The Island of Missing Trees

Camille Gomera-Tavarez

High Spirits

Robert Jones, Jr.

The Prophets

Cathy Bonidan

The Lost Manuscript

Emily St. John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility

R. J. Palacio

Pony

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Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood

Angie Kim

Happiness Falls

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

Douglas Westerbeke

A Short Walk Through a Wide World

Elif Shafak

The Island of Missing Trees

Camille Gomera-Tavarez

High Spirits

Robert Jones, Jr.

The Prophets

Cathy Bonidan

The Lost Manuscript

Emily St. John Mandel

Sea of Tranquility

R. J. Palacio

Pony

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