The Book Table's Best Books of 2018

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Staff Pick Badge
Friday Black By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Cover Image
$17.09
ISBN: 9781328911247
Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)
Published: Mariner Books - October 23rd, 2018

All Staff Book of the Year - This has been the most talked about book behind the counter this year. It made the rounds to just about everyone, and all who read it loved it and couldn't stop talking about it--once they picked their jaw up off the floor. Bookseller Patrick writes: "An explosive collection that opens with a provocative bang and drags you gasping and laughing through bizarre tales that shine an absurdist light on Black identity with assured inventiveness. This is Black Mirror meets Atlanta - surrealist satire that gives way to outstanding social commentary, complete with an entry that will give cause to those with retail experience to grin in solidarity. A seriously impressive debut." 


Staff Pick Badge
Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America By Robert Bruegmann (Editor), Jonathan Mekinda (Contributions by), Teri J. Edelstein (Contributions by), Lisa D. Schrenk (Contributions by), Neil Harris (Contributions by) Cover Image
By Robert Bruegmann (Editor), Jonathan Mekinda (Contributions by), Teri J. Edelstein (Contributions by), Lisa D. Schrenk (Contributions by), Neil Harris (Contributions by)
$67.50
ISBN: 9780300229936
Availability: Backordered at least 2 weeks or possibly unavailable.
Published: Chicago Art Deco Society - October 2nd, 2018

Rachel's Book of the Year - Design nerds rejoice! This lavish cloth-bound production will look great on anyone's coffee table, but it is also the definitive, and long-awaited only (!) book-length examination of Chicago's many contributions to the Art Deco movement, covering architecture, graphic design, and product design. This volume's beauty will be sure to please the aesthete, but it is also academically rigorous enough to satisfy the scholar--a serious work that was worth waiting for.


Staff Pick Badge
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror By W. Scott Poole Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781640090934
Availability: Backordered at least 2 weeks or possibly unavailable.
Published: Counterpoint - October 16th, 2018

Bethany's Book of the Year - Poole's book is as breathtaking as it is sensitive. The backdrop of bloodshed that is the Great War is almost its own character in Poole's writing. The format with the early lives and war experiences of each man lends itself so well to the dissection of the works produced by those who returned but never really came back. The hunger for horror, the almost compulsive need to relive and re-experience the trauma, and the irrevocable mark on the landscape of our psychology and pop culture: Poole is dead-on with sharp analysis and drinkable prose. 


Staff Pick Badge
Butch Heroes By Ria Brodell Cover Image
$22.46
ISBN: 9780262038973
Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)
Published: The MIT Press - October 30th, 2018

Bianca's Book of the Year - Butch Heroes is a book of portraits in the style of Catholic holy cards, accompanied by a concise history of the person depicted. Brodell, as they note in the introduction, tells the stories of people who, “were assigned female at birth, had documented relationships with women, and whose gender presentation was more masculine than feminine.” Holy cards have historically served as tangible gateways to past struggles, to remember and rely on humans whose trials both lift them to divinity and ground them in humanity.

Despite every effort to burn the roots of our family tree, queer people exist and we study and make art and love each other. Always have. In Butch Heroes there is proof, in that proof is validation.  

ATTN ALL QUEER FAM: BEST GIFT FOR THE BOOKISH BUTCH BABES IN YOUR LIFE


Staff Pick Badge
A Key to Treehouse Living By Elliot Reed Cover Image
$17.96
ISBN: 9781947793040
Availability: Backordered at least 2 weeks or possibly unavailable.
Published: Tin House Books - September 4th, 2018

Christian's Book of the Year - Brilliant in form and content, this is a coming of age story that uses the format of an alphabetical index to illustrate the way that our adolescent and young adult minds try to make sense of the world: we categorize and define, put feelings and inanimate objects on equal footing, and do our best to make sense of the chaos around us the way that text books and encyclopedias have taught. References from one entry to another mimic the links between our memories that seem to make our lives a continuum, rather than a series of isolated incidents. Life doesn't occur in alphabetical order, but there's no reason your story can't be told that way. This is a book that trusts you to connect the dots yourself, because really that's half the fun, isn't it? 


Staff Pick Badge
Northwood: A Novella By Maryse Meijer Cover Image
$17.06
ISBN: 9781948226011
Availability: Backordered. Will not ship for 2 weeks or longer.
Published: Catapult - November 6th, 2018

Eddy's Book of the Year - Maryse Meijer's Northwood is incredible. It's a gorgeous object with white text on black pages all the way through. It appears at first as strong poetry-- and if broken up, the individual pieces do stand on their own as potent poems-- but as I read through the novella I saw that it was a cohesive story. The whole thing throws its middle fingers up at form, flirting with elements of fairy tale, poetry, and novella. A gorgeous horror about lust, violence, attachment, and love. The most horrifying part of the book is how relatable it is. Chances are you've had a relationship like the one in Northwood, and chances are you find it a difficult place to revisit. With Northwood breaking convention as well feeling like a modern myth, Maryse Meijer sits with greats like Anne Carson and Maggie Nelson with this one.


Staff Pick Badge
The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish By Katya Apekina Cover Image
$17.06
ISBN: 9781937512750
Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)
Published: Two Dollar Radio - September 18th, 2018

Javier's Book of the Year - This is one of those books that will ruin the fate of whatever's next on your to-be-read pile. The structure, well drawn characters, style and writing (oh the writing!) combine to make this a singular reading experience you'll want to hold onto long after the you've turned the last page. Telling the story through the eyes of multiple narrators creates a pastiche of voices that give it a fevered momentum, holding the reader like grim death throughout. Good luck attempting not to read this in one sitting.


Staff Pick Badge
Heartbreaker: A Novel By Claudia Dey Cover Image
$23.40
ISBN: 9780525511731
Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)
Published: Random House - August 21st, 2018

Patrick's Book of the Year - An eerie, melancholy tale of an insulated, seemingly retrograded community and the elusive outsider who settles into, and eventually abandons it. Through a trio of unique accounts that detail life in "the territory", we piece together the puzzle that is Billie Jean Fontaine, a figure with a curious presence that harbors many secrets, and whose abrupt departure teases consequential revelations. Ill-fated bonds, familial twists and a setting saturated in a bizarre tapestry of 1980s nostalgia make this an odd, though incredibly magnetic story of love, belonging, and self-actualization. 


There There: A novel By Tommy Orange Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780525520375
Availability: Backordered. Will not ship for 2 weeks or longer.
Published: Knopf - June 5th, 2018

Honorable Mention: All Staff Book of the Year - Another oft-discussed, much loved book by the staff this year--and by the literary world at large. This stunning debut novel-in-stories is the rare Native American novel to leave the reservation--quite literally--by telling the story of 12 unforgettable urban Indians living in Oakland, California. We feel we would be remiss if we didn't mention this book on our list of favorites for 2018.