Friday Black (Paperback)

By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

$11.99

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." 

Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America (Hardcover)

By Robert Bruegmann (Editor), Jonathan Mekinda (Contributions by), Teri J. Edelstein (Contributions by), Lisa D. Schrenk (Contributions by), Neil Harris (Contributions by)

$59.99

ISBN: 9780300229936

Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)

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.

Butch Heroes (Hardcover)

By Ria Brodell

$19.95

ISBN: 9780262038973

Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)

Published: Mit Press - August 17th, 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

Northwood: A Novella (Hardcover)

By Maryse Meijer

$15.16

ISBN: 9781948226011

Availability: In Stock (but it is always wise to call ahead to confirm!)

Published: Black Balloon Publishing - 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.

Heartbreaker: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Claudia Dey

$20.80

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.