Rebecca

Rebecca's Staff Recommendations

My Man Jeeves (Hardcover)

By P. G. Wodehouse
$19.95
ISBN-13: 9781585678754
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Overlook Press, 5/2007
Before there was Bertie Wooster, P.G. Wodehouse created Reggie Pepper, a dopey aristocratic twit of a fellow. He was dumb enough to be loveable, but not so dumb that you wanted to smack him. Eventually Reggie evolved into Bertie, but you can see them both in their literary infancy in My Man Jeeves. All the short stories in this book are set in New York in the early 20th century, and are snapshots of a world before world wars or economic suffering. Reggie and Bertie sail through life with only the occasional dark cloud on their eternally sunny horizons: an intimidating aunt, a scheming ex-fiancée, and wardrobe spats with the gentleman's personal gentleman - this is the extent of their personal drama. Dipping into their lives is as refreshing as a crisp fall day, a glass of champagne, or a dinner cooked by someone else. Let this book be your introduction into the rest of the Wodehouse oeuvre, and you'll spend plenty of evenings in the company of his delightful characters.

The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 (Paperback)

By Wladyslaw Szpilman
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780312263768
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Picador, 9/2000
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The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman is a powerful recalling of the author’s experiences in Warsaw during World War II. When his family is sent to the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, Wladek (his nickname) earns money by playing piano in the ghetto cafes. When his family is sent to the trains to the concentration camps, Wladek is plucked from the edge of doom and spends the rest of the war hiding in the ruins of the ghetto, getting by as he can. Wladek responds to crisis by taking his emotions out of the equation, and reports his memories as they come to him. When he discusses the loss of his family, the horrors he sees, he does so dispassionately, like a reporter. He does this because to inject how he feels would compromise his narrative and would distract him from getting his thoughts down on paper and out of his brain forever. The resulting memoir is not necessarily in chronological order, but is no less powerful as a result. As we journey with Wladek, as we see what he saw, even at this distance in the twenty-first century, the overwhelming response must be “Never again can this be allowed to happen.”

Little Bee (Hardcover)

By Chris Cleave
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9781416589631
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Simon & Schuster, 2/2009
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The guilt runs strong in me, I’ll admit. When I do something even remotely bad, I agonize over it for days (sometimes weeks), I lay awake worrying about it, I apologize profusely, sometimes I shed a few tears, ask for forgiveness and eventually, try to find some way to redeem myself and move on. But some sins haunt you forever, revealing your true character in how you deal with them. Andrew, Sarah, and Little Bee must come to terms with the violent encounter that brings them together on a Nigerian beach in Little Bee by Chris Cleave. This book kept me up at night worrying about Little Bee and her sister. I couldn’t stop reading: I read on the train, on the bus, over lunch, and even (shhh…don’t tell) during my register shift at P&P. Is redemption possible for these lovely, flawed, broken people? Read Little Bee and see for yourself.

The Manual of Detection (Hardcover)

By Jedediah Berry
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9781594202117
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Penguin Press HC, The, 3/2009
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I'll be the first to admit that I am happiest when I've got a routine. I abhor surprises, and I tend to get twitchy when I'm not sure where I'm going or what to expect when I get there. Charles Unwin, protagonist of Jedediah Berry's remarkable debut novel The Manual of Detection, is a man after my own heart. When he is suddenly plucked from his quiet, methodical, happy life of clerking for the most famous detective in the city and actually made a detective himself, Unwin becomes a man on a mission: Get life back to normal, and pronto. On his quest, he finds out that all is not as it seems: The cases his missing detective got credit for were solved incorrectly, he doesn't know who to trust, and his narcoleptic assistant isn't much help. As the mystery deepens (Why are all the alarm clocks being stolen? Who is the woman with the mirror-gray eyes who keeps turning up everywhere? Why won't it stop raining?) you'll be drawn inexorably into its complex and shocking conclusion.

Nonesuch Dickens: 6 Book Set: Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Christmas Books, David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Hard Times (Hardcover)

By Charles Dickens

ISBN-13: 9781590201381
Availability: Out of Print
Published: Overlook Press, 11/2008
Just in time for the holidays comes the perfect gift for the classics fanatic in your life. Nonesuch Press has put together a set of Charles Dickens' six greatest hits in hardcover. This collection is full of lively and loveable protagonists and truly vile villains who together comprise a view of Victorian England that makes our current economic troubles look cheerful by comparison: Worried about $4/gallon gas? Reading about Tiny Tim’s miserable plight in A Christmas Carol or Oliver Twist's life on the streets of London will put your travel budget into perspective. Tired of losing sleep over your dwindling 401k? Consider the lives of Esther Summerson of Bleak House or David Copperfield, two penniless yet hopeful orphans forced by neglectful parents into lives of penury. The endearing and enduring characters of these novels will take your mind off your troubles, and will leave you grateful for what you've been blessed with this holiday season.

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (Hardcover)

By Reif Larsen
$27.95
ISBN-13: 9781594202179
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Press HC, The, 5/2009
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We've all read a stack of books with a preternaturally intelligent young person as the protagonist, perfect kids capable of greater depth of insight, genius, or understanding than most grown-ups. These wunderkinder of the literary world can be a bit hard to take at times—they're peaking at 8? 10? 12? Then I met Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, the brilliant young cartographer of life on his Montana ranch in The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen and my opinion changed. The kid is remarkably talented (illustrating insects for science magazines, or mapping the vectors of a cowboy on a bucking bronco, for instance), but what makes him a truly delightful character is not his intelligence, but the fact that he is truly and genuinely human. He worries about what everyone worries about: being loved by his parents, being successful, finding peace from events that haunt him, trying to forgive himself when he makes mistakes. On his cross-country quest to Washington D.C., he learns even more about himself, his family, and what he wants out of his life. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet’s true-to-life characters, hopeful and forgiving relationships, and quiet humor will enchant you from the first page.

About Alice (Hardcover)

By Calvin Trillin
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781400066155
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House, 12/2006
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I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sap when it comes to a good love story. I swoon over Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice, laugh at Beatrice and Benedick of Much Ado About Nothing, and when David Copperfield finds true love after so many years of loneliness, I weep with joy.

And yet, all of these stories pale in comparison with how Calvin Trillin loved his wife Alice. It's not so much a book as part love letter, part tribute to the woman he treasured above all else, who died of cancer in 2001. This heart-wrenchingly beautiful, achingly funny and tender account of his life with his wife will leave you wondering and hoping, to paraphrase a young woman who writes to Trillin, if anyone will love you as much as Calvin loved Alice. If you've read any of Trillin's columns or books on food over the years, you've gotten to know a side of Alice as he shares her thoughts about his eating adventures.

Trillin freely admits in the book that Alice was the most wonderful woman he'd ever met, that he was honored by the fact that she loved him unconditionally, and that everything he ever wrote was an attempt to impress her. He loved her, flaws and all, in a way that all of us want to be loved, and every page of this slim volume bears testament to that fact. When you close this book, I hope you have tears in your eyes, not just for the loss of the lovely Alice, but at the blessing that love like this truly is.

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Paperback)

By John Buchan
$11.00
ISBN-13: 9780141033730
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 6/2008
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Pop Quiz: As Richard Hannay runs for his life through the hills and dales of England, he is running because he is (a) a murderer, (b) a car thief, (c) a liar and identity-stealing impostor, or (d) a misunderstood patriot trying to help his country. You'll find evidence for many of these options in John Buchan's thrilling novel The Thirty-Nine Steps as you encounter a vast international conspiracy intent on starting World War I, intrigue, assassination, and the verdant English countryside that is home to both loyal citizens and scurrilous spies alike. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a gripping read, a book that will leave you ready for more adventures with its intrepid hero, Richard Hannay.

Alas, Babylon (Paperback)

By Pat Frank
$14.99
ISBN-13: 9780060741877
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 7/2005
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In 1959, just two years after Nevil Shute published his masterwork On the Beach, an American writer named Pat Frank put his own spin on the post-apocalyptic novel with Alas, Babylon: After America and Russia clobber each other with nuclear weapons, only pockets of survivors can be found around the country. One such pocket exists in the fictional town of Fort Repose in Central Florida, where Randy Bragg (former playboy and general lay-about) discovers a sense of purpose he never had before when he is thrust into a leadership role. When the bombs drop, what’s left of the country is plunged into preindustrial life. Without electricity, clean running water, a reliable food supply, there is always work to be done. With a house full of people to care for, armed highwaymen roaming the streets, and his brother missing in action, Randy can no longer loaf. Luckily, he has the help of the plucky town librarian (“Children have nothing to do but read now!” she says cheerfully, and readership soars), the neighborhood gossip, his resourceful sister–in-law and her two children, his clever girlfriend and the local doctor all on his side. You’ll find yourself cheering for Randy, hoping against hope for his missing brother and loving every minute of this thought-provoking adventure.

On the Beach (Mass Market Paperback)

By Nevil Shute
$6.99
ISBN-13: 9780345311481
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Ballantine Books, 9/1983
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Don’t let the cheesy art on this book’s cover fool you—On the Beach is a carefully crafted work by a master writer. This was my gateway book into the marvelous works of Nevil Shute, the British engineer who discovered he had a talent for writing, built his own plane and flew to Australia, where he wrote most of his novels. Written in 1957, On the Beach imagines a world after the major superpowers unleash their nuclear weapons on each other. The fallout is sweeping around the globe and the lone survivors are in Australia. Global destruction is hard to comprehend, so Shute makes things personal by focusing his tale on a few individuals: a young couple and their new baby who’ll never see the flowers bloom in the garden that they’re planting; an American submarine captain so grief-stricken for his lost family back in the States that he’s in total denial; a young woman who’ll never marry and have the family she’s always wanted, but who’s willing to be the life of the party until the bitter end; and a racecar driver who has stockpiled gasoline for his last, great race. The ending to the book is no surprise, but when it comes, the way these wonderful people approach their own mortality is refreshing, and though you’ll finish it in tears, you’ll be grateful for the peace they find in the end.

Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes (Hardcover)

By Giada De Laurentiis
$35.00
ISBN-13: 9781400052585
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Clarkson Potter, 3/2005
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It’s a good thing I like to cook, because I got a pile of cookbooks when I got married. An immediate standout from the pack was Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis. What makes this book such an asset in my kitchen is its simplicity and its reliability. I don’t want to come home from work and slave for hours over a dinner that will get eaten in fifteen minutes (who does, really?), so on busy nights, Giada’s chicken parmesan is my salvation. Since the recipe doesn’t bread or over-fry the meat, the final product is light and satisfying at the same time. Most of the cook time is in the oven not on the stove top where I have to babysit it, so I can make the salad and get the garlic bread toasted while the chicken bastes itself in its own tomatoey-cheesy juices. The resulting meal is like a warm hug on the inside: I get a happy husband, and minimal clean-up. On other nights, I like to whip up Giada’s light and airy alfredo sauce to serve over pasta, and there’s an amazing recipe for osso buco that is so simple and impressive that it’ll cement your cooking prowess in the eyes of whomever you cook for. Who could ask for anything more?

The Bacon Cookbook: More than 150 Recipes from Around the World for Everyone's Favorite Food (Hardcover)

By James Villas
$35.00
ISBN-13: 9780470042823
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Wiley, 10/2007
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In these uncertain economic times, it’s nice to have the occasional indulgence to relieve the tedium of watching your 401k plummet. Whenever I’m at a loss, my go-to food is bacon. So when my mom gave me a copy of The Bacon Cookbook by James Villas, I was elated. The book begins with a brief history of this luscious pork product and useful health information for those of you who might be bacon-squeamish. (It’s trans fat free! A slice of bacon is healthier than a tablespoon of butter! ) Rationalizations aside, the recipes here will entice you to try something different with your bacon: How about bacon-wrapped figs stuffed with almonds in a port reduction. Instead of boring dinner rolls, serve bacon-Parmesan biscuits and you’ll never go back to Pillsbury again. Trust me, bacon will never let you down, and its many incarnations in this cookbook will keep you busy for years to come.

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (Paperback)

By Beth Hensperger , Julie Kaufman
$18.95
ISBN-13: 9781558322455
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harvard Common Press, 12/2004
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Sometimes the best part of cooking dinner is letting someone else cook it, but few of us have a live-in chef or can eat out every night. Whenever I need a break during the year, my favorite way to cook without cooking involves my Crock-Pot and a fabulous recipe from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. In the summer, I make the Southern Barbecued pork to shred for sandwiches. In the fall, I fill it with onions, peppers and sausages for a hearty, spicy pasta topping or to slather on hoagie rolls. I’ll start a homemade Bolognese sauce on the stove-top and then transfer it to my slow cooker to simmer for the afternoon. One of my favorite winter recipes is the Red Wine Short Ribs of Beef—you get restaurant quality flavor at grocery store prices, and, when served with the starch of your choice and a salad, this meal will get you through many a chilly winter’s night. With recipes from around the world, this cookbook will satisfy even the pickiest eater at your dinner table, and will minimize your workload in the kitchen.