The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets

Author	Aimee Bender
ISBN	0385501129

The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s...

Author	Valeria Luiselli
ISBN	0525520619

From the two-time NBCC Finalist, an emotionally resonant, fiercely imaginative new novel about a family whose road trip across America collides with an immigration crisis at the southwestern border--an indelible journey told with breathtaking imagery, spare lyricism, and profound humanity.

A...

Author	Toni Morrison
ISBN	0452269652

In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse. This passionate, profound story...

Author	Toni Morrison
ISBN	1400033446

Ravishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary, Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes...

Author	Chigozie Obioma
ISBN	0316412392

A heart-breaking and mythic story about a Nigerian poultry farmer who sacrifices everything to win the woman he loves, by Man Booker Finalist and author of The Fishermen, Chigozie Obioma.

A contemporary twist on the Odyssey, An Orchestra of Minorities is narrated by the chi, or spirit of a...

Author

Laila Lalami

From the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Moor’s Account, here is a timely and powerful new novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant–at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.

Late one...

Author	Bill McKibben
ISBN	0812976088

Reissued on the tenth anniversary of its publication, this classic work on our environmental crisis features a new introduction by the author, reviewing both the progress and ground lost in the fight to save the earth.

This impassioned plea for radical and life-renewing change is today still...

Author	Marcy Dermansky
ISBN	0525655638

A brilliantly funny novel of money, sex, race, and bad behavior in the post-Obama era, featuring a wealthy Connecticut divorcée, her college-age daughter, and the famous American novelist who is seduced by them both.

Rachel Klein never meant to kiss her creative writing professor, but...

Author	Amy Hempel
ISBN	1982109114

“All the tawdry details I’m dying for are in these stories, but they’re given out like old sweaters—without shame, without guile. Amy Hempel is the writer who makes me feel most affiliated with other humans; we are all living this way—hiding, alone, obsessed—and that’s ok.” —Miranda...

Author	Bill McKibben
ISBN	0452282705

My review published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2001:

A Zig-Zag Path to Enlightenment

Reviewed by Steve Kettmann


LONG DISTANCE
A Year of Living Strenuously By Bill McKibben Simon & Schuster; 191 pages; $23 It's an idea that many of us have considered,...

Author	Susan Minot
ISBN	0007141769

A powerful, sensuous new novel from the critically acclaimed author of 'Evening'. 'Mesmerising.' Vogue 'The bedspread was sloughing off the foot of the bed, the white sheets were as flat as paper. This is not what she'd pictured when she asked him over for lunch today. It really wasn't.' Taking one single...

Author

Lydia Fitzpatrick

Lights All Night Long is the stunning story of Ilya Alexandrovich Ekhlakov and his older brother, Vladimir. Two brothers who live in Berlozhniki, a refinery town on the edge of the arctic circle, where they spend their days watching bootleg American VHSs and their nights sleeping head-to-toe on the...