You are here

Staff Picks

Recommended by: Zephyr
Staff Pick Badge
The Poppy War: A Novel By R. F. Kuang Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780062662583
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Harper Voyager - April 23rd, 2019

Upon finishing this trilogy, I sobbed for 45 minutes straight. This series has everything. A morally gray protagonist, platonic soulmates, intense action, well rounded characters, and horrific war crimes! Kuang has a lovely ability to connect readers to her characters, I occasionally forgot it was in 3rd person. She also knows how to make us suffer and I love her for it. This series changed me as a person and reader; and I'll be chasing this high for the foreseeable future. [Zephyr]


Recommended by: Adrienne
Staff Pick Badge
Maybe This Is What I Deserve By Tucker Leighty-Phillips Cover Image
$12.00
ISBN: 9781952897290
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Split/Lip Press - May 1st, 2023

I loved this chapbook-length collection of flash fiction. While I could have easily consumed it in one sitting, I instead enjoyed pulling this book out whenever I had just a few idle moments. All of the stories are inventive, and sometimes absurd, fantastic, or funny. For such spare writing, these stories hit above their weight in terms of depth and emotional impact. I also recommend checking out more from this cool small press. [Adrienne]


Recommended by: Blanca
Staff Pick Badge
Bride of the Barrier Master, Vol. 2 By Kureha, Linda Liu (Translated by) Cover Image
By Kureha, Linda Liu (Translated by)
$15.00
ISBN: 9781975370336
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Yen On - August 22nd, 2023

I have to admit that the second installment requires some patience, but once the action starts, it soars! And we get to see more of Hana's independent fighting spirit. [Blanca]


Recommended by: Danielle
Until I Saw You By Dianna Roman Cover Image
$13.99
ISBN: 9781959553014
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Wild One Press - January 24th, 2023

I rarely get to read books with social demi characters, let alone an emotional (bust still really funny) friends to lovers romance with a bi-awakening. Not only that, it has some of the best blind rep I have ever read in any book. Dianna Roman doesn't write nearly as much as most indie authors but when she does, she knocks it out of the park. This book made me a better person. And for that reason it's one of my top books of the year. [Danielle]


Recommended by: Danielle
Staff Pick Badge
Sounds Fake But Okay: An Asexual and Aromantic Perspective on Love, Relationships, Sex, and Pretty Much Anything Else By Sarah Costello, Kayla Kaszyca Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781839970016
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Jessica Kingsley Publishers - February 21st, 2023

I'm a firm believer that everyone should read a book on asexuality, if only because more people are aspec then they probably realize. Regardless of where you fall this book is accessible and will resonate with us all in some way. If you're aspec, it's funny painfully real. If you're allo, it'll force you to think, maybe even question. That's not necessarily bad thing. [Danielle]


Recommended by: Blanca
Staff Pick Badge
Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Dark Moods By Mariana Alessandri Cover Image
$27.95
ISBN: 9780691215457
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Princeton University Press - May 9th, 2023

Have you encountered the phrase "sit with your feeling" and wondered what that meant? With this book, you will be sitting in the company of six philosophers, including the author, through anger, sadness, grief, depression, and anxiety. Night Vision is a paragon of philosophy in practice. [Blanca]


Recommended by: Adrienne
Staff Pick Badge
Counterweight: A Novel By Djuna, Anton Hur (Translated by) Cover Image
By Djuna, Anton Hur (Translated by)
$24.00
ISBN: 9780593317211
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Pantheon - July 11th, 2023

I've never kept up with new music well enough to pick a song of the summer, so I'm instead declaring 'Counterweight' my Book of the Summer! It's a fast-paced mystery that will appeal to fans of sci-fi and political thrillers alike. This is cinema on the page. I couldn't put it down and I bet you won't be able to either! [Adrienne]


Recommended by: Blanca
Staff Pick Badge
Empire of the Sun By J. G. Ballard Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780743265232
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Simon & Schuster - March 7th, 2005

In his straightforward prose, Ballard writes a semiautobiographical novel of his childhood in a Japanese concentration camp. It's a side of WWII that we do not hear of very often. It gives you a glimpse of why  he is well qualified to write his dystopian novels. [Blanca]


Recommended by: Blanca
Staff Pick Badge
The Drowned World: A Novel By J. G. Ballard, Martin Amis (Introduction by) Cover Image
By J. G. Ballard, Martin Amis (Introduction by)
$15.95
ISBN: 9780871403629
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Liveright - May 20th, 2013

It's lush and bleak. It's psychological. You'll not be the same after reading it. [Blanca]


Recommended by: Zephyr
Staff Pick Badge
Yellowface: A Reese's Book Club Pick By R. F. Kuang Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063250833
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: William Morrow - May 16th, 2023

Kuang is steadily becoming one of my favorite authors. The protagonist is insufferably audacious. You've never wanted to witness someone dig their own grave more than, June. The pacing is fantastic, I read it in two sessions, and the 300 odd pages flew by. I don't think I've enjoyed an general fiction book more than Yellowface. For something set in the real world, Kuang made me feel like there were actual stakes to care about. And the pressure/stress comes right off the page. (Also, living in the mind of this character is WILD.) [Zephyr]


Pages