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10 Books Critics Are Raving About Now

In case you missed it, these are the books that have been receiving rave reviews all month!

10 books
Book Cover for: Taiwan Travelogue, Shuang-Zi Yang
This historical romance won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature – currently restocking, available early December

Taiwan Travelogue

Shuang-Zi Yang

In 1930s Taiwan, a Japanese novelist falls for her charming Taiwanese interpreter as they navigate the complexities of “language, politics, and popular culture,” according to the National Book Foundation. With delicious meals and scenic adventures, the bittersweet romance between the two women uncovers hidden truths about colonialism and the art of connection.

Tobias CarrollNational Book FoundationTobias Carroll & National Book Foundation

Paperback, 2024

$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Lazarus Man, Richard Price
A gritty street novel perfect for fans of The Wire

Lazarus Man

Richard Price

Fans of this bestselling author’s phenomenal writing on the HBO hit The Wire will devour this “searing snapshot” about a tragic East Harlem tenement building collapse that’s packed with “vivid characters,” according to Publishers Weekly. With this latest urban drama, “Price once again proves he's the bard of New York City street life."

Chris VognarChris Vognar

Hardcover, 2024

$29.00$14.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel, Edwin Frank
Take a tour through the twentieth century’s literary heart with a legendary editor

Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel

Edwin Frank

From Dostoevsky to García Márquez and Virginia Woolf, the New York Review of Books’ longtime editorial director reveals the stories that shaped the novel and the world itself. “In a time in which books and book culture are under threat, Frank's literary history proves to be more than just a trip through our greatest works; it's an urgent call for daring in our reading and writing," hailed the Chicago Review of Books.

Hardcover, 2024

$33.00$16.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures, Katherine Rundell
An award winning writer's ode to the remarkable creatures vanishing before our eyes

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

Katherine Rundell

This "witty, intoxicating paean to Earth's wondrous creatures” by the prize-winning Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne author contains essays dedicated to 23 remarkable and endangered animals like giraffes, Greenland sharks and wombats, and is “shot through with Rundell's characteristic wit and swagger," according to The Guardian.

Hardcover, 2024

$26.00$13.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.: A Biography, Peter Ames Carlin
An epic rock biography celebrating one of the greatest American rock band of the millennium

The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.: A Biography

Peter Ames Carlin

The critically-acclaimed author of Bruce Springsteen’s 2012 biography Bruce and several other thought-provoking music books shifts his attention to Athens, Georgia, charting the meteoric rise of four college friends who went from playing local parties to achieving global domination with mega hit records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. The AARP praised it as "catnip for Gen Xers who came of age listening to these eccentric, groundbreaking musicians."

Megan AbbottPublishers WeeklyMegan Abbott & Publishers Weekly

Hardcover, 2024

$32.00$16.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents, Nigel Hamilton
This eye opening account of rival US presidents is perfect for Civil War history buffs

Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents

Nigel Hamilton

The NY Times bestselling presidential biographer of iconic American leaders like FDR and JFK focuses his prize-winning pen on the two US presidents who faced off during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. It’s a timely portrayal that captures the vastly different backgrounds and styles of these two parallel leaders whose military face-off decided the fate of the United States during one of the nation’s most perilous moments.

Hardcover, 2024

$38.00$19.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Letters, Oliver Sacks
An intimate glimpse into the mind of Oliver Sacks, the “poet laureate of contemporary medicine” (The New York Times)

Letters

Oliver Sacks

Fans of the beloved British neurologist and bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat will delight in this “expansive collection of his correspondence” with friends, family and fellow intellectuals that provide a “pointillistic portrait of an incredible intellect with all-too-human frailties and an insatiable curiosity about the human condition,” according to Publishers Weekly.

Gavin FrancisGavin Francis

Hardcover, 2024

$40.00$20.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: The Story of the Forest, Linda Grant
A historical epic from Sarah Jessica Parker's literary imprint by a Women’s Prize winner and Booker finalist

The Story of the Forest

Linda Grant

This original novel chronicling the European Jewish experience definitely meets SJP Lit’s bar for “expansive, thought-provoking, and big-hearted” literary fiction. When a young girl lost in a forest encounters a gang of unruly Bolsheviks in 1913, she and her brother escape to England in a family saga that the Financial Times found "constantly moves forward even as it looks sorrowfully back."

Clare ClarkSarah Jessica ParkerClare Clark & Sarah Jessica Parker

Hardcover, 2024

$28.00$14.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Didion and Babitz, Lili Anolik
This Belletrist book club pick probes the complex relationship between literary icons Joan Didion and Eve Babitz

Didion and Babitz

Lili Anolik

In a work “that reads like a propulsive novel” according to Oprah Daily, the Vanity Fair editor untangles the connection between the legendary Slouching Towards Bethlehem author Joan Didion and her quintessential LA counterpart Eve Babitz, following the recent discovery of a trove of intimate letters written by the famed Hollywood “It” girl and essayist.

Lena DunhamTobias CarrollLena Dunham & Tobias Carroll

Hardcover, 2024

$29.99$14.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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Book Cover for: Set My Heart on Fire, Izumi Suzuki
The first novel from the Japanese iconic writer and actor, whose brilliant, enigmatic life was cut short in 1986, now finally published in English

Set My Heart on Fire

Izumi Suzuki

For readers ready to immerse themselves in Suzuki’s cult following, this book plunges into the gritty Tokyo club scene of the ’70s, where a young woman's turbulent love life unfolds to a soundtrack of psychedelic rock. Suzuki’s sharp, seductive novel is “gritty, sexy, and wholly rock 'n' roll” according to The Millions—a raw dive into desire, missteps, and music that captures the author’s unmistakable edge.

Thu-Huong HaLibrary ScienceThu-Huong Ha & Library Science

Paperback, 2024

$19.95$9.98 + Free shipping50% off your first book
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