Welcome To Green Apple Books

It's been 6 long years since Michel Houellebecq's last novel was published in English, but from the very beginning of The Map and the Territory, it's obvious the years haven't tamed France's best and most controversial novelist. Though more polished than his previous work, it lacks none of the sly humor, incisiveness or, frankly, the cringe-worthy moments he's become (in)famous for. It's barely 2012 and I've already read the best contemporary novel I'm likely to read all year.

{Sparks}

Why We Broke Up

By Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman

Why We Broke Up tells the most timeless of stories: that of a meeting, a relationship, and a parting. Both unique and comfortingly universal, the subject is well-suited for the warmth and wit of Handler's storytelling (the writer occasionally known as Lemony Snicket) and the simple richness of Maira Kalman's illustration. As much an examination of the objects that generate and stand in for memory as it is a love story, Why We Broke Up is in itself a thing to behold, with lovely full-color illustrations of all of a relationship's relics.