Pete's Staff Picks

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Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity By Katherine Boo Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812979329
Availability: NOT on our shelves now. Usually ships from warehouse in several days.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 8th, 2014

 
"This is an extraordinary work of social justice journalism, documenting the struggles and humanity of families living in a slum near the Mumbai airport."- Pete


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City of Thieves: A Novel By David Benioff Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780452295292
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Penguin Books - March 31st, 2009

"City of Thieves has everything you could want from a novel--quick pacing, a riveting plot, heart, biting humor, and characters that stick with your for years after reading it."- Pete


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The Seas By Samantha Hunt Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781947793569
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Tin House Books - July 16th, 2019

I LOVE this ethereal book, but don't just take it from me:

"One of the most distinctive and unforgettable voices I have read in years. This book will linger in your head for a good long time."
— Dave Eggers


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Letters to a Young Poet By Rainer Maria Rilke, M. D. Herter Norton (Translated by) Cover Image
$12.95
ISBN: 9780393310399
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 17th, 1993

" I re-read this lovely, hopeful book every five years or so. A great gift for the young seeker or philosopher or sensitive soul in your circle. "Life; how can it not be difficult for us?" indeed."-Pete


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Tenth of December: Stories By George Saunders Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812984255
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - January 7th, 2014

This short story collection is the perfect marriage of head and heart.  The stories are sometimes witty or quirky, but always deeply rooted in empathy.  Some of them have stuck with me for YEARS.  Even if you don't normally read short fiction, this will be a balm for your soul. -Pete


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Nudge: The Final Edition By Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780143137009
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Penguin Books - August 3rd, 2021

"Nudge is a terrific book for anyone interested in how we make choices, public policy, politics and behavioral science. The way that governments and companies frame choices affects our behavior and well-being, often on a subtle level. A 'nudge': if Americans defaulted to donating organs upon death (with an option to opt out, of course) thousands of lives would be saved annually." - Pete


A Natural History of the Senses By Diane Ackerman Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780679735663
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Vintage - September 10th, 1991

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth.


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Girl, Interrupted: A Memoir By Susanna Kaysen Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780679746041
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Vintage - April 19th, 1994

"Given today's teen mental health crisis, perhaps it's an apt time to read this unsettling memoir. Kaysen poetically portrays her time in a mental hospital as an 18-year-old in the 1960's. It raises as many questions as it answers."- Pete


Grendel By John Gardner Cover Image
$14.00
ISBN: 9780679723110
Availability: NOT on our shelves now. Usually ships from warehouse in several days.
Published: Vintage - May 14th, 1989

This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic.

"An extraordinary achievement."—New York Times


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San Francisco's Natural History: Sand Dunes to Streetcars By Harry G. Fuller Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781548688004
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
(This book cannot be returned nor exchanged.)
Published: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform - November 14th, 2017

"This fascinating look at the changes in S.F.'s natural environment explores the shifts in flora and fauna from Ohlone days through the present. See our city through another lens while you're out exploring."- Pete


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The Unseen By Roy Jacobsen, Don Shaw (Translator), Don Bartlett (Translator) Cover Image
By Roy Jacobsen, Don Shaw (Translator), Don Bartlett (Translator)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781771963190
Availability: Click the TITLE to view store availability
Published: Biblioasis - April 21st, 2020

"There is a quiet beauty in this Norwegian novella Booker Finalist, finally translated into English. On it's face, it tells of an isolated island, attuned to and dependent upon weather, seasons, and the sea. So much goes on below the surface, though I don't know if its the writer, the translation, or a Norwegian way of storytelling, but I thoroughly enjoyed filling in all the blanks."- Pete