Sparks' Staff Picks

Eliot Weinberger, a college drop-out turned tanslator (of Paz, Borges, Bei Dao, and others) writes essays unlike anything you've read. These pieces -- erudite, wide-ranging, poetic -- are of universal scope, touching on topics as diverse (and cohesive) as the varieties of Chinese wind, a history of the rhinocerous in Europe, the Nazca lines in the Peruvian desert, and a reverie on the stars that is breathtakingly beautiful. Weinberger's vast learning is matched by an equally encompassing sense of wonder, and his ability to draw the "exotic" closer, while still permitting it an air of mystery, is a thing to marvel at.

Stanley Crawford's singularly captivating novel leaves me speechless. It's not for want of something to say; rather, it's that I have too much to say. But I worry I'll not be convincing enough or that I'll leave a vital part of out will otherwise fail to convince you, gentle mariner, of just how perfect a creation this book contains. Those fears aside, there are two things I can say with confidence: 1. never has a book I've recommended to so diverse a group of friends met with as much love as The Mrs. Unguentine and 2. if you've ever been in a relationship that's left you feeling both exhilarated and adrift, this is a voyage you'll want to embark upon.

That Rilke, one of the foremost lyric poets of the 20th century, is responsible for a novel of such sublimity is not surprising, yet I find myself surprised every time I return to The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. It's a rare book, unlike anything you've read but as familiar and haunting as your dreams. No summary can capture the novel's arc, which ranges from ghost story, evocation of a vanishing age, and a chronicle of an aspiring poet's attempts at seeing. Few books have left so deep and lasting an impression or have earned a place so close to my heart, which leaves me hesitant to offer it to the world. Nevertheless, here it is. Read it. Be astonished.