If there's one thing that brings us together at McNally Robinson, it's the love of books. We know the only thing more satisfying than reading our favourite books is sharing our favourite books with friends. McNally Robinson is all about sharing the love, and we've got plenty to talk about.
Our team of amazing booksellers have hand-picked a list of our favourite books. An intrepid few have stepped up to tell us about their choices, and what makes these books so special. Read on for personal recommendations from the staff at McNally Robinson Booksellers.
Noor's Pick - The Virgin and the Gipsy, by D.H. Lawrence
Denial and virginity terrify us. we weaken our character and conform to an imagined society. we shield ourselves from the immorality of awakening desires. we become vague and domesticated. reading this book we come to understand the opposing deceptions of virginity and sexuality. The man shows us that in our denial we are persuaded to desire and in that desire, sometimes we must deny. Lawrence writes to break us away from the world. but as we break, the world breaks with us.
Nikki's Pick - Eunoia, by Christian Bok
These sentences express free speech. The text deletes selected letters. He rebels. He sets new precedents. He lets cleverness exceed decent levels. He eschews the esteemed genres, the expected themes. He engenders perfect newness wherever we need fresh terms. - Compiled from the text
Joan's Pick - Reading by Lightning, by Joan Thomas
Lily escapes the grim future of her hot, limited prairie farm Depression life when she's sent to England to look after her grandmother. There her life explodes with possibilities, love and freedom. Ironically the horror of World War II enriches her life. But then she's called home. I loved this book because it shows how people aren't necessarily stuck by their life situations. The question is how can you go back, once the world is opened to you?
Steve's Pick - Monstrance, by Sarah Klassen
According to the title poem (and Websters) a monstrance is: "A vessel in which the consecrated host is exposed to receive the veneration of the faithful." But sometimes a chalice or a crown or a cross is no more than the wood or metal out of which it is made, even for the faithful. The act of imagination that invests the ordinary with the divine sometimes takes place and sometimes it does not. This intermingling of the divine and the mundane is what gives Klassen's poems their power. The objects held, the places visited leave us standing simultaneously in the world of spirit and the world of the mundane. It makes for a profound sense of spiritual longing that is sustained throughout.
Andrew's Pick - John Dies at the End, by David Wong
A recent and overwhelming trend of "funny" horror novels has proven that it's much easier to do horror-comedy wrong than right. John Dies at the End gets it so right it starts to feel wrong. Author David Wong embraces the new weird with a lurid tale of horrors humanity was never meant to see, the two losers who can't look away, and one very strange dog. John Dies at the End is a frenetic, hallucinogenic joyride to the edge of armageddon.
Rachel's Pick - The Afterlife of George Cartwright, by John Steffler
John Steffler invites the reader to imagine the life of George
Cartwright - a man famous for exploring and trading in Labrador in the eighteenth century - whose story ranges from childhood to soldiery, to living and trading in an unexplored world, to his eerie afterlife. In this thought-provoking blend of history and fiction, Cartwright drifts between death and life, present and past, as Steffler narrates his story of adventure and economic struggle, and questions the boundaries of civilization and savagery.
Brock's Pick - Overqualified, by Joey Comeau
Hailing from Toronto, Joey Comeau is best known as co-creator and writer of the webcomic A Softer World. He brings the same poignant touch to Overqualified, a wildly eclectic and deeply experimental work. I was captivated by the way that each cover letter in this collection manages to fuse Joey's signature dark humor with themes of sorrowful introspection, madness and occasional naughtiness to produce utterly entertaining little snippets. It is the kind of book that can be picked up and enjoyed anytime, anywhere. Not recommended for the easily offended.
Courtney's Pick - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith
Francie Nolan dreams of being a writer, but her life in Brooklyn in the early 1900s is not the stuff of dreams. Despite being born into poverty and harsh circumstances, Francie is determined to succeed. Populated by unforgettable characters, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn will remain in your heart. A story of hope, dreams and life.
| Categories: Reviews, Staff Pick, Winnipeg |
The word ‘eunoia,’ which literally means ‘beautiful thinking,’ is the shortest word in English that contains all five vowels. Directly inspired by the Oulipo (l’Ouvroir de Littérature Pot...
For Lily Piper, life on the prairie is spare, austere, and tucked in. She is restless -- not the daughter she feels her mother wants. When puberty hits, an abrupt shift in fate has Lily o...
With intellectual energy, Sarah Klassen takes the reader on an unforgettable journey by Klassen's unsettling, stimulating and wonderful experiences in Israel/ Palestine and Lithuania, as ...
STOP.You should not have touched this book with your bare hands.NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you.My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are f...
Cover letters are all the same. They're useless. You write the same lies over and over again, listing the store-bought parts of yourself that you respect the least. God knows how they tel...
In this stunning and original novel, John Steffler has recreated a lost time and place, and has given life to an enigmatic figure from Canada's 18th-century past. Described quietly by hi...
Miriam is a young outcast, rejected by her suicidal mother and abandoned by her father in their small Jewish village on the edge of a swamp. Finally reunited with her father when he marri...
The past is a foreign country: this is your guidebook. Take a step back into Ian Mortimer's guide and experience the middle ages like never before.
From his childhood fascination with the gigantic Natural History Museum model of a blue whale, to his abiding love of Moby-Dick, to his adult encounters with the living animals in the Atl...
Cover letters are all the same. They're useless. You write the same lies over and over again, listing the store-bought parts of yourself that you respect the least. God knows how they tel...
The American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century.Betty Smith was born Elisabeth Wehner on December 15, 1896, the same date as, although five years earlie...
Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, undertakes a gruelling hike along the world’s longest continuous footpath -- The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail w...
Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma and travelled this whole country over -not by jet or motorcycle, but by boxcar, thumb, and foot. During the journey of discovery that was his life, he c...
Much has been written about the storied New Hollywood of the 1970s, but at the same time that Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorcese were producing their first classic movies, a parallel un...
The American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century.Betty Smith was born Elisabeth Wehner on December 15, 1896, the same date as, although five years earlie...
