The Staff Shelf: Brazos Bookstore

When we walk into a bookstore, the first place we go is the staff recommendation shelves—it’s how you get a quick sense of the personality of the store. The very best bookstores are merely a reflection of the eclectic, deeply felt opinions of the book-lovers who work there. As part of our Interview with a Bookstore with Houston-based Brazos Bookstore, we asked booksellers Jeremy Ellis, Mark Haber, Annalia Linnan, Keaton Patterson, and Benjamin Rybeck for some recommendations.

SLIDESHOW: Brazos Books Staff Shelf

: JEREMY ELLIS (General Manager) RECOMMENDS: One of our triumphs of hand selling, we got behind this book early and still sell it like crazy just by guiding customers to it and describing the premise.

: MARK HABER (Floor Manager) RECOMMENDS: One of the things that makes us special is our dedication to literature in translation, which we’ve managed to cultivate quite a fan base for in Houston; obviously Marias is one of the greats.

: ANNALIA LINNAN (Bookseller) RECOMMENDS: Lacy’s a Houstonian and a friend of the store, and this is the kind of book we love supporting: homegrown, powerful, and with resonance in the larger literary world)

: KEATON PATTERSON (Buyer) RECOMMENDS: Last summer, we orchestrated a three-month long reading group and called it “Summer of Proust,” and believe it or not, SWANN’S WAY became one of our 2014 bestsellers.

: BENJAMIN RYBECK (Events Coordinator) RECOMMENDS: a debut collection of poetry from Brooklyn Arts Press–we love supporting small presses, and Erika is a University of Houston PhD candidate with a very promising future.