The Staff Shelf: Brookline Booksmith

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, we asked the staff at Brookline Booksmith what they’re reading.

SLIDESHOW: Brookline Booksmith Staff Shelf

: AMY (CHILDREN’S BACKLIST BUYER) RECOMMENDS: Mara Dyer is not her real name. All of her troubles started with an accident that killed two of her friends and then things started to spiral out of control. Dryly funny, razor sharp, and twistedly satisfying. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is the book for anyone who likes their fiction darker than reality but who’s sick of love triangles and supernatural creatures.

: PAUL (NEWSLETTER EDITOR/RETURNS MANAGER) RECOMMENDS: The structure of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is a metaphor for the zen mind itself. In life, every moment is an opportunity for awareness and for practice. Every succinct chapter of Shunryu Suzuki offers that same opportunity; indeed, Suzuki’s voice fairly demands that you return again and again, like the crack of the keisaku, or warning stick, brings the sleepy meditator back to their breath.

: TOM (EVENTS DIRECTOR) RECOMMENDS: Raymond is unsparing of any gruesome detail in this dark police procedural. His unnamed detective navigates a nightmarish London, piecing together the victim’s life from the audio diary the deceased left behind. Characterization outweighs plot in this savage book whose main streak of humanity comes from the words of a dead man.

: LYDIA (USED BOOK BUYER) RECOMMENDS: Cult hit critic and Bluets author Maggie Nelson is all over the map as only she can lucidly be. From her lofty literary forbears to her marriage with a genderqueer romantic partner to the transitory nature of pregnancy, birth and motherhood, she draws us through each emotional milestone, sparing no dark moment, no raw doubt. I’ve yet to find anyone who can pin the billowing filaments of feeling so precisely to the page. As a memoir The Argonauts is searing, and for a world that still thinks same-sex marriage is the final frontier of family and identity politics, it is essential.

: SHUCHI (BACKLIST BUYER) RECOMMENDS: In this unconventional memoir, Ondaatje returns to his native home of Sri Lanka to learn more about his father. The chapters include memories, anecdotes, poetry, travel logs, and lovely imagined scenes all combining to form a beautiful mosaic of a family. I particularly loved the sections about Ondaatje’s maternal grandmother, Lalla.

: ALIE (HEAD BUYER) RECOMMENDS: Set in Iceland, this is one of the best mysteries I have read in a long time. This is the first of a fantastic series, don’t miss it!