The Staff Shelf: Bunch of Grapes 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, we asked the staff at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore what they recommend.

SLIDESHOW: Bunch of Grapes Bookstore Staff Shelf

: MOLLY COOGAN (MANAGER AND EVENTS COORDINATOR) RECOMMENDS: Gorgeous and riveting, Maggie Nelson’s stunning memoir is as intimate as it is sprawling. Her voice is honest and true, especially has she questions her own intentions in this true crime account that wrenchingly lays bare the universal themes of grief, guilt, loss, and love.

: SUSIE MIDDLETON (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Farmer-poet-prophet Wendell Berry’s remarkably prescient essays on how the decline of agrarianism has affected the spiritual and physical well-being of our culture collectively form the single best argument for the simple life that I’ve ever read.

: LEROY HAZLETON (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: This book mixes time travel, Homer’s ILIAD, and machines that discuss Shakespeare and Proust. Thoughtful, humorous, but also brutal, ILIUM follows Professor Thomas Hackenberry as he carefully winds his way through the politics and love affairs of the gods at Troy.

: DAILIS MERRIL (BOOK BUYER) RECOMMENDS: A gentle, beautifully sustained reflection on our mortal lives and time in its flight. As global conflict looms during the summer of 1939, a fabulous archaeological find focuses the attentions of a disparate round of individuals, as alive with fear and longing, love and wonder, in this fictional past as we are now in our own true world.

: HELEN PETTY (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Ever wonder what happens to your trash? Trashed is a must-read graphic novel that explores the history and future of garbage, recyclables, and landfills. Through the anecdotes of three broke twenty-somethings and their trash-collector duties, Derf Backderf highlights an important part of life that is largely ignored.

: KAREN HARRIS (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Russo takes us back to New Bath, New York, a former mill town that’s seen better days. Sully Sullivan, jack-of-all trades, is aging rapidly. The wife of the police chief has died tragically, perhaps in the process of leaving him. Rub Squeers and Rub the Dog, plus a sophisticated OCD yuppie round out this motley crew – and that’s only the men of New Bath!

: DAWN BRAASCH (OWNER) RECOMMENDS: Three people tell the story of a charismatic backwoods preacher and his snake-handling church, but it is the voice of Jess and his mute brother, Ben, who see and hear things that put them in danger, that kept me riveted. A Southern gothic coming of age story.

: LIZZY SCHULE (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Still shaken by his experiences in WWI, Tom Birkin finds work restoring a mural in rural Northern England. During one month, Tom manages to revive a forgotten medieval painter’s vision of the Apocalypse. A Month in the Country details an artist’s relationship to his craft and how forming connections can help ease a troubling past.