The Staff Shelf: Hullabaloo Books

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 Hullabaloo Books what’s on their shelves.

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SLIDESHOW: Hullabaloo Books Staff Shelf

: ALLISON (ASSISTANT MANAGER) RECOMMENDS: At once macabre and whimsical, Shirley Jackson sets a vivid scene of small town paranoia and acquaints us with a family that has dark secrets. Jackson supplies the reader with an ample amount of dark undertones found embedded in everyday life.

: MICHAEL (OWNER) RECOMMENDS: Sure, it sounds dumb. But it is work of distilled genius. (Or, a genius job of plagiarizing Richard Koch’s 80/20 Principle.) Bottom line: dream big, do more, here’s how. Radically impacted my life this year, and sent me into a vortex of dreaming big, with a total focus of doing “less.” Example! I now don’t use a phone. (If you don’t use a phone, please tell me about it. I’m ready to form a self-help group.) Creating time to think up plans and projects where the goal is doing what matters most is what’s really at the core of this book. (And any passionate lifestyle.)

: VALERIE (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: The debut novel from Alexandra Kleeman the chronicles narrator, A’s amorphous appetite and identity. A lives with a strikingly similar roommate, B, dates the blandly handsome, C before dropping everything to join a cult devoted to the tasteless snack, Kandy Kakes. In alternately horrific and comic fashion, the book sifts through the parameters of desire, consumption, and the desire to disappear from yourself. Kleeman’s novel is a creepy, disorienting delight.

: JACQUE (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: Perfect prose, deep plunges into the internal lives of the characters. The Hours is magically still and eventful, quiet and tense. It’s a love letter to Virginia Woolf. It’s the only fan-fiction to ever win the Pulitzer. It’s amazing. You should read it.

: T (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: Poetry is daunting. It feels like if you don’t know it then you will never understand it. Unfortunately, thinking this way can cut a person off from life changing reading. Poetry is like art vs. porn-if you let go of any preconceived notions you will know good poetry vs. bad when you see it. Don’t look for meaning, just read it. Out loud if possible. Don’t be put off that Dickinson was taught in school. She is a master beyond her time outside of time, even let it wash over you. It will change you without even your noticing.

: RACHEL (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: After studying at Reed College, Portland, I felt I better understood the strange, insular and anachronistic liberal arts world that the characters in The Secret History inhabit. Tartt has a cult following for a reason, and I think her debut novel is her most thrilling.

: MARISSA (VOLUNTEER) RECOMMENDS: A story of human suffering, love, hope, faith and demonstrates the universality of those experiences. McCann weaves together the stories of a dozen people who start as strangers and find each other from all over the world. So gorgeous!