The Staff Shelf: Porter Square 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 Porter Square Books recommends.

SLIDESHOW: Porter Square Books Staff Shelf

: JOSH (BOOKSELLER AND MARKETING DIRECTOR) RECOMMENDS: This dense and beautiful book touches a wide range of topics including gender, race, violence, and art, taking the first few moments of a riot and meditating and expanding on them until the moment touches so much more. The act of creation, of poetry, of storytelling is the centerpiece of Kapil’s brilliant book, so I highly recommend this for writers and other artists.

: SUSANNAH (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: In prose as sparse and rugged as the Lakeland fells, Rebanks takes us through the year of sheep farming in this idyllic corner of Britain. A memoir of the hardships of the farming life, it is also a moving testament to the value of tradition, rural community, and shared land over tourism and cultural urbanism.

: SARAH (BOOKSELLER AND EVENTS COORDINATOR) RECOMMENDS: Sierra discovers that making art is more than just her passion—it gives her the power to communicate with the spirit world and fight evil.

: MACKENZIE (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: Henry and Flora, two young people in Depression-era Seattle, become unknowing players in a centuries-long game between Love and Death. Will their love win out, or will this game end the way all the others have throughout history? A heart-breaking examination of what it means to love and what it means to live, and how the two become intertwined. Nontraditional and innovative and sensory and evocative.

: ALEXANDER (BOOKSELLER) RECOMMENDS: One of the greatest minds in fantastical worldbuilding presents his most striking world concept to date: two hostile cities occupying a single point on the map, simultaneously visible and invisible to each other, divided as much by mental conditioning as by their strange conjoined geography. Is this science fiction, or more real a world than we care to admit?

: HEATHER (BOOKERSLLER AND RECEIVER) RECOMMENDS: This is a great mystery that will lull you in. Roorbach is a skilled and lyrical writer. I was immediately hooked by the main character, Lizard, a young football star who spends little time actually thinking about sports. His relationship with the famous ballerina next door, his parents’ murder, and his flaky sister, intoxicate his life and his work. Highly recommended!