Staff Picks

A workplace satire that becomes increasingly unhinged yet remains utterly relatable. We follow a former professional gymnast at his current job as a kids TV show host. The story combines bizarre work scenarios with the existential dread of being in your 30s and not knowing what you want out of life...

If we get started now, we could have this sh*t fixed before I'm 40, let's go.

But really, a clear and concise answer to the question: "but, like, what could socialism in the U.S. really look like?"

Something from my childhood that has always stuck with me is the sanctity of Sundays. It is a time for reflection, a time for ease, and a time for food and fellowship. This beautifully illustrated book truly embodies that special feeling of a sweet Sunday mixed with the joy of a little boy making...

When someone asks for a book that’s meant to be read over and over again, I point them to this little collection of stories by Diane Oliver. Written in 1966, these stories have that magic capability of being of its time and classically timeless. I’m convinced Oliver would have been a household name...

If you want to get into some slow-burning, cute, fluffy scenes with heated moments, I definitely recommend this book by Hannah Grace in her Maple Hills series. One thing I love about her writing style is that it captivates her readers and includes dual points of view for the two main characters...

I love travel / quest stories, and this is the best I've ever read, from the first sentence to the last.  To say more about it would be to spoil the satisfaction of the experience.  

(Bonus points because I discovered this on the shelves of a great indie bookstore, Octavia Books in New Orleans.)

Sometimes you just need some cozy magic... probably plenty of spooky enemies and epic battles... with a dash of 1980s queer romance... and definitely a lot of arcane lore about secretly superpowered British booksellers and the various books and bookstores and realms they protect.  (Disclaimer: we...

The Blunderer is about a weird triangle between a murderous bookseller, a brutal homicide detective, and the titular blunderer (a failed (?) copycat killer). I love noir and crime stories where the characters are realistically kind of dumb and bumbling and this is a great example. It's a pulpy and...

Headshot tells the story of an under-18 girls boxing tournament and its eight competitors by detailing one fight per chapter. As the boxers' compete, Bullwinkel reveals their strengths and weaknesses, their preoccupations and philosophies, how they move through the world, and what drives each fight...

In Twilight Zone, a member of Chile's secret police voluntarily reveals his war crimes, resulting in a magazine cover story that fascinates and haunts the novel's narrator. In the years that follow, she finds herself using her imagination to fill the gaps in history and evaluate the Pinochet...

I've long been a fan of Dwight Garner's pithy book reviews and distinctive taste so I greatly looked forward to this memoir via commonplace book about food and books and it did not disappoint! Garner has a keen ear for a quip and a great memory for entertaining anecdotes. This book will leave you...

Matt says: I love it when NYRB grants it's imprimatur to a contemporary novel (like when Criterion puts out the newest Noah Baumbach the same month as a classic Ingmar Bergman film). First published in the UK in 2017, First Love is a darkly funny and raw book about marriage. Recommended if you liked...

Paige & David say: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Flannery O'Connor: "Everything that rises must converge." Here, in sketched, singular, and clever form, the concerns that have been floating towards the surface of Anne Carson's work harmonically converge. This book is a symphony. Of cold water...

Owen says: Dark forces stir in the gothic alleyways of post-Spanish Civil War Barcelona: a literary mystery that mirrors the pain of the preceding decade's lost art, life, and memory. For a birthday present, our protagonist is introduced to a secret labyrinthine library called the Cemetery of...

Jessica says: "Common people have to deal with gods all the time. Spirits often live in in-between places. Cracks, closets, shadows, and edges. The sort of place one only goes to hide or to clean. Powerful people do not visit such places, oga... But girls like me?... I may be common, but I am not a...

Marcia says: A delightful rom-com about a pair of high school students and their romantic shenanigans. What starts out as a series of misunderstandings eventually turns into actual feelings for each other. It's absolutely hilarious and I've never laughed so hard reading anything else before. The...

For anyone looking for a book to take you on a WILD ride, this is it. You follow Paul, a 23 year old shapeshifter going through a very explicit 90's odyssey around the country to try and figure out who they are, what they want, and where they belong. Everything is fluid: gender, sexuality, and your...

Chris says: We can make educated guesses about our purpose but oftentimes we are left calling out to the void. The protagonist of this novel receives information transmissions from a divine spacecraft. How do you explain that to your friends and family without ending up with grippy socks? A direct...

Mustafa says: What would you do if one day you came back to your office after making a coffee run and found all of your co-workers dead? For government worker Ronald Malcolm this traumatic event will be the catalyst that turns his rather mundane life upside down and that will lead him into the...

Dante says: I really couldn't help but be taken in by this wonderfully quiet and sweet kids book.  Broken up into three stories, it finds this creature living among the humans, just trying to get by like everyone else. It reminded me instantly of Wim Wenders' Perfect Days, so when your done reading...

Matt says: Yes, it’s a cliché to compare books to Sally Rooney, but this is a book, like Normal People, where I was fully emotionally invested in the characters and story and I couldn’t put it down. The protagonist of I Could Live Here Forever is a young MFA student who falls for a townie before...

Paige says: And to each morning, over: what is the god of the day, Annie? The wren, the small cat, wrinkle of mountain, the blue, the plane, or the moth, whose single instinct is total enflamed sacrifice, the little girl, the little fernfooted boy, the drench, that thrives, the wine. This is writing...

Jessica says: I hosted Darcey Steinke for an event at the bookstore when this book came out in 2019 and at the time I was like “wow, she is a smart and passionate lady, and she really likes orcas.” Now it’s five years later and I’ve finally read it and I’m like “EVERY WORD IN THIS BOOK IS THE...

Micah says: This novel is a beautifully heartbreaking telling of loving and losing due to the powers far beyond you. Based in Cameroon, where same-sex partnerships are illegal, we follow a love story so real, so complex and so ordained and yet we are still reminded that love is not enough. This...

Autumn says: This Thing Between Us is heartbreaking, surreal, unsettling, and terrifying. Thiago just tragically lost his wife and is trying his best to process his grief and conquer his self-blame, but feeling like something in the universe is out to get you certainly doesn't help. If you're a...

Rich says: What if Shelley’s Frankenstein monster had been raised in a loving, nurturing home by a family of queer, free-thinking artists instead of being feared and abandoned by those who created him. Cordova’s beautiful and heartbreaking debut novel explores what it means to truly love someone or...

A tale of bravery, boldness, and adventure, The Queen in the Cave is a whimsical story of sisterhood and what you can find when you follow your curiosity. Reading this felt like a modern-day fairytale, yet there was no prince or princess—just three young girls exploring their sense of wonder and...

A perennial favorite and one of the sources of our name, Fitzgerald's masterpiece is always a staff pick at Greenlight Bookstore.