Alex's Book List
Alex George has published seven novels, which have been translated into more than ten languages. A Good American was a #1 Indie Next List pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers Pick and a national and international bestseller. Setting Free the Kites was published in February 2017 and was also a bestseller (it also won the Missouri Prize for Fiction in 2018.) His new novel, The Paris Hours, was published by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan, in May 2020, and was an instant national bestseller. All three books were chosen by the nation’s independent booksellers for the “Indie Next List”. He has written for, among other publications, The Washington Post and LitHub. Alex is also the founder and director of the Unbound Book Festival. He is also an attorney, and runs his own law firm in Columbia. A native of the UK, he moved to Columbia seventeen years ago.
A beautiful, strange, compelling book about childhood dreams, obsession, and friendship. Quite unlike anything else I've read. It gripped me completely.
Anyone lucky enough to catch Sarah Kendzior when she came to Skylark in September will know what an extraordinary book this is. This is a brilliant, sobering, enraging analysis of how the powers that be have used conspiracy theories to muddy the waters to hide their own actual conspiracies. Essential reading!
Absolutely required reading. I've read a ton of books about 2020 and the election and this one provided fresh and illuminating insight into much of the details - and made it clear how close this country came to disaster. Raskin writes with eloquent fury, and his memories and meditations about his beloved son Tommy, who took his own life a week before the insurrection, are beautiful and deeply moving. Highly, highly recommended.
A complete delight, from start to finish. These essays are smartly conceived, brilliantly written, and always engaging and surprising. There's real beauty in their honesty and vulnerability. Oh, and they're as funny as hell.
Harrowing, enraging, brilliant. This fictional rendering of the true story of Mahmoud Mattan, a Somali wrongfully hanged in the UK for a murder he did not commit, is not an easy read, but its rewards are many.
Claire Vaye Watkins can really, really, really write. I loved this spiky, funny, heartbreaking and wholly original novel about a mother fleeing from her marriage (and her baby) and confronting - or trying to confront - the ghosts of her past. Rarely have I delighted so much in the language of a book. The words will take your breath away. (Added bonus: best title ever.)
I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked this up, but it was an absolute treat. Kaplan's debut is sharply written, funny, and her take on #Metoo issues is nuanced and thoughtful. The narrator's mother is splendidly awful.
Anyone who has come into the shop over the past year has probably heard me talk about this book, which was my favorite novel of 2021. It's a rich, generous, and funny book about a quirky bunch of Brits who carve out an improbable life for themselves in Florence in the second half of the last century. I just adored it so much. And now it's out in paperback!
One of the smartest books about the Trump administration. This is a collection of Serwer's longford essays for the Atlantic over those years, and is made all the better by brief retrospective introductions to each piece from the present - not even someone as smart as Serwer could really imagine just how bad things could get. Just out in paperback. Can't recommend enough!