INFINITE JEST by DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

Recommended by Anna Cory-Watson

$17.99 paperback / little brown

• He is one of my all time favorite authors and this is his greatest book.  He’s funny and yet always empathetic to his characters’ struggles.  It’s huge, of course, but it’s a surprisingly quick read–he saves the density for the page count, not the prose, but he writes some of the best sentences ever.  I’ll read anything the man has written, from essays to short stories, articles to unfinished epics, and Infinite Jest is the one I think everyone should read.

LANGSTON’S TRAIN RIDE by ROBERT BURLEIGH & LEONARD JENKINS

Recommended by Evelyn Pollics

$16.95 hardcover / scholastic

• I had a student once named Langston. He was a huge pain the in butt and never followed directions, but his face lit up when we read Langston Hughes poems. He memorized this entire book. He would stand at the front of the room, throw his shoulders back, and bellow “I’ve known rivers!”  He had not known rivers; he was 8. But this book makes you feel as if you have, and it’s still beautiful even if you’re not named Langston.

RISING UP AND RISING DOWN: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means

by William T. Vollmann

Recommended by Zack Zook

$16.95 paperback / harper collins

• First published by McSweeney’s as a seven volume, three thousand plus page set in 2003, Rising Up and Rising Down was immediately nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and gained tons of attention before being published in this abridged version by Ecco press. The book compiles nearly twenty years of Vollmann’s work on the subject of violence and wreckage. From the street violence of prostitutes and junkies to centuries-long battles between the Native Americans and European Colonists, Vollmann’s imagery and compelling logic is presented with authority born of astounding research and personal experience. This is a must read.

AIRSHIPS by BARRY HANNAH

Recommended by Adam Wilson

$14.00 paperback / grove press

• Barry Hannah is often referred to as a, “writer’s writer.” This is just a fancy way of saying that he should be way more famous than he is because he is awesome. If William Faulkner had lived through Vietnam, listened to Dylan, had a sense of humor, dropped a ton of acid, drank until his liver exploded, and been edited into coherence by Gordon Lish, his stories might read like these. At once  grotesque and sublime, violent and tender, hilarious and heavy, Hannah manages to capture the American South in all its contradiction and complexity. Not only that, but he does so in his highly idiosyncratic (and much imitated) brand of oddly poetic prose. Airships is a great introduction to the work of this overlooked master.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM by KATE ATKINSON

Recommended by Mary Gannett

$15.00 paperback / st. martin’s press

• This first novel won the prestigious Whitbread Prize when it was published in 1995. It’s narrated by Ruby Lennox from the moment of her conception in 1959 in York, England & tells not only Ruby’s story, but also the twists & turns of several generations of female ancestors. It’s a difficult book to categorize; it’s original, witty, poignant, sometimes melancholy, sometimes very funny.  And it’ll stay with you for a long time…

A FAN’S NOTES by KATE ATKINSON

Recommended by Tom Jory

$16.00 paperback / random house

• Frederick Exley had plenty of prominent friends, one of whom, critic Jonathan Yardley, considered him a “brilliant one-book” writer. Exley actually wrote three, but only his first, A Fan’s Notes, is worth reading, and indeed it is. This book, like its two forgettable sequels, is described by the author as “fictional memoir.” In its course, Exley attends the University of Southern California and attaches himself to real-life football hero Frank Gifford. The narrative recounts the author’s stays in mental hospitals, his failed marriage, a series of unfulfilling jobs, and his continued obsession with Gifford, who has since become a star with the New York Giants. Exley maintains perspective and a sense of humor through it all, and “tragicomic” is probably the best way to describe this cult-classic novel which is much more than that.