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Adam
Adam's thorough reading of Scandinavian literature is the stuff of legend amongst the Third Place Books staff. He takes an interest in literary fiction and religion, but enjoys a good discussion of film and little-known and forgotten writers of fiction.
$13.99
ISBN-13: 9780060850005
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: HarperOne, 3/2006
Yes, this is an NPR commentator's memoir of the "personal journey" sort, but there's nothing typical in her approach - no awkward exhibitionism, no sense that life is being filtered and processed, turned into cultural commodity. In fact, this reads like a wagon-train tale of a couple driving their children and their future off into an untamed frontier. And that frontier just happens to be- to American eyes, at least - the most mysterious and most radically traditional form of Christianity. An utterly charming inviting read.
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780143119500
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 7/2011
Imagine observing a highly-proficient artisan specializing in balloon animals or origami. Twist and fold, twist and fold. Then there's that last turn and the obscure creation suddenly pops into being, large as life. But Ben Loory is a tad more skilled than most and when his bizarre inventions abruptly open their eyes, gain consciousness of their artificial existence, and then scream wildly (or saunter up to you for a cuddle) - well, it's at that moment you realize you've hit on something extraordinary.
$8.95
ISBN-13: 9780486207674
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Dover Publications, 6/1964
Of the 3 highly-influential early American horror writers, Poe and Lovecraft far outstrip Bierce in popularity. But for me he's more readable than either of them and evokes a more intimate and unnerving brand of terror. Also, Kurt Vonnegut esteemed Bierce's story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" so highly that he declared anyone who hadn't read it a "twerp." (And you don't want to be a twerp, do you??)
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780811215169
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 4/2009
At their best (as in "on the Honeymoon" or "Broken Binoculars") these stories have enough wicked, cynical verve to rival Roald Dahl's adult fiction. And even the lesser stories are darned good: Marias is frequently nightmarish (occasionally featuring actual ghosts) and sometimes almost upsetting. One of two stries even feel like the set-up to a Hitchcock film. Adam W.
$6.95
ISBN-13: 9780199538577
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Oxford University Press, USA, 3/2009
Discovering the classic port-and-leather-armchair ghost stories of M.R. James is like first reading "Dune" or "The Lord of the Rings." The tremendous possibilities of an entire genre suddenly open up to you, and you end up reading dozens of similar books but only rarely find that original thrill-so inevitably you come full circle, content to read (over and over) "Oh Whistle," "Number 13," and "A Warning to the Curious." And the stories never lose their magic and menace.
$8.95
ISBN-13: 9780811212717
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 5/1994
We've all known them - those troubled souls who can't seem to make a single sane decision. But to go so wrong, so fast over a couple of days, and call it a vacation! Never before have I so wanted to jump into a book and actually grab hold and restrain a character. An almost impossible to put down and horrifying nosedive into the Land of Death Wish.
$18.95
ISBN-13: 9780465002054
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Basic Books, 6/2007
Forget about all the clowns and comedians today posing as valid pundits, the man to clarify the American political debate is Thomas Sowell. For me this was the sort of tremendously-challenging book I came across only a couple of times in a decade that really makes me shift my assumptions and rethink my worldview.
$15.99
ISBN-13: 9780765324078
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Orb Books, 9/2010
There is some "thriller" aspect to this classic Leiber novel, but it rates much higher on the faux-mystical/quasi-philosophical/ghostly-eeriness meters. The book is not only a memorable 1970's entry in the American weird-tale tradition but also a conscious tribute to the Arkham-type horror writers of the first half of the 20th century.
$6.99
ISBN-13: 9780553278194
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Crimeline, 1/1997
I don't know the last time that I enjoyed a mystery novel so much! This is the first of Stout's Nero Wolfe novels, and somehow he combines the appeals of a Sherlock Holmes-like detective in a Raymond Chandler "hard boiled" world. The plot is fantastic but you read Stout just as much for the characters and the dialogue.
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9781564784124
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dalkey Archive Press, 11/2005
A neurotic undertaker finds himself compelled to take part in a bizarre scavenger hunt tailored entirely to him. If you enjoy post-modern, existential suspense, this book may keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Every twist and turn of this labyrinth is completely unpredictable, and yet Zivkovic masterfully pulls off an escape for the hero in the end. Sort of!Adam W.
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780143117926
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 12/2010
Some days isn't this exactly what we all want to do - just ditch the rat race and walk off into the Finnish wilderness with an animal companion? (Okay, maybe not all of us.) Vatanen, a journalist turned mountain man, drifts from one quirky adventure to another, gradually learning to view civilization from the outside and, all the while, nurturing a new passion for independence and untamed nature.
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780810984226
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harry N. Abrams, 11/2010
Author-artist Deutsch not only delivers a great story & strong heroine, he also creates an entire family of great characters and a fantasy world I couldn't get enough of. Packed with little insights about Jewish culture and language, as well as irresistible humor, this is one graphic novel I can't wait to see sequel-ized!
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780879517038
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Overlook Press, 8/1999
This was just what I needed at the time: a perfect antidote to "serious" reading. It's a novel filled with characters cursed (or blessed?) with an excess of personality and for whom the world offers one big fat rainbow-colored Redneck Life. It's a life of inexhaustible country-fed wit and unlooked-for adventure, the latter arising from chance encounters and asinine schemes. I wish I had a dozen books like it!
$8.95
ISBN-13: 9780811212403
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: New Pub. Corp., 6/1993
Here is a fine, short existential novel about an aging everyman, a sort of solitary "born loser" working to eke out a living as a tile-layer in Uppsala, Sweden in the early 1980s. The book employs wry humor to offset the haunting Beckett-like seriousness at its heart. - Adam W.
$19.95
ISBN-13: 9780393329360
Availability: Not in Stock- Special Order, Subject to Availability
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 1/2007
In this novel 3 men get up close and personal with a pair of lions, finding the king of beasts to possess certain unnerving and quasi-mystical qualities that connote its majesty, its indomitable spirit. This mysterious, episodic marvel of a book will delight anyone who wishes that Borges was still alive and writing. --Adam W.
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9781596913837
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bloomsbury USA, 10/2007
This story collection is not only utterly charming but also a rare and refreshing outbreak of old fashioned fantasy storytelling, complete with a winsome high Victorian tone. Never does Clarke allow herself to indulge in modern anachronisms of theme and "social conscience" that mar so many contemporary fantasies and that suspect new genre, the revisionist fairy tale. - Adam W.
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780802144362
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press, 6/2009
The people in these pages are so irresistibly ordinary, so petty, hopeful & crazy - most of the time. John Brandon is constantly expanding his convincingly detailed & riveting backdrops, the character histories that lull us repeatedly into a false sense of security while we know that inevitable explosions of violence loom close at hand. This is a unique debut with an Elmore Leonard exterior than thinly conceals a bleak core owing much to Samuel Beckett.
$20.00
ISBN-13: 9780802845733
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 12/2008
The depth and erudition to be found in Hart's essays on Christianity and modern culture revitalizes every topic that falls under his scrutiny. Hart is quite simply one of the most articulate and thoughtful voices in contemporary Christendom - an Orthodox author not to be missed!
$13.99
ISBN-13: 9781400072521
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: WaterBrook Press, 9/2007
This smart, lively cautionary tale chronicles the strange history of a kingdom destroying itself over a fundamental misunderstanding about the purpose of Beauty. The first volume in a new epic, Overstreet's novel often feels like a fantasy counterpart to Fahrenheit 451 . And in terms of storytelling, it reads like a surprising intersection between the styles of Bradbury, Patricia McKillip, and Kate DiCamillo. --Adam
$17.00
ISBN-13: 9780312421007
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador, 9/2002
For my money, this is the ultimate vacation, read-anywhere, pick-up-and-put-down book. It also has a nearly universal appeal, so it's also the ultimate gift book. Many of these very short, true stories have Twilight Zone-like eeriness to them, and every story gives you something unexpected, whether that is a gut-wrenching poignancy or an episode of laugh-out-loud humor. --Adam W.
$13.50
ISBN-13: 9781564782939
Availability: Not in Stock- Special Order, Subject to Availability
Published: Dalkey Archive Press, 6/2003
It takes a talented writer to pull off an extended maybe-it-is-maybe-it-isn't mindgame between two characters. And it takes something close to a genius to turn the tables, aim the mindgames at his readers, and leave us begging for more. This book reads as rapidly as a play or screenplay, but one written by an heir to Borges and Kafka. --Adam W.
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780007106486
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: HarperCollins UK, 4/2009
Wilcken accomplishes the strange trick of raising his novel's "subtext" and injecting it into the surface of his story. So there's something very puzzle-like about this book, but for the careful reader the puzzle pieces are all out there in the open. Will the man character - a penal colony prisoner - realize his ambition to "become someone else" in order to escape? Wilcken elaborates on this theme with a stunning number of instances of doubling, partnering, modeling, and replacing. - Adam W.
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781590172759
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: NYR Children's Collection, 6/2008
So richly imaginative, positively brimming with wit and unexpected surprises - if I had to pick one book from American children's literature that was clearly on par with "Alice in Wonderland" for the sheer pleasure it gives, this would be that book. One difference is that this story can be read in one long sitting, but that simply means I will re-read it more frequently. - Adam W.
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780312429690
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Picador, 4/2010
Unforgettable scenes & an exceptionally convincing talent for capturing the dialogue of the streets - these are the signature elements established in this debut 1972 crime novel by George Higgins, a lawyer-turned-novelist. It would be difficult to provide examples of comparably crisp & edgy dialogue, outside of a Tarantino movie or a David Mamet play. - Adam W.
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780830743155
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Regal, 12/2006
Overstreet accomplishes the surprising feat of fully convincing us that the earnest film-goer can't help but frequently have profound, even spiritual, interactions with this much abused, much misused art form. The cinematic insights here are fresh, unpredictable and spiced with material from Overstreet's interviews with some of the today's most thoughtful filmmakers.Adam W.
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9781585426126
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Tarcher, 1/2008
Is he nuts? Is he a genius? If only the issue were so simple. Somehow I doubt that any other film director has given his fans a more tantalizing, and occasionally infuriating, glimpse into his creative process and idiosyncrasies as Lynch does in this book. As with any other cultural artifact he produces, here Lynch leaves us with many more mysteries than he clears up--but what a read!Adam W.
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780802817624
Availability: Not in Stock- Out of Print
Published: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 4/2007
This novel was "retro" when it was first published - 50 years ago. A homage to the Gothic adventure tales of the 19th century, Kirk's novel provides an intricately-plotted and atmospheric background against which his - by contrast - brash, lively characters stand out vividly, much like the ancient Scottish castle of the title looming over its isolated and ominous isle.
$12.95
ISBN-13: 9780307280589
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage, 11/2007
At a time when there is a notable lack of perspective in the public square regarding religion, Monda gives us a book demonstrating that some of America's most fascinating cultural figures are also people who've carefully & generously considered the challenge of faith, whether they themselves believe or not. Warning: interviews like Elie Wiesel's may be about enough to rip your heart!
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9781400033768
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Anchor, 4/2005
In this dark, melancholy, but beautifully written novel, the unrelenting whirlwind of Islamic fundamentalism is the daily terror of the "swallows of Kabul" -- those Afghans with no freedom and no power who can only dream of life without the Taliban. One woman finds that though she has no freedom, she can still make a great sacrifice, but what effect will it have in a land where tragedy is commonplace?Adam W.
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9780802828002
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 10/2005
This beautiful book gives us a new window on the complex C. S. Lewis -- nature-lover, religious thinker, and Narnia creator. On every page we see some person or place dear to Lewis: his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien, his wife Joy Davidman, his Oxford home, and the academic settings in which he spent so much of his time. This book is an excellent gift idea for Lewis fans!Adam W.
$17.00
ISBN-13: 9780312424077
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Picador, 10/2004
Like Jonathan Lethem & Michael Chabon, O'Nan here gives a literary gloss to genre fiction. And O'Nan mutes the horror-novel overtones of his story to follow a sort of mystery-novel structure (peeling back various narrative layers to finally reveal what happened That Night). In addition to all of this, a neo-Americana atmosphere underlies everything: Norman Rockwell meets Ray Bradbury meets the 21st century. - Adam W.
$17.00
ISBN-13: 9780441013043
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Ace Trade, 8/2005
This is just what Thomas Covenant fans were waiting for. Returning to the Land after 21 years, Donaldson marshals many unique elements of the previous 6 novels and revisits questions raised by those books. Whatever became of the Ramen and the Ranyhyu, the ur-viles of Waynhim? What was made of the Staff of Law after Covenant died and Lindon Avery left the Land? A great kick-off to the new four-part series!Adam
$22.99
ISBN-13: 9780877880448
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Shaw Books, 11/2004
Of the many "Lewis related" books released in the four decades since his death, this is one of the most fascinating. As one of the most influential and popular Christian intellectuals of the past century, Lewis has generated inevitable interest in his literary and spiritual influences, and this anthology is the ideal introductory guide to the subject.Adam
ISBN-13: 9780802839381
Availability: Not in Stock- Out of Print
Published: ISI Distributed Titles, 4/2004
The publication of Ancestral Shadows is a major event for the reputation of the literary supernatural tale. Kirk ranks as one of the few modern American masters of the genre, and for far too long his stories have been out of print. Here Kirk crafts prose as cultivated and engaging as
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780375718946
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage, 4/2002
Murakami is just oh-so-casual about dropping you in the exact center of Weird Country and leaving you to find the way out all on your lonesome
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780140186307
Availability: Not in Stock- Out of Print
Published: Penguin Books, 9/1993
It's funny because it isn't happening to me . That's what you tell yourself when you watch Fawlty Towers , or Curb Your Enthusiasm , or when you read Lucky Jim . You root for Jim Dixon to come out on top because he really isn't a bad guy -- he just has such bad instincts ... and his greatest talent is for making any bad situation worse!Adam W.
$7.95
ISBN-13: 9780933944046
Availability: Not in Stock- Special Order, Subject to Availability
Published: City Miner Books, 1/1987
A piece of Southern fiction set in Northern California (!), "FUP" mainly takes place in the 99th year of Kentuckian Jake Santee's life, whose household also includes a young mountain-man grandson and a 20-pound duck named Fup. Yes, Fup Duck. Part yarn, part fable, part tall-tale, part stumper (what an ending!) - this is an always funny and often crass little miracle of a book. - Adam W.
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780811216371
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 10/2005
Here, in one of Garnder's first novels, domestic warfare between 2 spirited, overl opinionated senior citizens -- brother and sister -- brings chaos to their community of friends and family. Gardner's story says much about that vital tension at the heart of American line -- the conflict between tradition and progressivism -- and about the difficult business of pushing beyond this conflict to find a place where one cant stand, secure and untroubled beneath the haunted, holy light that comes with an autumn in the Land of the Free!Adam W.
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9781593761097
Availability: Not in Stock- Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Shoemaker & Hoard, 4/2006
Even if Dana weren't a co-worker here at Third Place I'd still see similarities between this and favorite books by Kazuo Ishiguro, Shusaku Endo and Ivan Klima. Lessons is an eloquent novel of mounting desperation, occasional eroticism, intense inwardness, and a crisis of cultural identity occurring while Teacher Li's Taiwan continues to hang suspended tenuously between China and the West. Imbued with a richly perceptive voice and engrossing tension.-Adam W.
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9780393315080
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 12/1996
Burgess' talent for rhythmic prose & the "novel of ideas" makes, here, for a farcical dystopian story with tremendous narrative momentum and dark humor, a book that will suggest associations with "Brave New World" and "Dr. Strangelove." On one hand it has the patina of "old Sci-Fi," on the other hand Burgess was well ahead of his time on topics such as carbon footprint mania. - Adam W.
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9781596545786
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Blackmask.com, 5/2008
Like the work of Dashiell Hammett, this stunning 1935 character-driven noir novel bears the minimalist stamp of a true Hemingway disciple. More about how criminals live between their acts of violence and theft, the novel is a clear precursor to modern literary crime noir like Barry Gifford's "Wild at Heart." Maybe best of all, Anderson here did a phenomenal job of capturing the sights, sounds and idioms of 1930s.
$18.95
ISBN-13: 9780199738700
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Oxford University Press, USA, 5/2010
Sure, I thought, maybe there's some fuzzy little thread of ancient and medieval cosmology stuff running through the Narnia books. Then I read the first chapters of Ward's book and had the rug ripped out from beneath me. I've been reading the Narnia series since I was a kid, over and over - how can it be that there was a whole other level (another galaxy)of meaning there that I'd missed? But it most certainly is there.
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9781585679317
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Overlook Duckworth, 6/2007
When young slacker and military-history aficionado Ray Midge has his wife and Ford Torino stolen by his best friend, he heads south of the border determined, whatever the cost, to get that car back! A modern country-cousin to "The Odyssey," this redneck quest novel was a revelation... never before had I realized that redneck humor was so full of dry wit and could be just as hilarious as Wodehouse or Douglas Adams.
Adam's thorough reading of Scandinavian literature is the stuff of legend amongst the Third Place Books staff. He takes an interest in literary fiction and religion, but enjoys a good discussion of film and little-known and forgotten writers of fiction.
