Bookseller Recommendations
Books to Read This March
Hello wonderful Substack friends! The team here at Village Bookstores has come up with yet another amazing round of recommendations to add to your never ending TBR. (Yes that’s right, we know your TBR is never ending…because so are all of ours!)
I know you've heard of this book. Maybe you Sparknoted it for a class back in the day. But if you haven't read it, picture this:
Two police officers enter your bedroom. You are not expecting them. They insist you are under arrest. They won't tell you what for, and they won't say what's going to happen to you. You know there must be a mistake: you haven't committed any crimes ... have you?
With deadpan humor and suffocating dread, Kafka crafts a black comic nightmare of the individual caught by societal forces they cannot understand. Whether you read it as a chilling prediction of Totalitarianism, a diatribe against bureaucracy, or a parable of repressed guilt, The Trial will get under your skin and stay there long after its bleak conclusion.
- Sonny
In terms of how right this book was for me, I'm someone who's interested in the in's & out's of music and how we interact with it, and especially the long reaching effects we don't consider when interacting with music/music tech in our day to day lives. Spotify is just one example of the scope of how wide-reaching streaming is in our everyday lives, and Liz Pelly details just how deep the roots go in terms of their effects on the culture. Especially with the controversies Spotify, as well as many other streaming services, have been embroiled in throughout the last year, I think this is a book for anybody who wants to know how the sausage gets made (including any unlisted ingredients).
Read if you like hours long YouTube video essays on bizarre niche topics that somehow keep you engaged the whole way through (giving very ROBLOX_OOF.mp3 by hbomberguy if you know what i mean)
-Gabi
I have one that I am currently finishing up and that is The Magical Year of Thinking by Joan Didion.
I have to say it is sad and depressing but also authentic when grieving someone. Might not be the best and happy book recommendation I have, but I did learn a lot from this book. The things that became habits, like calling someone immediately when you're off of work or playing their favorite song on their birthday, to now learning how to navigate this new life without them is hard and foreign to something that was once a comfortability in your life. I think reading this after a year of grieving someone I love was the perfect timing for me. I think if I were to read this a year ago, I probably would have hated it. Most of the feelings Didion was feeling I felt in some similar ways. I think the part where Didion over explains each detail of her husband's death was me trying to understand the death of a loved one. It's like you want to make it make sense in your head and you want to know every little step they took before they died. I don't think it ever gets easier but something I did learn that reminded me of this book by Didion was Andrew Garfield explained his grief like, "I hope this grief stays with me... this is all the unexpressed love" and I think that is how I feel each time I think of them.
Anyways, I would definitely recommend this to someone who has ever lost a loved one whether that is a partner, a sibling, a friend. I think this book applies to anyone grieving or trying to understand how they're grieving.
Best,
Yvette
Starting in the year 2000 on Berkeley’s college campus, Percy meets Joe and a messy partnership forms.
Moving throughout their 20s, Holly Brickley explores the human connection in all of its complexities as Percy and Joe weave in and out of each other’s lives through one commonality that drives their lives—music.
With each chapter’s title being a song title and smart pop culture references galore, this is truly a book for the music lovers with a tendency for introspectiveness. So atmospheric and encapsulates pre- & post- 9/11 society quite well.
Percy and Joe’s professional, personal, and estranged relationship was such an intriguing roller coaster of raw emotions & sharp characterizations of personhood.
For a debut, Holly Brickley’s Deep Cuts is a remarkable look into relationships, music, and growing up. A remarkable ode to the art form that is music and another art form that is often overlooked: human interaction.
~Emma~
We had so much fun sharing our Bookseller Recommendations for you all this March! Let us know your thoughts—which of these are you adding to your TBR? Have you read any of these already? What would you recommend to us?!