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Casey's Reviews

A woman sits on a flying broomstick in a Quidditch arena, holding a Quaffle.Casey is the second-generation owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz. Her earliest memory is riding the rocking horse in the kids section when the store was located across the street. When not reading Harry Potter with her two kids, she is an avid reader of new works of fiction, history and politics and loves to read with her book group.


 

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Mason (Winter Soldier) brilliantly captures hundreds of years of personal and ecological history through intertwining stories of the inhabitants of one home deep in New England’s North Woods. For everyone from an apple farmer to a seance reader, from a true crime historian to a beetle, the cabin acts as a refuge and a convergence point for the personal desires of its occupants and as a place where the push and pull over the identity of a country plays out. An epic accomplishment.  

—Casey

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North Woods: A Novel By Daniel Mason Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593597033
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House - September 19th, 2023

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward lends her lyrical and powerful voice to the harrowing reality of a girl living in slavery in the pre–Civil War South. As we follow Annis through the violent landscapes and hands of multiple slavers, we witness her fight to survive and her connection to lines of women heirs, both living and spirits, who languished, fought, and loved within the bonds of slavery. I have long said that Jesmyn Ward is among the best living writers of our time. Bear witness and be moved by this heartrending journey toward resilience.  

—Casey

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Let Us Descend: A Novel By Jesmyn Ward Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781982104498
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - October 24th, 2023

Day by Michael Cunningham

The first novel in nearly 10 years by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Michael Cunningham is worth the wait. Centered on an extended family in Brooklyn before, during, and after the pandemic, in Day, Cunningham gives voice to the quiet but powerful push and pull between family members as they try to understand their individual and collective place in the world. Moments of marriage, parenthood, and friendship are all rendered with such tenderness, insight, and empathy that this one family’s story serves as an affecting glimpse into the human experience.  

—Casey

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Day: A Novel By Michael Cunningham Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780399591341
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House - November 14th, 2023

Absolution by Alice McDermott

Alice McDermott’s quiet and affecting novels (The Ninth Hour, Someone) tend to focus on the behind-the-scenes role of women in supporting the underpinning of our society. In Absolution, which Ann Patchett said should win the Pulitzer Prize, she turns her eye to the wives of American military officers in the early days of the Vietnam War. What is the moral benefit and harm caused by “doing good” in the midst of a complex world? Luckily, we have Alice McDermott’s empathetic and observant storytelling to show us the way.  

—Casey

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Absolution: A Novel By Alice McDermott Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780374610487
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux - October 31st, 2023

The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis

In Ayana Mathis’s affecting new novel, a mother’s love is the driving force toward self-determination in the face of the ongoing onslaughts of an unjust society. Duchess, a strong and feisty woman living in a self-sufficient Black community in Alabama, and her daughter Ava, who struggles to make it in Philadelphia with her son, give voice to the courage needed to define life on one’s own terms while still embracing the family and community that make us who we are.  

—Casey

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The Unsettled: A novel By Ayana Mathis Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780525519935
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf - September 26th, 2023

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

The science of The Martian and the suspense of a mystery, all beautifully encased in a powerful family drama. When a father goes missing and his nonverbal son becomes the main suspect, a family works to understand what happened and what it means for their sense of each other. Angie Kim narrates an evolving dynamic between husbands and wives, parents and kids, and siblings with each other, ultimately driving a nuanced and compassionate narrative about how our perceptions and beliefs are shaped, nourished, and changed by those around us.  

—Casey

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Happiness Falls (Good Morning America Book Club): A Novel By Angie Kim Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593448205
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hogarth - August 29th, 2023

How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

Poet Safiya Sinclair tells the gripping story of her upbringing in a strict Jamaican Rastafari house, where her father fills her with equal doses of Black empowerment and long-held misogyny. As Sinclair begins to fight against this childhood doctrine, she uses poetry as liberation, ultimately coming to America, against her father’s wishes. Writer Marlon James says, “To read it is to believe that words can save, words can heal, and words can imbue us with near divine power.”  

—Casey

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How to Say Babylon: A Memoir By Safiya Sinclair Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9781982132330
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: 37 Ink - October 3rd, 2023

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

A mysterious murder set in the tranquil waters of Elkhorn Slough is not the only tension of local writer Nina Simon's exquisite debut novel. It is the fraught, but ultimately loving and powerful relationship between three generations of women who work to solve the crime that gives this story the heart to match the suspense. Filled with wit, adventure, emotional insight, and an abundance of nature from our beloved shores, this page-turning mystery is the height of effective storytelling.

—Casey


Don’t miss our event with Simon on Tuesday, September 5th, at 7:00

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Mother-Daughter Murder Night: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick By Nina Simon Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063315044
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William Morrow - September 5th, 2023

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

Lara and Joe own a cherry farm in upper Michigan. When their young adult children return home to stay during COVID, the family has a unique chance to learn more about each other. Picking cherries for harvest, they learn the unexpected, sultry, and significant moments from their parents' summer at a theater festival long ago. What do we tell our children about who we were and how do all of life's moments prepare us for who we become? Mirroring the deft with which Patchett approaches all of her writing, this family drama is filled with emotional resonance, immersive storytelling, and a generous vision of love and life.

—Casey

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Tom Lake: A Reese's Book Club Pick By Ann Patchett Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063327528
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper - August 1st, 2023

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

In the 1930's Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, immigrant jews and African Americans find themselves equally reliant on an informal network of relationships to navigate a community on the edge of a predominantly white, Christian nation. When a mystery develops and a crisis unfolds, it is the kindness, understanding, generosity of spirit, and ingenuity between neighbors that makes a difference. Suspenseful, heartwarming, funny, and poignant, McBride demonstrates that community is not only the answer, it is the balm.

—Casey

Staff Pick Badge
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store: A Novel By James McBride Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593422946
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - August 8th, 2023

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