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1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA. 95060 • 831-423-0900 | CLICK FOR HOURS
Surviving 2020: Books That Will Make You Believe in Humanity
Strong Women Through the Ages
Book Group Sleepers: Great Books Your Group May Have Missed
If you’ve ever loved anyone who struggles with mental heatlh issues, this book is that story. It captures with such raw and imperfect understanding both sides of being the one with the beautiful and complicated mind as well as the one who loves and cares for them...and sometimes at them. One whole unamed character in this book is the mental health system and it’s shortfalls. This story is about two sisters and their bond to love one another. The question that lurked in the background was, what about those who have no one? I highly recommend this book for its insight and compassion. —Jenny
Ta-Nehisi Coates has already established himself as an important cultural voice on race relations. Now with his first novel, he adds to the conversation in ways best left to provocative fiction, exploring the cascading damage done when enslaved families are sold away from each other. Hiram Walker is an orphan of this crime and this is his remarkable story of deciding to leave his situation and become involved as a singular conductor in a slightly mystical, still historical Underground Railroad. The result is a captivating, resonating read. - Melinda
Jacqueline Woodson is a national treasure. Her books make an impact, not only through her characters but because the act of reading her work is transformative. Her latest adult novel, Red at the Bone, is no exception. Woodson charts the history of one Brooklyn family as they grapple with an unplanned teen pregnancy and the decisions made that impact generations to come. Their family story—how much they are there for each other and for themselves—is a universal story about how we give and receive love. It is beautiful and honest, heartbreaking and poetic, and one of my favorite books of the year. - Casey
Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah has written an astonishing novel that looks smartly sideways at the history of British colonialism through the death of 19th-century explorer Dr. David Livingstone and the richly rendered funeral group who endeavors to deliver his body across Africa, sending it home. Two within his entourage, his loyal cook Halima and the Christian freed slave Jacob, narrate this journey through their own complicated perspectives, painting a broader, more nuanced understanding of slavery and colonialism, all while telling an engaging, atmospheric story. - Melinda
I cannot get over the beauty of this book. It may be one of my favorite depictions of World War II since Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. This is a book that is hard to review. It starts in Berlin in 1941. There is a golem, a heron, heartbreak, and wrenching loss. There are breathtaking scenes of love and loyalty. There is stunning detail of real and vivid scenery set against the sweeping backdrop of unveiled history and visionary magical realism. Since finishing it, I have gone to it again and again. There is always one book each season that strikes to the core, and this is that book. It is a gift like no other. - S.M.C.
The Giver of Stars is one of the most satisfying stories I’ve yet read. What more could you ask for: remarkable women during the Great Depression, overcoming personal and social obstacles to deliver library books on pack horses for miles throughout the Kentucky mountains! I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough in my effort to save these beloved characters from their many perils and challenges. To know that this is based on a true story and to think how the impact of their efforts are still felt today is inspirational. - Jenny
Ghosh is old-school, a throwback to the 19th century, when novelists wrote sweeping sagas that captured the essence of entire nations and cultures. Here he tells the story Deen Datta, a rare-book dealer who, after hearing a tale of a lost shrine that pays homage to both a Hindi snake goddess named Manasa Devi and a Muslim saint named Ilyas, sets out on a journey that will change his life. The book is about a world on the brink, about loss and displacement, and also about hope. It’s a deeply satisfying read. - Rico
Jeanette Winterson draws you into a world split between a life mostly true and one that could be: 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley writing Frankenstein, and young trans Dr. Ry Shelley, in love with Victor Stein, who dreams of breaking death’s hold on humanity. Also, sex dolls, poetry, workers’ rights, AI ethics, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and God—all part of a modern fable on humanity’s fears, Desire, and Love; a wild dream to marvel at. - Jocelyn
This is a powerful character novel about two brutal Irish gangsters well past their prime. Maurice and Charlie have long corrupted and harmed themselves and those around them. They are now in search of Maurice’s daughter Dilly at the Spanish ferry terminal in Algeciras. In lyrical prose, Kevin Barry tells the story of how the life, loves, and fraught friendship of these two men brought them to this place. This is writing to savor and linger over with every turn of the page. - Trey
I couldn’t put this book down. Who doesn’t like spies? Especially if they are women trained as secretaries. Sally and Irina are drawn into the world of espionage at the height of the Cold War through the recently formed CIA. Their mission? Smuggling literature into Russia as a way to ignite democracy and a sense of freedom. I was fascinated by how these women moved between two worlds, working as secretaries during the day and involved in clandestine operations after hours. - Laurel Maxwell, Bookshop Santa Cruz Bookshop Ambassador
