Chris Wilcox

Chris Wilcox

I'm a native of Jackson County and went to school K-16 (save for a year at Smoky Mountain H.S. in Sylva, and a year at NCSA in Winston-Salem) in the Cullowhee Valley.  I spent a few years as a ski-bum and paramedic in Utah, then returned to western North Carolina in 1997 and joined the City Lights family that Fall.  Joyce Moore, who built City Lights into a beloved community institution over 23+ years, gave me my start in bookselling and taught me pretty much everything I know about the trade before selling me the business in 2010.

Here are a bunch of my recent and all-time favorite books.


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Descent: A Novel By Tim Johnston Cover Image
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ISBN: 9781616203047
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: Algonquin Books - January 6th, 2015

This engrossing tale of a family devastated by the kidnapping of their daughter reads like a norse saga set in modern-day Colorado. Johnston's writing somehow makes the events seem inevitable, yet as the villain points out, it's all randomness and luck. The focus falls mostly on the taciturn father and son as they continue to search for the missing girl in a smoke-wreathed effort to make sense of a cruel and violent world.


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All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel By Anthony Doerr Cover Image
$32.50
ISBN: 9781476746586
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Scribner - May 6th, 2014

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The Wind Is Not a River: A Novel By Brian Payton Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9780062279989
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: Ecco - September 2nd, 2014

A grand tale of devotion and adventure set in a forgotten theater of World War II, Brian Payton's second novel is convincing. Along with journalist John Easley, the stranded protagonist, you feel the arctic wind screaming across Japanese occupied Atta in the remote Aleutian Islands.  The reader will also be swept along by the parallel narrative of Helen, John's wife and co-protagonist, as she sets off from her native Seattle in a bold, imaginative effort to locate her missing husband. 


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Hild: A Novel (The Hild Sequence) By Nicola Griffith Cover Image
$22.00
ISBN: 9781250056092
Availability: Backordered at our warehouse
Published: Picador - October 28th, 2014

Top-notch historical fiction! Inspired by a tantalizing mention in the Venerable Bede's history of 7th century England, Nicola Griffith has done a fantastic job of doing the research then crafting an amazing narrative that brings her character to full-realization without allowing that research to get in the way of good story telling. - Chris

Robin and Margot loved this book too. Thanks to our librarian friend, Tracy Fitzmaurice for introducing us to HILD.


$12.00
SKU: B-Staring

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The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel By Helene Wecker Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780062110848
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Harper Perennial - December 31st, 2013

Let the Great World Spin: A Novel By Colum McCann Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812973990
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - November 30th, 2009

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Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety By Eric Schlosser Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780143125785
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Penguin Books - August 26th, 2014

Terrifying! Read this history of the cold war and you'll be amazed humanity survived the 1980s... seriously. Alternating between a minute-to-minute account of the Damascus accident and a trenchant and engaging chronology of the period from the Manhattan Project to Perestroika, Schlosser paints a picture of near misses and amazing good luck.


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The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) By Donna Tartt Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9780316055437
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Little, Brown and Company - October 22nd, 2013

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Strange Bodies By Marcel Theroux Cover Image
$26.00
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ISBN: 9780374270650
Published: Farrar Straus Giroux - February 4th, 2014

Want to be be torn between following a taught plot and diving for your reference books to check an obscure word or concept from metaphysics? This is the book for you. This speculative romp explores the old idea of transplanting a consciousness into a replacement body with a fresh and convincing approach in which a very dead Samuel Johnson scholar seems to be alive in the body of a Russian prisoner.


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Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day By Peter Zuckerman, Amanda Padoan Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780393345414
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - May 3rd, 2013

As an avid armchair mountaineer, I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to this important 2012 book. Unlike most other titles in the category, Buried in the Sky not only gives indigenous climbers their due respect (something that a few other western writers of climbing memoir and reportage have finally started doing after decades of discrimination and condescension), its very focus is on the local alpinists of the Himalayas and Karakoram as well as their families and cultures. The research and writing here is superb, the product of a pair of journalist-cousins. Peter Zuckerman is an award-winning newspaperman. Amanda Padoan is a climber/climbing reporter and frequent contributor to ExplorersWeb. - Chris


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The Martian: A Novel By Andy Weir Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780553418026
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ballantine Books - October 28th, 2014

Get your Geek on! I thoroughly enjoyed this fast-paced survival adventure. After being left for dead on the surface of Mars Mark Watney's chances of getting home alive are next to nil.  If he does survive, it will be thanks as much to his attitude and mordant sense of humor as to his dual specialties in botany and mechanical engineering.


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Shaman By Kim Stanley Robinson Cover Image
$19.55
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ISBN: 9780316098083
Published: Orbit - June 10th, 2014

Kids had to grow up fast during the Pleistocene! This magnificent speculative adventure novel from sci-fi master, Kim Stanley Robinson will stay with the reader long after flipping to the final page. I was sucked in from the first line, "We had a bad shaman." Loon is an orphaned youngster reluctantly apprenticed to his pack's shaman. Not really sure that he's cut out for the role, Loon nonetheless loves one aspect of the job: painting on cave walls. This well-told tale will appeal to a wide variety of readers, but those who are drawn to subjects such as creativity, survival, rites-of-passage, memory, anthropology and vocation shouldn't miss it. - Chris (Robin loved this one too)


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The Tilted World: A Novel By Tom Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780062069191
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - June 10th, 2014

Tilted World is a lovely novel crafted by a talented husband and wife writing duo. Set in a sodden 1927 Mississippi as Herbert Hoover's political star is ascendant, the co-authors create a two memorable sets of collaborators working amidst the floods that devastated the watershed that year: a husband/wife bootlegging team, and two of Hoover's best revenue agents bent on solving the disappearance of fellow revenuers last seen in the company of the husband-moonshiner. Themes of trust and parenthood eddy around a plot that sweeps inexorably along like the mighty river itself. -- Chris


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Old Man River: The Mississippi River in North American History By Paul Schneider Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781250053107
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Picador - October 28th, 2014

Schneider tackles a massive topic in this sweeping book that succeeds in taking in the entire Mississippi watershed, from the Appalachians to the Rockies. The span of time is necessarily epic, starting 500 million years ago, and ending with the 2013 budget for the Army Corps of Engineers. In amongst all this fascinating history are bits of illuminating travelogue from the author's own explorations of the modern day River and its tributaries. - Chris


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The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II By Denise Kiernan Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781451617535
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Atria Books - March 11th, 2014

A fascinating look at the Manhattan Project as it unfolded just over the crest of the Appalachians from Sylva: Oak Ridge, Tennessee a.k.a. The Clinton Engineer Works. This well researched history provides fresh perspectives on the tense period late in the war when thousands of young women and men from myriad backgrounds pitched-in at the vast plants to help build the atomic bomb. -- Chris


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Telegraph Avenue: A Novel By Michael Chabon Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780061493355
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Harper Perennial - September 10th, 2013

Simply a great read!  This novel from the author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay takes us on a romp through the Oakland of the recent past.  It's a rousing multi-generational, multi-racial tale of family, friendship, music, movies and history.


The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism By Naoki Higashida, KA Yoshida (Translated by), David Mitchell (Translated by) Cover Image
By Naoki Higashida, KA Yoshida (Translated by), David Mitchell (Translated by)
$24.00
ISBN: 9780812994865
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House - August 27th, 2013

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A Good American By Alex George Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780425253175
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - February 5th, 2013

A Good American is a winning, humane tragicomedy that follows several generations of a German-American family living in the small, (fictional?) river town of Beatrice, Missouri. The rollicking story features zany plot twists, and is made more real by a mouth-watering parade of food along with an equally broad range of music typifying the 20th century American experience.  Rivalrous twins, a giant, a dwarf, a sunbathing pet raccoon, a shotgun wedding, multiple funerals, illegitimate births, betrayals -- these are just some of the elements that make up a saga worthy of Wodehouse.


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The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court By Jeffrey Toobin Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780307390714
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: Anchor - June 4th, 2013

New Yorker writer and author of The Nine, Jeffery Toobin has delivered another excellent examination of the recent and current Supreme Court.  In this book he focuses on the relationship between the Obama Administration and the Roberts Court, and details the importance of the legal concept of standing in the high court.


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Permanent Camp:: Poems, Narratives and Renderings from the Smokies By George Ellison, Elizabeth Ellison (Illustrator) Cover Image
By George Ellison, Elizabeth Ellison (Illustrator)
$21.99
ISBN: 9781609496852
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: History Press - May 22nd, 2012

What an occasion the publication of Permanent Camp marks! Inveterate naturalist andstudent of the southern Appalachians, George Ellison returns to his roots as a poet afterhaving complied an impressive array of prose works. As with many of these previoustitles, such as Blue Ridge Nature Journal and Mountain Passages, Permanent Camp ismade visually stunning by the accompanying watercolors and pen and ink washes ofGeorge's wife Elizabeth. The poems included in this collection range from crystallinehaiku, to longer narrative pieces that spring from epigraphs as thoughtful responses to theworks of other writers who have also roamed and loved these mountains. 


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Wilderness: A Novel By Lance Weller Cover Image
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ISBN: 9781620400623
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: Bloomsbury USA - May 14th, 2013

This beautifully crafted debut novel chronicles the tragic and eventful life of Confederate soldier, Abel Truman. With chapters alternating between 1864 and 1899, Weller connects the days leading up to and through the bloody battle of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania with a turn of the century quest undertaken by a maimed and aging Abel. From a driftwood shack on the rugged Washington coast, Abel and his dog walk inland and across the Cascades to meet one final challenge which may or may not bring peace to the old campaigner.Many Civil War era novels since 1997 have been likened to Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. Wilderness is one that certainly merrits the comparison. Weller's prose has its own sort of lyricism and clarity that will nonetheless remind readers of Frazier's or even Cormac McCarthy's style. Motivated more by end-of-life urges than the tug of heart and home, Abel Truman's journey is different from Inman's long walk, but this fine new book deserves to join such esteemed company.


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Descent By Kathryn Stripling Byer Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780807147504
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: LSU Press - November 5th, 2012

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Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic By David Quammen Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780393346619
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 9th, 2013

David Quammen's third "big idea" book sticks to the ecological focus that informed his previous classics, Song of the Dodo and Monster of God.  In this instance he's surveying the ecology and evolution of diseases we humans acquire from other animals. Whether he's tromping through the Congo after a chimp-darting Ebola researcher, or trying to keep up with the math as molecular phylogeneticists place the date of the original SIV/HIV spillover to humans circa 1908(!), Quammen is a consitently entertaining and informative writer who is able to bring the research to life and make it understandable to non-scientists. And, even though part of what he's writing about is the next big pandemic, he's never a sensationalist.  Throughout this facinating book he reminds us that we humans -- the ulimate outbreak at 7 billion and counting -- are going to be exposed to novel microbes that will challenge our immune systems as we encroach on the remaining wilds.


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The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance By Edmund de Waal Cover Image
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ISBN: 9780312569372
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: Picador - August 2nd, 2011

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Young Men and Fire By Norman Maclean Cover Image
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ISBN: 9780226500621
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: University of Chicago Press - November 5th, 1993

Not only a lucid analysis of the 1949 Mann Gulch tragedy in which 13 wildfire fighters were killed, this book is also a very personal meditation on the meaning of youth, loss and aging. A modern Moby Dick of the American west.


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Gone Girl: A Novel By Gillian Flynn Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9780307588364
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Ballantine Books - June 5th, 2012

The New Republic: A Novel By Lionel Shriver Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9780062103338
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Harper Perennial - April 2nd, 2013

The Cove: A Novel By Ron Rash Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9780061804205
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Ecco - November 6th, 2012

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Lost Memory of Skin By Russell Banks Cover Image
$14.99
ISBN: 9780061857645
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Ecco - July 17th, 2012

A nameless 21 year-old sex offender is the focus of a nameless sociology professor's studies in this brilliant novel about isolation, modern society, and morality, set in a Florida that is by turns forbidding and a stand-in for the Garden of Eden.


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Nightwoods: A Novel By Charles Frazier Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812978803
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - June 12th, 2012

Plotted like a thriller but told in Cold Mountain author, Charles Frazier's distinctive lyrical style, Nightwoods is a highly enjoyable and evocative read.


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Winter's Bone: A Novel By Daniel Woodrell Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780316066419
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Back Bay Books - July 11th, 2007

This Southern-Gothic quest novel features masterful writing of the same caliber as Ron Rash or Cormac McCarthy, and a teenaged heroine that is as tough and memorable as any protagonist I've run across in a while... and this in a period when I've been introduced to Lisbeth Salander and Katniss Everdeen. In broad outline, the story is like a meth-fueled version of True Grit, set in a bleak, cold corner of todays' Ozarks. Contemporary yet timeless, horrifying and beautiful, this little book will sock you in the gut. Read it, then see the darn good movie adaptation which cleaned-up at Sundance.  Take a look at Gary Carden's review at the Tuck Reader.


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Cutting for Stone By Abraham Verghese Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780375714368
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - January 26th, 2010

This breath-taking first novel is full of rich incident and visceral (often literally) detail. It is epic in scope -- four decades, four continents -- and covers an operatic range of emotions. The narrator was born to a nun who died giving birth to him and a twin brother.


The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit By Michael Cannell Cover Image
$36.28
ISBN: 9780446554732
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Twelve - December 4th, 2012

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Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals By Hal Herzog Cover Image
$15.99
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ISBN: 9780061730856
Published: Harper Perennial - August 9th, 2011

With Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals, Hal Herzog delivers provocative popular science at its witty, 'gee-whiz' best. With headings such as "Feeding Kittens to Boa Constrictors" this book challenges the reader to think through the knotty ethics of human interactions with other animal species. While it might make you squirm, you'll have fun reading this informal, often-humorous survey of the emerging, interdisciplinary field of anthrozoolgy. Like Malcolm Gladwell, Herzog blends scientific abstracts with anecdotes to form a compelling narrative.


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Letter to Emily: A Memoir By Marilyn Jody Cover Image
$12.95
ISBN: 9781432754907
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Outskirts Press - September 14th, 2010

This exceptional little memoir takes in an incredible sweep of experience. Structured around the reading list for the first course in Gay and Lesbian Literature taught by the author, Jody uses wit and a deeply humane sensitivity to show how those students (and re-encountering the readings) helped her confront a life time of secrecy. While the recollections range from joy and adventure to pain and sorrow, the overarching message of this well-crafted book is a one of hope.


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Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War By Karl Marlantes Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780802145314
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Grove Press - May 10th, 2011

I concur with Eon on this magnificent novel about a boot lieutenant's first two months in Vietnam.


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Master and Commander (Aubrey/Maturin Novels #1) By Patrick O'Brian Cover Image
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ISBN: 9780393307054
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - August 17th, 1990

This is the first of twenty addictive historical novels centered around a compelling pair of protagonists named Jack Aubrey and Steven Maturin. In this book, set primarily in the western Mediterranean, we find Jack getting his first command in England's early nineteenth century navy and meeting the friend that will follow him through many adventures. The decidedly un-seaman-like Steven Maturin is a genius of many talents.


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Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen By Christopher McDougall Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780307279187
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Vintage - March 29th, 2011

Encompassing the world of long distance running, the focus here is the Tarahumara indians who have fun running continuously for a day or two through the rugged, scorching Copper Canyons of Mexico... wearing homemade sandals! McDougall visits the reclusive tribe and compares them to the competitors in ultra-marathon races -- often 50-100 miles in extreme environments such as Death Valley or the high Rockies. He cites convincing studies which conclude that modern humans evolved as long-distance runners. Whether this hypothesis is correct or not, the book is a fascinating peak into two misunderstood groups of people brought together by running.


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The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring By Richard Preston Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812975598
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - February 12th, 2008

Wild Trees is a nice mix of biographical sketches and natural history. Preston got interested in recreational tree climbing and canopy travel, and then connected with a group of scientists and enthusiasts that are pushing the envelope of tree climbing by ascending some thirty stories off the forest floor into the canopy of Coastal Redwoods. Preston tags along with them and gets to know the individuals who have made careers and hobbies in the temperate rain forest where this threatened giant grows. His portraits are humane and insightful. When I picked up the book, I was expecting a little more natural history, but the sociological and psychological stories made for an unexpected treat.


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Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival By Joe Simpson Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780060730550
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Harper Perennial - February 3rd, 2004

This is one of my all-time favorite adventure narratives. In the mountains, there are only consequences.


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Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers By Ralph Moody Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780803281783
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bison Books - September 1st, 1991

This book is the first in a wonderful series of autobiographies that follow the author and his family through the first three decades of the twentieth century. This first volume starts with family's move from New England to Colorado when Ralph is eight. The range of emotions the reader (and the audience if reading aloud - highly recommended) experiences covers the spectrum. The Ralph Moody books should be shared and cherished by any family that enjoys reading together.


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Chemistry and Other Stories By Ron Rash Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780312425081
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - April 17th, 2007

As good a novelist and poet as he is, Rash is perhaps at the top of his game in the short prose form.   Many agree he's one of the finest short story writers working today.


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Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy By Ian W. Toll Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780393330328
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - March 17th, 2008

Attention fans of Patrick O'Brian's fiction about the Royal Navy -- this is a piece of American history you will enjoy reading. You will be introduced to larger-than-life characters and make good use of that specialized vocabulary you developed in reading the Aubrey/Maturin series.


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Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe By Laurence Bergreen Cover Image
$17.99
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780060936389
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - November 2nd, 2004

Terrifying indeed! Bergreen does a wonderful job of bringing the Age of Discovery to life and placing Magellan in the context of his times. We tend to forget that Magellan sailed off during the height of the Spanish Inquisition, so it's hardly surprising that, faced with mutiny, Magellan employed the techniques of the inquisitors to discourage further upheavals. And these horrors came even before exiting the Atlantic and sailing into the unimagined distances of the Pacific, which was thought to be a largish bay between South America and the Spice Islands. The descriptions of the scurvy-plagued fleet are not for the faint of heart. -- Chris Wilcox


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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking By Malcolm Gladwell Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316010665
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Back Bay Books - April 3rd, 2007

In his new book, Malcolm Gladwell brilliantly does for the psychology of the unconscious mind what he did for the sociology of trends in his first book, The Tipping Point. Like that bestselling earlier book, Blink is packed with fascinating studies and profiles. Here Gladwell starts with art historians' knack for sensing a sophisticated forgery (they couldn't initially verbalize the exact problem), and ends with a notorious failure of intuition, the shooting death of Amadou Diallo. Along the way we are by turns wowed and disquieted by scores of other examples that bolster his conclusion that good "thin-slicing," or ignoring all but a few salient facts in the face of potentially overwhelming amounts of data, is what makes for truly expert judgment. --Chris Wilcox
[paperback release Fall 2007]


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The World Made Straight: A Novel By Ron Rash Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780312426606
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Picador - March 20th, 2007

In his third novel award winning author Ron Rash once again revels in the complexity of southern Appalachian history and culture while giving us another engaging story with universal ideas. Four of the major characters -- a boy in the process of becoming a man, an habitual victim, a former teacher turned small-time drug dealer, and a slightly bigger-time drug dealer who makes for a complex villain -- interact around themes of redemption and family. Set in the 1970s with a doctor's journal entries providing glimpses back to Civil War- era Madison County, Rash turns his poet's gift for nuanced language and storyteller's knack for tight plotting to tell a violent tale reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's writing.


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Fire from Heaven: A Novel of Alexander the Great (The Alexander Trilogy #1) By Mary Renault Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780375726828
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: Vintage - June 11th, 2002

A marvelous historical novel that depicts Alexander the Great as a eccentric yet charismatic youth, clearly vibrating at a higher frequency.


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Outliers: The Story of Success By Malcolm Gladwell Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780316017930
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Back Bay Books - June 7th, 2011

Gladwell is thought-provoking as usual. Serious scholars of Appalachian Studies don't think much of the Ulster migration portion of Albion's Seed, Gladwell's main source for a chapter on West Virginia feuding.


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The Bone People: Booker Prize Winner (A Novel) By Keri Hulme Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780140089226
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Penguin Books - October 7th, 1986

No synopsis captures the potential for this book to haunt you. This being said, the story follows a woman living a secluded life in a tower on the coast of New Zealand. She is torn from her isolation by a single father and his mute son.


The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel By Barbara Kingsolver Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780060786502
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Perennial Modern Classics - July 11th, 2023

The Hours: A Novel (Picador Modern Classics #1) By Michael Cunningham Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780312243029
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Picador - January 15th, 2000

Drop City By T.C. Boyle Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780142003800
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: Penguin Books - January 27th, 2004

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The Sparrow: A Novel (The Sparrow Series #1) By Mary Doria Russell Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780449912553
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ballantine Books - September 8th, 1997

Jesuits in space.  Who better to send on a First Contact mission than the black robes?


Lone Wolf: Eric Rudolph and the Legacy of American Terror By Maryanne Vollers Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780060598631
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Harper Perennial - November 6th, 2007

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Suttree (Vintage International) By Cormac McCarthy Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780679736325
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - May 5th, 1992

Suttree is said to be the novel that "got (the author) kicked out of Knoxville".  A masterpiece!


The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America By Erik Larson Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780375725609
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Vintage - February 10th, 2004

Crashing Through: The Extraordinary True Story of the Man Who Dared to See By Robert Kurson Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812973686
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - August 19th, 2008

Middlesex: A Novel By Jeffrey Eugenides Cover Image
$21.00
ISBN: 9780312427733
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Picador - June 5th, 2007

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The Tiger's Wife: A Novel By Téa Obreht  Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780385343848
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - November 1st, 2011

The Tiger's Wife marks the debut of an impressive talent -- Tea Obrech is the youngest of The New Yorker's 20 Writers Under 40. A young woman and her grandfather, both physicians in eastern Europe, are confronted with real-world manifestations of legends (such as the Deathless Man) that strain credulity. Elements of folklore, Balkan history, and the dynamics of a family confronting mortality intertwine to make a novel that I found utterly engrossing. Look for the paperback release in November.- -Chris Wilcox


The Night Circus: A Novel By Erin Morgenstern Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780307744432
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Vintage - July 3rd, 2012

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale By Herman Melville, Andrew Delbanco (Introduction by), Tom Quirk (Commentaries by) Cover Image
By Herman Melville, Andrew Delbanco (Introduction by), Tom Quirk (Commentaries by)
$16.00
ISBN: 9780142437247
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Penguin Classics - December 31st, 2002

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The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle #1) By Patrick Rothfuss Cover Image
$10.99
ISBN: 9780756404741
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: DAW - April 1st, 2008

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The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicle #2) By Patrick Rothfuss Cover Image
$10.99
ISBN: 9780756407919
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: DAW - April 2nd, 2013

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Wolf Hall: A Novel (Wolf Hall Trilogy #1) By Hilary Mantel Cover Image
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ISBN: 9780312429980
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: Picador - August 31st, 2010

The interior world of Thomas Cromwell, the common-born mastermind operating behind the throne of Henry VIII, is brilliantly and sympathetically portrayed in this Booker Prize winning novel.



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Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel (Wolf Hall Trilogy #2) By Hilary Mantel Cover Image
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ISBN: 9781250024176
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: Picador - May 7th, 2013

This deftly rendered sequel to Wolf Hall is even better as Cromwell's maneuvers within the Tudor court are further developed, and now Anne Boleyn has to go. Bring Up the Bodies marked the first time a woman author was awarded a second Booker Prize, and the first time the prestigious prize went to a sequel.



Close Range: Wyoming Stories By Annie Proulx Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780684852225
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Scribner - February 10th, 2000

True Grit: A Novel By Charles Portis, Donna Tartt (Afterword by) Cover Image
By Charles Portis, Donna Tartt (Afterword by)
$17.00
ISBN: 9781590204597
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: The Overlook Press - November 5th, 2010

Castle: A Caldecott Honor Award Winner By David Macaulay Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780395329207
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Clarion Books - October 25th, 1982

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The Wind in the Willows (Puffin Classics) By Kenneth Grahame Cover Image
$8.99
ISBN: 9780141321134
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Puffin Books - March 27th, 2008

This beautiful adventure story features lovely descriptive language, a toad with a startling ego, and several of the nicest friendships ever conceived in children's literature.


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Breed: A Novel By Chase Novak Cover Image
$21.99
ISBN: 9780316198585
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Mulholland Books - September 10th, 2013

Breed is a mad scientist tale that is well-wrought, horrifying and hilarious in a way that makes you cringe.  Chase Novack is a psuedonym for Scott Spencer.


One Foot in Eden: A Novel By Ron Rash Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780312423056
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Picador - January 3rd, 2004

Burning Bright: Stories By Ron Rash Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780061804120
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ecco - February 1st, 2011

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (Classic Seuss) By Dr. Seuss Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780394844848
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House Books for Young Readers - December 9th, 1989

The Hinterlands: A Mountain Tale in Three Parts By Robert Morgan Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781565120211
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Algonquin Books - April 25th, 1994

Paddle-to-the-Sea: A Caldecott Honor Award Winner By Holling C. Holling Cover Image
$13.99
ISBN: 9780395292037
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Clarion Books - February 19th, 1980

Dog on It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery (The Chet and Bernie Mystery Series #1) By Spencer Quinn Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781416585848
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Atria Books - September 29th, 2009

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The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the America's Cup By Julian Guthrie Cover Image
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ISBN: 9780802121356
Availability: Out of Print: used copies probably available. Ask us.
Published: Grove Press - May 21st, 2013

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (with bonus content): A Novel By Michael Chabon Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780812983586
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - June 12th, 2012

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A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Series #1) By Deborah Harkness Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780143119685
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Penguin Books - December 27th, 2011

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781400052189
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Crown - March 8th, 2011

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II By Robert Kurson Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780375760983
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - May 24th, 2005

K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain By Ed Viesturs, David Roberts Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780767932608
Availability: We can probably get this title but the price is subject to change.
Published: Crown - August 3rd, 2010

Annapurna: The First Conquest Of An 8,000-Meter Peak By Maurice Herzog, Conrad Anker (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Maurice Herzog, Conrad Anker (Foreword by)
$16.95
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ISBN: 9781599218939
Published: Lyons Press - May 18th, 2010

Geek Love: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) By Katherine Dunn Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780375713347
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Vintage - June 11th, 2002

A Prayer for Owen Meany By John Irving Cover Image
$8.99
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ISBN: 9780062204226
Published: Mariner Books - April 3rd, 2012

The Last Season By Eric Blehm Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780060583019
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Harper Perennial - January 30th, 2007

Alif the Unseen By G. Willow Wilson Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802121226
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Grove Press - April 2nd, 2013

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One By George R. R. Martin Cover Image
$9.99
ISBN: 9780553573404
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Bantam - August 4th, 1997

A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two By George R. R. Martin Cover Image
$9.99
ISBN: 9780553579901
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Bantam - September 5th, 2000

A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Three By George R. R. Martin Cover Image
$9.99
ISBN: 9780553573428
Availability: No new copies on our shelves but maybe in used, now or arriving soon. Ask us.
Published: Bantam - March 4th, 2003

Cataloochee: A Novel By Wayne Caldwell Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812973730
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - June 10th, 2008

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