Beth's Picks

Beth is the frontlist book buyer and IT director for Phoenix Books and has been in bookselling for over a decade. As an omnivorous reader, no genre is off limits, though she harbors a not-so-secret love for young adult fiction. When not reading, Beth can often be found baking something chocolatey, knitting lace, or steadfastly ignoring the weeds in her vegetable garden. She lives in a super-secret Franklin County location with her spouse and their very opinionated rabbits, the Property Destruction Brothers.

Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony

When you try to describe Enter the Aardvark, you have a whole lot of things that really don't belong together. A dudebro congressman fixated on the Reagan era. A reclusive Victorian taxidermist. A missing sorta-but-not-really boyfriend. And a stuffed aardvark who's seen it all. Nothing about this novel should work, and yet, in fewer than 200 pages, Jessica Anthony pulls it off. Much like its titular animal, Enter the Aardvark is simultaneously odd, funny, heartbreaking, and beautiful.

Enter the Aardvark (Hardcover)

By Jessica Anthony

$26.00

ISBN: 9780316536158

Availability: Usually Ships in 3-7 Days

Published: Little, Brown and Company - March 24th, 2020

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

Reviewed by:

Beth

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love Cover Image

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love (Hardcover)

By Dani Shapiro

$24.95

ISBN: 9781524732714

Availability: Usually Ships in 3-7 Days

Published: Knopf - January 15th, 2019

Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer

Reviewed by:

Beth

Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race Cover Image

Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race (Hardcover)

By Lara Prior-Palmer

$25.00

ISBN: 9781948226196

Availability: Usually Ships in 3-7 Days

Published: Catapult - May 7th, 2019

I’m not a horse person, and I’ve never been to Mongolia, but after reading Rough Magic, the debut memoir by Lara Prior-Palmer, I find myself reconsidering my life choices. Prior-Palmer, at the advanced age of 19, vividly brings to life her spur-of-the-moment decision to enter the Mongol Derby, the annual 10-day horse race across the Mongolian steppe. Spoiler alert: she wins, the first woman and the youngest person to do so. How she does it is the real story—Prior-Palmer writes like a dream, capturing the freedom, beauty, and sometimes terror of this 1000-kilometer feat of endurance. Rough Magic is a wild ride from beginning to end, and one you won’t want to miss.

Protest Kitchen

Reviewed by:

Beth

Protest Kitchen: Fight Injustice, Save the Planet, and Fuel Your Resistance One Meal at a Time Cover Image

Protest Kitchen: Fight Injustice, Save the Planet, and Fuel Your Resistance One Meal at a Time (Hardcover)

By Carol J. Adams, Virginia Messina

$16.95

ISBN: 9781573247436

Availability: Usually Ships in 3-7 Days

Published: Red Wheel - October 1st, 2018

In this accessible guide to plant-based cooking, Carol J. Adams and Virginia Messina connect our food choices to social and political movements, outlining practical ways we can make incremental—and delicious!—changes to our diets to affect positive change. Part cookbook, part manifesto, Protest Kitchen is our essential blueprint for the vegan revolution. Resistance has never tasted so good!

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Reviewed by:

Beth

When Dimple Met Rishi (Hardcover)

By Sandhya Menon

$18.99

ISBN: 9781481478687

Availability: Usually Ships in 3-7 Days

Published: Simon Pulse - May 30th, 2017

Smart, sweet, but never sappy, romance between Indian American teens. Dimple, who rejects the traditional path her parents wish for her, and Rishi, who embraces his heritage, seem like polar opposites. Dimple is furious when she discovers that their parents have arranged their introduction at an exclusive summer camp, and Rishi wonders what he's gotten himself into. Forced to work together on a coding project, they discover they have much more in common than not. But how can they compromise on the things that matter most to them?

Last Things by Marissa Moss

Reviewed by:

Beth

Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love Cover Image

Last Things: A Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love (Paperback)

By Marissa Moss

$18.95

ISBN: 9781573246989

Availability: Usually Ships in 3-7 Days

Published: Red Wheel - May 1st, 2017

In this achingly raw graphic memoir, Marissa Moss untangles the seven whirlwind months between her husband’s ALS diagnosis and his death. Forced to balance Harvey’s increasingly complex medical needs and the needs of their three young sons, Moss struggles to maintain a sense of normalcy for their family in the midst of this crisis. Absent are movie-perfect declarations of love and reconciliation; Moss lays bare the emotional devastation left in the wake of Harvey’s illness with her understated drawings and text. But there are moments of joy, too--a morning swim, a tender glance—reminding us to find beauty in the darkest of times. Powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, Last Things challenges readers with its unflinching look at marriage and family, love, and loss.