There are no products in your shopping cart.
Visit Warwick's on...
Upcoming events
Search for Ebooks
User login
Shop @ Warwick's
| 0 Items | Total: $0.00 |
Seth's Selections
If a book has made the list here, my friend, its quality is guaranteed. You can check out some of my longer recommendations over on the Warwick's blog or on my website, The Book Catapult. Like my Top Ten Books for 2009...
Did you love one of my picks? Hate one of my picks? Let me know: seth@warwicks.com.
-Bookie since July 2003-
The Devil's Star (Hardcover)
$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780061133978Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harper, 03/01/2010
While you can certainly read this without having read Jo Nesbo before, I would heartily recommend reading The Redbreast & Nemesis first, to better appreciate the undercurrent of tension that exists between detectives Harry Hole & his archenemy, Tom Waaler. That said, this is, by far, Nesbo’s finest effort to date. Without sacrificing plot for character, he manages to perfectly work this cranked-up tension between cops into an intricate labyrinth of a crime novel, keeping you guessing not just every turn of the murder case they’re working, but at every twist they throw in their attempts to destroy one another. Add Harry to the list of brilliant, realistically flawed detectives – great for Mankell, Bruen, Rankin fans. (You can read more on the Warwick's Blog.) -Seth
$26.95
ISBN-13: 9780385517928Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Doubleday, 03/01/2010
This is a collection of essays by journalist David Grann, author of the staff favorite The Lost City of Z. Grann has a unique eye for the unusual story & this, coupled with his more than competent journalistic prose, makes for some great reading. A former Haitian murderer sells real estate in Queens; Rickey Henderson is still trying to get back to the Major Leagues at age 50; Steve O’Shea is sure he can capture a live Giant Squid; my favorite: hundreds of men have toiled daily under the streets of Manhattan for the last 30 years to complete the construction of City Tunnel #3 - the conduit for the 1.3 billion gallons of water used by the city's residents every day. Fascinating stuff. -Seth
The Godfather of Kathmandu (Hardcover)
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780307263193Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Knopf, 01/01/2010
Burdett is firing on all cylinders in this, the 4th novel featuring Bangkok’s ‘last honest’ cop, Sonchai Jitpleecheep. Except, Sonchai may not be as incorruptible as he would have us believe. After sharing his Godfather DVD set with his boss, the drug-smuggling, strip-club running million-naire Colonel Vikorn, he has finally accepted a suspicious pay raise, the new title of ‘consigliore’, & a position at both ends of Vikorn’s heroin pipeline from Nepal. He does have a newfound faith, however, and it is this dichotomy that is the heart to this novel & Sonchai’s character – watching his internal debate over his actions is fascinating. And it’s a blisteringly paced crime novel as well. Great stuff. –Seth
The Farmer's Daughter (Hardcover)
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9780802119346Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Grove Press, 12/01/2009
These 3 novellas (primarily of the American West) by modern master Harrison are vastly different, yet strangely cohesive. Although Harrison is known as a “guy’s” writer (whatever that means) his strongest piece in this is the title story – a vignette in the life of a rebellious 16-year old girl on a ranch in Montana. He paints her with such vivacious clarity & heart that I found myself profoundly disappointed when her story ended. But, the 2nd tale quickly dispelled that feeling with the hilarious madness of Native American wanderer, fool, & drunkard, Brown Dog. Harrison wraps things up nicely with a perfectly believable tale of a modern werewolf in the 3rd section. Seriously – it seems reasonable to get bitten by a wolf in Mexico & end up hunting on the full moon, doesn’t it? -Seth
Let the Great World Spin (Paperback)
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780812973990Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 06/01/2010
A wonderful surprise of a book (& the winner of the 2009 National Book Award) that shows us how our lives connect in the most subtle, sometimes profound ways. Loosely set around the day of Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, this multi-layered narrative is at turns a love letter to NYC, a polemic on the duplicitous nature of humanity, and a nod to the Towers themselves. Can you get a true sense of ‘humanity’ from a novel? I’m not sure, but it was this sense that really struck me – you just never know how your actions are affecting the people you interact with every day. For good or for ill, it is our very humanness that binds us all together. Truly brilliant. –Seth
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9781400078455Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Vintage, 01/01/2010
A phenomenal book about Colonel Percy Fawcett's Victorian-era search of the Amazon for a lost civilization that he was utterly convinced was buried in the jungle. New Yorker writer, David Grann pens Fawcett's tale with fabulous narrative aplomb - constantly keeping you guessing at what may lie across the next uncharted river or through the next stand of massive, sunlight devouring trees. The pace is perfect throughout - Grann sprinkles just enough of his own comparatively anemic 21st century excursion into the jungle within the history lesson that is Fawcett's life to keep the reader fully engaged and, well, a little bit obsessed with the story. His own obsession pales in comparison with that of the Colonel - he follows him, yes, into the heart of the Amazon, but with the express goal of coming out again to write this story, not to perish in the rain forest without any answers. (To perish would be decidedly Victorian and not very New Yorker.) But the most compelling element, even with the mounting suspense over what actually happened to Fawcett, is in what Grann learns while searching deep in the forests of Brazil. The final chapter reads like an edge-of-your-seat adventure novel, complete with bombshell surprises and a cliffhanger ending, while keeping grounded in reality by the journalist's presence. Could this crazed, Indiana Jones-type have been onto something - even without having any real proof? Could there have existed a massive, advanced civilization - complete with highways, bridges, and multiple townships - beneath the impenetrable canopy of the Amazon rain forest? There seems to be a certain irony that the life of this explorer has been as obscured by the annals of history as his obsession - Z - has been obscured by the forest canopy. The non-fiction book of this new year. -Seth
The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (Hardcover)
$27.95
ISBN-13: 9781594202179Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Press HC, The, 05/01/2009
This remarkably original debut novel will blow your mind, warm your heart, and completely change the way you read & how you think about the book as an art form. In this age of instant information, reality television, pop-up ads, and the God that is Google, Reif Larsen has created an island in the hurricane of modern life that acts as an alternative to the breakneck pace that is our world. It is unlike anything I have ever read in my life – I feel that Spivet is so well written & so unusual in its structure, that it could become the benchmark of what books are truly capable of. So, sit down, relax, & let T.S. show you the world through his eyes for a while – I guarantee that you’ve never seen anything like it. -Seth (Check out my full review on the Book Catapult.)
Everything Matters! (Hardcover)
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780670020928Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Viking Adult, 06/01/2009
Imagine that you were born with the absolute, unquestionable knowledge that the world would end in a fiery comet collision somewhere around your 36th birthday. How would you live your life knowing that everything you say, think, or do is relatively futile – or at least decisively finite? Would you throw it all away, would you try & save the world, or would you just...live? This was a book that completely caught me off guard – both with Currie’s brilliant narrative crafting and with the story’s powerful, raw humanity. Sharp, intelligent humor permeates every page & is the driving force behind it all – without laughter, the very idea of this would be too morose & depressing. Instead, Junior’s life story makes for one of the most original & compelling novels I have read in a long while. It’s rare that you read a new novel & come out the other side knowing that it will become one of your all-time favorites.... THE best book I read in 2009. -Seth
Inherent Vice (Hardcover)
$27.95
ISBN-13: 9781594202247Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Press HC, The, 08/01/2009
Uh, how to explain this book… A pot-smoking, hippie private investigator in 1970’s Gordita Beach looking for drug-running, counterfeiting, murdering dentists? Zombie surfer bands, Nazi Ethel Merman fans, lots of pot, lots of hippies, & countless hilariously named characters. This is a crazy, flat out brilliant novel – but not for everyone, as I’m sure you can imagine. Sort of like a Hunter S. Thompson novel about Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski with more of a distinct crime noir, Raymond Chandler thing going on. Awesome, hilarious, genius! I loved every word of it. -Seth
Between the Assassinations (Hardcover)
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9781439152928Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Free Press, 06/01/2009
I now have no doubt that Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning The White Tiger was by no means a fluke - in fact, it just might be the tip of his talent iceberg as this second book shows his emergence as a veritable literary force. These linked stories, set in the small Indian town of Kittur on the Arabian Sea, showcase Adiga’s considerable skill & the seemingly boundless population of fully formed characters at his fingertips. These tales read as if Kittur is the character itself, providing a broad-sweeping narrative on the intricate social caste system that is very much alive in modern India. A stunning, beautiful novel. -Seth
The Financial Lives of the Poets (Hardcover)
$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780061916045Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harper, 10/01/2009
Halfway through this, as my sides ached from laughing, I thought, “I had no idea Jess Walter was so funny”. The humor is dark and the situation is bleak for sleepless, unemployed Matt, who is in danger of losing his house, his wife, all his money, and his sanity. Then he decides to sell pot to make the money he needs to save it all – how do you think that ends? At turns heartbreaking and hilarious, Edgar Winner (Citizen Vince) and National Book Award finalist (The Zero), Walter has created a moving & very human story about how quickly our lives can change & how we each handle life’s persistent curveballs. -Seth
Breath (Paperback)
$14.00
ISBN-13: 9780312428396Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Picador, 05/01/2009
This is ostensibly a surf novel and I’m no surfer, but Tim Winton's descriptions of life among the big Australian waves made me wish that I had the ability and the courage to get out there. Much of the novel is just that – boys Pike & Loonie, with their wave guru Sando, learning to live by surfing the unsurfable. And while there is an element of "coming of age" for young Brucie Pike (wink, wink), it is Winton's capturing of that magical, indefinable element to surfing and laying it all out there in erudite, brilliant prose that makes this well worth the read. Read it if you love surfing, but also read it if you have never stood on a board in your life - take that deep breath before the plunge & I think the latter group will get more out of it. -Seth
PS: Here's a sample, in case you weren't yet convinced:"I will always remember my first wave that morning. The smells of paraffin wax and brine and peppy scrub. The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air. How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momemtum in my ears. I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind. The blur of spray. The billion shards of light. I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie's smile as I flew by; I was intoxicated. And though I've lived to be an old man with my own share of happiness for all the mess I made, I still judge every joyous moment, every victory and revelation against those few seconds of living."
The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri (Paperback)
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780143115403Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 05/01/2009
An unusual, dreamy, erudite book that was truly able to transport me elsewhere, out of the real world while I read it. I do hate to be cliché, but it's sort of a smarter, sexier version of Shadow of the Wind, with a more ethereal beauty to it than that – almost like having a novel-length dream. When Irma mysteriously disappears one day, she leaves Philip all 351 books in her library and he uses his own mathematical formula for selecting the order in which to read them, to better understand where Irma may have gone. There is a certain mystery element here, but, like it does with Philip, this becomes secondary to learning more about who Irma and Philip are, both together and apart. Beautifully written – a magnificent debut. -Seth
Stone's Fall (Hardcover)
$27.95
ISBN-13: 9780385522847Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Spiegel & Grau, 05/01/2009
Total Chaos (Paperback)
$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781933372044Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Europa Editions, 11/01/2005
Total Chaos is the first part of Izzo's brilliant Marseilles Trilogy - Chourmo and Solea round things out. I’m always searching for that next great series of detective/mystery/ noir/grit novels to keep me entertained between "serious fiction" reads and the late J-C Izzo's books - recently republished by Europa - fit the bill and are absolutely magnificent. Fabio Montale is just the sort of self-loathing detective we’re always looking for. Although he spends a lot of time waxing philosphic & drinking scotch alone in his rowboat, he’s tremendously protective of those he loves, a fact not lost on Izzo, wielder of the pen and manipulator of men. I have never felt the tension ratcheting up in a novel like I did towards the end of Solea (book 3) and it’s rare that I genuinely have absolutely no idea what a main character’s fate will be. I think I just convinced myself to start reading them again. Man, these are good books. -Seth
You can check out my full review of all three books - for those still interested - on my personal website, The Book Catapult.