The Best of Books
Welcome to the bookstore! This is a curated collection of my favorite titles featured by AWB.
(Purchasing any of these great books from Bookshop.org provides me a small commission and ALSO supports local bookstores!)
Night Shift
Stephen King
A creepy spooky scary collection of some of King’s best short stories. Lawnmower Man, Children of the Corn, and, of course, Trucks.
Quarter Share
Nathan Lowell
A sweeping (yet calm) tale of a boy named Ishmael and his journey to the stars on a work-a-day cargo freighter. Vibrant, positive, and fun.
Uncommon Carriers
John McPhee
John McPhee is along for the ride in a chemical tanker, on a boat floating the Illinois River, and more in this riveting non-fiction essay collection.
Racked and Stacked
Lorelei James
A bawdy romance tale about a tough-talking, no-nonsense truck driver and the reserved, and oh-so-hot cowboy she loves to hate.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
This book introduces the four March sisters and their struggle balancing freedom and desire with societal expectations. A feminist classic.
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
This first novel by Hemingway is a leisurely (though sometimes profane and problematic) trip through Spain, France, and love.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
The timeless tale of one boy’s adventure down the Mississippi river—but also of the American frontier (and its racism).
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
An equally timeless tale of boyhood adventure, this one involving fence painting, graveyards, and…murder! With Huck Finn, required reading.
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller
A quintessential American play about deferred dreams and the lies we tell ourselves. A must-read (and must-see) dramatic work.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin
A groundbreaking work of science-fiction about a space ambassador and a world without gender. Page-turning, relevant, and surprising.
Victory
Joseph Conrad
Conrad’s tale of a man who cut himself off from the world and from pain, only to end up inevitably finding both again—as you do.
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
The Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of Scarlett O’Hara, the civil war, and “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” An American icon.
Moby Dick; or, The Whale
Herman Melville
The book that started it all: a gripping, challenging tome about hunting the white whale (and so, so much more). A must-read.
1984
George Orwell
The must-read origin of concepts like “Big Brother” and “thought crime,” and a pillar of dystopic fiction. Necessary and still relevant.
Meltwater
Claire Wahmanholm
Short, haunting, and beautiful poetry collection from one of the US’s premiere modern poets. A must-have for poetry likers.
Consider the Lobster
David Foster Wallace
A wildly variable collection of essays from one of the most unique writers to pick up the pen. Maddening and frustrating as often as rewarding.
Titus Groan
Mervyn Peake
A dreamlike, gothy-type story (the first in a series!) with macabre rituals, spooky characters, and all the dark corridors you could desire.
Doppleganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World
Naomi Klein
One woman’s investigation into her online doppleganger leads to a deep-dive of the “mirror world” of the alt-right and its creators.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
An absolute classic wintery thriller featuring instant-icon Lisbeth Salander and plenty of twists and turns—I read this almost every year.
A Lot of People are Saying
Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum
A detailed breakdown of the rising trend of “conspiracies without the theory,” and how this trend is wielded against the uninformed.