Staff picks are available in the City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94133 // 415-362-8193. Map & Directions. You can also order them from us. See Ordering Information .

The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay
by
Michael Chabon
If you're familiar with the work of Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, or Stan Lee, you'll love this book. Engrossing account of the golden era of comics. Highly recommended!
$26.95
Hardcover
Picked by Richard

 The Bone People
A Novel
by
Keri Hulme
Beware: this is a very compelling read. I stayed up far too many nights reading this book! A beautiful evocation of the complexities of love and the frail, almost impossible nature of any attempt to communicate with and/or understand each other. Simon/Clare, the ethereal boy who animates the two other main characters in this story, is an unforgettable portrait of the hopeless determination with which children must confront a world over which they have no control. You won't be able to rest until you find out his fate.
$13.95
Picked by Elaine

 The Business of Books
by
André Schiffrin
A look at the increasing conglomeration of the publishing industry and its affect on American culture from the one time Executive Director of Pantheon Books. Schiffrin paints a terrifying picture of an industry in which a profit-at-any-cost mentality has largely come to dominate, at the expense of new or interesting thought.
$23.00
Hardcover
Picked by Eric

 Cyberselfish:
A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech
by
Paulina Borsook
This is for all of those personality-less, "I am the only one in the world who counts," SUV-driving, red light-running, dot-commers who toss their credit cards to all of us faceless salespeople without breaking for one second their all-important cell-phone conversations. Yes, a book for all of those who have never learned the golden rule, and lack the cognitive ability to make sense of it, those who would sooner be blinded than make eye contact....
$25.00
Hardcover
Picked by Debbie

 Diamond Dogs
A Novel
by
Alan Watt
Alan Watt's first novel is a compulsively readable, harrowing, yet ultimately humanistic exposé of the demons that fuel the all-American thug.
$23.45
Hardcover
Picked by Lara

 Feast:
Poems
by
Tomaz Salamun
Edited by Charles Simic
Master contortionist, heliocentric aerialist: Tomasz Salamun's newest book of poetry is a lard-free must-see.
$22.00
Hardcover
Picked by Adam

 In Nevada:
The Land, the People, God, and Chance
by
David Thomson
A snappy little socio-anthropological history of Las Vegas--I mean Nevada. The mob. The rat pack. Nuclear testing. What more could you ask?
$14.00
Picked by Jeff

 Indians in Overalls
by
Jaime de Angulo
Indians In Overalls is a model study of modern Native Americans. Jaime de Angulo, an anthropologist and student of languages, seems to catch the cadence of the Pitt River Indians exactly. The structure of his narrative, with its stretches of even observation highlighted by moments of hilarity, is an honest lesson on who the Indians are.
$8.95
Picked by Janaki

 Kind of Blue:
The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece
by
Ashley Kahn
A concise, well-written account of one of the most important communities of recorded music in the twentieth century. The only difficult decision is whether you should spend $23.00 for this book or put that money toward the purchase of the complete Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly.
$23.00
Hardcover
Picked by Paul

 Lying Awake:
A Novel
by
Mark Salzman
What, exactly, is the nature of spiritual ecstasy? After years of humble religious dedication, a Carmelite nun begins to experience exalted states of communion with the divine nature of being. When she is diagnosed with an operable form of neurological illness, she confronts the possibility that her visions have been physically induced. Salzman draws a loving and compassionate picture of a woman wrestling with her humanity and her soul, and offers a nuanced allegory of our search for the muse in the mundane.
$21.00
Hardcover
Picked by Elaine

 The Many Headed Hydra:
Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic
by
Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker
Rediker and Linebaugh bring alive the traditions of the maroons, ranters, levellers, and other insurrectionaries of early colonial America. The influence of C.L.R. James, E.P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm, and Richard Drinner spark this incisive work of history.
$30.00
Hardcover
Picked by Paul

 Murder in Dealey Plaza:
What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then About The Death of JFK
Edited by
James H. Fetzer, Ph.D.
"A rich and fresh collection of fascinating and darkly compelling revelations, demonstrating beyond any doubt the existence of conspiracy and cover-up behind the JFK assassination." --Michael Parenti, from the back cover.
$19.95
Picked by Scott

 A New World:
A Novel
by
Amit Chaudhuri
Chaudhuri once again shows his talent for capturing the bitter-sweetness of childhood as he tells the tale of Bonny, a young boy caught in the emotional divide of his parents' divorce and the confusion of returning to a culture that was never quite his but is still somehow part of him.
$22.00
Hardcover
Picked by Mira

 Rich Media, Poor Democracy:
Communication Politics in Dubious Times
by
Robert W. McChesney
McChesney demystifies our assumption that privatization of the media industry and the growth of the Internet has provided us with better, more democratic communication. Exposing what media moguls conspire to keep quiet, he shows what has helped to centralized much of our media in the hands of a few enormous, mercilessly profit-driven companies.
$17.95
Picked by Eric

 The Royal Family:
A Novel
by
William T. Vollman
William T. Vollmann is the literary equivalent to Spengler. He is an epic chronicler of our "plague years." Year after year, novel after novel, he has proven himself tireless in his exploration of the human condition. Highly recommended!
$12.00
Hardcover
Picked by Peter

 Sarah Sze
by
Jerome Sans
"Sze offers us a world where neither emptiness nor saturation dominates. Where chaos is as relevant as order, and where the common is as important as the extraordinary." --from the jacket copy
$27.50
Picked by Althea

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Last revision: October 26, 2000