Sentence, Mikhail Iossel

For once, the blurb on the cover is really true. This book is “comic in the tradition of Gogol, Keret, Barthelme, and Saunders.” Each of the stories in this unusual collection is literally a sentence. A favorite is Posh Lust. The author, the main character, is having his black tea and a delicious almond croissant in a downtown Montreal shopping mall. He needs “a break from that bottomless mixed bag of real horror and pure silliness, sadness and cringeworthy pretentious, raw heartbreak, self-righteousness" that surrounds him. He reflects on his time in the semi-underground samizdat literary club he belonged to back in the ’80s in Leningrad. One story, Line in the Sand, is a mere seven lines. Each story has special potency and humor. If you are in a place where you are aware of the special things we have in Montreal, Quebec, Canada this book has it all: author, publisher, even bookseller.

Carey recommends: Playground: A Novel, Richard Powers

This is a thrilling book by acclaimed author and Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Powers. A compelling story of two very different men who become best friends at school and bond over the ancient game of Go. This becomes significant as Go is an abstract strategy game that has been played continuously for over 2500 years. As they become men, they go on completely different paths, one into computer programming and AI, the other into poetry and literature. Yet it is this one friendship that consumes both their lives. Evie Beaulieu is obsessed with the ocean, and has been since her father strapped her into one of the first aqualungs and tossed her into the ocean. Diving becomes her reason for living and almost eclipses everything else. Nature, technology and our characters merge on the Polynesian island of Makatea. The island that has just been chosen for humanity's next big experiment.

Annie recommends: Room on the Sea, André Aciman

André Aciman’s new book, Room On The Sea, contains three thoughtful novellas that revolve around love, human connection, and the fleetingness of time. The first story follows a group of friends who meet a mysterious stranger whose insights about their lives and fates change the ways they see love and time itself. The second centers on a sudden, kindly connection between two strangers who explore worlds of “what ifs” and “maybes,” both worn down by routine and familiarity. The final story explores the loneliness of heartbreak and the reluctant sympathy we give to past lovers out of nostalgia. With each of these stories, Aciman captures people as intertwined souls, as passing ships (who keep passing…), and as the car crash we can’t look away from. Room On The Sea is an impactful meditation on love and the ways we reach for—and miss—one another. Aciman captures emotions that usually feel too abstract to name, illuminating them with such clarity that you can’t help but feel totally seen. This book is an absolute must-read. I was entranced in a way that I hadn’t been in a long time and finished the entire thing in a single sitting!