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Tom's Picks

Tom - Resident Artistic Genius

Bio 

I’m most attracted to well crafted, courageous prose; the subject matter is less important.

 

Reading History (lots of gaps):

Ages 1-13: Winnie the Pooh, The Boy Who Got Mailed, The Little Engine That Could, the Hardy Boys series.

Ages 13-18: Ian Fleming (James Bond), Hermann Hesse, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ayn Rand, Richard Brautigan

Ages 18-present: Paul Theroux, Bernard Malamud, John Steinbeck, James Herriott, Ken Kesey, Iris Murdoch

The Good Son: The Life of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini (Hardcover)

By Mark Kriegel
$27.00
ISBN-13: 9780743286350
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Free Press, 9/2012
Other Editions of this Title
The author effectively builds the history of boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini and Duk Koo Kim, a Korean fighter who died following their bout. A very readable depiction of boxing in the eighties--its risks and impacts.

Ethan Frome (Paperback)

By Edith Wharton
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780684825915
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Scribner, 3/1997
A powerful story of a secret love finally set free with tragic results, set in a wintry New England rural landscape. Descriptions of internal and external realities and their quiet interactions match the snowy setting nicely.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Paperback)

By Bill Bryson
$15.99
ISBN-13: 9780767919371
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Broadway, 9/2007
Other Editions of this Title
An autobiography written with the flair typical of the author; a great way to get to know Des Moines, Iowa.

Dubliners (Paperback)

By James Joyce, John Banville
$10.00
ISBN-13: 9780812983012
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Modern Library, 8/2012
Fifteen short stories exposing for Dubliners themselves the paralyzing aspects of their conventions and the subtle beauties of their lives within them.

Hard Times (Mass Market Paperback)

By Charles Dickens
$4.95
ISBN-13: 9781416523734
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Simon & Schuster, 1/2007
Disillusion, poverty, despair, redemption, joy: all covered to grasp the hope of Christmas; pulled off nicely by way of Dickens' usual charm.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Paperback)

By Carson McCullers
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780618526413
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mariner Books, 4/2004
Other Editions of this Title
I had the feeling I was a spirit. Floating through a Southern town, getting the gist of some of its occupants. Beautifully pyschological.
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