Staff picks: 9 late summer reads suggested by indie booksellers
What the staff and owners at Brooklyn’s independent bookstores are reading at the beach (and in bed) this summer
If there’s one thing you can find an abundance of in Brooklyn, it’s indie bookstores — each with its own unique charms. And the employees of these shops play a massive role in bringing the spaces to life. Being a bookseller is often so much more than just a job: they’re confidants, therapists, friends … sometimes lovers. OK, maybe that’s a stretch, but they are certainly some of the best people to turn to for recommendations.
While the summer stays hot and we spend our last few weeks escaping to the coasts with books in hand, our trusted booksellers have been doing their summer reading too. Whether you head to the Jersey Shore, The Hamptons, The Rockaways or the park, why not take a little bit of Brooklyn’s top picks with you?
We asked employees at independent bookstores all around Brooklyn what they’ve been reading. Here are their selections:
Store: Mil Mundos
Staff pick: ‘The Dispossessed’ by Ursula K. Le Guin
About Mil Mundos
Mil Mundos is Bushwick’s bi-lingual literary hub, but it’s so much more than a bookstore. It’s a center for community organizing and mutual aid. The bookstore is operated by their Colectiva, of which staffer Raina Parikh has been a member since last October.
“We do clothing swaps, we distribute essential goods like pads and tampons, diapers, paper towels and toilet paper,” says Parikh. “It’s just really awesome, especially as someone who’s newer to the neighborhood, to be able to meet people who are my neighbors, and also become closer to people within the bookstore. It really is a really awesome group of people.”
About Parikh’s pick
“It’s a quick read, and such a triumph of what science fiction can do, how it can broaden your horizons. So very travel-coded in that sense and the main plot is actually of a man taking a journey in many ways. The book features an anarchist world and [Le Guin] presents this really interesting idea of what an anarchist world could look like and how freeing it could be, and how an anarchist society could blossom and be successful. And it just presents an alternative reality to the kind of the existence that we live in now. So I really enjoyed that. I think my favorite thing about the book is actually the linguistics within the anarchist world. They don’t have any possessive language. There’s no such thing as that’s mine, that’s yours. Definitely pick it up.”
Store: Unnameable Books
Staff pick: ‘Not-So Stories’ by Clark Coolidge, Larry Fagin with illustrations by Glen Baxter and Poetry from Spiral Editions
About Unnameable Books
Unnameable Books is a gem in Prospect Heights, complete with a great outdoor space and plenty of riveting readings and events. Ely Watson, the manager at Unnameable, says that he loves the community that exists in the space.
About Watson’s pick
“They’re very fun, strange collage prose pieces by Coolidge and Fagin that they collaborated on over a 40-year span with fantastic accompanying Glen Baxter illustrations. Fun, bizarre and engaging — perfect to bring to the beach.”
For a bonus, he adds, “Last time I was at the beach I also had with me new releases from the poetry press Spiral Editions, based out of Lawrence, Kansas. Favorites of mine that they have published include ‘Saint of the Abyss’ by Cedar Sigo, ‘I <3 2 Swim’ by Nora Treatbaby, and ‘Underbellies of the Ancient Cube Trick’ by Ricky Salmonhunter. I love reading comics at the beach as well, a recent favorite is ‘PeePee PooPoo #420’ by Caroline Cash, published by Silver Sprocket.”
Store: Books Are Magic
Staff Pick: ‘The Guest’ by Emma Cline
About Books Are Magic
Books Are Magic is an iconic spot for so many reasons, from the gorgeous space of its original location to its expansion into Brooklyn Heights to the incredible events that they host, highlighting all kinds of literary superstars — and a nice platform for owner Emma Straub, herself an acclaimed novelist. Their marketing director, Aatia Davidson, says that she loves how at Books Are Magic, “Anything goes! Booksellers will latch onto a wacky idea for a blog post or a display and we’ll just go with it.”
About Davidson’s pick
“This is highly propulsive fiction for the summertime! A young woman overstays her welcome at her sugar daddy’s house in the Hamptons. She gets the boot, and her slow crawl back to her former lover’s arms is a trainwreck — you can’t look away. This is the rich-people-behaving-badly of ‘White Lotus’ and the punishing heat of summer. You never know what’s going to happen next.”
Store: Greenlight Books
Staff picks: ‘Happy Place’ by Emily Henry and ‘Open Throat’ by Henry Hoke
About Greenlight Books
If you’re looking for a Greenpoint or Fort Greene bookstore that’s packed floor to ceiling with magnificent reads and a great staff to give you recommendations, Greenlight Books is about to become your new favorite spot. Megan Raible, a shift leader and bookseller at Greenlight, says, “Everyone reads so widely, so getting to put together displays like ‘Beach Reads After Dark’ and filling it with all the delightfully weird books we love is always a blast. Plus, I get so many good recommendations I never would’ve picked up on my own.”
About Raible’s picks
“This summer I’ve had two really top tier beach reads! One was ‘Happy Place’ by Emily Henry. Yes, it’s an angsty second-chance romance, but the found family of friends navigating the growing pains of their adult lives hits way closer to home than I was expecting. It’s my new favorite of her books! The second is ‘Open Throat’ by Henry Hoke. All you need to know about this one is that it is from the perspective of a queer mountain lion living in the wilderness surrounding the Hollywood sign in LA. Written in short vignettes, you follow the mountain lion as he observes the humans, and I promise it will have you laughing out loud!”
Store: Black Spring Books
Staff picks: ‘Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch’ by Henry Miller, ‘The Coney of the Mind’ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and ‘Cruising Paradise’ by Sam Shepard
About Black Spring Books
Seeing as Black Spring Books in Williamsburg is a one-woman operation, it only fits to ask the woman herself. Poet, bookseller and bookstore owner Simona Blat has had her store up and running since the pandemic. The shop is named after a collection of essays by Henry Miller, since the shop is located next door to his childhood home. Simona says that he’s “sort of the grandfather spirit of the bookstore.” She says about owning the place, “I never wanted to just sell books, I always hoped the space would be a place where people wanted to hang out, read and talk. Often people say that when they are in the shop they lose track of time, and I think that’s one of the best effects you can impart.”
About Blat’s picks
“The summer is generally when I tackle my ambitious reading (I think this is just a continuation from having a summer reading list when I was a kid and reading books outside of the high school curriculum!). This summer, I have been reading Henry Miller’s ‘Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch,’ since I finally visited Big Sur. It’s a sort of bible of a book for me full of wonderful insight on being an artist in the world and connected to a community while also trying to connect to the land and to isolate. All things constantly on my mind. I highly recommend the book for Miller fans and non-fans alike because it finds him later in life, feeling spiritual and reflective, and is full of some of the most delightful character studies and art maxims.”
She adds, “Another kind of book I like to bring to the beach is either a collection of short stories or a book of poetry. For obvious reasons you can dip into them at leisure in between sun naps and actual dips in the water. I like the satisfaction of reading a short story and then laying around and thinking about it before going in for another. The same with poems. It’s like a bag of chips. I have been reading ‘The Coney of the Mind’ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Sam Shepard’s ‘Cruising Paradise.’ Neither are new, but both kind of have a cowboy energy I have been feeling this summer.”
Store: Cafe Con Libros
Beach Read of Choice: ‘Mujer Sin Vergüenza’ by Sandra Cisneros
About Cafe Con Libros
Cafe Con Libros is an intersectional feminist bookstore, straddling Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. It’s a cafe and bookstore rolled into one, for all of your beverage and book needs. Jesús Castro, a bookseller, event facilitator and barista, is about to celebrate their one-year anniversary with the store. “The team there takes their time with picking out their curation of books,” they say. “I feel that this tremendously helps me since I never know what books to start reading. Here I know that whatever I pick will be worth my while.”
About Castro’s pick
“[It’s] the Spanish version of ‘Women Without Shame’ by Sandra Cisneros. I loved Cisneros’ short stories in ‘The House on Mango Street’ and wanted to check out her poetry while also practicing Spanish. I gotta say I admire her deeply rooted connection with the emotional aspects of latinidad.”
