-“What do you have there?”

–“It’s a book.”

It can’t tweet, text, or provide you with a wi-fi hotspot.  But it can make you laugh, think, and smile with just the turn of a page.  It’s a Book by Lane Smith is a charming read for kids as young as 5.  Journey through the colorful world of Monkey and his friends as they discover all the wonderful things a book can do- without a mouse.    

Medium Raw reads like a great meal: it opens with a tantalizing cocktail of a chapter that helps you remember why you wanted to read Bourdain’s book in the first place- because it is decadent.  Because it is exotic.  Because it is delicious.

Anthony Bourdain’s follow up to 2001’s acclaimed Kitchen Confidential is a joy to read for food and travel lovers alike.  Bourdain’s conversational and oft vulgar writing style draws you in easily; one minute you’re reading on your couch, the next you are on a culinary expedition through Thailand and Beirut.  Bourdain addresses many topics currently in the foodie zeitgeist- the inside dish on “Top Chef,” current heavy weights in modern cooking, and what chefs really think about food bloggers- as well as thoughts on raising children in a world where fast food is king, and what it means to be (in his words) “a sell out.”

Bourdain’s intimate and hilarious new work ends on a sweet note, leaving the reader satisfied with the meal and ultimately craving seconds.

Anthony Bourdain will be appearing at Florida State University’s 7 Days of Opening Nights festival on Wednesday, February 16th at 8:00pm.  For more information, visit their website at: http://www.sevendaysfestival.org/bourdain

The typical antebellum narrative gives readers the sometimes horrific and sometimes lovely realities of the black and white plantation society. In Kathleen Grissom’s debut novel The Kitchen House lines get a little more blurred.

The story is dually narrated by Lavinia, an orphaned Irish indentured servant (an oft forgot part of the eighteenth century labor force) and Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia develops deep bonds to her new slave family, but soon is forced into a white world. The straddling of two worlds brings characters into both physical and psychological battles that will keep you flipping fast.

A few weeks ago, customer Gidge told us about a book that another indie bookseller in St. Simon’s Island can’t get enough of: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. Always seeking out books that don’t stay on the shelf, I ordered a couple of copies, took it home, and read it. It’s true: this is one I can’t wait to hand sell. In the right hands, it will be a powerful read.

Our shelves are filled with unique and powerful WWII stories (Suite Francaise, Sarah’s Key, Guernsey Literary…) and yet this one has managed to tell a new story. The Eastern Front is certainly less familiar to most of us than the oft-covered Western Front and perhaps that’s what drew me in.

Our narrator Philip is a half-Chinese, half-British Malay islander. When Philip’s British family leaves to spend a few months in England, Philip stays behind and develops a strong bond with his Japanese sensei, Endo-San. As the war breaks out and the Japanese take over the island, Philip is caught in a tangled web of wartime loyalties. In the end, we’re left with a character that’s both a hero and a villain.

Rain offers readers an appreciation of the complexities of a multi-cultural society at war. It poignantly unpacks both the strength and frailty of family in a setting you’ll want to drink in.

Around graduation time every year, I like to read a classic book on personal development. My mom seems to have read them all, so I turn to her for suggestions: Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, etc.

This year, she passed me a very dog-eared and underlined copy of Viktor Frankl’s  Man’s Search for Meaning (first released in 1947). Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, first tells of his struggle to find a reason to live while imprisoned in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. He then describes his pyschotherapy philosophy that grew out of this experience– logotherapy.

Logotherapy, in contrast to many of the psychological methods of the time, is future oriented. Unlike Freud and his contemporaries, who looked at one’s past as the source of pyschological issues, Frankl argues that lack of meaning produces psychological tensions. The mechanized era that produced an abundance of leisure time often leaves people lacking meaning in their daily existence.

Drawing from examples from  the concentration camps and as therapist in the suicidal wing of a mental hospital, Frankl motivates his patients and readers to find purpose, even in desperate situations. This, he says, restores human dignity and leads to ultimate fulfillment.

It’s the perfect little book for graduates who are in the process of discovering their calling in life.