This is a love story unlike any you've ever read. Baumbach twists the story inside-out, shifting perspectives and even narrators along the way. The result is a sort of Italo-Calvino-meets-Jean-Luc-Godard experience. Perfect for fans of Kafka, Barthelme, and Borges. Truly adventurous literature.

Recommended by Patrick

After Pierre Hunter falls through the ice while skating on a local lake, he’s rescued by the beautiful, haunted Stella Rosmarin. When he falls in love with her, he becomes embroiled in a revenge plot involving a murderous thief, an arsonist, and a large sum of money. This novel reads like a cool, whimsical and somewhat supernatural No Country for Old Men (if that makes any sense). At times starkly realistic and at others magical, this terse, daringly original novel will linger with you for months.

Recommended by Patrick

Lit-blogger Sarvas proves he's more than just an internet wonder with this funny, readable, and ultimately moving debut novel. After his wife passes away, Harry Rent decides to reinvent himself, a la The Count of Monte Cristo. In his quest to win the heart of a local waitress, he does a bit of good, makes a few serious mistakes, and begins to come to grips with the mess he's made of his life. A very fine first novel and hopefully a sign of great things to come from Sarvas.

Recommended by Patrick

This story, told in a series of uncomfortably, inappropriately intimate (and hilarious) letters to a high school alumni newsletter, is the great under appreciated novel of our time. The protagonist, "Tea Bag" to you and me, reminisces about the horrors of high school and his ongoing sexual fantasies, most of which involve the leg warmers of the high school dance team. "Wakie wakie, eggs and bakie!" Time to read the funniest, weirdest, best author you've never heard of.

Recommended by Patrick

This is the best memoir of the year. I’ve never read a book that so perfectly captures what it’s like to be smart and adrift in your early thirties. When Julie Klam was growing up, her mother did everything in her power to protect Julie from any kind of hardship. She did such a good job that Julie never learned to deal with adversity. Klam chronicles her hilarious struggle into adulthood as she bungles her way through job interviews, relationships with mobsters (really), and eventually, pregnancy and motherhood. Funny, and at times, quite touching. A perfect summer read.

Recommended by Patrick

This book is an incredible look at the multi-billion dollar luxury goods industry, but it’s more than that – it’s a treatise on value. Starting with the life of Louis Vuitton himself, Thomas traces the history of the luxury industry right up to the present day. She crafts wonderful narratives around the origins of companies like Prada, Gucci, Hermes, and Dior. She clearly and convincingly traces the history of certain people and movements - the "it" handbag, Tom Ford's career, the history of Prada - and shows a terrific grasp of the economic and societal factors driving the industry. At times, the book can read like product porn, as Thomas writes rhapsodically about some of these luxury goods, but who can fault her. An Hermes bag, after all, probably deserves to be compared to any fine work of art, be it a painting, a song, or a novel. A fast read, and, I think, an important book for our times.

Recommended by Patrick

Imagine a landscape so bleak that people will eat the glue from book bindings as a treat ("library candy," they called it), a city so starved not even the rats are safe. This is life during the Siege of Leningrad in WWII. In this war-torn, decimated city Lev Benioff, David Benioff's grandfather, makes the near-fatal mistake of looting a dead German soldier. Arrested and taken to the most terrifying prison in Russia, Lev and his new cellmate, the handsome, charismatic Kolya, are given an ultimatum: find a dozen eggs for a powerful colonel's daughter's wedding cake or be executed. Lev and Kolya set off to find the eggs, an impossible task in WWII Russia. Their journey takes them behind German lines and deep into the Russian countryside, where they meet an unforgettable cast characters. Ferociously paced, full of wit, and surprisingly sexy (you wouldn't think famine could be so hot!), City of Thieves is the perfect summer read.

Recommended by Patrick

The hype is justified! This immense and innovative novel centers around the gruesome and perplexing murders of hundreds of women on the US/Mexico border. But it’s so much more than that: a thrilling literary mystery, an examination of the role of the artist and the critic, and a meditation on posterity and man’s enduring capacity for evil. The violence in this book is real and terrible, and I wouldn’t recommend it for those with a weak stomach, but for those who brave its pages, this novel offers an unforgettable reading experience and years’ worth of thought. More readable than most “big books,” 2666 will keep you turning the pages to the very end. A masterpiece.

Recommended by Patrick