Shea's Bookshelf

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

There are two types of readers: those who keep their books in pristine condition, never bending a page, never underlining, doing their best to keep the spine uncracked; and those who tear their books apart, taking them in backpacks and purses and back pockets, always having a pencil or pen or sharpie to underline the good phrases. I used to be the first. I am now the second. And let me tell you, this is a take with you everywhere and underline kind of book…

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla?” And so this koan kicks off the conversation of a lifetime between teacher and student, between man and gorilla, between the Takers and the Leavers, between all that we have to learn and all that we refuse to see, between writer and author…

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
The Rook, The Rook, how to best tell you about this book. I’d say The Rook is like Men in Black, where a group of covert operatives protect the world from supernatural evil forces, but then I’d be leaving out the chess… I’d say The Rook is like that scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where Hermione pretends to be Bellatrix Lestrange in order to gain access to Voldemort’s crew and secret base, but that would only make sense if Hermione was actually a follower of You-Know-Who and had to pretend she was the closest ally of He-Shall-Not-Be-Named so as not to be killed but a fellow follower. Are you following me? Probably not. Intrigued? I hope so.

We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer

We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer
Books on climate change are not fun. If you have any knowledge on the subject, you know this to be true. It’s hard to listen or engage in a subject that guarantees our impending doom (when it’s not science-fiction or post-apocalyptic fiction)...What makes We Are the Weather different is Foer’s writing...Foer’s writing style...is intimate and vulnerable and close, propelling the story swiftly forward even with the hard subject he’s handling.

What do I read next?

Have you ever had that feeling when you’re 20-100 pages from the end of a book and you start reading slower because you don’t want the story to end...