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Warren's Picks

WarrenWarren came to QRB with a long history of reading, recommending and selling good books, including owning the Little Professor Book center in Durham for many years and a recent stint with the famous Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California.

He not only works on the floor, but is one of our receivers.  

His reading runs the gamut: poetry, science, children's books, mysteries, nonfiction... you get the idea.  He's especially drawn to books on the upper midwest.  

13 Words (Hardcover)

By Lemony Snicket, Maira Kalman
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780061664656
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: HarperCollins, 10/2010
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First we should understand that this is probably not a children's book even though it purports to teach us 13 words. Rather it is in the tradition of Edward Gorey's abecedariuses, where the simple structure of the tale contrasts sharply with the sophisticated (and hilarious!) worldview being expressed. The BIRD is DESPONDENT facing the Sisyphean task of painting all those ladders even after experiencing the transformative power of CAKE. How will New Yorker artist Kalman and noted reclusive author Snicket help the DOG and GOAT solve this problem with PANACHE? See how they use the other 7 words to accomplish this task.

 

SIGNED copies available after Lemony Snicket's and Maira Kalman's recent visit.  

Forgotten Tales of North Carolina (Paperback)

By Tom Painter, Roger Kammerer
$14.99
ISBN-13: 9781596291775
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: History Press, 8/2006
Tired of the same old Tar Heel history, full of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Wright brothers? Then you should try this slim volume full of attacks of muskrat herds, cigar smoking toddlers, Hoover carts, elves, sea monsters and the boy with "America" written in his eyes. Painter and Kammerer have gleaned these stories from old newspapers and court records as well as from tales of eyewitnesses, genealogists and old people that they knew. No history collection is really complete without this collection of tall tales of the Old North State.

Ready Player One (Hardcover)

By Ernest Cline
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9780307887436
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Crown, 8/2011
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How would you react if one of your pastimes (think sudoku or solitaire or Facebook) suddenly became a contest for real money?

This is what confronts young Wade when the creator of the world's most sophisticated virtual playground announces that whoever solves a series of puzzles hidden within the game will inherit his immense fortune.......AND ownership of the game itself.

What a rollicking quest ensues, as millions of players mount an epic search.  The virtual mayhem soon spills over the boundaries of the game and begins to invade Wade's real life.

Even nongamers will be captivated by Wade's journey as he must use his wits, his honor and his friends (both real and virtual) to beat his dark foes to the ultimate prize.

Exuberantly imagined, cleverly plotted and breathlessly paced; on dozens of "Best of 2011" lists including Nancy's and mine.

Shatner Rules: Your Guide to Understanding the Shatnerverse and the World at Large (Hardcover)

By William Shatner
$21.95
ISBN-13: 9780525952510
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dutton Adult, 10/2011
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Sure, you've seen Kirk and Hooker and Crane, but you still don't know Shatner!  What about the three record albums, the movie entirely in Esperanto, the Brothers Karamazov, the $75,000 gallstone and all those goofy documentaries and anthology series that he characterizes as a "bouillibaisse of spookiosity".  See how following his Rule #1 (Say Yes!) has made him one of Hollywood's best-loved hams.  And only $10.98 through December 31, 2011!

27 Views of Chapel Hill: A Southern University Town in Prose & Poetry (Paperback)

By Daniel Wallace
$16.50
ISBN-13: 9780982077191
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Eno Publishers, 9/2011
Senator Jesse Helms famously recognized Chapel Hill as a special place; these authors agree with that characterization, but for vastly different reasons. Don't trust Daniel Wallace's research, but believe every word of the testimony of these 29 talented writers, both new voices (Tower, Brown) and well-established ones (Elizabeth Spencer, Daphne Athas). I read plenty of Chapel Hill lore back in my old Intimate Bookshop (see the book's cover) days, but I found plenty of new insights in this book about "The City on the Hill".

The Last Werewolf (Hardcover)

By Glen Duncan
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780307595089
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf, 7/2011
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Jake is a fascinating world-weary werewolf. His 200 years of living have given him considerable insight into the human/lupine condition. Scotch, revenge on his enemies, cigarettes, killing prey, love, sex----are any of these enough to get him through what promises to be his last full moon?

Allusions ranging from Thomas Wolfe to True Blood, clever plotting and primarily Jake's rich interior life make this more than just a great werewolf novel, but rather a finely realized novel that just happens to be about a werewolf.

Snow Crash (Google eBook)

By Neal Stephenson
$9.99
Model: RMd3GpIFxcUC
Published: Spectra, 8/2003
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What better choice for my first electronic book than this prophetic satire of the near future? The hero, Hiro Protagonist, works in high-speed pizza delivery in an America that has degenerated into sovereign gated communities linked by private highways. In contrast to this sordid reality, the dazzling Metaverse allows Hiro's avatar to live in 3D in any environment he chooses, limited only by his shrewdness, resources and coding ability. To enhance your own futuristic experience, get Snow Crash from quailridgebooks.com as a Google ebook. Then read it on your laptop...your smartphone...your computer or all of 'em at once!

The Lost Gate (Hardcover)

By Orson Scott Card
$24.99
ISBN-13: 9780765326577
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Fantasy, 1/2011
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Danny has a problem. Born into a family of faded gods, he finds himself developing a forbidden magical power which, if it were widely known, would lead to calls for his death, even by his own parents. So Danny loses himself in the world of men, searching for any source (even trying the Library of Congress!) to give him a clue to his destiny. No one writes coming of age as well as Card; he captures the cocksure/insecure duality of adolescent males very vividly.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Paperback)

By Julian Jaynes
$18.00
ISBN-13: 9780618057078
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Mariner Books, 8/2000
Why did the ancients seem to hear the voices of the gods so much more clearly than we do today? Maybe their brains were wired differently from ours.... Jaynes draws examples from history, literature and mythology in support of his controversial thesis that consciousness is a learned cultural artifact. As Richard Dawkins has observed, “It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius...” You be the judge, but you'll do a lot of thinking along the way.

Pathfinder (Hardcover)

By Orson Scott Card
$18.99
ISBN-13: 9781416991762
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Simon Pulse, 11/2010
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Whether you're fond of spaceship science fiction like Ender's Game or rather the more magical, pastoral fantasy like the Alvin Maker series, Orson Card's new novel, Pathfinder, has something you will like. Each chapter has 2 sections: Ram is trying to negotiate the first ship through a spacetime fold while Rigg is struggling to master his growing abilities on a feudal planet. I found the powers of the young ones quite intriguing, though the novel treatment of time travel and time stopping can lead to as much head scratching as page turning on occasion.

Giving Up the Gun (Paperback)

By Noel Perrin
$12.95
ISBN-13: 9780879237738
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Nonpareil Books, 10/1988
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NOT a book about gun control, Perrin's text recounts one rare historical episode where cultural values reined in the inexorable march of technology.
Must we always sacrifice the natural, elegant, symbolic or artistic in pursuit of greater power, efficiency or increase in shareholder value?
As I read, I couldn't help thinking about wisdom vs. knowledge, corporate vs. organic farming or e-readers vs. books......
Very thought-provoking!

Mosses from an Old Manse (Paperback)

By Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Oliver
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780812966053
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Modern Library, 3/2003
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If you haven't read any Hawthorne since The Scarlet Letter, this excellent short story collection will be a pleasant surprise.
  In addition to the themes of shame and guilt you might expect, several stories examine the clash between reason and intuition, or the dangers of striving for perfection.
  I especially liked how many tales prefigure science fiction or horror tales of present day.

Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Paperback)

By Herman Melville, Nathaniel Philbrick, Tony Millionaire
$18.00
ISBN-13: 9780143105954
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Classics, 10/2009
A man's search for increasingly scarce and precious oil leads him farther and farther into uncharted waters. 
Despite the obvious risks to all involved, the quest seems to take on a life of it's own, an absolutely unstoppable momentum.
And in the end, even the latest technology proves to be no match for the irresistible fury of nature.
Sound familiar?  Maybe we should have listened more carefully to Ishmael's cautionary tale.

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog (Hardcover)

By Chad Orzel
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9781416572282
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Scribner, 12/2009
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Move over Schrodinger's Cat;  there's a new critter for physics thought experiments in town, namely Emmy the Dog.

Whether it's "Bunnies Made of Cheese" as a metaphor for virtual particles or "Many Treats" for the Many-Worlds Interpretation, this collection of dialogs between Emmy and her physicist human comes up with plenty of engaging, humorous and memorable insights into quantum theory.

Even if you don't ordinarily read science, you may want to try this one just for the dog content and have a little modern physics rub off on you for free!

Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and (Hardcover)

By Thomas Cathcart, Daniel Klein
$19.95
ISBN-13: 9780670020836
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Viking Adult, 10/2009
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Now since tax season is almost upon us, I try to read a book on the other Great Certainty, Death, to get in the mood. I liked the authors' plain language translations of the great philosophers' ideas on life, death and afterlife, as well as their inclusion of moderns, like Groucho and Woody. And don't miss the jokes; for example,a monk walks up to a hot dog vendor and says, “Make me one with everything.” From the folks who brought us Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar.......

Await Your Reply (Hardcover)

By Dan Chaon
$25.00
ISBN-13: 9780345476029
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Ballantine Books, 8/2009
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What determines who you are......and can you ever really change it? Miles chases after his identical(?) twin, orphan Lucy blows town immediately after graduation. and Ryan disappears from college to reunite with his newly discovered real father; they're all fleeing from who they were and hurtling toward who they think they want to be. Intertwining the 3 stories only serves to multiply the suspense. As most reviewers say, "Mesmerizing" and "Hypnotic". Don't miss the elegant prose as the momentum of the intricate plot keeps you turning the pages.

Homer's Odyssey (Hardcover)

By Gwen Cooper
$20.00
ISBN-13: 9780385343855
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Delacorte Press, 8/2009
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Move over Dewey, Garfield and Cat in the Hat; there's a new feline in town! Homer may be blind, but that doesn't slow him down. He manages in short order to train his owner not only to take risks in her life, but also to pick up after herself (she'd always been on the sloppier side of the neatness spectrum before). This a joyful, witty chronicle of a most amazing individual.......and Homer is still with us, so there is no dreaded last chapter as in many pet memoirs.

The Devious Book for Cats: A Parody (Hardcover)

By Janet Ginsburg, Chris Pauls, Anita Serwacki
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780345508492
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Villard, 10/2008
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When not writing books about cats for cats, the authors have been known to contribute to both The Onion and The Daily Show.  This goofy illustrated compendium of cat tips, history and lore has been proven to make even the dourest cat person laugh out loud.  I particularly liked the self help emphasis which will allow any cat to live more than just 2 or 3 of its 9 lives, and to get back in touch with its true catly nature.

Cat's Cradle (Paperback)

By Kurt Vonnegut
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780385333481
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dial Press Trade Paperback, 9/1998
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What kept me reading were the highly unusual characters and the wildly imaginative science and theology. Forget global warming; the combination of 1) cannonballs stacked on courthouse lawns and 2) the cure for mud pose a very different threat to the world. Rarely is a book so dark yet so funny at the same time.

The Mezzanine (Paperback)

By Nicholson Baker
$13.95
ISBN-13: 9780679725763
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage, 1/1990
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In my freshman English class, we were assigned to go out for lunch and draw a philosophical, psychological or sociological theme from the experience. Had I been a National Book Critics Circle winner like Nicholson Baker, I could have accomplished all three aspects of this assignment simultaneously! Try this compulsively readable lunchtime meditation by one of the most obsessively observant narrators you will ever meet.

Don't forget to read the footnotes.

Gods' Man: A Novel in Woodcuts (Paperback)

By Lynd Ward
$8.95
ISBN-13: 9780486435008
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dover Publications, 3/2004
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Do you think all graphic novels involve costumed superheroes? Before Batman....before Superman...., there was GODS' MAN, a novel told entirely in woodcuts. Released during the week of the 1929 stock market crash, it sold 20,000 copies nevertheless.

This elegant wordless saga of the nameless hero's struggles through 1920's America is still strangely resonant today.

Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America—and Found Unexpected Peace (Hardcover)

By William Lobdell
$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780061626814
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harper, 3/2009
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Using his longtime personal interest in spiritual matters and his skill as a journalist, Lobdell reports on the state of his own faith as it waxes and eventually wanes.

I liked how vividly he describes the joy and comfort of his early beliefs. In addition, I liked the respect he shows to his readers; he talks only about his own faith, not about what you SHOULD or MUST believe.

Watchmen: Absolute Edition (Hardcover)

By Alan Moore
$99.99
ISBN-13: 9781401207137
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: DC Comics, 11/2005

If you don't like costumed superheroes, enter the world of the Watchmen, where they have been legislated out of existence....but the down side is that Richard Nixon is entering his fifth term and the world is edging ever closer to nuclear war.

Interwoven memoirs, letters, police reports, diaries, newspaper articles and even a comic book within the story provide clues and counterpoint to the strongly cinematic text; I found the multiple points of view quite challenging and very intriguing.

Don't see the Watchmen movie (due out March '09) without reading this Moby Dick of graphic novels first; you might come away thinking the story was about killing a whale.

Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices: 220 Years of UNC History (Paperback)

By Daniel W. Barefoot
$16.95
ISBN-13: 9780895873651
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: John F. Blair Publisher, 9/2008

Because I'm relatively new to North Carolina (my wife has taught at UNC for only 27 years), I try to keep learning about my new home. This slim volume has the big names one might expect, but also delightfully surprising testimonies in their own words from less celebrated Tar Heels. It's a perfect choice for those who take pride in the history and traditions of The University of North Carolina.