Miranda's Picks

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How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: A Safety Guide By Ame Dyckman, Jennifer Harney (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Ame Dyckman, Jennifer Harney (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316593298
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers - April 18th, 2023

Parents will get a kick out of this book as much as the kids. A clever dad explains to his daughter that it wasn't a meteor or ice age that wiped out the Dinosaurs. Instead it was some unsafe activity children's parents are always telling them not to do like running with scissors, or swimming right after eating. By the end the girl proclaims she's never doing any of those things again. Parents FTW


Dear Damage By Ashley Marie Farmer Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781946448903
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Sarabande Books - March 15th, 2022

Ashley Farmer's essays are deeply personal, and sometimes hard to read. But she doesn't hold back herself and their truth makes you feel like you owe it to her to get through them. You come out OK on the other end, much like Ashley. I think because Ashley grew up partially around Louisville and talks about it in many of the essays it made me feel even more connected to her words.


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The Good Ones: A Novel By Polly Stewart Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063234154
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Harper - June 6th, 2023

Spoiler alert. No one is very "good" in The Good Ones, but who is bad?  Lauren Ballard has been missing and presumed dead for 16 years, but there's no body.  Nicola, her best friend from childhood moves back to their small Virginia town where questions and secrets about what happened the night Lauren went missing will begin to bubble back up.  A twisty-turny Summer thriller about women's friendships and women's burdens.


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The Nineties: A Book By Chuck Klosterman Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780735217966
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Penguin Books - January 31st, 2023

As a teenager, it was a formative decade for me and the world. The last years before the internet became completely woven into our lives. I was delightfully captivated being taken back to a time of Zima, baseball juicing, Napster, and The Sopranos. I would send Chuck a “143” on my pager.


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Broken (in the best possible way) By Jenny Lawson Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250812483
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Holt Paperbacks - May 3rd, 2022

Jenny is back with more stories of her mental and physical challenges, told with her signature humor and candor.  She's relatable and hilarious because you can see the honesty in her work. Thanks for letting us in Jenny.


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The Rock from the Sky By Jon Klassen, Jon Klassen (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Jon Klassen, Jon Klassen (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781536215625
Availability: Not currently on our shelves, but available to order (usually within a few days)
Published: Candlewick - April 13th, 2021

Klassen is back with five darkly humorous stories featuring aliens and meteors.  Something isn't quite right but they can't put their finger on it.  There is a rock heading towards them, where will it land.


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I'm So Happy You're Here: A Little Book About Why You're Great By Liz Climo Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781250841445
Availability: Not currently on our shelves, but available to order (usually within a few days)
Published: Flatiron Books - October 11th, 2022

Liz Climo is one of my favorite's because her cartoons are always so funny without being crude or cruel.  Kindness rules the day and this little book is a perfect pick me up for yourself or a friend who's feeling down.


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Creepy Crayon! (Creepy Tales!) By Aaron Reynolds, Peter Brown (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Aaron Reynolds, Peter Brown (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781534465886
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers - August 23rd, 2022

Another winner in Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown's Creepy series.  This time a purple crayon goes rogue and takes over Jasper Rabbit's life. Locking it in a box?  Melting it in the microwave?  How will Jasper get rid of the Creepy Crayon?


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Cult Classic: A Novel By Sloane Crosley Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250867179
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Picador - June 6th, 2023

Sloane Crosley does not suffer from the Sophomore slump with her second novel.  A somewhat darker and weirder Christmas Carolesque storyline mixed with an eerie love story.  Throw in a cult and it's just enough Sci-Fi for me.  


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Doggo and Pupper By Katherine Applegate, Charlie Alder (Illustrator) Cover Image
$9.99
ISBN: 9781250620972
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Feiwel & Friends - March 23rd, 2021

Doggo's life is nice and boring until his humans decide to bring in Pupper to liven up the house.  While Pupper may drive Doggo a bit crazy he also reminds him to find excitement in every day life.  A great read aloud or beginner chapter book.


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Never Have I Ever: A Novel By Joshilyn Jackson Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062855329
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - April 28th, 2020

Jackson has a knack for storytelling, and flawed, mysterious characters. You may think you can outrun your past, but it usually catches up with you. In this case on a quiet cul-de-sac on book club night.
 


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A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South By Cinelle Barnes (Editor) Cover Image
By Cinelle Barnes (Editor)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781938235719
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Hub City Press - October 6th, 2020

Some of these authors I had read before and some were new to me.  Most of them blew me away.  These young writers of color giving their perspective on the South in contemporary context were not only poignant and sometimes hard to read but often times very funny.  This is an important book and features and essay by Minda Honey from Louisville!


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Curious George's Abcs By Margret Rey, H. A. Rey (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Margret Rey, H. A. Rey (Illustrator)
$7.99
ISBN: 9780544551091
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Clarion Books - June 7th, 2016

A great ABC book for the little ones.  On each page one letter is hidden within a picture that explains or is relevant to that letter.  T is a table set for tea for two.


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Friday Black By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781328911247
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Mariner Books - October 23rd, 2018

These stories will stay with you long after you've finished reading.  A bit like a car crash you can't look away from they force you to be uncomfortable, but are an important reflection of life for young black men in America today.


The Heavenly Table By Donald Ray Pollock Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781101971659
Availability: Not currently on our shelves, but available to order (usually within a few days)
Published: Anchor - July 25th, 2017

In 1917, in that sliver of border land between Georgia and Alabama, Pearl Jewett ekes out an existence as a dispossessed farmer along with his three criminally-minded sons Cane, Cob, and Chimney.


Bouquet of Red Flags By Taylor Mali Cover Image
$15.00
ISBN: 9781938912511
Availability: Not currently on our shelves, but available to order (usually within a few days)
Published: Write Bloody Publishing - November 1st, 2014

With the perfect blend of wit, eloquence, and honesty, Taylor Mali's poems delight, haunt, and illuminate with equal measure every subject they celebrate. Bouquet of Red Flags is laced with more than the typical LSD (love, sex, divorce) of modern poetry.


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I'm a Good Dog: Pit Bulls, America’s Most Beautiful (and Misunderstood) Pet By Ken Foster Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780670026203
Availability: The book is not currently in stock at our stores. Please call us for price and availability.
Published: Avery - October 25th, 2012

Pitbulls get a bad rap.  Any dog can bite and any dog can be made into a dangerous dog when humans intervene.  Ken Foster dispells  myths about these dogs with real life stories of "good" pitbulls.  Beautiful color photography with charming stories of my favorite kind of dog. 


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The 48 Laws of Power By Robert Greene, Joost Elffers (Producer) Cover Image
By Robert Greene, Joost Elffers (Producer)
$26.00
ISBN: 9780140280197
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Penguin Books - September 1st, 2000

All of Robert Greene's books are part how-to, part philosophy. A modern day Sun-tzu mixed with a bit of Jay-z or L'il Wayne. Greene lays out 48 laws to help you manipulate, deceive and ultimately destroy your enemy. Drawing from real historical figures from King Henry VIII to Thucydides to Kissenger he shows who failed, who won and why. My favorite law is #21: Play a sucker to catch a sucker--seem dumber than your mark.


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I Was Told There'd Be Cake By Sloane Crosley Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781594483066
Availability: On Our Shelves in the last 24 hours. Click to see a specific store location's stock.
Published: Riverhead Books - April 1st, 2008

Well written and uproarious. Prepare to be on the floor laughing. Perfect for the gen x or gen y'er. I am convinced Sloane Crosley is my soul mate!


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