Staff Picks: Cinnamon's Ten Favorite Books
 Each month, we ask one employee to tell us about their ten favorite books. This list is no holds barred -- any genre, any size -- whatever they really want to talk about. The only restriction is that the books still be in print so that we can help you find them if they sound good.This month's presenter is medical floor bokseller Cinnamon. A native of the Bay Area, Cinnamon was raised in a literary household and later earned a degree in English, both of which helped cultivate her healthy love of books. After trying out various careers, working in a bookstore seemed a natural choice. She is also an aspiring writer and reviewer. Cinnamon's list consists mainly of classics that she read as an impressionable child and teenager (NOTE TO PARENTS: Make your kids read!). These are the books that stuck wih her over the years and that she's enjoyed many times over--both true tests of a great book, in her mind. |
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 Stuart Littleby E.B. White  "I was captivated by the simple wisdom of Stuart Little as a child and find myself returning to it often as an adult. Written in E.B. White's customarily economical yet elegant style, Stuart Little is the tale of a mouse born to the Little family of New York City. The idea of a mouse being born to a human family is presented as unusual but acceptable, and Stuart faces life's challenges with quiet determination and a philosophical attitude. Along the way, he runs into a variety of characters, both human and animal, and takes them all in stride. I've always identified with the character of Stuart Little as an outsider with an incredibly adaptable approach to life." |
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 The Confessions of Nat Turnerby William Styron "William Styron's historical novel depicts the most effective slave revolt known and tries to imagine the demons that drove its leader, Nat Turner. It was the first book I read that truly shed light on the inhumanity of slavery, and it stirred the revolutionary spirit within me. The fact that its author is a white man was controversial at the time of its publication, but to me, it only proves the universal nature of the human experience. Styron captures not just the setting, but the psyche of slavery, and the results are disturbing and fascinating. The opening pages contain the most profound narration of the yearning for freedom that I've ever read--it haunts me to this day." |
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 Wuthering Heightsby Emily Brönte "This gothic family saga and tragic romance gave me my first inklings of passion and longing. The doomed love affair between Cathy and Heathcliff was the ultimate aphrodisiac, while the dark characters and surreal setting of the Moors provided an eerie backdrop. It's an unsettling yet satisfying novel that stayed with me long after I put it down, and it's just as much of a pleasure to read today as it was the first time." |
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 The Emperor Wears No Clothesby Jack Herer "Having grown up in the pot-friendly 1970s, I was certainly no stranger to the realm of marijuana when I read this powerful book. Herer's book, which has since been dubbed 'the hemp bible,' opened my eyes to the capabilities and possibilities of hemp. It was one of the first to chronicle the history of marijuana and hemp in America, from its early legal days and industrial use during World War II, and onto its subsequent demonization, culminating in its present-day prohibition. At the same time that it sparked my political anger, this book also gave me hope for the future by showing that sustainable natural resources are right at our fingertips." |
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 The Metamorphosisby Franz Kafka "Who could forget Franz Kafka's bizarre story about a man who wakes up one morning to find that he's turned into a large bug? It's not just the contemplation of a fate this unjust and horrible that has stuck with me over the years, but also the awful way this man was treated by his own family as a result. It's classic Kafka--surreal and torturous, but somehow enlightening as to the human condition." |
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 The Color of Waterby James McBride "James McBride's beatiful and inspiring memoir is the most recent book on my list. The real hero of the story is McBride's mother, a white, Jewish woman from the South who moved to Harlem, married a black man, and successfully raised her twelve mixed-race children. McBride, a journalist and author, is a living testment to his mother's strength and determination. His tender detail and evocative prose lifts the story from the simply admirable to the transcendent. It's these kinds of American stories that we don't hear often enough--the unions between black and white people, rather than the strife." |
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 The Old Man and the Seaby Ernest Hemingway "This was the first adult book that I read, at the tender age of six. After many re-readings, it's clear to me that a lot of it probably went over my head at the time. But the elemental setting of sea and sky captured my imagination, and I was touched by the simple beauty and finality of the fisherman's struggle, seemingly against nature itself." |
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 Persuasionby Jane Austen "Although I am fond of all of Jane Austen's novels, this is my favorite. Despite all the recent hoopla surrounding Austen screen adaptations, I still enjoy the sheer pleasure of actually picking up and reading one of her little gems. Her skill as a social satirist and her way of evoking a time when people had fewer distractions has always beguiled me. This was her last novel and probably her most acerbic, yet it ends on a gratifyingly romantic note. For me, no heroine has ever been worthy of a second chance at love as Persuasion's Anne Elliott and no hero quite as deserving of her hand as the dashing Captain Wentworth." |
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 Lolitaby Vladimir Nabokov "I was intrigued by Lolita when I was just a 'nymphet' myself. This book gave me a glimpse into a man's soul that was at once perverse and poetic. Nabokov elevated what could have been mere smut in lesser hands to the realm of true art. Sexuality and human frailty were intertwined in the tormented Humbert Humbert. Rather than inspiring the reader to judgement, Nabokov managed to evoke a sense of empathy for this problematic character, accomplishing a far more difficult task." |
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 Lost Horizonby James Hilton "I guess I've always been drawn to the idea of one day escaping from the worries of modern-day life and running off to find a 'Shangri-La' of my own, which is why James Hilton's wonderful Lost Horizon has always appealed to me. It's a romantic idea and a charming book, but it also addresses the philosophical implications of it all. This is definitely a book for both the thinkers and dreamers out there who, like me, will find themselves seduced by Hilton's utopian vision of a 'Shangri-La' just beyond the horizon." |
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