STACEY'S Bookstore-Independent Booksellers Since 1923

Staff Picks: Doug'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 employee is Doug, a fairly recent addition to the Stacey's family. Here's what he has to say about his choices:

"I guess one could say that my literary taste is rather dark. Most of the books I read (and most of what is on my ten favorites list) address the theme of how human beings deal with finding themselves in extremely stressful situations. I especially like this theme because characters under duress cannot hide their true personalities or emotions. The reader gets to peek through a voyeuristic window into a character’s soul, and this sort of deep insight into humanity is uncommon – especially in the topical, sound-bite size world of today’s pervasive media."

Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

"This is my favorite book by my favorite author. What makes Vonnegut so brilliant is that he subjects his characters to horrific events, but makes them so foolishly and comically oblivious that they don’t even realize how bad they have it. Such is the case in Slaughterhouse Five, where the main character endures such diverse hardships as witnessing the firebombing of Dresden in WWII and becoming an exhibit in an alien zoo."

Endurance
by Alfred Lansing

"For readers seeking an adventure yarn of the highest caliber, Lansing’s account of the true story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Antarctic expedition will prove a real treat. After reading it, you will surely agree that they just don’t make phenomenally stoic English gentlemen like they used to."

Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by Joan Didion

"I selected two of Didion’s works for my ten favorites list – one fiction and one non-fiction. This one is a collection of essays about the 1960’s. Didion’s sharp insight and wit shed light on an American era that was promising but tragically unfulfilled."

Run River
by Joan Didion

"In this work, Joan Didion tackles the betrayal of the American dream. Her characters are the grandchildren of California’s pioneers. They exist as glamorous San Joaquin Valley socialites, but almost immediately, the reader is tipped off that their thin veneers conceal serious personality flaws sure to bring them ruin."

Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison

"Nobody tries harder to do the right thing than the main character of this classic novel. Why doesn’t he get the success he deserves? It has something to do with racial inequality, and a lot to do with the general insanity associated with 20th Century life. Ellison’s prose is both elegant and hallucinatory. He writes with the speed and unpredictability of bebop. The end-product is a subversive document about the long-shot odds the little man faces when trying to make good."

A Soldier of the Great War
by Mark Helprin

"This epic tale covers the 70-some years of a man’s life – from his boyhood spent climbing in the Dolomites, to hunting Mafiosi in the Sicilian wilderness, to facing a firing squad in a military prison. His superhuman endurance teach him the true meanings of both love and despair. Helprin creates a true hero of Herculean proportions and a chaotic, nightmarish Europe in which to set his trials."

Sowkins
by Denise Dee

"Stacey’s own Denise Dee can claim credit for this heartbreakingly personal collection of musings on family and memory. Reading this book brought back childhood memories that have dwelt only in my subconscious for a long while. It is like looking at an old photograph or catching a long-forgotten whiff of perfume."

Wonderland
by Joyce Carol Oates

"A young man buries a terrible tragedy in the attempts to lead a normal life. Through steadfast discipline he gains the acclaim, money, and family for which he strives, but his daughter's eventual unraveling causes the past to come rushing back to him."

Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier

"I think what I loved best about this book is that I got a sense of the ineffable aspects of Civil War-era America. The author provides the reader with a picture of the truly muddy, dark, and filthy world in which our forbears lived. He also creates a stellar hero on a long journey home to reunite with his true love. The hero traverses a hellish landscape inhabited with madmen, thieves, and murderers."

Among the Thugs
by Bill Buford

"Do you think Britain is all a bunch of lords, ladies, tea, and crumpets? If so, read this book. It tells the true story of one author’s headlong descent into the working-class world of football hooligans. Buford seeks to explain why the lads engage in seemingly senseless violence and even makes them appear somewhat sympathetic. He examines the appeal and seduction of crowd violence in such glorious detail that even the most pacific of readers will be chanting, 'It's gonna go off!' "

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