Cristina reads a ton of new fiction and she absolutely loves The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine. It's just one of the many interesting translations from Europa Editions.

"Told with sly humor and an anthropologist's eye for detail, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is the story of three unforgettable women whose destinies are tangled up in a family dynamic that is at turns hilarious and tragic. In her new novel, Russian-born Alina Bronsky gives readers a moving portrait of the devious limits of the will to survive."

Many of us LOVED The Night Circus, but none more than Dani. She's the wizard behind the beautiful Night Circus themed window we were rocking this fall.

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart."

Dick humors us with our bestsellers and angsty modern novels, but his real tastes tend to run a little more highbrow. His favorite read lately is Hemingway's Boat.

"Brilliant . . . Through painstaking reporting, through conscientious sifting of the evidence, and most of all, through vivid, heartfelt, luminous writing, Hendrickson gets to the heart of both Hemingway and his world . . . Hendrickson writes sentences that seem lit from within-but not in a showy way. Rather, they glow with the yearning of the humble seeker, the diligent observer who understands that we'll never get to the end of the Hemingway story-yet we have to start somewhere." -Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

...Go the F* to Sleep. : ) This runaway bestseller struck a chord with new parents everywhere. We're a little shocked that our bookstore baby Orla would ever cause trouble for her parents but Lindsey smiles through it all.

Go the F* to Sleep is a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don't always send a toddler sailing blissfully off to dreamland. Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, California Book Award-winning author Adam Mansbach's verses perfectly capture the familiar--and unspoken--tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. In the process, they open up a conversation about parenting, granting us permission to admit our frustrations, and laugh at their absurdity.

Language of Flowers. (Wendy and Wendy's mom really liked it too.) There's a lot going on in this novel about a girl growing up in the foster system and her fragile relationships with the people in her life. A highly skilled first novel.

"I would like to hand Vanessa Diffenbaugh a bouquet of bouvardia (enthusiasm), gladiolus (you pierce my heart) and lisianthus (appreciation). In this original and brilliant first novel, Diffenbaugh has united her fascination with the language of flowers-a long-forgotten and mysterious way of communication-with her firsthand knowledge of the travails of the foster-care system. This novel is both enchanting and cruel, full of beauty and anger. Diffenbaugh is a talented writer and a mesmerizing storyteller. She includes a flower dictionary in case we want to use the language ourselves. And there is one more sprig I should add to her bouquet: a single pink carnation (I will never forget you)."-Washington Post

Everyone's favorite personal shopper will help you find the perfect gift for anyone on your list, and if that person likes rich, meaty sea-faring novels then go with her pick:

"Ships are wrecked at sea and blown up during wars, they are places of terror and violence, yet they continue to lure each generation of Marstal men-fathers and sons-away. Strong, resilient, women raise families alone and sometimes take history into their own hands. There are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, devastating tragedies, and miraculous survivals-everything that a town like Marstal has actually experienced, and that makes We, the Drowned an unforgettable novel, destined to take its place among the greatest seafaring literature."