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Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) 
It's a rare novel that can marry cold Scandinavian stoicism with a police procedural and still show a lot of heart, but Miller pulls it off somehow. Norwegian by Night
offers something for every reader of quality fiction-- laughs, family drama, adventure, mystery, history, and more.
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit (Viking)
Anyone familiar with Rebecca Solnit's work doesn't need to have the meandering nature of her books explained to them; for those unfamiliar, The Faraway Nearby is as great an introduction as any. Starting out as a memoir, Solnit's latest work branches out across space and time (traveling as far afield as Iceland) in a lyrical, evocative investigation of the power and necessity of storytelling.
Waits/Corbijn 77-11 (Schirmer/Mosel) 
We haven't actually researched this, but we're willing to bet that we're the only bookstore in the Bay Area that actually has copies of this book (locked in the back room) in stock and for sale at the actual retail price of $200. Once they're gone they're gone, so if you or someone you know/love/want to impress is a fan of Tom Waits, this is your last chance.
Bough Down by Karen Green (Siglio)
Bough Down is an intensely moving exploration of the empty spaces exposed by grief. Composed during the aftermath of the suicide of her husband, the writer David Foster Wallace, Green's book, which features her delicate collages, is a haunting and oblique meditation on grief. [We have signed copies.]
How to Create the Perfect Wife by Wendy Moore (Basic) 
This is the story of Thomas Day, child of the Enlightenment, admirer of Rousseau, anti-slavery crusader...and, in one key respect, a total monster. Upset that he couldn't get a date (more or less), he schemed to gain custody of two foundling girls and "train" them to become his ideal mates. The ordeals he subjected them to (firing loaded pistols at their skirts, pouring hot wax on their arms, etc.) are horrifying - but equally so is the fact that his peers in Georgian England applauded his project. Day has attained a clouded fame in English literature (G.B. Shaw's Pygmalion is based on these events), but this is the first time his story has been excavated in full. This is crazed and creepy history - and it is incredibly, elegantly, and lightly told. The kind of history book you'll lose yourself in, shaking your head all the while.
The Cliff House and Sutro Heights DVD
The third in the series of documentary films about the far west end of San Francisco (the others were Remembering Playland and Sutro's: The Palace at Land's End). Using vintage footage from home movies and other sources, this full-length documentary tells the story of the Cliff House, Sutro Heights, and the attractions surrounding them.
The Silver Star by Jeanette Walls (Scribner) 
Walls's second novel tells the story of two sisters who move from California, where their mother has relocated them to pursue a selfish singing career, all the way to Virginia, where they seek to uncover their lost familial roots. Told from the perspective of Bean, the younger of the two sisters, The Silver Star is as inspiring as it is well-crafted. Walls's prose will never cease to amaze even the most seasoned of fiction readers. But overall, it is her incredible storytelling ability that will win you over and keep you turning page upon page until you've reached the end.
Cotton Tenants by James Agee (Melville House)
Before writing Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, his classic collaboration with Walker Evans, James Agee wrote a piece for Fortune magazine that was shelved due to its unconventionality. Discovered fifty years after his death and published in a handsome volume by Melville House, Cotton Tenants comes out of the depths of history to reveal itself as a remarkable and eerily prescient portrait of American life.
Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work (Abrams)
I must confess: I didn't grow up with the wild things. I was of the right age, I was of the right disposition, but for whatever reason, Sendak was not a part of my literary apprenticeship. When I discovered his work much later, I felt short-changed by everyone who ever gave me book when I was a child. Better late than never, I guess, so my making-up-for-lost-timeness is really helped by this wonderful, oversize collection of Sendak's work.
A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind by Alfred Starr Hamilton
God bless The Song Cave for publishing the first collection of the reclusive, slightly off-kilter Hamilton--I imagine him as New Jersey's answer to Robert Walser--in nearly 40 years. Resurrected at long last, Hamilton will speak to anyone with a fondness for the odd genius. A wistful and memorable book, beautifully bound.
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