Arsen Kashkashian, head buyer, Liesl Freudenstein, head of children’s books at the Boulder Bookstore and Nicole Sullivan of the Book Bar in Denver join Maeve Conran of KGNU in the studio to share their favorite books of 2018 in our annual end of year Best Books of the year show. This show was broadcast on KGNU on Wednesday December 12 at 9am.
Arsen’s picks:
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen. Andrei returns to his native Russia to take care of his ailing grandmother and discovers that there are some wonderful people in the terrible country.
Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. The decades-long repercussions of the AIDS epidemic in Chicago are revealed in this heartbreaking, yet life-affirming novel.
Listen to Rebecca Makkai on the Radio Bookclub.
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. Enger in wonderfully descriptive but simple language weaves a magical tale of a man and a dying Minnesota town being given a second chance.
Listen to Virgil Wander on the Radio Bookclub.
Mars Room by Rachel Kushner. Kushner presents a harrowing story of a young mother imprisoned for life after living a life with limited choices.
The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons by The New Yorker. Ten decades of cartoons are arranged into 300 thematic categories in this two-volume compendium. It’s the ultimate gift for anyone who reads the New Yorker.
1000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich. Starting with Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, Mustich gives us an assessment of the greatest books in history in this beautifully illustrated volume that’s a must have for bibliophiles.
Liesl’s picks:
Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang, Max Lang. Jim the chimpanzee is in a terrible mood for no good reason. His friends can’t understand it—how can he be in a bad mood when it’s SUCH a beautiful day? They encourage him not to hunch, to smile, and to do things that make THEM happy. But Jim can’t take all the advice…and has a BIT of a meltdown. Could it be that he just needs a day to feel grumpy?
Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he’s seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes — and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love’s author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins. It’s the first day of school for Penelope Rex, and she can’t wait to meet her classmates. But it’s hard to make human friends when they’re so darn delicious! That is, until Penelope gets a taste of her own medicine and finds she may not be at the top of the food chain after all.
The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer, Ekua Holmes. Before the universe was formed, before time and space existed, there was…nothing. But then…BANG! Stars caught fire and burned so long that they exploded, flinging stardust everywhere. And the ash of those stars turned into planets. Into our Earth. And into us. In a poetic text, Marion Dane Bauer takes readers from the trillionth of a second when our universe was born to the singularities that became each one of us, while vivid illustrations by Ekua Holmes capture the void before the Big Bang a...
