Jamil

Jamil first started bookselling in 2000 after teaching English for two years in Wuhan, China. He studied English Literature in college before that, so his greatest reading passions gravitate towards fiction. Jamil really likes first-time authors, or experimental writers who have new and different stories to tell, or different ways of telling them. His experience in China has helped him get a better grasp on travel through Asia as well as books (both fiction and nonfiction) about China or written by Chinese authors. As a former English teacher, he is also familiar with ESL materials. Jamil's other passions include sports of all descriptions, music, and anything to do with good food or eating of same.

Smonk
by Tom Franklin
Woah! This novel is one hell of a wild ride! A 250 page orgy of death, destruction, sex and cussing perpetrated by filthy, lecherous characters. Old Texas, Alabama makes the Deadwood, South Dakota portrayed on HBO look like Sesame Street. You'll laugh, you'll gasp, you'll wonder "just what exactly is going on here?" This is a well written walk on the lighter side of literature. Enjoy the ride!

The Raw Shark Texts
by Steven Hall
This novel is an experience that will change the way you look at fiction and storytelling. Here is an adventure into the mind's eye, a trip to the outer fringes of psychology and consciousness where delicate reality is folded into an origami creation that seems structurally impossible, yet undeniably magnificent.

A Case of Curiosities
by Allen Kurzweil
A fun read for your summer holiday. this book has a little bit of everything. At 360 pages, this lively historical novel provides an incredible amount of entertainment for the amount of luggage space it takes up. Follow young Claude Page through 18th Century France as his life takes one unlikely turn after another. This is quite simply a great story!

Ludmila's Broken English
by DBC Pierre
If many of the finer things in life can be said to be "an acquired taste", then I believe that DBC Pierre's works are the anchovy of modern literature. His mastery may not be appreciated by some, but a devoted following eagerly devours his pages with gusto. I'll spare you the "best and brightest new talents in fiction today" speech and leave it at this: Have a taste and see if it agrees with you.

The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercule Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred
by Carl-Johan Vallgren
Hercule Barfuss (the birth name of our hero) is one of the most unlikely leading men of recent literary creation. A deaf-mute midget, Hercule has useless doughy lumps for hands and arms, a thick pelt of fur on his back, snail-like horny growths come out of his head, and where his nose and mouth should be, a grotesque fleshy pit resides instead. Despite his physical abnormalities he has one major asset: he can read other people's minds and inject his own thoughts into them. Communicating through telepathy and using his feet as hands (and feet), Hercule's journey is magnificent and heartwarming.
Also see Clayton's recommendation.

The Nimrod Flip Out
by Etgar Keret
Etgar Keret manages to shoehorn more of the enigmatic beauty of humanity into a three page story than many authors can in an entire novel. These stories are wacky, witty, and wonderful. Each page carries as much magical promise as each polishing stroke on an antique Arabian lamp.

Kornwolf
by Tristan Egolf
A dark comedy you can sink your teeth into...
Egolf's rollercaster of a narrative click-clacks ominously onwards and upwards until it crests and plummets in a crescendo of madness and depravity. If A.J. Liebling, Dave Eggers, and Stephen King took a roadtrip to Amish Country and were set upon by an unholy Lycanthrope, their story might very much resemble "Kornwolf".

Hunger's Brides
by Paul Anderson
Need a good book to while away the winter months? Immerse yourself in the world of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, a real-life Mexican poet of the Baroque. Hers is a world of books and ideas, of intelletual chess matches featuring real kings, queens, and bishops, a world of insanity and inquisition. Not only has Paul Anderson brilliantly created fiction from fact, but he does so with prose that will take your breath away. Happy reading!

The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
On a summer night in 1945 a young boy is led through the streets of Barcelona by his father. Their destination: an underground catacomb of a library christened: "The Cemetary of Forgotten Books". From the first page you are drawn into Zafon's web of literary intrigue. This is a remarkable book: historical fiction with a touch of gothic fog licking at the window panes. If a musty old book feels like a treasure in your hands, you're going to love this one.