The Elliott Bay Book Company

Jack Levitt is a white orphan teen scraping by on the streets of Portland where he meets Billy Lancing, a black teenager just off the bus from Seattle who is wise beyond his years when it comes to handling a pool cue. By the time they meet again in San Quentin over a decade later, a lot has happened, This book is about real pain and real desperation, but it is also about love that is honest, unexpected and heartbreaking. Its beauty and power lie in its refusal to dishonor these characters with easy redemption or simple solutions.

This is not the Pinocchio that we met in the pedestrian Disney adaptation. For example... Pinocchio awakes to find his legs burned off... later, in response to well intentioned advice from a wise cricket (the model for Jiminy Cricket!) the puppet cooly smashes him to death with a carpenter's mallet. Obstinate, thick-headed and inexhaustible, Pinocchio finds incredible ways to bite off more than he can chew. A perfect tale of mischief, consequences, love, evil, devotion, magic, redemption, all of it. Rich and lyrical, this story begs to be read aloud, young or old you will be pleading to hear just one more chapter.

Opening with a man shot to death as he boards a bus, this book paints a vivid picture of life under the mafia in Sicily. Sciascia's description of the ensuing murder investigation is spare and authentic, and his characters are rendered with such sensitivity and care, it is hard to put down until you're done.

As hilarious as it is horrifying, The Third Policeman defies categorization as it resides precariously between Irish humor, otherworldly hallucination, and the demonically divine. In O'Brien's disorienting world we are introduced to the troubling migration of molecules between humans and bicycles, the intense bond between one-legged Irishmen, and answers to some of the more puzzling questions regarding the nature of human existence. O'Brien has a command of the English language like no other writer I have read. This is a work of unique genius. Do yourself a favor though, and save the introduction until you've finished the book. Its a bit of a spoiler.