The Elliott Bay Book Company

"God speaks to the silent man," says Harrison Shepherd, an accidental onlooker and narrative voice in Lacuna. Working as hired help in the Rivera/Kahlo household, Shepherd quietly documents the tumultuous events of the century as well as the hurricane-like lives of stubborn Diego and bohemian, peacockish Frida. The "lacuna," or the missing piece, the cavity in Kingsolver's novel, is a personal versus national identity, a quest for solitude and artistic freedom in a time when participation, ideological uniformity and communist resistance equals patriotism. I highly recommend this book for historical content and great language.

It takes Loris ten minutes to eat a satsuma... an hour to scratch his bottom. Most of the time he just prefers to sleep. The zoo visitors, even the other animals think he's boring. But Loris doesn't care. He has a secret. Assumptions of another are turned upside down in this wonderfully illustrated picture book. Out since 2002, I just found and fell in love with it.

Chris, 40, is the man in a "shit brown Allegro" in the grip of a midlife crisis, a travelling salesman, trapped in a loveless marriage with a woman he calls "The Great White Loaf". Rosa is a young Serbian emigre, allegedly a former prostitute, who spins an irresistable and provocative tale about her life. Theirs is a platonic tease of an affair. Bernières is a master storyteller who rotates seamlessly between the two characters' viewpoints, and includes real historical and political events; the juxtaposition between East and West creating a dramatically jarring piece of literature.

The 1997 Booker Prize Winner The God of Small Things is one of my absolute favorite books. Its breathtakingly beautiful portrait of the freshly independent state of India, post-colonial identity, the lingering effects of the caste system, family and forbidden love, all seen through the eyes of young fraternal twins Estha and Rahel. Underneath multiple stories and beyond whimsical humor lies foreboding and darkness. Every word in Roy's book is carefully placed, resulting in an original and poetic perfection. This book will change your life too.