Good and Cheap (Books)! Day One

Every day this month, we are going to dedicate ourselves to recommending a quality book that you can purchase for under $20. “What, do we have to pay for this service?” you ask. No, no you don’t. It all comes free with this low quality blog. Every single day when you click on our blog you will know that we’ve thought long and hard about which books we truly believe you can get the most bang from your buck(s) this spring. We promise that for each book we choose we will confer with each other, debate heartily, and weigh the pros and cons of each of our choices. We want what’s best for you. Now, on the off chance we don’t have enough time, energy, or knowledge to put that kind of effort in to our choices, we will probably just swivel around in our desk chair and the first paperback you see is what we’re going to recommend. But wouldn’t it be great if we at least put some effort in? We can all dream, I guess, but for now it’s just a crap shoot.

I am going to kick the month off with a one of our favorite titles from last year that is now available in paperback with a brand new cover. You were waiting for paperback weren’t you? Cheapskate, you must work in the book business!

Me? I would never
creep you out!

Stay Awake by Dan Chaon is a collection of uh-unsettling stories. When was the last time you read a really good story about a parasitic twin for example? A long time, right? Wait no more; the title story is fantastically haunting. One of my favorite stories is “I Wake Up,” about a boy who is sent to live with a foster family after his mother is sent to prison. The family has lost their own teenage son and as he grows up (having slept in the dead son’s bed, by the way) we see he is slowly losing his grip. "Bees" is about a father whose life begins to spiral out of control with the onset of his child’s night terrors; the father can no longer repress the memories of his secret first wife and child that he abandoned so long ago.

Do you like Gillian Flynn or Joyce Carol Oates? Do you like Victor LaValle or Daniel Woodrell? Do you like Liz or Gianna? Well then you must trust me, Dan Chaon is an artist, and for $15 it’s a steal. Oh, yeah, you can just steal it. Thief.