Job Title: Book Manager
Favorite book when you were a child: Corduroy by Don Freeman
Your top five authors: Aleksandar Hemon, William Gibson, J.K. Rowling, Michael Pollan, Mary Roach
Book you are an evangelist for: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
Favorite line from a book: “The future is there," Cayce hears herself say, "looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now.” ―William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Book you most want to read again for the first time: The Beach by Alex Garland.
Book you'd take with you to a desert island: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Favorite quotation: "The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something." -Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without A Country
Best way to spend a weekend: Coffee, reading, cycling, live music, good food, and a long walk.
Favorite Vacation Destination: Northern California
Window or Aisle: Window
What is the first giveaway that a book is going to be good: When I am thinking about it the moment I put it down and am counting down minutes until I can next pick it up again.
Best TV or Movie adaptation of a book: Fight Club or No Country for Old Men
Website you have spent the most time reading: npr.org or slate.com

Friday Black is the electric debut by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya that looks unflinchingly at some of our cultures most politically and personally charged issues. Throughout twelve original and entertaining, but also painfully real and visceral short stories, Adjei-Brenyah weaves tales of racism, violence, bullying, consumerism, personal responsibility, and alienation. He presents them with freshness and sometimes a sting that heralds the arrival of a talented new voice. The characters populating these tales are all trying to make the best of tough situations and each of the stories, regardless of when or where the story is set, are relatable to all.

When Big Angel De La Cruz, the revered patriarch of a large Mexican family based in San Diego, is diagnosed with advanced cancer and given just weeks to live, he envisions his upcoming birthday party as an opportunity to bring his family together for one last goodbye. Luis Alberto Urrea’s beautiful, funny, and stirring portrait of the De La Cruz family’s gathering, with all their complex intricacies and woven histories, is a celebration of love, life, and family that dazzles and warms with its always present tenderness and humor.