SIGNED Staff Picks
Our Staff Picks, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
While we collect rare and antiquarian books too, most of the shelves in our house are full of signed copies of our favorite books, like these ones! Each book on this list is a personal recommendation, from our shelf to yours. We hope you enjoy browsing our home library cart!
P. S. Just want a regular copy to read? Browse all our staff picks at Bookshop.org/shop/UndergroundBooks
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
In Death of the Author, Nnedi Okorafor introduces Zelu, a Nigerian American writer who lost the use of her legs in childhood. After rejection and the loss of a professorship she never loved, Zelu channels her fury into a sci-fi novel, Rusted Robots, that becomes a global hit. As her success spirals, she must face fame, family pressures, questions of identity, and even the possibility of walking again with exoskeleton legs. Okorafor brilliantly blends Zelu’s lived story with scenes from her novel to explore powerful questions about authorship, ownership, and creativity.
— Recommended by Josh
An absolute masterpiece, this book-within-a-book follows a disabled Nigerian-American author as she skyrockets to fame—and the main character of her book, Ankara, a “rusted robot” and android scholar on a post-human Earth. Disability, identity, family, fame, what it means to be the author of your own story, Okorafor offers a rich and razor sharp exploration of it all in Death of the Author, with an ending that made me want to start all over again! — Recommended by Megan
Awake by Jen Hatmaker
In this lovable and liberating memoir, Jen Hatmaker takes the rude awakening that ended her 26-year pastoral marriage and turns it into a reflective and bold enlightenment, shining a light on the dark roots of shame, misogyny, and hypocrisy in the evangelical church and freeing herself and her readers along the way. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I bookmarked, and I’ve already given multiple copies away to family and friends. Fans of Brené Brown and Glennon Doyle, AWAKE is a must read!
— Recommended by Megan
Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai
Malala, the world’s youngest Nobel Laureate, is not 15 anymore. In this riveting, achingly real, tender, funny, and inspiring memoir of college life and beyond, Malala finds her way while wearing jeans for the first time, experiences first crushes and panic attacks, struggles with study/work/life balance, finds friendship and romance and fights for her right to live her own life and for girls’ education around the globe. I want every graduating senior to read this!
— Recommended by Megan
We Are the Light by Matthew Quick
We Are The Light is an emotionally riveting novel that will break your heart, then heal it. The town of Majestic, PA is recovering from a tragic massacre in their historic theater, as told in letters from survivor Lucas Goodgame to his Jungian therapist. As Lucas grieves for the loss of his wife, he takes in Eli, a teenager with an unfortunate connection to the shooting. Together they devise an unlikely plan to heal their broken community.
— Recommended by Josh
This quirky, powerful, and surprising novel, set in the aftermath of a mass shooting, is told through a survivor’s letters to his Jungian analyst. Lucas is determined to heal his town through connection and creativity but is hiding the secret that his slain wife is now an angel who visits him nightly. I had my doubts, but I read the last pages through tears, reflecting on all the heartbreak we endure and all the healing we’re capable of as humans.
— Recommended by Megan
North Woods by Daniel Mason
North Woods is a phenomenal novel that I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come. Daniel Mason tells the story of a single plot of land in western Massachusetts over the span of centuries, through the eyes of its many varied inhabitants, and the ways that their choices reverberate — one might say haunt even — throughout the ages. Equal parts Richard Powers and Edgar Allan Poe, Daniel Mason delivers a unique and compelling storytelling experience.
— Recommended by Josh
The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Tetley lives on a floating patch of trash (much like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that exists here and now), the only solid ground left on a flooded earth. Tetley’s not alone but she is the only one who knows the simple, vital, and lifesaving truth that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world. The Past Is Red is an electrifying parable for this era of climate change, as bitterly optimistic and cheerfully furious as this dire hour demands. All that, and its hilarious and heroic protagonist is sure to steal that gorgeous garbage patch in your chest you call a heart.
— Recommended by Megan
We Are the Ark by Mary Reynolds
Mary Reynolds is most well known for her dramatic outsider win at the 2002 Chelsea Flower Show (the olympics of the landscape design world), the story of which is immortalized in the 2016 film Dare To Be Wild. We Are The ARK is her manifesto, an inspiring call for us to transform our relationship to any land that may be in our care. Reynolds' beautiful book gives us practical steps on how to turn our home gardens or yards into a thriving oasis for native plants, pollinators, and wildlife. But more than just another home gardening book, We Are The ARK is a visionary glimpse into the future of home landscape design.
— Recommended by Josh
Soldiers and Kings by Jason de Leon
Josh recommends the 2024 National Book Award winner for Nonfiction: Soldiers & Kings by Jason de Leon. At a time when both major political parties are demonizing immigration at our southern border, it's more important than ever to have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the complex forces at work behind this painfully topical issue. Jason De Leon is a McArthur Genius Fellow and he has spent many years embedding himself among migrant communities to better understand them and to powerfully share impactful stories that just might change how you think about painful realities underlying the increasingly toxic politics of immigration in the United States.
— Recommended by Josh
The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience by Nicole Hannah-Jones
This landmark work of U.S. history, criticism, and art is forged of 18 essays that consider the relevance of slavery to contemporary America through the prism of such subjects as capitalism, music, and healthcare and poems and fiction that focus on key moments in the oppression, resistance, and liberation of Black people in America. Riveting & enriching, this kaleidoscopic view of American history left me with a clearer vision of our country. This illustrated edition includes original art by thirteen Black artists like Carrie Mae Weems, Calida Rawles, Vitus Shell, Xaviera Simmons, on the themes of resistance and freedom, a brand-new photo essay about slave auction sites, vivid photos of Black Americans celebrating their own forms of patriotism, and a collection of archival images of Black families by Black photographers.
— Recommended by Megan
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer
Is this postmodern eco-noir mystery, with its dark, twisty, dystopian currents a book that everyone will love? No. But fans of Annihilation and Vandermeer's other work will find plenty to love, as he lets his unique imagination unravel the mystery of an enigmatic eco-terror plot that is either meant to save the world... or destroy it!
— Recommended by Josh
A Song for You and I by K. O'Neill
The author of the Tea Dragon Society has graced us with another beautiful, whimsical, wise, inclusive, and cozy fantasy you’ll want to live inside! An ambitious aspiring ranger, with faithful pegasus, receives a less than thrilling final assignment—only to discover an unlikely friend, the courage to not just prove yourself but to be yourself, and the wisdom that for the curious and open-minded, ease and simplicity can be challenging and enriching beyond measure. This is a book our world needs and one I'll be revisiting with delight for years to come!
— Recommended by Megan
The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon
Kate McKinnon (Weird Barbie, SNL) brings her delightfully offbeat sense of humor to her first children's novel! I could almost hear her voice when I was reading it. Part Mysterious Benedict Society, part Wednesday Addams, but with kid mad scientists who have to solve a mystery to save their town. It's a gross, strange, action packed good time!
— Recommended by Josh
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Baked with love, like a jam-filled pastry, for fans of Legends & Lattes, this cozy, affirming fantasy follows a librarian and her trusty sentient spider plant, forced from the Capitol by a revolution against the magic-hoarding empire back to the island of her birth—where she discovers what makes a place a home and people family, a sweet romance with a merhorse herder, the magical, radical act of sharing knowledge—and the power of raspberry jam.
— Recommended by Megan
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
This follow up to one of my favorite cozy fantasies follows the librarian who created Caz, the sentient spider plant from The Spellshop. When Terlu wakes after years imprisoned in statue form, she finds herself on a remote island of magical greenhouses, full of powerful plants, singing flowers, and tiny pollinating dragons, but empty of anyone else, except for a reclusive gardener with a talent for baking. The warm, heartening result is a lovely story about loss, loneliness, vulnerability, and community.
— Recommended by Megan
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
The Island utopia of Prospera provides its residents with long, fulfilling lives -- until the health monitors in their arms fall below 10% and they must take a "retirement" trip off the island on the ferry. Ferryman Proctor Bennett is shaken from his happy somnambulism by a covert resistance movement among the Support Staff (Prospera's servant class) and layers of secrets and lies unravel as we barrel toward a shockingly twisty surprise ending.
— Recommended by Josh
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
The heroine of this ghoulish Southern gothic is street-smart and down-on-her-luck, with a heart of gold and sharp, crooked teeth, who finds herself drawn to the doors of a sentient, shape-shifting old mansion—and the bitter, battleworn boy trapped behind its gates. Starling House is an ode to found family, the monsters that save us and plague us, and the courage to exorcise the ghosts of a town with a long, dark history that doesn’t love you back.
— Recommended by Megan
Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
I truly loved this short, odd little book about two misfit teenagers in the pre-internet 1990s, the art they made, and the town that freaked out about it. It is alternately sad, funny, weird, and deeply moving. If you were a socially awkward, artsy teen in the 1990s you’ll probably appreciate this book. Kevin Wilson has such a delightfully strange way of seeing the world and I am here for it!
— Recommended by Josh
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
When Vern, the differently-abled pregnant albino teen heroine of this newest novel from Rivers Solomon, escapes her religious compound, she emerges from the toxic swamp of America past and present as a vital force for healing and resurrection. Thrilling, strange, incisive, and historically and politically informed, Sorrowland is the rightful heir and a powerful successor to the sci-fi and speculative works of Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood.
— Recommended by Megan
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
This astonishingly intense debut novel from Leila Mottley (who wrote the book when she was SEVENTEEN!) follows the story of Kiara, an Oakland teenager whose difficult life circumstances land her in a nightmare of abuse and scandal at the hands of a group of corrupt Oakland police officers. Inspired by a real case, Mottley puts her brilliant, dazzling poetic skills to work (she was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate) telling a story as powerful and tender as it is disturbing.
— Recommended by Josh
Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald
Fans of H Is for Hawk will rejoice, as will any lover of first-rate nature writing. In her new essay collection Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald plumbs the depths of the meanings man has spun around animal life, and does it all on sharp and soaring wings.
— Recommended by Megan
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A beautifully written book, full of profound and lyrical insights. Perfect for illuminating the scientific skeptic mind to the complementary truths of native spiritual wisdom. Everyone interested in world changing ideas and perspectives, and hope for the long term viability of human life on earth should read this.
— Recommended by Josh
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
This reader will follow R.F. Kuang anywhere, even to Hell and (hopefully) back, hot on the heels of two rival Cambridge students who must bring their advisor back from the dead to graduate. Katabasis is the ultimate dark academia fantasy about the denial of the flesh, hellish demands, and deals with the devil it can take to ascend the ivory tower, to live “the life of the mind”—but above all, a romantic revelation about what really makes life magical.
— Recommended by Megan
Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
Another cozy hug of a book by the beloved author of Legends & Lattes—this time starring the foul-mouthed bookselling rattkin Fern, whose success starting a bookstore in Thune…doesn’t make her happy. A drunken incident leads her on an epic journey with a legendary elven warrior, a delightful chaos goblin in her custody, and the enemies on their tail!
— Recommended by Megan