“This is a collection of books I often recommend, books I’ve come back to again and again, books that should be given a chance if you haven’t yet had the occasion to pick them up. I always push The Known World on people, for instance, because I think it’s the best novel of the past 20 years, and is probably under-read given how good it is. A couple of the titles here are recent books I’ve enjoyed and happened to think of when I was assembling the list. These are books I can guarantee will deliver the goods. So much so that though I can’t personally refund your money if you don’t like one of these, I know the Strand will gladly do so. In fact, they’ll probably throw in some free stuff on top of the refund — some really great free stuff. Probably as much as you can carry. Thank you, Strand!”