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What to read this week

What to read this week

Word’s pick: “Bernie” by Ted Rall

This graphic novel about presidential candidate Bernie Sanders does not begin with his birth, but with a brief history of the Democratic Party. After laying that foundation, it leads into a biography of the Vermont senator and the Bernie phenomenon. Intriguing, quirky, and enlightening, this book is a good read for anyone who wants a crash course in Bernie Sanders.

— Alyssa Ki, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbrooklyn.com].

Community Bookstore’s pick: “Infinite Jest” by David Foster Wallace

“Infinite Jest” turns 20 this year, and though the myth of Saint Dave may have chilled many to the work, there is still much to recommend in the behemoth. There’s the eerie prescience of lethally entertaining entertainment and an America entirely for sale. There’s the intricate plot, involving Canadian terrorists, tennis prodigies, and a halfway house in the Boston suburbs. And then there’s the language: dense and labyrinthine, high and low, funny, sad, and alive, often all at once. Wallace’s magnum opus took in pretty much all of the late ’90s. And 20 years later, we are still inside it.

— Hal Hlavinka, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].

Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “Canada” by Richard Ford

In Canada, Del Parsons’ parents, as unlikely a pair of bank robbers as North American literature has on offer, undertake a desperate heist that dooms them, and which looses Del and his even less-equipped sister, Berner, to tortuous orphan fates that could hardly be more richly imagined or described. It is a three-part novel, and the payoff in the third (and ingeniously short) section is a gut-wrencher. It is handily the best contemporary novel I’ve read in years..

— Christien Shangraw, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].