Word’s picks: “Kill Creek,” by Scott Thomas
Here is another spooky recommendation for the Halloween season: Scott Thomas’s debut novel “Kill Creek.” This book is a great haunted house story with a twisted sense of self. I really enjoyed the slow build-up to things going fully out of control.
— Will Olsen, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com].
Community Bookstore’s pick: “Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers,” by Jake Skeets
Winner of the National Poetry Series, Jake Skeets’ debut collection glitters like a fistful of mineral earth. In dizzying, de-centering bursts of verse and prose, at once spare and luminous, Skeets renders tangible the experience of a young, queer member of the Diné Nation in Gallup, New Mexico — also known as “Drunk Town, USA,” and “The Indian Capital of the World.”
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “How We Fight to Save Our Lives,” by Saeed Jones
Saeed Jones’s memoir of growing up gay and black in the South is one of the absolute best books to come out this year. It is raw, honest, and brave. Growing up, he navigated complex relationships (with his single mother, his conservative and religious grandmother, his classmates) as he came of age and came to terms with his own sexuality and identity. In parts tragic and heartbreaking, in others wildly, wickedly funny, he shares his story with warmth, wisdom, and grace.
— Rebecca Fitting, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
