Our First Reads of 2025

2025 is just getting started and of course we are already reading. We asked around the store to find out what the first books Bookstore1 staff were delving into, and here’s what they told us. We hope these picks inspire you to have a

great year of page-turning too!

Andrea

Lazarus Man by Richard Price

In this electrifying novel, Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, gives us razor-sharp anatomy of an ever-changing Harlem.

Bryn

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson

Sly and suspenseful, Mouth to Mouth masterfully blurs the line between opportunity and exploitation, self-respect and self-delusion, fact and fiction—exposing the myriad ways we deceive each other, and ourselves.

Scattered Snows, To the North by Carl Phillips

An arresting study of memory, perception, and the human condition, from the Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Phillips.

Doug

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

An inspiring novel about two women, centuries apart--one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare's plays--who are both forced to hide behind another name.

No True Route by Tim Conway

The title of Tim Conroy's second book, No True Route, asks us to think about journeys in both time and space. Throughout the book, poems take up themes of movement, direction, detour, destination

Georgia

Every Arc Bends Its Radian by Sergio De La Pava

An existential detective novel about a private investigator who flees New York City for Colombia after a personal tragedy and finds himself entangled in a young woman’s strange disappearance—which may be connected to one of the world’s most ruthless criminal organizations.

James

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida

Discover the award-winning, bestselling Japanese novel that has become an international sensation in this utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats.

Melanie

The Message by by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The bestselling author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell--and the ones we don't--shape our realities.

Nora

The Emigrant by W. G. Sebald

"W.G. Sebald has written an astonishing masterpiece: it seems perfect while being unlike any book one has ever read. Bewitching in its subtlety, sublime in its directness and in the grandeur of its subject. The Emigrants is an irresistible book." -Susan Sontag

Roxanne

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett’s spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn to communicate across cultural barriers in times of crisis.