RECOMMENDED READS

Welcome to our literary circle, in which San Diegans pass the (printed) word on books

Marisa Carlson-flores

Job: Library Assistant II, Serra Mesa-kearny Mesa Branch, San Diego Public Library She recommends: “After the People Lights Have Gone Off” by Stephen Graham Jones (Dark House Press, 2014; 310 pages) Why? Like waking from a halfremembered nightmare, the vague endings to each short story in “After the People Lights Have Gone Off” leave a lasting, if not disconcerting, impression. Each story is casually narrated as though being told by an old friend, lending a campfirelike quality. Ranging from stories of a tattoo apprentice for the dead and a ghoulish and impossible nighttime excursion to a loss-turned-metamorphosis and a construction job so shoddy it can summon spiders and raise the dead, the contents promise a good thrill for fans of the type of horror that leaves the worst parts up to the reader’s own imagination.

Seth Marko

Job: Owner, The Book Catapult He recommends: “The Unseen” by Roy Jacobsen, translated by Don Shaw and Don Bartlett (Biblioasis, 2020; 272 pages) Why? One of the best books I’ve read this year — and certainly one of the year’s most critically underappreciated novels. “The Unseen” perfectly transported me to a time and place that I’ve never been to before or even thought about — early 20th-century agrarian island life on the Norwegian archipelago. The isolated, tight-knit Barrøy family is earthy, real, flawed, familiar and lovely. Another bookseller perfectly described this as a Wyeth painting come to life. I’ve been spending so much time reading the news lately, thinking about the current state of the world, systemic racism, global pandemics, the election, the Supreme Court, co-raising two feisty little girls, working long, weird hours at the shop — and this gem from Norway was the perfect, peaceful escape for me. I’m sure it’s not for everyone — which is the beauty of fiction — but sometimes that perfect book comes along out of nowhere for you and helps push that reset button in your brain. This was just the ticket for me.