Red Hill Books

Winter is my favorite time of the year, not least because all that rainy cold weather provides the perfect excuse to curl up under the covers all evening long, reading and listening to the rain -- and at times like that, nothing is better than a book with lots of pages or lots to digest, so you feel like it will never end (in a good way). Here’s a selection of seven great books for the winter: some are new releases, and others are on sale at unbeatable prices.

1. The Instructions by Adam Levin ($29.00)

Despite the rains and high winds, Spring has been sunny and bountiful at Red Hill Books. A few weeks back we got a visit from the Remainder Elf! What does that mean, you ask?!

It means that we have tons of virtually new books, i.e. remainders that are discounted by as much as three times their cover prices. In the industry, these are called "remainders" and everyone loves them.

Long before wide-eyed liberal arts majors like myself planned their summers around expensive two month trips to third-world countries, Paul Bowles was living like a local in Morocco, studying the music, translating the local authors and writing some of the most haunting prose of the mid twentieth century.

On the way here, via Minneapolis, where I was delayed because I missed my flight by one minute (!), because I re-set my watch incorrectly, I had the pleasure of catching some CNN in the waiting area of Northwest Airlines (also known as NWA, which has a very different connotation to me and many others, I expect). Now, I've heard about CNN, and generally do my best to avoid it, but as I was trying not to miss my flight again and it was fifty feet from my gate, I was being made aware of it. This in itself generally makes me crabby, as I hate being subjected to TV when I am going about my daily business. I start to think unkind thoughts about people in general. I had just splurged for a coffee, and was happily reading my copy of "Change We Can Believe In," when I noticed that Sarah Palin's voice was being broadcast over my shoulder. Once, then twice, then, oh crap, what is she saying: "Obama is a socialist, wanting to spread the wealth around. Now is not the time to try new things." What? So I mutter, "What an idiot," in what I think is a perfectly reasonable tone, and then proceed to spill my hot coffee all over the crotch of my jeans. I ask the woman sitting next to me if she'll watch my things, then race to the bathroom to try to mop up and dry off. "Well," I say to myself in the bathroom, "you are in the Midwest now- must try to pay attention and control myself- when in Rome and all that."