blog — December 17

Holiday Sale Staff Picks (2024)

As you may have heard, our big holiday sale is in full swing — you may have even placed an order already! But we've published a lot of books since we opened in 1995, meaning there are many, many titles to sift through. So, we thought it might be helpful to share some recs* from Seven Stories staffers, to hopefully add a little structure to the literary madness and, crucially, open your eyes to some books that you may have otherwise missed. And all for 30% off list price (40% off for newsletter subscribers). What a delight.

* We love all of our children equally, of course. These are just some books we're really digging at the moment.

EXPLORE MORE BOOKS ON SALE

Lithium for Medea by Kate Braverman
If Kate Braverman has million number of fans i am one of them . if Kate Braverman has ten fans i am one of them. if Kate Braverman have only one fan and that is me . if Kate Braverman has no fans, that means i am no more on the earth . if world against the Kate Braverman, i am against the world.

I Can Give You Anything But Love by Gary Indiana
If you've never read Gary Indiana, don't start with I Can Give You Anything But Love. First, stop what you're doing and go pick up a copy of Horse Crazy, read it, and then come back to this blurb. I'll wait — 
Okay, so now that you've read Horse Crazy, let's talk I Can Give You Anything But Love. Gary Indiana was much more than just the art critic for the Village Voice, but for some reason that era of his life eclipses his decades as a novelist and essayist of incredible output. This is a panacea of sorts— a memoir of his life that completely leaves out the era for which he is most known. It's one of my favorite memoirs, and will make you want to read everything else he has ever written. But not Horse Crazy, because you've already read that.
RIP Gary <3

Abolition is Love by Syrus Marcus Ware and Alannah Fricker
Abolition is Love is a great introduction to abolitionism for children, and a fantastic all-ages explanation of abolition as a tool for conflict resolution! And, of course, gorgeous illustrations abound. Sure, it's a kids' book, but I think we all know an adult who could use an illustrated explainer about prison and police abolition, and the concept of abolition as a whole. Or even just a guide to resolving conflicts without punishment. I recommend pairing it with Abolition Democracy and Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis (for parents or older readers!)

The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie
The Use of Photography is one of those miracles in book form, the one where Ernaux cracks the code. Miraculous in part because it is so completely hers, at the same time as it is co-authored, in alternating subchapters, with her lover at the Marc Marie. A consummate book of lust and death in a dance that is unique and in the end life-saving. It preceded by just two years the book that many consider to be her masterpiece, The Years, so you could say these two books together represent her second golden age, the first being the one in which she wrote A Man's Place and A Woman's Story.  

Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón
For people who love books about dogs, this is a special one, a novel of contemporary Venezuela in which a man is abandoned by his wife and then given their apartment by his father in law on the condition that he converts the family mansion into a refuge for stray dogs. A journey into the uncanny spaces where unreasonableness rules, this is a beautiful and funny novel of contemporary life.

A Kid from Marlboro Road by Edward Burns
A Kid from Marlboro Road is a coming of age novel that is plainspoken and holy for its love of fragile family bonds and the places where the form, set in and around New York City and Long Island.

Fury by Clyo Mendoza
Fury, a novel of ghosts that evokes the legendary classic of modern Mexican literature, Pedro Páramo, without actually imitating it. Steeped in indigenous Mexican culture, a stunning debut novel by the young Mexican poet Clyo Mendoza. 

Global Justice: Three Essays on Liberation and Socialism by Ernesto Che Guevara
Global Justice is the perfect, short Che book (80 pages) to get your younger cousin who just started sharing Luigi Mangione memes.  

Our Word is Our Weapon: Selected Writings by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
In the Zapatistas’ dreams they see another world, a world in which many worlds fit, "a world where peace, justice, and liberty are so common no one talks about them as far-off concepts, but as things such as bread, birds, air, water, like book and voice.” This book is an invitation to dream a new world into being—together. 

The Call-Out: A Novel in Rhyme by Cat Fitzpatrick
My favorite book in our catalog! Cat captures a world without totalizing it, and writes arguments better than anyone I've read in recent memory. Don’t let the multi-layered concept put you off–this book is funny and heartbreaking, breezy and brilliant.

“This is just fucking sonnets, Cat”—Imogen Binnie, author of Nevada

Mundo Cruel: Stories by Luis Negrón
I've spent a lot of time with strange short stories this year, and MUNDO CRUEL contains some of my very favorites. There's so much bite to these stories, but underneath it are Negron's deeply human characters. I feel like I know these people, this underworld. and maybe you do too.

Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren
One for my fellow Chicagoans, especially those of us living under Algren's shadow on the West Side. He loves this place so much that you can feel his heart bleeding out onto the page, full of compassion for the people trying to survive its darkest corners. The beauty he finds in the city's broken heart is something we can all use in this gray winter. Never a lovely so real, indeed.

Atty in Love by Tim Lockette
OK, here's a kid who is trying to figure out life and love with the innocent eyes of a young person who expects fairness and good intentions, but finds that the world is far more complicated. I love how she tries to forge her own path, to stick to her convictions, and, especially, her ability to be very very funny along the way. For your favorite younger YA reader.

The Duel by Inês Viegas Oliveira
Circuses and marching bands instead of anger and fighting? I'm in. And the illustrations? Not surprisingly the NY Times called them "dazzling."

Fury by Clyo Mendoza
A hallucinatory fever dream of love and violence that will leave you wanting more from this young, very talented Mexican poet and novelist. Wow.

Woman, LIfe, Freedom, edited by Marjane Satrapi
Few political manifestos pull together such a wide range of ideologies and cultures. Even fewer are half as gorgeous. Satrapi, et al. rejiggered the ways I think about the freedoms necessary in a democracy.

Pancho Villa by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
Nearly a thousand pages of non-stop Mexican Revolution told through the supersized insane brilliant life of Pancho Villa by the only living writer who can address Villa as a peer.

Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America by Barbara McQuade
Professor McQuade, a tireless advocate for democracy, doesn't pull her punches (or punch down). Recommended holiday gift for Maga aunts and uncles who still show signs of life.