Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle's Children's Books

Fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. It's everything you want a novel to be: rip-roaring fun while also full of piercing moments, arresting observations, and big ideas. Actually, there are two types of people that won't love this book: Mormon fundamentalists with no sense of humor, and people who don't like books. Everybody else: start reading. I burst out laughing more times than I could count, I read passages aloud to anyone who would listen, and during the intense heart of the story, I read hunched over the book, my head resting in both hands, sometimes reaching down to cover the page so I couldn't inadvertently see what was about to happen. I loved every single one of the 549 pages and was sorry when it ended.

Recommended by Christie

I couldn't stop talking about this one while I was reading it! I think I'm going to get a WWLD bumper sticker. That's short for "What Would Laird Do?" as in Laird Hamilton, big wave surfing pioneer, old-school waterman, and all around Real Man. His story forms the central structure of the book, off which Casey hangs everything from wave science to maritime history to surf culture. It's the kind of book I just eat up with a spoon, and I tore through this one like it was a (insert your own surfing simile here). I can't imagine a better book to curl up with as storm season approaches here on the Northern California coast.  Recommended by Christie.