Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5757 S. University Ave., Chicago, IL, 60637
773-752-4381
1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead, $14 paper): Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
2. How Fiction Works by James Wood (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24): A searching study of the main elements of fiction by a New Yorker critic.
3. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama (Three Rivers, $14.95, paper): Memoir by the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate.
4. A Power Stronger Than Itself by George E. Lewis (University of Chicago Press, $35): A comprehensive history of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
5. Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm (Yale University Press, $13, paper): The story of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas surviving in Vichy, France.
