Staff Picks

We actually get paid for this job. Not a lot, true, but we love it. And the best part is recommending books to eager readers. When a customer loves your picks you've found an instant friend, and when a customer doesn't like one of your picks, it's hard not to take it personally.

We hope you will explore our favorites. If you recognize a kindred spirit, be sure to give a chance to some of their more obscure picks, those authors need the attention. If you want to talk about some of your favorite books, check out our RiverRun Blog, where there's usually a thread going about favorite or recent reads.

Pen Central

Pen Central is offered through RiverRun Bookstore.  Writing classes are taught at SecondRun Bookstore by Kimberly Cloutier Green, Jody Hetherington, and Rebecca Webb. For more information about Pen Central’s workshops, or to inquire about registration, please call 603-475-4084 or email pencentral@comcast.net.

Tim

My passions in reading are the same as in my life - I read mostly non-fiction; current affairs, history, politics, & environmental studies. Also, I love books on the myriad aspects of New Age spirituality. I am very involved in the study of Native American history and culture, having chronicled the Hopi people of Northern Arizona for many years, and as the published author of Thoreau's Walden, I maintain a strong connection to the works of Thoreau, Emerson, and their contemporaries - the American literary revolution of the mid-nineteenth century. However, lest this all sounds too high-brow, I do love a good thriller for a little light relief - the darker, the better...

Customer

We love to talk with our customers about books.  Here are a few of their favorites.  If you'd like to see one of your picks listed here, email it to us.    Oh, and if you're looking for recommendations for kids books, check out Flannery's picks.

Gwen

Reading, alphabetizing, shelving, organizing…working here has been a most appropriate outlet for my favorite hobby, as well as for my O.C.D. People who know me best know that my whole life has been leading up to this. I enjoy reading a fairly wide variety of books – both fiction and non-fiction – but I have a special place for more outlandish fiction. Whether it’s a conceptual shark, a talking bat, or an adventurous blue bear – I’m there. That being said, some of my favorite authors include Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, Bill Bryson, Steve Almond, and John Irving.

Tom

I used to read a lot of books before I opened a bookstore.  Then this year we had our first baby.  Good news is, I'm reading a lot more; bad news is the books I'm reading now are targeted for infants.  When I do have time to read, I'm fond of literary novels and short stories, balanced by noir mysteries.  I don't read a whole lot of non-fiction-- that's what NPR is for.  If you enjoyed some of the better-known books I've listed, I hope you will take a chance on some of the more obscure ones-- they deserve a chance.

Flannery BeBop

Okay, so I'm too young to type, but this is where you'll find great recommendations for children selected by staff, teachers, and some of our best customers.

Jody

Jody takes it as a personal challenge to try to have as many books in her house as RiverRun has. She's partial to intriguing and offbeat fiction, provocative poetry, and reference books about writing and other need-to-know topics, with a chaser of mysteries, memoirs, and more. What's really getting her in trouble lately are books that blend literary merit with visual inventiveness, and books with unusual bindings.

Emma

Emma has volunteered at RiverRun for several years now. She's in the seventh grade and loves to read. Some of her favorite books are scary books, mystery books, and fantasy. She loves the Cirque de Freak series, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, and Flowers in the Attic.

Michele

I'm a big bibliophile and so working in a bookstore as the Events Coordinator is the ideal job for me. I love to read literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and graphic novels, and some of my favorite authors include Michael Chabon, Mary Gaitskill, Neil Gaiman, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, George Eliot, Kate Christensen, and Jeanette Winterson. I love beautiful writing and stories that reimagine fables and mythology. I also really enjoy talking about books, so stop in the store or post on my GoodReads page and tell me about your favorites!

Kimberly

I might be the non-fiction nerd in the store ~ natural science, religion, medicine, essays, criticism, philosophy, and poetry, poetry, poetry… (yes, Tom, I think poetry is non-fiction). I also enjoy reading plays. I’m impatient with fiction and re-read the classics. My taste in more contemporary fiction (read 1960 forward), is a little quirky… hard to classify: John Berger, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Michel Ondaatje, Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, J.M. Coetzee, Arundhati Roy. I’m the one in the store who tends to display books that were hot thirty years ago! When was the last time you read Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca? How about Mary Renault’s Funeral Games? 

Liberty

I'm here because I love books! I lean towards the grim and strange, but, really, I'll read anything. Bukowski, Vonnegut, and Atwood are my all-time favorites, and I've recently enjoyed reading McCarthy, Stephenson and Brockmeier. I speak geek pretty well, too - science fiction and graphic novels are my favorite sections. When I'm not working with books and deciding what to read next, I'm reading. When I'm not reading, I'm either asleep or wondering why Chip Kidd doesn't return my calls.