August Staff Picks

Villa Coco

by Andrew Sean Greer

Twenty-something Geoffrey somehow finds himself in the Tuscan countryside, expecting to catalogue decades worth of wares accumulating in the villa of eccentric Baronessa, but ends up totally consumed by her menagerie of friends. Greer's writing is as lyrical as it is hilarious in this novel celebrating joie de vivre.

- Michael

The Land and Its People

by David Sedaris

Shrewdly observant, deliriously funny and quietly moving, Sedaris' newest collection of essays is undeniable proof that he is one of one.

- Cara

French Exit

by Patrick DeWitt

A stiff cocktail served up, with equal parts Whartonesque upperclass voyeurism and a Wildean social satire—garnished with a wedge of the magically absurd—French Exit is darkly funny, surprisingly tender, and wildly entertaining.

- Chris