Get Personalized Book Recommendations From McNally Jackson

For many New Yorkers, staying home has provided a windfall of reading time. But sometimes it’s tough to figure out which book to breeze through next. If you’re like this Downtown Alliance staffer, you find yourself 30 pages into three different titles at once, nothing quite right for the moment. Thankfully, the experts at McNally Jackson Books can help, with their Ask a Bookseller tool. 

Here’s what I sent to McNally just the other day:

I just finished Iris Murdoch’s “The Sea, The Sea” and loved it. I’m at the start of Simone de Beauvoir’s “She Came To Stay,” but it isn’t really hitting the spot, so my eye is wandering. Some of my all-time favorite authors are Tolstoy, Woolf, Sebald. Thoughts?

A few days later, a friendly and detailed reply came with personalized recommendations completely in line with the request. Four of them were authors I’d never read or even heard of: “Mating” by Norman Rush, Edward St Aubyn’s “The Patrick Melrose Novels” or his retelling of “Macbeth” and Ann Quinn’s ”Berg.” 

You can order directly from McNally — and help to support one of New York City’s most beloved independent bookshops. And you get free shipping for orders of $50 and above.