Staff picks
A short, changing shelf of books our booksellers finished and loved, each one with a note on why.
Shop staff picksBooks worth staying up for.
Literary fiction and essays, chosen by booksellers who read every book on the shelf.
- Book clubs
- Essay readers
- Short story people
- Readers of translated fiction
- Anyone buying a book as a gift
- Slow readers
- Night readers
- People between books
“Started it on the train. Missed my stop.”written in the margin of a staff copy
Choosing a book shouldn’t take longer than reading the first chapter.
Margin Books keeps a short shelf of literary fiction and essays, small enough to browse over one cup of coffee. A book only goes on it after one of our booksellers has read it to the last page and wants you to read it too.
The name comes from the notes we leave in the margins. Every pick ships with one.
Read before it is shelved
Someone here finished every book on the staff shelf.
A note with every pick
Three or four lines on who will love it, and why.
A short shelf
Literary fiction, essays and stories. Nothing else.
Four ways to find your next book.
Pick one off the staff shelf, take three that belong together, or let a bookseller choose for you every month.
Bundles
from $45
Three paperbacks that belong together, for less than buying them one at a time.
See the bundles
The monthly book box
$32 a month
One book a month, picked for you from the three books you tell us you loved.
See the book boxFrom the fiction desk
Notes in the margin
Every book ships with a bookseller’s card: who it is for, where it gets good and what to read after.
Read a noteOn the staff shelf this month
Six books our booksellers read, argued about and kept. Each comes with the note below, written by the person who picked it.
The Salt Year
from $12Ines Marlow, a novel
“A family of oyster farmers loses a whole season. Quiet for a hundred pages, then it breaks your heart on an ordinary Tuesday.”
Small Hours
from $11Teodor Vale, essays
“Twelve essays written between midnight and dawn. The one about his father’s radio is the best thing I read this year.”
A House of Four Winters
from $13Mira Okafor-Lind, a novel
“Four sisters, one house, forty years. Long and slow in the best way, like a January afternoon with nowhere to be.”
Field Guide to Small Rooms
from $10Asha Fenwick, stories
“Nine stories, each set in a rented room. Read one a night and make the book last a week and a bit.”
Notes on Leaving
from $11Clem Arden, essays
“On moving cities, ending friendships and packing the same boxes twice. Funnier than a book about goodbyes should be.”
Orchard Weather
from $12Jonah Pell, a novel
“Two brothers, one pear orchard and an offer to sell. Translated from Portuguese, and every sentence feels picked by hand.”
Or take three that belong together
Three paperbacks, one price.
Quiet family novels
The Salt Year, A House of Four Winters, Orchard Weather
$48$55 on their own, save $7
Late-night essays
Small Hours, Notes on Leaving, Field Guide to Small Rooms
$45$50 on their own, save $5
How the book box works
It takes about two minutes to start, and a real person does the choosing.
Three books you loved
- A House of Four Winters
- Small Hours
- Field Guide to Small Rooms
1Tell us three books you loved
Any three, from any year. Add one you could not finish if you want to help us more.
- Picked for you2
A bookseller picks one for you
Someone on our fiction or essays desk reads your list and chooses a book from the staff shelf.
Picked by the fiction desk
You liked big family novels. This one is quieter, and it stays with you.
Margin Books
3It arrives with a note on why
Your book comes with a card from the person who picked it. Tell us how it went and the next pick gets sharper.
Why this one
A family of oyster farmers loses a whole season. Quiet for a hundred pages, then it breaks your heart on an ordinary Tuesday.
The monthly book box
$0a month
- One new book each month: literary fiction, essays or stories
- Chosen for you by a bookseller, from the three books you tell us you loved
- A note card from the person who picked it
- Skip a month or cancel any time by email
Buying it as a gift? Send us the reader’s three books and their address.
Questions readers ask us
Anything else, write to us at hello@marginbooks.com. A bookseller answers.
Literary fiction, essays and short stories, including fiction in translation. We keep the shelf short so every book on it has been read and argued over by someone here.
Once a week
Get the staff pick letter
The week’s staff pick, the note behind it and what the desk is reading next.
Your next good book is already on our shelf.
Start with the staff picks. Every one was read to the end before we shelved it.
Shop staff picks