Arches Book Company

Greetings from Arches Book Company

Arches Book Company is an independent bookstore in beautiful Moab, Utah featuring a wide selection of literature genres. We also offer maps and guidebooks and a wide variety of gifts. Arches Book Company has a full-service Espresso bar highlighting quality and unique Fiery Furnace Roasting Company beans roasted on site.

We look forward to serving you!

Staff Picks

What is our staff reading and what do they think about it?

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Diaz, Junot
This is the long-awaited first novel from one of the most original and memorable writers working today. Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the FukA-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim. Daaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" confirms Junot Daaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.

Book Sense Picks

Unique and provocative selections from a great diversity of voices...all personally recommended by the independent booksellers of America.

The Thing about Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
by Shields, David
David Shields gives us a virtuoso performance: a meditation on our inevitable end; a compendium of quotes, scientific facts, and jokes about death; a loving (but sometimes critical) tribute to both his 96-year-old father and 17-year-old daughter; and a recounting of his own life and the growing awareness of the (hopefully) slow, but inevitable decline of the body and the mind. Brilliant! --David Unowsky, Magers &Quinn Booksellers (Minneapolis, MN)

Feature: Children's Books

Homepage Text

Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems)
by Park, Linda Sue, Banyai, Istvan
Sijo is a traditional Korean form of poetry. Sijo is syllabic, like Japanese haiku, with three lines of 14 to 16 syllables each: the first two introduce the topic, the third and fourth lines develop it, and the fifth and sixth lines contain an unexpected humorous or ironic twist. This collection contains 26 sijo, half on "Inside" and half on "Outside" themes, many humorous, all appealing to a child reader. The simplicity and accessibility of these poems will encourage children to try their hand at writing sijo.