Seeing a new work on the shelf written by an author you love can feel like winning the lottery. Shirley Fergenson of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Md., remembers being absolutely captivated by Daniyal Mueenuddin’s 2009 short story collection “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

This year — 17 years later — he’s published a new work of fiction, entitled “This Is Where the Serpent Lives.”

Fergenson says when she saw it, she “practically jumped up and down. I took it home, I read it, and I fell in love with it. It's the same voice. I loved it then, and I love it still.”

“This Is Where the Serpent Lives” is a sprawling work set in Pakistan over several decades, starting in the 1950s. It’s being marketed as a novel, but Fergenson says it’s actually three short stories and a novella with interlinking characters.

“It sort of feels like ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ with a little bit of ‘The Godfather’ thrown in,” she says.

“There are rich landowners, there are servants, forbidden Love, ambition, corruption. There is moral compromise and fluid loyalty. It is a class-and-cast panorama of amazingly rich characters. Each one could have a whole story written about them. They're so full of life.”

“The main reason to read this book is the exquisite writing, but if you need a story that is one story arc that takes you from the beginning to the end, this is not your story.

There are linkages, but they're literary, and they are so beautifully told that even in the bleakest, darkest setting, every detail feels like a photograph through an artist's filter. And the final novella is so powerful that it feels like its own full novel.”

Listen to an NPR interview with the author: Daniyal Mueenuddin discusses his debut novel, 'This Is Where the Serpent Lives' : NPR

Lauren Groff’s novels and short stories have been finalists three times for the National Book Award, and now she’s out with a new collection of short stories entitled “Brawler.”

Maire Wilson of Huxley & Hiro Booksellers in Wilmington, Del., says this work is just as strong as her others.

Unlike Groff's earlier short story collection, “Florida,” the nine stories in “Brawler” vary their locations as well as time periods and life circumstances.

In “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?,” the longest piece in the book, a young man struggling with alcoholism retreats to his family’s estate to grapple with the ways his life has fallen short of his expectations. “The Wind” is the story of fleeing domestic abuse, passed from mother to daughter.

In each story, Wilson says, “everything is so elegantly simple that it's almost like maintaining a conversation with the person across from you, or just kind of listening into this life story. I feel like I'm in the room.”

Wilson loves Groff’s “attention to the liveliness of the surroundings” in each story, adding that she comes out of Groff’s novels and short stories "just kind of feeling full” and satisfied.

Charlotte Glover of Parnassus Books and Gifts in Ketchikan, Alaska, recommends a novel that will immerse you deeply in the Pacific Northwest.

She appreciates the lovely characters, focus on nature, and beautiful writing of Eileen Garvin’s novel “Crow Talk.” Garvin gained national attention for her novel “The Music of Bees,” and her new novel “Bumblebee Season” comes out April 21.

For Glover, it was the mention of crows in the title that first drew her to “Crow Talk”: crows and ravens are of huge importance across the Pacific Northwest, from her bookstore’s location in the Alaskan panhandle to the novel’s setting in the Hood River area of Oregon.

The story follows Frankie, an ornithologist who has retreated to a small family cabin by a lake to mourn the loss of her father and figure out a path to finish her dissertation on spotted owls. It’s autumn, and the only other residents are a family, Anne and Tim and their five-year-old autistic son, who isn't speaking.

As Glover explains, these lonely, wayward characters find each other and converge over caring for a baby crow. Frankie and Anne forge a friendship as they care for both the bird and the boy.

“Nature is a huge character in this book,” says Glover, “It’s a book that you can touch, smell, feel, taste, and hear. That's always what I'm looking for in a book is an immersive experience.”

A book can be a vehicle of empathy, inviting us to walk around in someone else’s world for a while.

Elizabeth Mattson of Henry's Books in Spearfish, South Dakota, says her top pick for novels in this category is "Theo of Golden" by Allen Levi.

Here’s the scenario: In the southern U.S. city of Golden, there’s a bustling coffee shop called The Chalice with 92 pencil-drawn portraits of townspeople, created by a local artist.

When Theo, an elderly man from Portugal, arrives in Golden and decides to settle there, the portraits speak to him. He begins purchasing them one by one and gifting them to the individuals depicted in the portraits.

These acts of conversation, connection, and generosity ripple outward through the community.

Running through the story is a question: Who is Theo, and why is he there?

For readers who prefer to listen to their books, Mattson also says the narrator in the audiobook is excellent.

Do you love a good villain story? 

Sarah DiMaria of Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana, does, and she’s raving about Rachel Hochhauser’s debut “Lady Tremaine.” This retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of the stepmother is being marketed as “Bridgerton” meets “Circe.”  

Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley finds herself in charge of two daughters and a step-daughter in a dilapidated house. As her frustrations and worries mount, she supports her family by hunting with her peregrine falcon. 

DiMaria particularly appreciated the way the bond between the protagonist and her fierce, predatory partner is written. 

Lady Tremaine is determined to see her daughters married well so that her family can have financial security. But at what cost? Especially when she discovers the prince’s family is not as charming as it seems on the surface... 

What unfolds, DiMaria says, is a story rooted in female relationships and forging your own path in the world. 

Coco Casey of Buxton Books in Charleston, S.C., recommends a favorite author local to her store: horror master Grady Hendrix. His novel, “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls,” is out in paperback. 

The novel follows a group of pregnant teenage girls in a maternity home who discover a spell book that pulls them into the world of witchcraft and the supernatural. The horror in this book, however, lies in the girls’ real-life situation, which is historically based. 

The book is set in what’s called the Baby Scoop Era, from the 1940s to 1973, before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal and Title IX protected pregnant students from discrimination.

The girls were brought to his home to hide their pregnancies; they were given false names and strictly monitored, with the expectation that their babies would be given up for adoption. 

"In a world where they have very little control over their own bodies and their own fates, they are given this tool to have control in other realms that they didn't know was possible before,” Casey says. 

She says this novel, set in 1970, is “on the lower end of fear factor” for Hendrix’s books, though there is body horror, and the birth scenes are not for the faint-of-heart. She calls the books’ antagonists well-written and “very scary,” mostly because such situations exist.

Casey recommends reading the afterward as well. 

"The afterword and the notes are fascinating. He did a lot of research into covens and their lineages, into the medical side of these stories, and into the legal side of these stories. And it's very hard to find accurate historical research for a lot of this, because the point of these homes was that there was no documentation and that it was all buried.” 

Sometimes, you just want to escape into a book.

For those who enjoy a cozy romance, Marissa Mills of Luminary Books in Gardnerville, Nevada, says her recent favorite is the novel "If it Makes You Happy" by Julie Olivia.  

Think “Gilmore Girls” meets “When Harry Met Sally.” Set in a small town (of course!) in Vermont in 1997, this friends-to-lovers novel is a sweet story with a bit of spice.

Michelle is taking over her mother’s bed and breakfast. Cliff, the single dad next door, is a baker who starts teaching Michelle how to bake so she can handle the breakfast part of her new venture.

Mills says the book has grumpy/sunshine, black cat/golden retriever energy. She appreciates that Cliff’s daughters are key characters in the book, as is Michelle’s dog, Rocket. 

It’s not a coincidence that the cover, with its couple strolling near a town-square gazebo, evokes “Gilmore Girls." 

Julia Olivia has many romance titles to her name, but “If It Makes You Happy,” published by  Penguin Random House, is her first break into major bookstores. 

Bookseller Mills says that after their store book club read it, “they fell in love with the author and her writing, and they went back and started reading all of her other works.” 

More than 10 weeks after the federal immigration enforcement surge began in Minnesota, Border Czar Tom Homan announced this week that federal agents would be drawing down and Operation Metro Surge was coming to an end, though he stressed that immigration enforcement would continue. 

In that environment, Minnesota’s indie bookstores remain a source of books for those seeking both to understand what’s happening in this country and to escape from it. 

For those who are leaning in, Makkah Abdur Salaam of Black Garnet Books in St. Paul recommends a collection of down-to-earth letters designed to meet you where you are. It’s called “Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis,” edited by Kelly Hayes. 

The letters come from contemporary activists and writers from all walks of life whose work focuses on a variety of issues. The letters are titled to help you find what you need in the moment.

There are titles like “Read this if someone you loved has killed themselves or wants to, and maybe you want to, but you also want to survive.” Or, "Read this if you've been assaulted. I believe you.” Or, “Read this if you are panicking about collapse.” 

Overall, Abdur Salaam says, the letters offer advice for those who are in it for the long haul. 

“It talks a lot about sustainable activism and how that requires mutual aid, collective work with your community, and mutual care. And it also talks about how hope is a practice: it's something that you have to contribute to each day and figure out how that looks for you. [The collection talks about] how conflict is inevitable in any movement, and how to basically navigate that, and how it takes very thoughtful and purposeful action to work through that. That’s how movements survive and stay sustainable.” 

With the surge of ICE operations in Minnesota now in its third month, indie bookstore owners in the Twin Cities and beyond say that customers are coming in looking for three things: community, books to help them understand what's happening and books to help them escape.  

Rima Parikh, owner of the science-first bookstore The Thinking Spot in Wayzata, with some of her recommendations for leaning in. 

For a fiction read, Parikh says the classic novel “1984” by George Orwell has been popular. Set in a dystopian future where Big Brother is always watching, the novel describes a world where language is censored, history is changed, and the party in power tells people to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears. 

For a historical perspective, Parikh recommends the nonfiction book “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America” by historian Heather Cox Richardson. 

“There are many books that try to explain the moment, but she goes way back. She goes back to the founding of America and goes through every twist and turn of our meandering history,” Parikh says. “[She] has a coherent narrative through the whole thing explaining how we got here. And essentially, her theme is that a small group of wealthy individuals have weaponized language and promoted false history, which has led us into the state of authoritarianism.”  

For a book to spark conversations among children and adults alike, Parikh recommends a pair of books, “An Illustrated Guide to Bad Arguments” and “An Illustrated Guide to Loaded Language” by Ali Almossawi. These short, illustrated books introduce logical fallacies and other ways language is used to mislead others.  

She offers this example in the book of a false equivalence: 

“It says, yesterday's violence left 12 rabbits with lost limbs and one badger with slight shoulder pain. And the response: ‘We urge both sides to show restraint.’  

“Taken as itself,” Parikh says, “urging both sides to show restraint, yes, [that’s] perfectly valid. However, in this particular context, both sides are not equivalent.” 

Minnesota is in the national spotlight as the massive federal ICE operation continues. It can be a challenge to know how to talk to children about this issue, and books can be conversation starters for families, as well as sources of comfort.

Timothy Otte of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis says his bookstore, which focuses on books for children, is getting requests for books about community and social justice. And while there is no one perfect book to speak to this moment, he finds himself regularly thinking about a picture book by Oliver Jeffers entitled “Begin Again: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go — Our Human Story. So Far.”

Jeffers grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the politically turbulent 1970s and 80’s, and his picture books often focus, in gentle ways, on how we treat each other and live together on one planet.

"Begin Again” is a book that Otte says feels appropriate for children and adults alike.

Here’s how Otte describes the book:

“It is about what we can do and what we can build together.

“In the book, Jeffers has a little essay describing the inspiration for the book, and in it, he says that he no longer asks people what kind of world they want, because what people say is in the negative.

“They say, ‘This is the kind of world I don't want.’ So now he asks, ‘How do you want to feel?’ And I think that's such a brilliant question, because we can build a world in which we all feel safe, we feel in community, we feel held. We want to have a place to live and food to eat and a group to be in, whether that's a family or a larger community.

“This book is a great place to find inspiration for how to make that world a reality, and the kinds of questions that we need to ask both ourselves and the people around us if we want to build that world.”

Need something kind and cozy to sink into this weekend?

Allie Cesmat of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., recommends hopping aboard “The Elsewhere Express.”

It’s the new cozy fantasy by Samantha Sotto Yambao, who drew national attention for her novel “Water Moon,” about a pawn shop where people go to sell regrets. Cesmat compares Yambao’s writing to the playful worlds of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli.

Cesmat says she's never read another book like it. She describes the premise:

“You are adrift in life. You're sitting there, kind of feeling like you have no purpose, nothing's going on, and all of a sudden a train pulls up and lets you on to this world that is set apart from ours. The train [contains] revolving rooms and magical dimensions. You are trying to find your purpose, and your purpose is the train compartment that you're walking towards.”

“We follow two characters on this train as they figure out their purpose is, what they're what they're missing. The train is a closed-door mystery: you don't really know what's happening next. You don't know what the tension is. It's a cozy fantasy, for sure, but it is lyrical. It is magnetic.

“And as you're reading it, you start wondering, well, what's my compartment? Where am I adrift in this world? And it brings hope and comfort that you wouldn't otherwise have.”

Angel Horne of Two Friends Bookstore in Bentonville, Arkansas, recommends the novel “To the Moon and Back” by Eliana Ramage.

It’s a debut novel about a young woman’s quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut.

From a young age, Steph Harper is driven to get to space. She throws herself into education and training, determined to get out of Oklahoma.

The novel focuses on Steph and the important women in her life — her mother, her artist/influencer sister, her college girlfriend — as their relationships stretch and change through decades and across distances.

Horne appreciated the representation in this book, with a queer Cherokee woman in a STEM field at the center, and she also resonated with the setting Like the protagonist, Steph was born in the early 80s, and she appreciated watching her live through the introduction of cell phones and social media.

Shannon Guinn-Collins of Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico says she's still thinking about the novel "Lightbreakers" by Aja Gabel. 

Guinn-Collins recommends this novel for fans of literary time travel, as well as for readers of Jennifer Egan and Emily St. John Mandel.  

“Lightbreakers” centers on a married couple: Noah, who is a quantum physicist, and Maya, who is an artist. Shadowing Noah’s life is the loss of his young daughter with his first wife.

So, when Noah is approached by an experimental group that is exploring a form of time travel using memory, he takes the opportunity. As he steps further and further back into his own memories, Maya must grapple with the widening gulf with her husband in the present — and what that means for their future.  

Guinn-Collins offers this review: 

"The book really centers on themes of loss and longing, love and regret — all of these major human themes. It deals with really fraught, difficult topics, but it does so in a way that's really graceful. 

“Aja has a really light touch, and her writing is just gorgeous. The language she uses is really beautiful. It carries you forward in a really natural way. But I still found myself pausing and rereading passages just to enjoy what she was doing. Definitely one of my favorites from last year!” 

Becky Schlosser of Cherry Street Books in Alexandria recommends the novel "The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett. Schlosser calls it “darkly funny and heartwarming” — a “perfect” story about imperfect people.

This story involves a road trip like no other. 63-year-old PJ Halliday — survivor of three heart attacks, million-dollar lottery winner who’s nearly spent through his money — reads in the obituaries that the husband of his high school flame has passed away.

She was the one that got away, in his mind, and now that she’s single. PJ decides to road-trip from Massachusetts to her retirement community in Arizona to win her back.

Along for the ride are two tween orphans, Luna and Ollie, for whom PJ has recently become guardian; his disgruntled adult daughter; and a seemingly clairvoyant orange cat. Also, he technically doesn’t have a license, given some past DUIs, and he’s had to borrow his ex-wife's car. What could go wrong?

Schlosser says this novel, with its sharp wit, is quirky and lovable, but it deals with some pretty heavy, tender topics.”

She recommends this story of found family and second chances to readers who like Fredrik Backman’s novels.

Alena Bruzas of Francie & Finch Bookshop in Lincoln, Neb., has a recommendation sure to appeal to weather heads and fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” series alike.

It’s called “Wilder Weather: What Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaches Us About the Weather, Climate, and Protecting What We Cherish.” Author Barbara Boustead is a meteorologist, climatologist and Wilder scholar. She brings her passions together for this nonfiction work, published by South Dakota Historical Society Press.

Readers who love Wilder’s tales of growing up in the Big Woods — and on the shores of Plum Creek, etc. — know how dramatically the weather affected her daily life. Droughts, tornadoes, locust plagues and bitterly cold winters determined whether her family would have enough to eat throughout the year. Those stories offer exciting drama, but Boustead was able to verify that most of Wilder’s weather accounting was true.

“She goes into great detail about her methodology, about the science behind gathering this data, how people have gathered data about weather since the 1800s.”

Bookseller Bruzas, who says she is generally more drawn to historical fiction than meteorology, still found the book fascinating.

“The way that she describes the Ingalls family dealing with this weather — some of it was unprecedented. It makes me realize that now we're dealing with a lot of unprecedented weather events, and it feels relevant, almost eerily relevant. She really brings it to the present."

It’s that time of year when readers start to catalogue their favorite books of 2025, and for bookseller Kelly Evert, that book is “Mona’s Eyes” by Thomas Schlesser.

Evert works at Village Books and Paper Dreams, with locations in Bellingham and Lynden, Washington.

When a young girl named Mona, living in Paris, learns she’s going to go blind, her grandfather determines to show her as much visual art as he can while she can still see.

Once a week, over the course of a year, he takes her to the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and other French galleries, where they focus on a piece of art each time. Evert appreciated both the art discussions and the relationship between Mona and her grandfather.

“It’s just very beautiful and loving,” says Evert, who added that the dust jacket of the hardcover book includes images of all the featured artwork.

Art lovers will immediately recognize that the famed eyes on the cover belong to Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” not the Mona Lisa, though Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece is one of the 52 works of art featured in the book.

Mary Williams of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, Calif., recommends a nonfiction book that will appeal to readers who find joy in the natural world, including the plants growing on their window sills.

It’s called “Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings” by Myriam Gurba. It’s a book that’s deeply rooted in the author’s California home and landscape.

“It's a perfect example of how a great writer can make even a subject you wouldn't naturally gravitate towards be fascinating," said Williams.

She said the book was beautifully written, with an inventive format:

"[Gurba’s] combining memoir, botany, little bits of history from California and Mexico, family history, photos, and little bits of newspaper articles, and putting together all these puzzle pieces. She’s basically telling a story about our relationship to nature — and how we cultivate plants and land — can, in turn, heal us.

“The author talks about how she's been healing from some past traumatic experiences and some previous violent relationships. She doesn't get in too much into those stories — they've been covered in prior books — but [she’s] talking about how creating the sort of jungle of plants, including literally growing corn in her apartment, allowed her to reconnect with nature and kind of reconnect with her soul.”

Williams says she found herself surprised and delighted, as well as entertained, by the comparisons the author drew with her observations of the world.

What would the contents of your purse or backpack say about you? 

Bev Newton of Innisfree Bookshop in Meredith, N.H., recommends a novel about a Parisian bookseller who is so taken by the contents of an abandoned purse, he sets off on a quest to find its owner. 

Newton calls it “the biggest little book you’ll read this year — a delightful little book." 

Laurent Letellier discovers the purse, stripped by a mugger of all its valuable or identifying objects. Inside, he discovers a red notebook along with a key chain, a hieroglyph and perfume.

Newton says the notebook is full of fragmented “memories and wishes and fears,” adding that readers who wish they kept journals will take comfort in how much can be conveyed in dashed-off remarks. 

Laurent, with help from his daughter, sets off on a quest to return the purse. But how to find a faceless, nameless woman in all of Paris?  

The novel has been available in Europe for years, but it was recently translated and made available to the American market. 

Feeling too busy lately to finish a book? Kimberly Daniels of The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina, would like to make an argument for reading short story collections. Specifically, Katrina Denza’s new collection "Burner: And Other Stories.”

Daniels raves about these tightly crafted contemporary short stories, in which she says a single paragraph conveys the weight of a chapter, and a short story contains a fully realized fictional world.

“The economy of being completely transformed and having your mind blown for such little time — [the time it takes to read a short story] — and to be so affected and to return to your life changed — [that’s] a pretty good value for your time.”

These are stories that explore aging, technology and the gap between what people do outwardly and what they express inwardly.

In one story, a woman gets an AI hologram so she can continue to speak with her husband, who took his life due to depression.

“This is a beautiful, hopeful story. I just love how brilliant it is, because it takes what might be the obvious thing, which is fantasy-versus-reality and technology-versus-humanity, and then flips the switch.

“It's like, no, is the fantasy that you can love someone out of a depression? And I'm not giving anything away, because the joy of reading the story is so rich. Every story is like that: just taking it up a notch.”

The book's dark humor evokes Richard Russo’s “Straight Man” or Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove,” and Tabereaux says the story, with its well-developed characters, drew her to both laughter and tears. 

Bud writes obituaries for a living. With his own life down-in-the-dumps, personally and professionally, he drinks too much one night and writes — and publishes — his own obituary. 

It’s a rather dramatic description of his imagined feats, and its publication earns him a suspension from his job.  

In that moment, Tabereaux says, Bud faces the ultimate question: 

“He has to decide, is he going to continue numbly walking through life, or is he going to truly embrace and live life? 

“Bud's friend Tim, who is just a wonderful, wonderful character, starts taking Bud to wakes and funerals of complete strangers. And so, he starts evaluating: what's the legacy these people have left? Bud really starts thinking about what his own legacy is going to be. 

“It's my favorite kind of book, because it includes just fantastically developed characters who are facing the obstacles of life but doing so in a way that is realistic. 

“It's not tied up super neatly in a bow. There's still grief, and there's still loss, and there's heartache; but Bud ultimately realizes that life is better because he embraces the community of people around him." 

Listen to Kenney’s interview with NPR’s Scott Simon here: John Kenney on his new novel, 'I See You've Called In Dead' : NPR 

Sarah Gregg of Lemuria Book Store in Jackson, Miss., recommends a novel that delves deep into a family drama in a small Mississippi Delta town.

The debut novel “Dominion” by Addie E. Citchens takes on themes of power, patriarchy and sexual repression. 

Gregg calls it a character-driven novel, and it was the connection between the two main female characters — including what they don’t manage to say — that kept her reading.

We focus on the family Sabre Winfrey, Jr. As a pastor of a large Black Baptist church and owner of several other companies, he wields tremendous power and respect in the town. 

His son Manny, nicknamed Wonderboy, is equally beloved, until he’s caught in an act of violence he can’t hide. The story centers on two women who love them: Winfrey’s wife, Pricilla, and Manny’s girlfriend, Diamond.  

Gregg says that the inciting act forces the two women to talk with each other about “how they can protect themselves, protect Manny's reputation, and protect other people in the town. 

"It's a fantastic read. I think some reviewers might want it to be a little longer or have a little more discussion between the characters, but I think it's such a perfect capsule of real life that you don't have the conversations that you need to be having.” 

Trigger warning: This novel involves sexual assault. 

Liz Bernoskie of Poor Richard’s Books in Frankfort, Ky., recommends a fantasy novella set in an animal world whose actions offer hope for its human readers.

“Auditions for the Fox” is the debut novella from sci-fi/fantasy short story writer Martin Cahill. The tale appealed to Bernoskie because of its focus on the power of individual acts of kindness.

Here’s the scenario: Nesi, a little girl with godly blood, has chosen to audition for the Fox of Tricks. He wasn’t her first choice as divine patron, but she’s running out of options.

While she expected to be challenged to clever games and perhaps a staring contest, Nesi lands an audition that feels very high-stakes indeed. She finds herself sent back in time 300 years into a land occupied by a cruel ruling set of wolves. Impressing the Fox will mean leading a revolution.

Bernoskie says the writing in this book is “delightful,” with interesting characters.

“The wolves are mean and cruel. The fox is exceedingly clever. And Nesi fights a revolution not with violence, but with kindness. And this just appealed to me so much, [the idea] that things can change by one person being kind to another person.”

Daniel Wells of Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio, recommends the memoir “Coming Up Short” by Robert B. Reich.

Wells called it “a beautiful contextualization of the last 70 or so years in American history.”

An economist and educator, Reich served as Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and economic advisor to President Barack Obama. Reich intersperses the narrative of his life with statistics and facts that ground the story in its political era.

Wells, age 25, said he was reminded of being in his high school government class — which he found positive.

He was particularly struck by the generational focus of the memoir.

Reich was born in 1946, the same year as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and George W Bush. The memoir explores what his generation inherited following World War II: Where they gained ground, and, as the title suggests, where they came up short.

Wells found his conclusion hopeful.

He appreciated the sentiments that “we can do this. It's not impossible. It's all about coming together as a community and understanding that there is no ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ We are all together trying to work towards a better society, and the only way we will squander that is if we buy into the idea that we are different somehow.”

Are you a letter writer? Are you looking for a book about second chances that feels life-affirming? Cathy Fiebach of Main Point Books in Wayne, Pa., suggests you read the novel “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans. 

Our protagonist, Sybil Van Antwerp, is a letter writer. She emails when necessary, but mostly she puts pen to paper to connect with family and strangers alike.

She lets famous writers know what she thinks about their books, and she lets the local public utilities know when they could be doing better. In this epistolary novel, the world unfolds both through Sybil’s writing and through the responses she receives.

As with life, sometimes these notes lead in surprising directions. For example, Fiebach says, Sybil’s notes of complaint to a customer service person turn into friendship and a chance for Sybil to be of help. 

Fiebach says, "It's a story of loss and love and friendship, second chances. It's about an older woman, and her life sort of opening up instead of closing down.

“So as she's writing her letters, she's discovering things about herself, and she's sort of discovering more possibilities and more people. [She’s discovering] some of the things that she could do differently, she's apologizing to people, and they're welcoming her back into their lives. I just found it a very warm and life-affirming book.” 

Calvin isn’t the only six-year-old comic strip character with deep thoughts about how the world should work. Meet Mafalda, star of the classic comic strip created by Argentine artist Quino.

Timothy Otte of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis says the first book of collected Mafalda comics is now available in English, as translated by Frank Wynne.

Here’s how Otte introduces Mafalda:

“Mafalda is a six-year-old genius. Imagine Lucy from the Peanuts gang if she were written by a Latin American Bill Waterson. Mafalda is smart and obsessed with democracy. She hates soup, and she and her friends discuss politics day in and day out. She's wonderful. I think she's so funny.”

The comic strip, written in Spanish, ran from 1964 to 1973 and was distributed around the world. Its illustration style is similar to Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts.”

Otte says its comments and humor still feel relevant today.

“It's such an open-hearted kind of politics. It has the kind of humor that is very much geared toward young readers, but that adults will also find a lot of really unique and wonderful jokes in as well."

All this month, Ask a Bookseller is featuring books for kids and teens as we mark the start of school.

This week’s recommendation comes from Bunnie Hilliard, owner of Brave + Kind Bookshop, a children’s bookstore in Decatur, Georgia.

She’s been enjoying “Why On Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology,” edited by Rosiee Thor and Vania Stoyanova. It’s a collection of YA short stories centered on a teen alien rescue mission-gone wrong.

Hilliard calls the stories “surprising and diverse” and recommends them for anyone looking for a break from reality. 

Captain Iona leads our alien crew as they attempt to recuse her brother, who is under cover in California as a human celebrity. From that accidental invasion beginning, the stories vary widely from sci-fi to romcom to adventure, written by both best-selling authors and new voices.  

“Some of the overarching themes are belonging, found family, empathy, and the idea of ‘other’ — both people who are aliens who feel different from humans and people who are humans who feel alienated and different from their peers,” Hilliard said.

Correction (Sept. 20, 2025): An earlier version of this story misspelled the author’s name. The story has been updated.

All September, Ask a Bookseller is marking the start of school by focusing on books for kids.

This week’s recommendation comes from Ashley Robin Franklin of First Light Books in Austin, Texas.

Ashley adores the picture book/early reader title “Little Shrew” by Akiko Miyakoshi. It's a quiet collection of three stories about Little Shrew’s daily life, secret joys and friends — perfect for thoughtful kids and bedtime reading. 

“The pictures are honestly incredible. When this book first came in, I think I gasped when I took it out of the box. Akiko Miyakoshi is just an incredible illustrator. It is, I think, all graphite and watercolor, and so it has this very gentle quality to it that I love.

“I think that's just really sweet and really special. It’s a great starting point for questions about other people's lives and also for conversations about the quiet beauty of everyday life. It's not something you see in a kid's book that often.” 

Correction (Sept. 19, 2025): A previous version of this story misspelled the author’s name in a reference. The above story has been updated.

With school back in session this month, Ask a Bookseller is focusing on books for kids.

Author and bookseller Rosanne Parry of Annie Blooms Books in Portland, Oregon, starts us off with a middle-grade mystery series, perfect for fans of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

There are five books in Michael Hutchinson’s Mighty Muskrat series, with a new book forthcoming next year.

The series features four mystery-solving cousins living on the fictional Windy Lake reservation in Canada. Hutchinson is a member of the Misipawistik Cree Nation.  

Parry says the mysteries are active and well-paced, fun for kids and nostalgic for parents and grandparents. She also appreciates that they address contemporary concerns: 

“The mysteries are typical of the kid mystery genre — missing people, lost or stolen items and rigged sports events. Hutchinson weaves in information about his Cree heritage and issues relevant to First Nations without ever being heavy-handed, and he livens it all with humor. In the first one, “The Case of Windy Lake,” for example, they're looking for a missing archaeologist. Is archaeology on an Indian reservation fraught? It is.

“He gets into that a little bit without it, it being heavy-handed. The series presents First Nations communities in the present day and actively engaged in the wider world in ways I seldom see in children’s literature.” 

The titles are:  

• The Case of Windy Lake 
• The Case of the Missing Auntie 
• The Case of the Burgled Bundle 
• The Case of the Rigged Race 
• The Case of the Pilfered Pin 
• The Case of the Movie Mayhem (spring 2026) 

(Emily’s note: Rosanne Parry is an excellent author in her own right; she writes the Voice in the Wilderness Middle Grade series. Each book is written from the point of view of a wild animal, including wolves, horses, and orcas. Her most recent book, published this year, is “A Wolf Called Fire.”) 

Sarah Brown, manager of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, which sells both new and used titles; Makkah Abdur Salaam, Lead Bookseller at Black Garnet Books in St. Paul, which is an abolitionist bookstore that sells BIPOC authors; and Lisa Deyo, owner of Sweet Reads Books in Austin, which specializes in Minnesota authors.

The conversation celebrated Minnesota authors across the state and highlighted the huge variety of books drawing readers to the shelves. From history to dystopian science fiction to cozy romantasy, there was a little something for every reader. 

Click the audio player above to listen to their full discussion and check out the book recommendations below. 

Makkah Abdur Salaam, Black Garnet Books

• “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler 
• “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States” by Daniel Immerwahr 
• “It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)” by Dr. Karen Tang 
• “Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope” by Catherine Coleman Flowers 
• “The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic” by Lindsey Stewart 
• “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson 
• “The Dallergut Dream Department Store” by Miye Lee 
• “The Stars and the Blackness Between Them” (YA) and “Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” (picture book) by Junauda Petris 
• “Black Disability Politics” by Sami Schalk

Sarah Brown, Zenith Bookstore

• “Snowshoe Kate and the Hospital Built for Pennies,” written by Margi Preus of Duluth, illustrated by Jamie Zollars (publication date: Oct. 28) 
• “Nicked” by M.T. Anderson
• “Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980)” by Eleanor Johnson (publication date: Sept. 30) 
• “A Fever in the Heartland: The Klu Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them” by Timothy Egan 
• “Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves” by Sophie Gilbert 
• “Gichigami Hearts” by Linda LeGarde Grover of Duluth 

Lisa Deyo, Sweet Reads Books

• “Castle Danger” by Chris Norbury of Owatonna, Minn. 
• “Raven Creek” by Therese Pautz of Austin, Minn. 
• “In the Shade of Olive Trees” by Kate Laak of Rochester, Minn.
• Middle grade novels by Peg Kehret, who grew up in Austin.
• “Breathing in Minneapolis,” a poetry collection by Patrick Cabello Hansel 
• “Lone Dog Road” by Kent Nerburn 
• “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren 

Ask a Bookseller airs Saturdays right after the weather chats at 7:35 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. For the latest book and literary news, sign up for the Thread, our weekly newsletter by Kerri Miller. 

If you were to find an old copy of the 1944 novel “Absent in the Spring,” it would say the author was Mary Westmacott.

That’s the pen name famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie used when she wanted to write literary fiction, and bookseller Charlotte Lehigh of WordPlay in Wardensville, West Virginia, says the six Westmacotts were, until recently, hard to find. 

“They were the unicorn or the Holy Grail for collectors, and so all of the Agatha Christie fans are very, very excited to be able to have these little nuggets finally back in circulation,” Lehigh says. 

Newly re-published in July, “Absent in the Spring” is a “compulsive” read, says Lehigh.

Christie wrote the book in just three days. Our protagonist, busy wife and mother Joan, is waylaid during her travels and finds herself alone with her thoughts. As she re-examines her life and her relationships, she grows increasingly anxious about what she finds. 

Lehigh says the 81-year-old book still feels relevant: 

“Joan could be any woman at any stage in history, in any place and time. Joan could be stuck in any situation, and the feelings and the human element would still be the same.” 

Mary Ellen Phillips of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, Colo., says her favorite book of the summer is the debut, much-hailed historical fiction novel “The Hounding” by Xenobe  Purvis.

Set in Oxfordshire, England, in 1700, this story about a rumor gone wild has Salem witch trial vibes. 

The five sisters at the center of the novel don’t fit in. Raised by their widowed grandfather, they don’t act the way ladies are expected to. They’re loud, they make jokes, and they stick to themselves.

The ferryman begins telling the townsfolk that the sisters are turning into dogs at night, and that people have seen these dogs running about town. Many of the townspeople are quick to accept this rumor as truth, and events escalate from there. 

The treatment of women and women’s health is central to this story, which is packed with real historical details.  

Read an interview with Xenobe Purvis here:   

 Xenobe Purvis discusses her debut novel 'The Hounding,' about female persecution : NPR 

Poet and performance artist Andrea Gibson gained social media fame in recent years with their fierce and vulnerable spoken word videos.

Kara Balcerzak, owner of Bonfire Bookstore & Yarnery in Woodstock, Virginia, first encountered Gibson’s poetry when they were the opening act at an indie music concert and held a large audience spellbound with their words. Gibson died in July at age 49 of ovarian cancer.

Balcerzak recommends watching Gibson’s videos and reading their poetry collections, which she says also stand alone on the page.

She particularly recommends Gibson’s most recent book, “You Better Be Lightning,” published in 2021, which she calls an “ode to beauty.”

Balcerzak, who lived in the Twin Cities for 13 years and earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato, before opening her Virginia bookstore, describes the collection:

“The book does tackle some really tough themes, like depression, abuse, chronic illness, the struggles of LGBTQ people and suicide. But I feel like saying that gives a wrong impression for the book, because it is actually filled with so much love and wonder and awe and joy.

“The speaker in this book goes on this journey from being depressed to falling in love with life, from being closed off to people and to the beauty around them, to being vulnerable, and they invite readers to go along on that journey with them. And there are also surprising moments of humor that literally made me laugh out loud.

“I would recommend this book to anyone who's ever struggled with depression. But beyond that, I think this is a book that I would give to anyone who could use a little infusion of beauty and love and optimism in their life. And I would argue that that's all of us.”

PJ Moon of The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kan., recommends a summer read with elements that will appeal to both adults and children.

“Bat Kid” is a recently republished classic manga by Inoue Kazuo, translated by Ryan Holmberg. This is a two-parter: the full 1940’s Japanese manga about a kid who wants to play baseball, followed by an essay by Holmberg that delves into the history of baseball in Japan, and more.

Moon calls “Bat Kid” a classic baseball manga, about a boy who’s new to the sport, whose parents would rather have him home studying. Its drawing style will remind American audiences of older comic strips, like Dennis the Menace.

“What’s really cool about this book in particular is the cartoonist Inoue Kazuo — he would pencil a lot of puzzles, and some of those are in here as well, like crosswords, riddles and brain teasers,” said Moon.

The essay, meanwhile, goes into depth about baseball in Japan during and immediately after WWII, as well as a history of children’s manga at that time.

“It’s such a vibrant package. If you’re at all interested in the history of baseball, especially in Japan, even if you’re not into manga, I think that you would get a lot out of the essay.”

If you’re looking for an outdoor adventure novel about friendship and wonder and — why not? a cryptid — Ellyn Grimm of Dog-Eared Books in Ames, Iowa, has the book for you. She recommends Giano Cromley's novel “American Mythology,” out this week.

Here’s Grimm’s synopsis of a book she calls “heartwarming and a bit creepy:”

“’American Mythology’ is about two friends, Jute and Vergil, from a town in Basic, Mont., and together, they form the Basic Bigfoot Society. Every year, the two of them go on a Bigfoot expedition, hoping to find Bigfoot or find evidence. And this is rooted in a childhood encounter that Jute had, supposedly with Bigfoot. And after that, his father was never the same and and not in a good way.

“This year, it’s going to be a little bit different for them, because Vergil is holding onto a secret that he needs to share. They’re also being joined by Vergil’s college-aged daughter, a professor with somewhat dubious motivations and a documentarian.

“I’m always down for some good Bigfoot content, but this offers so much more, because it’s really a story about friendship; Jude and Virgil have carried each other through some really tough times in their lives. It‘s about the worthiness of pursuing wonder in the world, and the importance of preserving the spaces where wonder can thrive.”

If you’re going to read a book about a dark character or a difficult subject, do it on a sunny summer day, not when you’re home in the cold and dark of winter.

That’s the suggestion of Angel Dobrow of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, who recommends “Fox: A Novel” by Joyce Carol Oates. We start off the novel from the point of view of Francis Fox, a charismatic middle school English teacher at an elite private school.

When he’s found dead, the town sheriff suspects it’s not an accident, and he begins to peel back the layers. 

Fox — not his real name — is a predator. A pedophile.  

The bulk of the story, though, is from the perspectives of the people connected to Fox or to the school: the plodding, intelligent sheriff; the political headmistress out to protect the reputation of her school; several of Fox’s students and their families. 

What struck Dobrow over and over, she said, was the quality of the writing: 

“It’s interesting; it’s suspenseful. You don’t really know, and until the very end, and even then, you’re not 100 percent sure. It’s not a who-dunnit. It’s just a really good survey of power and human diversity and capacity. It’s a really well-told story.” 

“There are books that you can't put down. And then there are books that, even when you put them down, they just stay with you," says Katherine Nazzaro of Porter Square Books, with stores in Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

The book in the latter category — which she’s still talking about months after reading — is “Sour Cherry” by Natalia Theodoridou.

Nazzaro calls it an unorthodox retelling of Bluebeard. The story of Bluebeard involves a young bride who is told by her husband (Bluebeard) never to enter one room in their home.

When she inevitably does enter, she finds the room is filled with the bodies of his previous dead wives. This novel takes a different tack: the novel starts with a woman, Agnes, who raises Bluebeard after the death of her child.

“It sort of asks the question, who was Bluebeard before the fairy tale? You have all of these dead wives that he's collected, but somebody had to be the first dead wife. And what was life like for her before he was this fairy tale monster?”

Trigger warning: domestic violence is a main theme in this novel, whose events also include the death of a child.

Nazarro doesn’t classify this novel as horror. “In my opinion, as a big horror reader, it doesn't get scary enough. It never really delves into horror. But it's a sort of lyrical literary gothic fiction. I really did feel like it was like a physical presence with me while I was reading it.”

Anne Holman of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, recommends the novel “Old School Indian” by Aaron John Curtis.

Holman calls it a powerful coming-of-age story, when you come of age later in your life in an important way.

The novel follows Abe, who, like the author, is an enrolled member of the Mohawk tribe.

We first meet Abe at age 43 when he is very ill, returning to his family after having lived away for his entire adulthood. The story flashes back to Abe as a college student, falling in love with a young woman named Alex and reinventing himself to appeal to her.

Holman continues, “When he gets sick and goes home, he re-discovers the power of family, and especially his Uncle Budge, who is a healer and lives really, really off the grid and and helps Abe figure out a few important things about himself.”

Holman appreciates the dark humor of the book, the narrator who pops into the story to add his perspective, and the poetry interspersed within the chapters, which she calls “some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever read.”

School is out (or soon-to-be-out) across Minnesota, and that means it’s time for summer reads! But just because you bring a book to the lake, that doesn’t mean it can’t be smart as well as a fun escape.

To that end, Julia Green of Front Street Books in Alpine, Texas recommends the lighthearted whodunit, “No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding” by Catherine Mack.

Readers might recognize this title as the second in Mack’s Vacation Mysteries series, the first being the USA Today bestseller “Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies,” but Green says you don’t need to have read the first to dive right into the second.

Mystery writer Eleanor Dash is on set to see her best friend Emma star in the movie adaptation of Dash’s first novel, after which the entire cast and crew head to a nearby island to celebrate Emma’s wedding.

There is a storm on its way, and soon they are trapped on the island with a dead body. Of course, the writer of mysteries feels the need to step in to solve the case, as does the method actor who played a policeman on film.

As Green tells it, “There are lots of shenanigans. It’s very funny. It’s silly, but it’s not superficial, and it’s not trivial. It’s a wonderful homage, if a little light-hearted, to Agatha Christie.”

“[The book] has smart characters who don’t make idiotic mistakes. It’s not stressful. And when you pick up this book, you know that you’ve got a few peaceful, really entertaining hours ahead of you. You’re going to sit there and you're going to get sunburned because you're not going to want to get off the beach because you don't want to stop reading!”

Sarah Jackson of The Book and Cover in Chattanooga, Tenn., says she was immediately hooked and fully delighted by Amal El-Mohtar's fantasy novella, “The River Has Roots.”

Readers may recognize El-Mohtar as the sci-fi and fantasy columnist for the New York Times and as co-author of the award-winning novel “This is How You Lose the Time War.” This book is her solo debut. 

“I love a story that is about sisters, and I love a story that asks questions about belonging, both in terms of physical place--where do we belong? — but also to whom do we belong? Who belongs to us?” says Jackson. 

The two sisters, Esther and Ysabelle, sing to the trees, which filter the magic out of the river. Esther has a relationship with a Fae folk from the kingdom of Faerie, while Ysabelle falls for a mortal who distrusts the wild, untamed Faerie realm.

There are darker elements to the story that reminded Jackson of Grimm tales. It’s a lyrical narrative filled with song and poetry, with a magic system built upon the transformative power of words. 

For another fantasy novel in which language quite literally has power: Ask a Bookseller: ‘Babel’ | MPR News 

Lori Virelli of Harvey's Tales of Geneva, Ill., has eagerly been awaiting the release this week of Fredrik Backman’s new novel “My Friends.”

The Swedish author of “A Man Called Ove,” the “Beartown” hockey series, “Anxious People” and others offers a new novel about friendship and found family.

Eighteen-year-old Louisa, an aspiring painter without a lot of support in her life, is obsessed with a painting. It’s a famous seascape, but what draws her are three figures sitting on a pier in the distance. Louisa sets out on a journey to find the artist and the people in that painting.

As Louisa crosses paths with people along the way, we learn their backstories. In typical Backman fashion, characters aren’t heroes or villains but complex characters who always have an opportunity to show they can do better next time.

“It’s all about storytelling. Found family. People having a connection through art and through stories,” Virelli says. “And ‘your people’ don’t always look like the people you live next to or work next to. It’s just a lovely, redemptive story of how people find each other.”

Has Ryan Coogler’s recently released horror film “Sinners” got you in the mood for more vampire books? Ben Mayne of Tattered Cover Book Store in Littleton, Colo., recommends “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones. 

Mayne says the book gives “Interview with a Vampire” vibes. The vampire is a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, and the tale he confesses to a pastor in 1912 is one of revenge. The story shifts between the pastor’s journal entries and a modern reader discovering them.

"Throughout the story, you kind of side with him a little bit, and then you hate him again, and then you kind of realize that he might not be the bad guy in this conversation that they're having,” Mayne says. “It's super emotional, terrifying.

“Steven — he teaches here in Boulder— ties a lot of his Native roots into his storytelling. So he mixes a lot of lore into it and makes his own very creepy, disturbing creature.” 

This is one of the rare cases where works by the same author have been recommended on Ask a Bookseller over our nine-year history. Check out this recommendation from 2021 for more: Ask a Bookseller: A love letter to horror films | MPR News

Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. Participating indie bookstores across Minnesota and the country will offer special events or deals.

We celebrate with particular gusto in the Twin Cities metro, where this year, 37 bookstores are participating in the Independent Bookstore Passport created by Rain Taxi.

Pick up your passport and get it stamped at any participating bookstore through Sunday. Each stamp is a future coupon at that store, and with 10 or more stamps, you can unlock additional discounts and chances to win prizes. 

Not sure what to read with all those discounts? Check out the Ask a Bookseller podcast for inspiration. 

This week, Victoria Ford of Comma, a bookshop in Minneapolis, recommends a historical fiction novel with a dose of magical realism. It’s Karen Russell’s “The Antidote.” 

The novel follows five characters living in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Our title character is a prairie witch who calls herself “The Antidote.” Her service? Taking away the painful memories that people wish to forget and storing them for later retrieval, allowing people to go about their lives unburdened by past hurts. The responsibility of memory — and what we lose when we forget — are key themes in the book. 

We also follow a government photographer who comes to take pictures of the Dust Bowl and discovers that her camera can capture images from the past as well as potential futures of the land. Meanwhile, a farmer who came to the U.S. after being driven from his land in Poland struggles with the realization that he is a part of that same crime happening to Native Americans in this country. 

The other characters are the farmer’s niece and ... 

A scarecrow.  

Curious? Me, too. 

Happy Indie Bookstore Day. 

Note: MPR News host Kerri Miller interviewed author Karen Russell for “Big Books & Bold Ideas”; the episode will air May 23.

We finish up our Books of Hope series with a sweeping novel that interconnects lives across time through a single drop of water. The book is “There Are Rivers in the Sky” by award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.  

Meghan Hayden of River Bend Bookshop in Glastonbury and West Hartford, Conn., says she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it: 

“It just captivates you from the very start as a raindrop falls on the head of an ancient king of Mesopotamia, and he’s contemplating his vast library. And there’s a particular poem that he has on a blue tablet that is the prize possession in his gigantic library.

And we follow this poem, which is lost to time. We follow this raindrop through other characters, as we move from Victorian England to modern-day Syria and Iran, back to modern-day London. It’s vast and sweeping, but also incredibly intimate. 

The themes of this book are really around the politics of water, water scarcity, how water is both a life giver and an incredibly destructive force, and how we are all intimately connected by water.

You’ll learn a ton about how rivers and oceans work, how water circles the globe, but all in very personal stories of people’s lives who are revolving around two mighty rivers, the River Thames and the River Tigris. 

It really leaves you on a very hopeful note for our own future, as we are reminded that we are all so deeply connected. At this moment, we have an opportunity to look back at our shared history and avoid living some of the same difficult stories over and over.

I felt really inspired by the end of this book.”

— Meghan Hayden 

When asked for a recommendation for our ongoing Books of Hope series, China Reevers of Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Mont., turned to a book on her shelf that she’s gifted many times: Cole Arthur Riley’s “Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human.” 

“I think it is just a beautiful text that is so rich.” 

Reevers, who was raised Catholic but now describes herself as spiritual, describes this genre-blended collection as one that you can read in any order, choosing the selections that speak to and nourish you.

The book includes snippets of poetry from well-known writers as well as Bible selections paired with Riley’s poetry, meditations, and breathing exercises, with room for reflection for readers.

The first half of the book has chapters with universal themes, including love, fear, doubt and hope, while the second half reflects on specific holidays, including Juneteenth and the Christian season of Lent.  

Reevers says Riley writes from their Black queer experience in an open-hearted way that encourages connection. Reevers' favorite chapter right now is about wonder: 

“It starts with snippets of words from Octavia Butler and then Elizabeth Alexander, followed by a letter that the author is writing about what they’re experiencing in their day and finding wonder in the mundane, just watching a grandfather and a child try to find fly a kite.

“And then after that, there is a bit of poetry, and then these different prayers. I think these are all very open to interpretation. There’s prayer for finding beauty in the mundane, a prayer for marveling at your own face, a prayer for stargazing... 

“I think often when reading things, you get to pick and choose. You get to read something that you may not think is completely for you, but you find that it is for you in the bits and pieces that you get to connect with and you get to find grounding in.”

This week, as our series on books of hope and connection continues, Laynee Wessel with Bliss Books & Bindery in Stillwater, Okla., recommended a memoir about our ties to the natural world. The book is “We Will be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People” by Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson. 

Nemonte Nenquimo is a climate activist who lives in the Amazon region in Equador. A leader of the Waorani people, she made the list of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020.

Her memoir describes her growth as an activist and centers on an international movement by Indigenous nations in the Amazon that succeeded in protecting over half a million acres of rainforest from oil and logging companies. Nenquimo’s co-author is her husband, Mitch Anderson; the two co-founded the nonprofit Amazon Frontlines. 

Wessel recommends the book for fans of “I, Rigoberta Menchú.” She says this memoir, with its poetic translation by Anderson, is narrative in style and rooted in Indigenous oral tradition.

“Under the Whispering Door” is one of her favorites. It’s a cozy fantasy set in a tea shop, which also happens to be a waystation for the dead. When Wallace, a successful lawyer, dies of a heart attack, he tries unsuccessfully to negotiate his way out of what he views as an unpleasant turn of events.

He finds himself at Charon’s Crossing, where its owner Hugo, is tasked with anchoring Wallace to this world until he is ready to go through the Whispering Door to what lies beyond.

Wallace, it turns out, has a lot to learn about how to live, even if he doesn’t get a start until after he’s already died.

What follows is a charming, funny, gentle romance complete with a memorable cast of characters, including Wallace’s punk rock Reaper Mei, who is working her first case; and Hugo’s grandfather and dog — both ghosts, but very full of life. 

“He is one of the best queer science fiction/fantasy writers I've ever read,” said Rusk, who also adds science fiction writer Becky Chambers to that list.  

Klune rose to national attention during the pandemic with his bestselling fantasy novel “House in the Cerulean Sea,” about a health inspector who finds color in his gray, bureaucratic life when he’s assigned to assess an orphanage of particularly powerful magical children.

That novel and its recent sequel “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” also fall under the banner of books that make readers feel hopeful about the world. 

As we continue our focus on books of hope and connection, Lori Virelli of Harvey’s Tales in Geneva, Ill., wanted to recommend Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel “Dream Count.”

It’s Adichie’s first novel in over 10 years. Virelli called it “a beautifully written book about lovely, flawed characters.”

The novel moves among the points of view of four female protagonists, most of whom have a connection to Nigeria. It’s largely set around Washington, D.C., during the pandemic, at a time that invites the characters to take stock of their lives. Key in the story is the power of female friendships.

Adichie is not one to shy away from hard-hitting events in her novels, which include “Americanah” and “Half of a Yellow Sun.” In “Dream Count,” one of the women experiences an assault. And without giving any more way, Virelli said the events set the table for conversations about privilege and “who is owed justice in the world and who is not.”

“There’s also some lovely themes about just sort of hitting those middle aged years and appreciating the love that you’ve seen in your life.”

As for what qualifies it as a book of hope, Virelli said, “Hopeful for me is not always wrapped up in a pretty little bow. Hopeful for me is seeing depth in relationship and knowing that you have people to count on in your life, and, you know, looking at your own insecurities and how you face the world knowing what you're going into.”

For the next few weeks, Ask a Bookseller will focus on books that emphasize hope and connection. Booksellers will point to everything from romance to science fiction to nonfiction in various forms.

This week, John Evans of Camino Books: For the Road Ahead in Del Mar, Calif., recommends a book of essays, “Dictionary of the Undoing” by John Freeman.

In 26 essays, one for each letter of the alphabet, Freeman explores how we can use individual words to engage civilly with each other in divisive times. Freeman has made a life of letters; he’s a former editor of Granta, a writer, literary critic and an executive editor at Knopf. The book was published in late 2019. Evans said it didn’t get deserved attention amid the pandemic.

The book is “recreating the architecture of hope in the words we use, how we conceive of ourselves, how our best can be expressed in words, and how we have to recover so much of what it is to be human. A great place to do this is with language,” Evans said. “He is concerned with civility, which is a kind of love in action, a communal recognition of our human togetherness. [He] retrieves the things we know internally by exploring the language we can use to articulate this collectively.

“He conversationally takes you through the untying of words like citizen, justice, love, rage, spirit, like the friend you most like to get together with over coffee. The essays build on each other, utilizing words from previous chapters until you feel more human, more hopeful and more necessarily engaged in embodying a world you would like to live in.”

For the next few weeks, Ask a Bookseller will feature books of hope and connection. Independent booksellers across the country have recommended titles that span the realms of fiction and nonfiction, celebrating connections with others. 

Elizabeth Bluemle of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., recommends a book of very short essays by Vermont author, Thomas Christopher Green. Author of the international bestselling novel “The Headmaster’s Wife,” he, like many, found himself grounded at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result: He wrote “Notes from the Porch: Tiny True Stories to Make You Feel Better About the World.”  

Elizabeth wondered if the short stories told in the book might live up to the title but said “they really do.”  

“They are little stories about human connection. Some of them are funny. Some of them are little drops of beauty. Some of them leave you bemused.” 

“It doesn’t feel old-fashioned because they do happen in the modern world. There's nothing saccharine about the stories, which sometimes you can tip into with an inspiring book.” 

This book portrays “life at a human pace. And it does make you feel good about the world. It reminds you that we do have these connections and that our communities, our neighbors, our friends and family, are kind of the foundation of what makes us human. It is really those connections that we love that help us through the hard times.” 

For the next few weeks on Ask a Bookseller, we’ll be doing something a little different: focusing on books of hope.

Danielle King of Left Bank Books in St Louis, Mo., knew right away what she wanted to recommend: Sofia Samatar’s sci-fi novel “The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain.” Weighing in at 128 pages, this short novel packs a transformational punch. 

The setting for this novel is the stars, where humanity lives, powered by an enslaved underclass, the Chained. The story focuses on a boy who is pulled from the Chained class and given an elite education, and his life is transformed by connections with two people in succession: a man called the Prophet and a woman (formerly Chained, herself) called the Professor. 

Danielle King describes the story as: A transformation of the connection between people that are socially structured to be apart from each other. These people have so much in common, but they’re kept from one another, and when they finally can come together, it is one of the most uplifting stories I’d ever seen.  

Fun fact, I was training to be a political philosopher before I became a bookseller. I used to study racial group consciousness, and I’ve read a lot of books about racial group consciousness.

In this little, tiny science fiction tone, Sophia Samatar did what thousands of race scholars have been unable to do — which is talk about the way racial group consciousness affects the people in that group, really accurately, really beautifully, and in a way that makes you feel like the way that the world is needn't be the way that the world is, because every day we have this opportunity to connect to one another, and in that connection, be transformed.

— Danielle King 

Theresa Phung works at Yu & Me Books in Manhattan’s Chinatown. She recommends “Blob: A Love Story” by Maggie Su.

Su tells of Vi Liu, a young Taiwanese-American woman, who discovers a sentient blob and attempts to mold it into her ideal partner, leading to unexpected consequences.

Theresa says: The blob, as it watches TV, starts to gain more and more human emotions, human physical features, and is basically becoming a human being. Our heroine decides, “What better thing to do than to groom this blob into the perfect boyfriend?”

So it doesn’t go that well, at least initially, in many ways, like her, trying to teach this blob to be a person ends up sort of revealing a lot of the ways in which she is not a very good person — whether that means her job, her personal relationships, her family, her friendships.

The more she tries to sort of teach this alien entity how to be a human being, she really ends up teaching herself how to be one.

— Theresa Phung

Eowyn Ivey launched onto the literary scene in 2012 with her New York Times Bestselling debut “The Snow Child,” which grounds the fairy tale of a couple who makes a child out of snow in the hard reality of a 1920 Alaska homestead. Ivey weaves a world that feels both real and magical at the same time.

Thirteen years later, Ivey is out with her third novel “Black Woods, Blue Sky.” Olga Lijo Serans of Hearthside Books and Toys in Juneau, Alaska, says Ivey is “getting better and better at what she does.” 

The novel is marketed as a twist on Beauty and the Beast. Lijo Serans says a better comparison would be within Native Alaskan mythology. 

Set in contemporary Alaska, “Black Woods, Blue Sky” tells the story of a single mother, Birdie, who is struggling to make ends meet. She falls in love with a reclusive man and decides to join him, along with her daughter, in his isolated cabin in the mountains.

Theirs is a subsistence-living existence tied to nature, and at first Birdie finds it idyllic. But her partner has a secret. This could be the set-up of a horror novel, but while Lijo Serans describes the book as “raw” with thriller elements, the story goes in a different direction. 

Lijo Serans describes Ivey’s writing: 

“She’s totally grounded in the Alaska landscape and the Alaska way of life. But at the same time, she introduces an element of magic. The introduction is very slow. You sometimes aren’t really sure if the magic element is there or when it actually appeared. I found it totally engrossing, and I think that it’s just the thing to read on a winter night.” 

Makkah Abdur Salaam of Black Garnet Books in St. Paul recommends the nonfiction book “A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics” by Juanita Tolliver. Abdur Salaam describes it as a “roadmap” for cultivating community. 

Chisholm and Carroll both claimed important firsts for Black women. In 1972, Chisholm was the first Black woman to run for president. Carroll was the first Black woman to win a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical (for Richard Rodgers’ “No Strings”) in 1962.  

Tolliver zeroes her focus on one event: a party hosted by Carroll in Hollywood to introduce Chisholm to a community of influencers to support her presidential run. Among the big names in attendance were Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party; Berry Gordy, founder of the Motown Record label; and actors Goldie Hawn and Flip Wilson. Each chapter of the book focuses on a different guest in attendance. 

Makkah Abdur Salaam recommends reading this book as a great way to start Black History Month. “[Tolliver] lays out how Shirley Chisholm basically lays the foundation for the women to come after her, like Stacey Abrams, AOC, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Maxine Waters.” 

It was the coalition-building focus of the book that Abdur Salaam, age 26, found most hopeful. 

“I know that there’s a heightened — especially younger people — feeling of [being] isolated and lonely, not really knowing what to do in this kind of political sphere. So I think this book is a great road map on how to really stay grounded and how to just engage with the people who are around you. 

“It’s a really great book to learn how to cultivate community and learn how to engage in sisterhood and brotherhood with each other in a way that is based in empathy and compassion for each other, as well as the spirit of reciprocity. I have to emphasize that [Chisholm] gave and gave to her community, and when she asked for them to show up for her, they did.” 

Fans of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” were looking forward to her new collection of short essays “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World,” which was published shortly before Thanksgiving.

Beth Hartung of Pearl Street Books in La Crosse, Wis., says it was at the top of her list of favorite books from last year. Weighing in at 128 pages with accompanying illustrations, “The Serviceberry” is “a true gem of a book” that’s an “incredible joy to read,” says Hartung.  

Kimmerer is a biologist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, whose essay collection “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants” (published by Milkweed Press in Minneapolis in 2013) was called A New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Readers Pick.

In that collection, and in “The Serviceberry,” her short essays consider our connections with the natural world and with each other.  

Serviceberries are shrubs or small trees, including some varieties indigenous to Minnesota, whose tart fruit feeds pollinators, birds, animals and humans alike.

Hartung explains that Kimmerer “uses the humble serviceberry as a metaphor to describe this world that she believes we can have, that we can exist in. And I believe it’s a world that many of us are longing to live in.

“It’s this world where there’s this abundance and that we’re focused on [having] enough, and we’re not focused on the scarcity. She describes a world where reciprocity is valued, a world where, individually and collectively, we recognize that we humans are interconnected with all of nature around us, and as we walk through the world, she urges us to really take note that what we do impacts everything else. And she describes [how] we can all adapt to or adopt sustainable living practices if we choose gift economy over capitalism. 

“It’s just such an incredibly beautiful book. Every single page. I just wanted to pause after I read it and reflect on it and reread it. I’ve read it out loud to friends. I’ve gifted it to quite a few people already.” 

Lovers of little-known history, get ready: We’ve got a book that lifts a real-life Minnesota tax attorney out of WWII obscurity and into the limelight with an out-of-the-box plan to defeat the Nazis without ever going to war.

The book is Graham Moore’s meticulously researched novel, “The Wealth of Shadows,” and Rona Brinlee of The BookMark in Neptune Beach, Fla., says it was one of her favorite books of this past year.

In 1939, horrified by what the build-up of what will become WWII, Ansel Luxford goes to the U.S. Treasury Department with a proposal to bankrupt Germany while still appearing neutral on the world stage. They form a committee and start making plans for the future of the dollar; meanwhile, a potential Soviet spy has infiltrated the system.

Battle-by-economic-theory might sound dry, but bookseller Brinlee assures readers that it’s very readable, with fascinating characters, including well-known economist John Maynard Keynes. At the end of the book, the author reveals his research and clarifies the places where he inserted fiction, but much of it is true.

“There’s a lot of there’s some economic theory in there,” says Brinlee. “Because John Maynard Keynes proposes things that are based on the [value of the] dollar and how that would work. And I’m not an economist, and so I have to confess, I read those parts twice, but that was okay. I learned a lot, and I was more than happy to do that.”

Part of the superpower of stories is to create spaces for empathy: Between the pages of the book, we get to step into the lives of other people, real or fictional.

That’s what Stefanie Chow of Stillwater Books in West Warwick, R.I., loves about Coco Mellors’ novel “Blue Sisters.”

“It's a very messy story,” Chow says, “but it’s really rooted in this unconditional love between sisters, and it just at one point they felt like flesh and bone to me.”

The topics of the novel are heavy indeed, since the Blue sisters of the title come with their share of addiction and unhealthy coping mechanisms. The oldest sister, Avery, is a recovering heroin addict turned high-powered lawyer living in London.

Middle sister Bonnie is a former world champion boxer who left the profession after a difficult loss. The baby of the family, Lucky, is an LA-based model stuck in a cycle of partying, drinking, and drugs. The novel begins one year after their fourth sister, Nicky, has passed away unexpectedly.

Stefanie Chow describes what she liked about this book: The story is basically these three sisters finding their way back to each other, but in order to do that, they really have to confront their pain.

And one thing that I really loved about the book is that it’s written with this attention to detail that just makes the characters feel so real. It's a very vulnerable story.

Every chapter is told from a different sister’s point of view. As they start to see the pain that their sisters are dealing with, they have this empathy and this pain at the same time that just makes everything so much harder.

There were times when they were really cruel to each other. Sometimes they came off as unlikable, but the fact that they find a way to forgive each other really won me back over as a reader.

— Stefanie Chow

Rima Parikh of The Thinking Spot in Wayzata, Minn., recommends a book of short and sweet (and savory!) essays, perfect for gifting your favorite foodie. It’s called “Bite by Bite:  Nourishments and Jamborees” by poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil, whose previous book “World of Wonders” was a New York Times bestseller. 

Perhaps better than anything else, food can transport us back in time and evoke memories. Each of these nourishing personal essays focuses on a different food, drawing the reader in through stories and humor while weaving in facts about the foods and their history. Many passages focus on fruits, but she also throws in various savories, from potatoes to waffles.  

Rima says: Along with her, we kind of get to travel the world. The fruits are from Greece and French Polynesia and India. And there are so many in there that I hadn’t even heard of. For example, there’s an apple banana, like a banana that tastes like apple. 

[The book] is great for this time of year, when our attention span is so short and there's too many things going on!

You can take one essay at a time. In fact, I’d recommend it. You take one at a time, as if you were savoring the fruit and let any memories that come to you wash over you as you are reading it.

— Rima Parikh

Amy Loewy of the Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, La., knew right away which book she wanted to recommend: Jesmyn Ward’s novel “Let Us Descend.”

Ward has won the National Book Award for Fiction twice with “Sing, Unburied, Sing” (2017) and “Salvage the Bones” (2011), and Loewy says her most recent novel is a gorgeously crafted journey.

The work is deeply researched historical fiction laced with magical realism, and its title comes from a line in Dante’s “Inferno.” That’s appropriate for a hellish journey, forming an uncomfortable read — but laced with hope. 

The novel follows Anise, an enslaved woman who is separated from her mother and sold south from the Carolinas to a plantation in Louisiana. We follow Anise’s journey over land and water as well as back in time through her memories.  

“It is so magnificently written that you cannot put it down from the first paragraph,” says Loewy. Here’s how the story begins: 

“The first weapon I ever held was my mother’s hand. I was a small child then, soft at the belly. On that night, my mother woke me and led me out to the Carolina woods, deep, deep into the murmuring trees, black with the sun’s leaving. The bones in her fingers: blades in sheaths, but I did not know this yet.”

It’s not the first national recognition for Seuss, whose collection “frank: sonnets” won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2022. Both were published by Graywolf Press in Minneapolis.  

Whether you’re steeped in poetic tradition or approaching verse for the first time, Julie says you’ll find something to love in this collection, which challenges the notion that modern poetry should be dark and serious or written in free verse. 

“She has all these great internal rhymes and slant rhymes in places where, once again, according to the "rules of modern poetry,” you're not supposed to be doing these things, but as the reader, you're just reveling and luxuriating in this language that she's using. And so she's bringing out the origins of poetry. Why did we as a species love poetry from the very beginning? And it's the sounds of language. And I think she's trying to get us back to that. 

"If you're a broad reader, this is a collection with little easter eggs for you all throughout it. Even if you don't read a lot of books, literature, poetry, you will still just love the sense of the language as you're reading.” 

It’s Erica Bauermeister’s “No Two Persons,” and David says the novel feels a bit like the movie “Love Actually,” in that we follow the stories of multiple characters. Here, they are connected by their experience with a single book.

Fictional author Alice writes a beautiful debut novel. We then step into the lives of nine readers who encounter the book. Their takeaways and interpretations vary depending on their experiences; hence “No Two Persons” will have the same response.

We follow a homeless teen, an actor who records the audiobooks, a grieving widower, an artist who creates a new work inspired by the read — and more.

As a lifelong reader, David says, the novel “felt very personal. It felt like the author in the book was talking to me.”

David underlined multiple passages that felt particularly moving, then gave the book away to a fellow reader — which means they now want to buy another copy to read it again.

You’ve probably read a multi-generation saga where the story follows a family line through the decades. Have you read a novel that follows … not people, but a house? 

That’s the premise of “North Woods” by Daniel Mason: We focus on a house in the woods of Massachusetts and its occupants — human and animal — over four centuries.

Justin Dickinson of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kan., calls the work “one of the most unique and original voices in fiction I’ve ever read.” 

The book is broken into 12 chapters, one for each month of the year. Each chapter moves forward in time, and the voice and style of the writing change to suit each new occupant. Through it all, the house and its surrounding land are as much a character in the story as any of the people. 

Justin describes a few of the characters who occupy the house: 

“We start out with a Puritan couple that’s escaping their colony that they were kind of chased away from, and they build the cabin for a shelter. And then it kind of jumps immediately ahead to a man who finds the grounds outside can grow a very unique kind of apple, and he becomes very obsessed with making it into the next, best orchard. So you follow his journey for a little bit. You get his daughters, who have so much going on; they're crazy and hysterical.

There’s ghosts. You get a mountain lion that comes through at one point. And that’s a very interesting poem. There’s a beetle sitting in the rafters at one point watching a couple getting intimate, and then the beetle itself gets a little bit intimate.

It’s so wild and interesting, and every chapter will just kind of keep you on your toes.” 

Christina Rosso-Schneider of A Novel Idea on Passyunk in Philadelphia, Penn., recommends a “fever dream of a novel” that’s risen to the top of her list so far this year. The novel is called “Smothermoss” by debut author Alisa Alering. 

“It gives very Shirley Jackson or Samantha Hunt kind of vibes, which I’m here for,” says Rosso-Schneider about this sister story set in 1980s Appalachia. 

Our two sisters in question are as different as could be at the outset. Older sister Sheila is practical and hard-working, trying to keep up with the household chores while their mother works.

Angie believes in the other-worldly. She creates drawings that feel like tarot cards and seem to have a life of their own.

They live in the woods very near the Appalachian Trail, and the novel’s plot kicks into motion when two female hikers are found murdered near their home. The sisters set out to find the serial killer. 

The story involves “some true magical realism, like outside-of-this-realm kind of things happening,” says Rosso-Schneider. “It’s gruesome; it’s inspiring; it’s heartfelt. It’s very craveable.” 

We’re at that point in the calendar year when book lovers start to declare their favorites of 2024. Claire Benedict of Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vt., says the novel at the top of her list is “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna.

“It’s my favorite kind of book, because it gives you something to think about, and it has some serious themes, but it does it with a light enough touch that you’re just fully entertained the whole way, not just being dragged down by the weight of the world,” she said.

Our heroine, Jane, is a novelist and college instructor whose hopes of tenure are pinned on the publication of her novel — and she’s just found out that it won’t be published.

The novel was her labor of love, what her husband refers to as the “mulatto War and Peace.” Jane, like Senna, is biracial and uses the term “mulatto” to speak specifically to having one Black parent and one white parent in America.

To support her family, Jane turns to Hollywood to write for TV. The resulting ride is deeply thoughtful, and also very funny.

“It’s just kind of one mishap after another,” says Benedict. The entertainment comes from floundering characters trying their best, and we’re “laughing with them [as they’re] just trying to find a place to belong in the world, which is pretty universal. This book is very much about race and identity, but it's also very much about family and trying the best for your family and trying to be a good mom. It was one of those books that you just can’t stop reading, but then you’re sad because it’s over.”

Of course, for the week of Halloween, we had to talk about a book that keeps you looking over your shoulder.

Hunter Gillum of Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, Iowa, recommends the mystery/crime novel “Scrap” by Calla Henkel.

The novel focuses on Esther Ray, a multimedia artist with a true-crime podcast obsession. Recently dumped, she accepts a scrapbooking job from wealthy Naomi Duncan. The items to be scrapbooked purport to trace the 25 years of Naomi’s marriage, and the number of files — nearly 200 boxes — are enough for any crime-lover to get lost in.

Early files mention two daughters, but later there is only a record of one: why? Esther soon finds herself going down a rabbit hole. And when Naomi dies mid-project, Esther is certain foul play was involved.

Hunter says the true-crime elements of the book reminded him of John Darnielle’s “The Devil House,” though he says “Scrap” is lighter and funnier.

That said, Esther’s increasing paranoia and second-guessing of what was true brought Thomas Pynchon’s “Bleeding Edge” to mind.

Do you crave all things cozy once the autumn leaves start to turn?

Ellie Petres of The Book Garden in Bountiful, Utah, recommends a feel-good romantasy read, perfect for fans of “Legends and Lattes.”

It’s called “The Spellshop” by Sarah Beth Durst.

The novel follows Kiela, a librarian, and her sentient spider plant assistant, Caz. When a revolution in the city declares magic illegal and her library is burnt, Kiela gathers up all the spellbooks she can carry, along with Caz, and sets sail for the small island where Kiela was raised — though she hasn’t seen it in years.

There, she finds an old cottage to fix up, a handsome neighbor, and a purpose: the island is slowly dying, and she has just the spells to help both land and people flourish once again. Since magic is illegal, she hides her spells in the jams she sells.

The book is marketed as “a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic,” and Ellie says that description is exactly on point.

October is around the corner, and with it spooky season. If you like to settle into fall on a diet of murder mysteries and true-crime documentaries, check out the novel "Penance" by Eliza Clark. That's the recommendation from Kate Stern of Antigone Books in Tucson, Ariz.

"Penance" is a fictional story, but it reads like a true-crime investigation with an unreliable-narrator journalist at the helm.

It's not a spoiler to say that the novel involves a grisly murder. Within the first pages, we learn that a teenage girl was burned alive by three female classmates on a beach in a small coastal English town called Crow-on-Sea.

The crime takes place on the night of Brexit and is therefore buried in the newscycle, to be later uncovered by true crime podcasts and Tumblr communities, whose comments and speculation are woven through the story.

Through the investigation, the murdered girl's story — and her previously uneventful life — grow less and less important as we delve into the potential motives of the murderers and the history of the odd town.

"It is an examination of the true crime industry," says Stern, who called the book a pageturner with excellent character development. Reading out to find out what exactly happened, we have to ask ourselves: Why do we want to know?

All this month, Ask a Bookseller is focusing on great reads for kids and teens as they mark the start of the new school year.

September is also when the longlists for the National Book Awards come out, and this week’s recommendation from Grace Lane of Linden Tree Books in Los Altos, Cali., made that coveted list in the “Young People’s Literature” category.

Grace recommends the YA novel “Everything We Never Had” by Randy Ribay, about four generations of Filipino-American fathers and sons.

The book deftly moves among the points of view of each of the four generations when they are 16 years old and on the cusp of major decisions. We then get to see those 16-year-olds as fathers and occasionally grandfathers of the next generation.

The first generation is a Filipino immigrant to California in 1929, and his great-grandson lives in Philadelphia in 2020.

Lane calls the novel a “wonderful exploration of California history, of American history. And it really focuses on the Fil-Am experience in a way that I haven’t really seen done in any YA or middle-grade novel yet.”

For example, the novel includes the 1930 riots in Watsonville, Cali., marked by targeted violence against Filipino immigrant workers, which had a huge impact on the Filipino population in California.

Subsequent generations saw the end of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.

“It’s in many ways a really good treatise on transgenerational trauma, but it also really brings home that your story is also your ancestors’ story,” she said. “It’s also your parents’ stories. It’s everything that they wanted for you and everything that they didn’t get that they wanted to have when they were 16.”

The finalists for the National Book Award will be announced Oct. 1 with awards given Nov. 19.

We continue our focus on books for kids and teens this September with a middle-grade novel that introduces censorship to middle schoolers.

Hana Duckworth of Secret Garden Bookstore in Seattle, Wash., recommends the middle-grade novel “Attack of the Black Rectangles” by Amy Sarig King.

Mac, a sixth-grader, gets assigned to read “The Devil’s Arithmetic” by Jane Yolen. It’s a 1988 novel written about the Holocaust, but he and his classmates are surprised to find that several words in the book have been blacked out.

This requires a trip to the local indie bookstore to find a version without any black rectangles blocking the text. It turns out, their teacher has censored the book.

Their teacher approves of many ordinances in their town, such as rules that bar junk food, set a curfew and determine which plays can be performed at the local theater.

Mac and his friends aren’t having it. They go to town hall meetings, picket at street corners and have a silent sit-in in the principal's office.

Duckworth says an overarching theme in this book is encouraging kids to have agency: their opinions and actions matter.

“We can’t control the way we’re treated,” Duckworth said. “But only how we react to it and how we can choose to have grace even when we disagree. There’s a really sweet line from Mac’s mother that I thought was nice. It was, ‘Grace is a good thing to have. It’s like jam. It sweetens things.’”

That metaphor and the concept of grace run throughout the book.

In honor of the start of school, Ask a Bookseller is focused on recommendations for kids and teens — although Kristin Nilsen of Big Hill Books in Minneapolis recommends this middle-grade read for everybody.

It’s the newest title from Lois Lowry, called “Tree. Table. Book.” You might know Lowry for her novels “Number the Stars” and “The Giver,” which won Newbery Medals in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Now age 87, Lowry has written a new book that Kristin says deserves to be in Newbery contention.

The story follows two Sophies who live on the same street and are friends. Narrator Sophie is 11 years old. Her friend “big Sophie” is 88. Young Sophie begins to hear the grown-ups in her life expressing concerns that big Sophie is no longer able to live on her own. They want her to have a cognition test, to ascertain whether she has dementia.

Young Sophie is determined to keep her friend in her home, and so sets about helping big Sophie study for the cognition test. In the test, a person must remember and repeat a series of three words. (The title “Tree. Table. Book.” comes from this test.)

Over the course of their studies, big Sophie begins telling her friend stories of when she was a little girl growing up in Poland at the start of WWII when the Nazis came. These are stories she’d never told anyone before, not even members of her own family.

Pallas Erdrich, co-manager of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis; Char Klimek, owner of Hearthside Books in Watertown; and Amy Erickson, owner of Bluebird Books in Detroit Lakes, discussed romantasy, BookTok and how Gen Z is saving bookstores.

Click the audio player above to listen to their full discussion and check out the book recommendations below.

Pallas Erdrich, Birchbark Books

• “The Truth According to Ember” by Danica Nava
• “Black Woods, Blue Sky” by Eowyn Ivey
• “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
• “Dahlia’s Make a Difference Day” by Jackie Brown
• “Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs” by Jamie Loftus
• “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers
• “VenCo” by Cherie Dimaline
• “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib

Char Klimek, Hearthside Books

• “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros
• “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas
• “First Casualty“ by AJ Powers
• “Skyward” series by Brandon Sanderson

Amy Erickson, Bluebird Books

• “Trash, Trolls and Treasure Hunts” by Thomas Dumbo
• “Find Your Beat: Walk in the Rhythm of Life” by Tim Eggebraaten
• “The Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman
• “Sandwich” by Catherine Newman
• “James” by Percival Everett
• “The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty” by Valerie Bauerlein
• “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson
• “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond

Ask a Bookseller airs Saturdays at 7:35 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. after the weather chat. For the latest book and literary news, sign up for the Thread, our weekly newsletter by Kerri Miller.

The State Fair is in its last hurrah through Labor Day, and the new school year is gearing up. This week, we’re combining both those energies with a local picture book recommendation recorded live at the fair.

Pallas Erdrich of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis recommends “Dahlia’s Make a Difference Day,” written by Jackie Brown and illustrated by Peyton Stark, both of Minneapolis.

Dahlia, who loves gardens, discovers an injured bunny. She raises money to help the bunny and local wildlife by making and selling cupcakes. Not only does her family help, but she finds other kids in her neighborhood have their stands to support causes they care about, too.

The pictures are expressive and joyful in this sweet book about how kids can make a difference.

You can listen to the State Fair Ask a Bookseller event Monday at noon on MPR News.

Eye-catching title, isn't it?

Zoologist Lucy Cooke takes a close look at the often-overlooked female half of the animal kingdom and the active role they take within evolutionary biology.

This recommendation comes from Carolyn Chin of Books on First in Dixon, Ill., who she says she found the nonfiction book “totally fascinating.”

There’s a tendency to focus on alpha males in evolutionary biology: on their showy, sometimes violent displays of dominance and their pursuit of multiple mates.

The females are often portrayed as docile prizes, passive bearers of offspring or devoted (or not) mothers. Some of this understanding traces back, not to science, but to the gender ideas of Charles Darwin's time.

Cooke paints a picture that is far more interesting and active, exploring female topi antelopes who battle for the best males, meerkat mothers who murder competitors’ young, female lizards who reproduce without a male’s help and some species whose description defies binary.

Chin praises the writing as highly readable and often humorous, with such clever chapter titles as “50 Ways to Eat Your Lover.”

Maggie Robe of Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, N.C., loves a good character-driven novel. She recommends Alison Espach’s new dark comedy, “The Wedding People.”

Espach rose to acclaim for her novels “The Adults” and “Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance,” and this new work has already been optioned for film by TriStar.

The novel is a second-chance story about Phoebe Stone, who checks in at a lovely hotel in Newport, R.I., fleeing a crumbled marriage and with plans to end her life. She finds she’s booked the one room not taken by a wedding party. The bride has planned a full week of events for her guests.

Separated by about 20 years of age and at very different stages of life, Phoebe and the bride form a friendship. Not only that, but the wedding guests — all memorable characters — keep engaging with Phoebe, reminding her of reasons to live again.  

Maggie says it’s a joyous book, despite the dark topic of its opening: 

“It’s just a really fun story, very different. It’s about just finally speaking your mind and understanding yourself and being brave enough to do so, and just living life. I love good characters that just entertain me and make me laugh and cry. It made for a great summer read.” 

This one’s for the romance lovers.

Chardai Powell is with Loyalty Bookstores, with locations in Silver Spring, Md., and Washington, DC. Her beat is indie Black romance writers, and she says part of the joy is being able to keep up with authors on social media and really pour into their lives and the communities they create.

One of the authors she loves is Rae Lyse. Chardai says she was recently up until 4 a.m. devouring her new release, "For the Night”:

It’s a slow burn, adult romance, an age-gap, parent-teacher trope. Venus Thibodeaux is a kindergarten teacher starting back in the dating scene following a divorce. Anthony Nunez is the father of one of her favorite students, a shy girl nicknamed “Munch.”

I just fell in love with [Munch] and I love how important she was to their story. This one was a rollercoaster of emotions.

I don’t have a lot of books that leave me speechless, but this one did. And I honestly just felt so grateful after reading it and cried and wanted to read it all over again.

— Chardai Powell

“The Sweet Blue Distance” by Sara Donati follows a descendent of her bestselling Wilderness series.

Young midwife Carrie Ballentyne travels from her home in New York to work in Sante Fe. It’s set in 1857, at an interesting moment in U.S. history: seven years after the U.S. claimed the territory from Mexico and four years before the start of the Civil War.

Carrie finds herself in a complicated, multicultural community, highly segregated among Spanish, Indigenous and white inhabitants. She’s comfortable in all these communities, Jolie says, but not everyone is comfortable with her being there. Of course, as a nurse midwife, she sees the most intimate parts of people’s lives, including secrets her employer and his wife are keeping from her.

Jolie says she enjoyed the history, politics and romance of this epic novel, adding, “I read it all the way through to get to the end, and then I read it again because I wanted to get all the details.”

Jolie also recommends “Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon. Set in 1789 Maine, in pre-Bill of Rights America, the novel features midwife Martha Ballard, a real-life figure who delivered over 1,000 babies and never lost a mother.

“Frozen River” is also a murder mystery, with the frozen river being where a body is discovered. Called to the scene, Martha declares the death a murder, much to the consternation of those who'd rather the death be hushed up as an accident.

“It’s about women’s voices and women’s truth being closed down because it makes men uncomfortable.”

In a December 2023 interview with NPR host Scott Simon, Ariel Lawhon spoke about the importance, to her, of featuring a mature woman as a heroine. At age 54, Martha has a supportive husband of 35 years and several adult children as well as an important career within her community.

Mojade Adejokun of Paper Hearts Bookstore in Little Rock, Ark., recommends the novel “Women of Good Fortune” by Sophie Wan for your next fun summer read. 

Mojade describes the story as a heist that grows out of a group chat. You know the ridiculous things you text with your friends?

In this case, a reluctant bride and her two best friends decide to follow through on their crazy idea to get money by stealing the cash envelopes from her lavish wedding. 

Lulu doesn’t love her husband-to-be, and her friends feel the money could transform their lives. One friend is determined that plastic surgery would make her prettier and therefore change her fortune. The other longs to have a child, but IVF is way out of her price range.  

All they need to do is swap out the fancy boxes and thick red envelopes of wedding cash with fakes and they’re free! Right? 

“Throughout the story,” Mojade says, “the friends find out more about what they actually want and what they’re willing to do to get it. And if it’s at all worth it. It really is like the Sandra Bullock version of ‘Ocean’s Eight’: There’s twists and turns, and you bring in outside help, and there’s car chases! There’s a little bit of high intensity, but it’s still just a fun little story with a little bit of romance. But the biggest story of all is just the importance of friendship.”

Jhoanna Belfer of Bel Canto Books in Long Beach, Cal., recommends the novel “Hula” by Jasmine ‘Iolani Hakes.

Jhoanna calls it a “gorgeously written family saga” offering an “insider look” at Hawaii. The lyrical writing incorporates Hawaiian place and family names, and if you love audiobooks, she says this one makes for excellent listening. 

Jhoanna says: There are three generations steeped in the tradition of hula, and they’re wrestling with what it means to be Hawaiian and how to preserve and pass on that heritage.

Hakes delves deeply into questions of sovereignty, cultural ownership and self-determination. It definitely also deals with family expectations, and trying to find your place in a family that is highly regarded in your community, and trying to stand out as an individual, while also taking pride in being part of that heritage. 

And it really leads you to question your own responsibilities as a tourist and a traveler. The beginning of the book is kind of a Greek chorus in the third person plural. And it opens with letting you know point-blank that this is not the book that you think it is.

This is not the Hawaii that you think you know. This is an insider's look. A peek behind the curtain, so to speak.

— Jhoanna Belfer 

Emily Sands of the Williams Bookstore in Williamstown, Mass., recommends a sci-fi/fantasy quest to keep you company this summer. It’s called “Star Bringer” by Tracy Wolf and Nina Croft.

The voice-driven novel is marketed as “Firefly” meets “The Breakfast Club,” and Emily says that description is spot-on. 

Here’s the deal: The sun is dying — quickly — and no one knows why.  

At first glance, the story gives off “Dungeons and Dragons” vibes, in the sense that it draws together a sheltered princess, a high priestess who believes she’s part of a prophecy, an escaped rebel prisoner and some grumpy soldiers on a quest.

They find themselves aboard a fall-apart spaceship, having escaped an interplanetary conference. Where should they go? Can they trust each other? Conflicting personalities, ulterior motives, and an LGBTQ+ romance all come together for a quick, entertaining read, says Emily. 

Maris Herrington of McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., says one of the best books she’s read so far this year is Chris Whitaker’s mystery/thriller, “All the Colors of the Dark.” It comes out on Tuesday, June 25.  

Maris has this preview: It is all about this young boy named Patch. He has one eye, and he kind of considers himself as a pirate.

It’s getting towards the end of that time, and he sees a young girl being taken by a man into his vehicle. He ends up intervening and gets taken instead. And everybody has written him off for dead. But his best friend, Scout, is still convinced that he is alive. She ends up finding him a year later.

Patch is convinced that during that year that he was down in the dark in the basement, there was another girl with him down there named Grace. He’s convinced that she’s still alive. So he dedicates his life to finding Grace.

And thats just how it gets started! It’s a book about friendship, love and obsession. It’s one of the better books I’ve read this year. And it’s sure to capture everyone’s heart. Wow. 

There’s a string of murders that are going on as well. There are so many layers to this book, it’s insane. He’s an incredible writer to add those twists and turns and make them all come together. Throughout the entire book, he keeps you guessing. It’s a book that you will not want to put down.

— Maris Herrington

Whitaker will be at the bookstore in Petoskey, Mich., on July 29 as part of a U.S. tour. He does not have a stop currently planned in Minnesota, according to the Penguin Random House website.

Emma Presnell of Carmichaels Bookstore in Louisville, Ky., recommends a brand new short story collection that was released just in time for Pride Month.

It’s a YA anthology called “We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels, and Other Creatures,” edited by Rob Costello.

Here’s what Emma has to say: This is one of the best collections of works in the young adult genre that I’ve seen in a really long time. Every single story has something so unique about it that makes it shine, but the stories also complement each other and no one story feels like it's out-shadowing the others.

To have so many new voices within the queer and trans community in the young adult genre coming together has been so fascinating. And the spins on the different monsters has just been one of the most delightful things to see.

Some of the stories involve monsters that appear in our day to day. Like, it’s just kind of weird, but we go along with it. Others are right on the edge of being spooky, but not being too scary that you’re gonna completely not be able to sleep at night.

— Emma Presnell

While Emma says no story overshadows the others, she says the story about Mothman continued to haunt her for days, "but in the best way possible."

Tiffany Lauderdale Phillips of Wild Geese Bookshop in Franklin, Ind., recommends Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel “The Ministry of Time.” She calls it a time-travel romance with a James Bond element, with beautiful writing and ideas that will leave you with plenty to talk about over dinner.

The premise is that a ministry in England has decided to take five people from history who would have died and to plant them into modern-day England, ostensibly to study the feasibility of time travel.

One is an Arctic adventurer from a doomed voyage, another was at the Battle of the Somme, etc. A “bridge” is assigned to live with each person and help them adjust to daily life. Our narrator is paired with the Arctic explorer, who has Victorian ideas about how a man and a woman living together should comport themselves.

He’s a big fan of Michael Cisco, whose work is generally classified as weird or speculative fiction but whose novels vary wildly in style. A philosophical writer who tends toward a horror lens, his work regularly defies genres in ways Holtrey finds delightful.

“He’s very experimental. Each one of his books are completely different experiences,” says Holtrey.

Cisco’s new novel “Pest” focuses on a man who transforms into a yak.

Before he was turned into a yak, he was an architect, working for a cult trying to build a piece of architecture to welcome some unseen celestial being into the world. The book goes back and forth between the viewpoint of the main character as the yak and as the architect.

“It’s a phantasmagoric ride through this transformation,” says Holtrey. “When he’s embodied in the yak, it’s some of the coolest writing that I’ve ever read that really puts you in an alien body. I was really interested in just the ways he senses and experiences the world.”

Darcie Shultz of Books and Burrow in Pittsburgh, Kas., highly recommends Linnea Axelsson’s novel in verse “Aednan: An Epic,” which was translated by Saskia Vogel.

It’s a sweeping saga set across 100 years, three generations and two Sámi families. The story encompasses the forces of colonialism and the importance of language.

Translated from Northern Sámi, the title of the book means “the land, the earth and my mother.”

“It’s the most stunning book,” Shultz says. “It reads so quickly, but it contains so much. The author writes about some of the harshest circumstances in the most eloquent way.” 

For Shultz, the story held profoundly personal echoes. She explains why she was drawn to this book: 

“I’m a member of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. And I have had two family members who were forced into residential schools. My great-great-great-grandfather was in Carlisle in Pennsylvania and then my grandfather — I didn’t learn until I was an adult — was in Fort Lapwai in Idaho. 

He spent most of his developmental years in residential school, and it was never talked about at all. And this book and that history of the Sámi people has so many parallels to North American Indian residential schools. Parts of it were hard for me to read because of that history, but that's one reason why I was drawn to it. 

The second [reason] was the language: That loss of language and relearning the language. It’s a process that I’m going through and in the third part the daughter of one of the characters is on that journey. I just felt extremely connected to it on a very personal level.” 

If you love a good cozy romance or fantasy — romantasy, anyone? — then Charlotte Klimek of Hearthside Books in Watertown, Minn., has the perfect book for you.

You get a good sense of the genre from the title alone; it’s “Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea” by Rebecca Thorne.

Kianthe is the world’s most powerful mage, but all she really wants to do is read a book. What she’d really like to do is leave court life behind and open a tea and bookshop with her girlfriend, Reyna, who serves as a private guard to the Queen.

Finally fed up by the self-centered monarch, Reyna agrees, and the two head to a small town to open the cozy shop of their dreams. Yes, this does mean Reyna has committed treason, and, yes, the Queen swears revenge.

Brimming with fireside conversations, witty banter, and memorable fantastical side characters, “Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea” is perfect for fans of Travis Baldree’s “Legends & Lattes” and “Bookshops & Bonedust.”

The book was published in the UK last year but has not been available in print in the U.S. until this week.

This week’s recommendation comes from Carrie Koepke of Skylark Bookshop in Columbia, Mo. She suggests the nonfiction book “The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance” by Dan Egan.

The paperback comes out in June. And while you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, this one tells a powerful story from the book; that iridescent swirling green is an algae bloom and the boat in the picture demonstrates the massive scale of the problem.

Carrie says: Egan does a deep dive into humanity’s interaction with phosphorus and discoveries of its benefits and evils.

Phosphorus is primarily used as a fertilizer, it gets into some of the fascinating stories of digging up old bodies for grinding the bones into fertilizer, the bat guano islands and then our current situation, which is kind of a very perilous situation with algae blooms and lots of toxicity in our lives.

So it’s one of our most critical environmental issues right now. But a lot of people don't know about it.

I think Egan is a writer to follow. He’s always been a fantastic journalist. His other book is “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes,” which oddly we sell a ton of in Missouri because it’s just that good.

It feels like you are there with him exploring and understanding at a pace that is comfortable. It’s very much conversational language and he’s very good at making you learn things without realizing you’re learning them.

— Carrie Koepke

It’s Independent Bookstore Day! Many participating indie bookstores across the country are offering author readings, coupons, prize drawings and other events. Check out your local bookstore — or several, if you can.

One participating bookstore is Content Bookstore in downtown Northfield. Pro tip: It’s generally pronounced “CON-tent” like the noun, but if bookstores make you think of the adjective “con-TENT” they’re fine with that, too.

Owner Jessica Peterson White says she knew the novel “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar would be the title to beat for her favorite book of the year. Since she read it in January, it has yet to be dethroned.

Jessica says: It’s a big, fat, juicy story. It’s a fiction debut of an acclaimed poet, and you can just really feel the poetry in his writing. And by that I mean that the novel is really sharply observant. It’s beautiful.

And it also has one of the qualities that I most admire in a novel, which is economy, which is I think, a skill that poets have. The story is complex, but it’s not sprawling, and the characters are incredibly compelling, they’re not like overwrought. So it’s a big book, but it’s just what it needs to be.

Our hero, Cyrus Shams, was brought to the U.S. from Iran by his father as a baby after his mother was killed in an accidental U.S. airstrike on a commercial flight that she was on to Dubai. And ever since then, growing up in Indiana, Cyrus has struggled with addiction and loneliness, and he has some complicated friendships.

Even as he begins to kind of recover from suicidal ideation and his addictions, he’s still kind of fixated on dying. And he’s especially fascinated with the idea of martyrdom. He and his best friend decide to travel to New York City to meet an Iranian performance artist dying of cancer who’s decided to live out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Meeting her turns out to kind of challenge Cyrus in some transformative ways and sort of threatens to upend all of his narratives.

The novel is really approachable and incredibly entertaining. And it has some really wise and nuanced things to say about recovery, about empire and racism and grief and friendship.

— Jessica Peterson White

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Step aside, Olive Kitteridge. There’s a new woman in town who’s difficult but loveable, complex and, in this case, fabulous. It’s Honey Fasinga.

Sheila Burns, of Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, Ore., recommended “Honey” by Victor Lodato, which came out this week.

She and her fellow booksellers couldn’t resist the 82-year-old protagonist. Honey Fasinga escaped her toxic, New Jersey mobster family as a young woman and cultivated a life full of art and fashion.

Now, she’s returning home, only to find all the bullies still exist. Honey is determined to stand up to them, both for her sake and for the sake of others in her life.

Like Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge,” “Honey” is a character-driven novel. Honey is smart, artsy, sexual, vain and very much her own person. She treats high fashion like armor, donning her wig, Chanel and heels even to walk to the drug store.

Burns says an advanced copy of the novel was a favorite among her colleagues at the bookstore, adding, “One of my booksellers called her an avatar of fabulousness.”

Used bookstores can be a treasure trove of great reads, old and new, on a huge variety of topics.

Dickson St. Bookshop in Fayetteville, Ark., is one such spot. Bookseller Elaine Eckert says she gets particularly excited when she comes across a copy of her favorite nonfiction book, “Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking,” by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

Eckert says she first picked up a copy two decades ago, and she still has that copy with its margin notes and underlines.

Written in straightforward, unpretentious language, the book urges people to keep doing the good and hard work of creating something new in the world.

“Whenever you’re tearing apart layers of your soul and putting them onto canvas or music notes or into words, there’s always that self-doubt,” concedes Eckert, who is also an amateur painter.

She easily located her favorite sentence in the book that reminds her to keep going: “Those who continue to make art, or those who have learned how to continue, or more precisely, have learned how not to quit.”

It’s a simple idea, Eckert says, and one worth returning to.

She recommends this book as a good companion for those moments when creating feels scary or weighted down by self-doubt, or when our progress doesn’t align with our expectations.

Gone are the houses of hay, sticks and straw. These are tardigrades, microscopic invertebrates also known as water bears or moss pigs, and they can live pretty much anywhere.

Gavin, Colin and Doug leave their cozy drop of water and their mother (delightfully illustrated with pink hair) behind to seek their fortune, choosing to live in a volcano, the Arctic, and outer space. The Big Hairy Wolf Spider is determined to track them down, but can it survive in those climates?

Revati Kilaparti of Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colo., said “The Three Little Tardigrades: A Slightly Scientific Fairy Tale” is a delight to read, with cute, colorful pictures and more information at the end that gives you a chance to learn about these versatile creatures.

The book of interconnected essays is organized into the four quarters of a basketball game, complete with half-time and time-outs that explore side stories.

It’s a love letter to growing up in Columbus, Ohio, and to basketball, whether played on the neighborhood court where the home team has the advantage of knowing every crack in the pavement, to high school courts and beyond. (And yes, of course, LeBron James is in there, as are people he played against in high school.)

The writing is gorgeous, Garban says, and filled with beautiful moments about neighborhoods, music and community.

She recalls one story about watching a local kid compete in the McDonald’s All-American High School Dunk competition.

Abdurraqib stretches the moment over several pages, starting with his shoes leaving the line and ending with the judges leaping to their feet holding up all ten fingers.

He writes, “A dunk contest is where one goes to execute some far-flung dream of what the body is capable of. It is where one goes to fail, often spectacularly. I wish all failure could be as beautiful as the failures that arrive to us in midair, a reality setting in that we are incapable and yet still in flight.”

Set along both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, the story moves back and forth between two timelines, several generations apart.

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro knows he comes from a long line of ruthless men. He feels that violence is in his blood and, lacking options, is soon swept up in a train robbery that goes terribly wrong.

He earns the nickname “The Bullet Swallower” when he receives an injury that should have killed him.

In 1964, Antonio’s grandson Jaime Sonoro lives a very different life as an actor and singer in Mexico City. Linking the two men — in addition to blood — is Remedio.

Here enters the magical realism, for Romelo is a sort of dark angel, though he is constantly questioning what he’s doing and why.

Romelo allows Antonio to live in the opening chapter, but as he follows the family, the question arises: How long should children have to pay for the sins of their fathers?

Adding to the intrigue of that question is the fact that the author based the novel loosely on her own great-grandfather.

Thom, who grew up near the Texas-Mexico border before moving to Minnesota, said she appreciates the complexity with which this book paints life at the border.

She points to a passage by the character who cares for a wounded Antonio: “It’s the strangest thing. I was born in New Spain, which then became Mexico, then the Republic of Texas, and then I wound up in the United States. And meanwhile, my house has always stood in the same place. The Texans call me Mexican. And I’ve never crossed the Rio Grande.”

It’s a revenge play, complete with body count, and as with the best revenge plays, the tale has a “deeply defensible” protagonist, Worthey says.

The play follows twin sisters, survivors of a fire that left one of them burnt from the neck down and the other from the neck up.

Now grown, they hear from their mother, whom they thought had died in the fire. She sends them on a mission to kill their father, whom she says is the arsonist. The girls call the mother “God.”

For Worthey, a key takeaway from the play was “Where does feminine anger go? Being angry as a man has some productive value. But given how society is set up, a woman being angry and then acting on that anger is necessarily anti-establishment, it’s necessarily anti patriarchy."

Without spoilers, he adds, “the ending creates the best possible story, even though it doesn’t maybe go in a way that it was set up to ... You don’t feel good in the way that you expect to.”

Young Ray McMillan is a violin prodigy growing up in rural North Carolina, and he’s determined to play professionally, despite his mother’s disapproval.

He plays on a family heirloom, a beat-up fiddle that his great-great grandfather, who had been enslaved, received after gaining his freedom.

When the violin is revealed to be a Stradivarius, both instrument and its young Black owner rise to fame.

Shortly before Ray is to play with at the renowned International Tchaikovsky Competition, his Stradivarius is stolen, and he’s left with a ransom note for $5 million.

Ray is determined to get his beloved violin back and — equally as difficult — prove his worth as a musician in his own right.

The author himself is a violinist. Listen to his conversation with NPR about classical music, writing and race, here.

Rishel said you don’t have to be a musician to enjoy this book, though there’s added pleasure if you do. He also recommends Slocumb’s second musical page-turner, “Symphony of Secrets.”

Set at a fictional Minneapolis hospital, two ER doctors butt heads in person before discovering their connection through good old-fashioned letters.

Dr. Briana Ortiz is emerging from a divorce and vying for a better position at work, a position that looks likely to go to the new guy, Dr. Jacob Maddox.

She is more than ready to dislike him when he surprises her by giving her a written letter. Jacob lives with social anxiety, and on paper he proves himself to be funny and very much likeable.

Harris appreciates that it’s the male in this story who suffers from social anxiety, an issue readers so often see from a female perspective.

Harris also wants dog lovers to know that there’s a great one in this book: a 3-legged pup named Lieutenant Dan.

“Carissa Orlando has taken the haunted house trope, flipped it on its head, and given us a brilliantly clever novel about so much more than ghosts,” she raves.

Margaret has found her dream home, and she’s not going to leave it. Sure, every September the walls start bleeding and the ghost children return, but Margaret has learned how to put up with that. Even when it drives her husband, Hal, to leave, she stays. And then things get worse.

At times terrifying, at times darkly funny, this haunted house book is perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix.

“‘The September House’ is a deeply moving and tender novel about humanity’s — and women’s in particular — ability and tendency to normalize things that should never be normalized. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.”

Emill is a journalist whose work covering crime led him to writing YA thrillers. His debut novel, “The Black Queen,” came out in paperback in January, and his second book, “Wander in the Dark,” was released this week.

In “The Black Queen,” the first Black homecoming queen elected at Lovett High is murdered on the night of her coronation. What follows, Dimaria said, is a heart-pounding, unputdownable thriller.

Told in the alternating perspectives of the murdered girl’s best friend and the white girl who feels she should have been queen, this tale of high school homecoming court politics dives into racism and corruption within the community.

Dimaria said she knows better than to get too attached to characters in a thriller — why risk it, when you don’t know whether they’ll make it through? — but Emill’s writing made her fall for them anyway.

Greg Danz of Zandbroz Variety in Fargo, N.D., adds his hearty recommendation to the list, calling it a wonderful book for the whole family.

The main character in the novel is a dog named Johannes who lives in a community of animals in a seaside park where humans come and go. Johannes is a good dog, the fastest dog there is — “though my dog disputes that,” jokes Danz.

Johannes serves as the eyes of the park, and he reports all goings-on to the elders, who are bison. Humans think the park is for them, and they visit there to view nature. As the park grows popular, humans' increased presence creates worries and problems for the animals.

Danz calls the book a fun, fast-paced story about community that will get the whole family talking.

He wants readers to know that there are two versions of the printed book available. There’s the typical hardcover published by Penguin Random House, and there’s also a wood-bound hardcover edition simultaneously released by McSweeney’s, where Dave Eggers is editor. That version boasts a dye-cut wood cover and full-sized illustrations that Danz says are sure to draw in young readers.

“The Boys in the Boat” is the true Depression-era story of nine young men on the University of Washington rowing team who went on against all odds to compete at the 1936 Olympics.

The story focuses on Joe Rantz, who lost his mother early in life and was left as a teenager to make his own way. He worked as a logger and did other heavy manual labor to keep himself fed and housed.

Though he was accepted into the University of Washington, paying for school was another matter. Precious scholarship money was available for members of the school’s rowing team. Hundreds of boys tried out for nine coveted spots, and Joe made the team.

Brown weaves together a highly readable, fascinating underdog sports story. Long before the Olympics was even a possibility, the Washington team faced heavy odds against Ivy League and Navy rowing powerhouses, whose members were considerably better off.

Dorn, a WWII history buff who says she knew nothing of rowing coming into the book, found herself immediately swept up in the story.

Part of its appeal was personal: her grandfather was of similar age to Joe in the early 1930s and lived in similar poverty-stricken circumstances. She loved the insights this book gave into how hard many in that generation had to work to survive. She also appreciates the mentorship that the rowing coaches and boat builder provided to the young men on the team.

Dorn says she enjoyed the film, though she found herself missing some of her favorite details from the book. 

Worthey freely admits that this rich, musical collection, with its references to a wide scope of writers and mythologies, occasionally felt obscure, but he felt those moments worked to bring more clearly into focus the elements that were deeply relatable: Our ways to knowing and passing on knowledge. What we learn from our forebearers, and what we pass on to our children.

This is a collection that seeks to expand the literary canon, challenging the included voices and adding others, deftly switching between ancient and contemporary references.

Case in point: in one poem referencing the Old English epic “Beowulf,” Grendel’s mother recalls the death of her monster/barbarian son, tucking in the heart-breaking line “Mama, I can’t breathe.”

These are poems worthy of being re-read, says Worthey, which is one of the highest compliments a poet can receive.

The book is a collection of short stories, flash fiction and poetry, but it’s music that ties the story together. Each of the sections are song titles, and the story follows a fictitious cover band, The Covers.

Adding further depth, a Spotify playlist of the songs is available here:

Hoffsis said Sylvester performs pieces of the book locally with a band, recreating The Covers.

Sylvester grew up in Albuquerque and is an enrolled member of the Diné. Written from an urban Native perspective, “The Half-White Album” is a story of dwelling in two worlds, of living and loving imperfectly. This book was awarded 2023 the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for best LGBTQ+ book.

Mildred grew up in Wisconsin and met her German husband, Arvid, while attending UW-Madison. They moved to Germany when Mildred was 26, during the rapid rise of Hitler. Working with a carefully cultivated network, they passed out pamphlets, gathered intelligence and helped Jews escape the Nazi regime.

Deeply careful to cover her tracks, Mildred burned her journals before she was executed in 1943. This self-erasure proves a challenge for any would-be biographer.

Author Rebecca Donner, who is Mildred’s great-great niece, draws from family stories among other traditional sources to piece together her work in the underground resistance. Woven through the story is an exploration of what drives a person to act — at complete risk of self — for one’s beliefs.

It’s a modern take on the classic “Twelve Days of Christmas” song, but eight maids a-milking become eight cups of cocoa in this story of a family coming together on Christmas Day.

The words and illustrations walk us through the day of Christmas: three French toasts for breakfast, parents cooking, grandparents arriving, and cousins playing in the snow. Hidden among the presents around the tree is a new kitten, who gets lost amid the busy day!

The little girl at the center of the story looks for the lost kitten, adding mystery and focus to the read-aloud repetition. Of course, everyone is together in the end.

Labatut takes us back to the dawn of the nuclear age in his newest novel focusing us on John von Neumann (1903-57).

One of the mathematical minds behind the Manhattan Project, von Neumann invented game theory and designed the first programable computer, among other achievements that have a massive effect on the world today.

The title “Maniac” is apt for one that delves into the space between reason and madness. It also references that first computer, the MANIAC I (Mathematical Analyzer Numerical Integrator and Automatic Computer Model I).

Labatut deftly switches among voices whose lives touched von Neumann’s, incorporating family and friends, rivals and colleagues. Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein are among the voices.

Fascinated as Miller was to step into this fictional story, he found its modern-day reverberations onto Artificial Intelligence even more engaging.

“I don’t know how many answers the book gives you,” about AI, Miller says, “but it certainly kind of like lays the groundwork for like a good understanding of how we got here.”

Set in 1884, this historical fantasy novel has adventure, romance and a dash of magic.

Marketed as a young adult book, the story opens upon 19-year-old Inez Olivera, living in posh, upper-class Buenos Aires and desperately waiting to hear from her parents, who are abroad in Egypt again.

In quick succession, she receives two important missives: a ring from her father, mailed without note or explanation, followed by news that her parents have gone missing, leaving her with a fortune and a mysterious guardian.

The ring is imbued with Old World magic, whose practices have been all but forgotten. Guarding her father's gift carefully, Inez travels to Egypt to meet her guardian, an archaeologist, and to learn what happened.

Jiron says she zoomed through this high-adventure book, and she loved the creative magic system, in which objects can retain and transfer magic.

“What the River Knows” is the first in a planned Secrets of the Nile duology.

The novel’s irresistible heroine is 14-year-old Reese, whose mother has died in a car accident. More losses follow. The family sells its horse barn and Reese’s horse, Trusted Treasure. Her relationship with her father falters, and she is understandably angry when it appears that he’s moving on.

The new owner of the barn is a man named Wes, who does not speak and has a unique training style for horses. Reese begins volunteering with him and with the children with disabilities who come to the barn for riding lessons. Slowly, Reese and those around her find healing.

“I love this book because it reminded me of all the horse stories that I loved so much when I was little. But it’s contemporary, and it's really spot on for teens.”

This book holds a special place in the bookseller’s heart because Doggart’s child is a brain tumor patient.

“His occupational therapy takes place in a barn, and he rides horses and brushes them and is more open to talking with his therapist when they amble around the ring,” Doggart said. “The neuro feedback loop is incredibly positive, so horses can help with mood regulation and balance and self confidence and just a general release of tension.”

Cashman’s novel is currently in early development for film, with actor Jane Seymour as co-producer.

This history explores a women’s prison in Greenwich Village, New York that became a site of LGBTQ activism before the Stonewall Riots.

In operation from 1929 to 1974, the Women’s House of Detention housed many trans and gender-nonconforming inmates. It also housed such activists as Angela Davis and Andrea Dworkin.  

Kirkwood said they were able to hear the author speak at a writer’s conference about the challenges of locating queer history in archival research and reconstructing the lives of incarcerated people, resulting in a work of nonfiction that read reads like an accessible story.

Kirkwood says this accessible history pairs nicely with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s novel “Chain Gang All-Stars,” which also explores the failings of the prison system. 

“He does a really good job of showing that hate and an exclusion of LGBTQ plus people isn't a straight line,” concludes Kirkwood.

“It hasn't always been this way, and that it's always been kind of these like, waves of acceptance and exclusion. That's one thing that I think is really important about this book. It shows the fluidity of queer identity and homophobia and transphobia is not inevitable.” 

Set in mid-19th century London, the world of this novel looks much like our history, except that the central form of power comes of translating and transcribing words on silver bars. Power, then, derives from gaining control over as many languages as possible. 

The story centers on Robin Swift, an orphan born in Canton in Guangzhou, who was taken to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell.

In order to survive, he studies Latin, Ancient Greek and Chinese, all with the hopes of being admitted to Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation, nicknamed Babel.

As Swift’s work, which benefits the British Empire, puts him in conflict with his homeland, powerful questions arise. Is it better to attempt to change an oppressive system from within it or try to tear it to the ground? 

In this work of literary fiction, Crooks was particularly struck by the footnotes. Wars, altercations and other historical events referenced in the story are explained in footnotes.

Crooks found himself pointed back to real events in history even as he pondered the philosophical questions of power and empire raised in the story.  

It’s a gaslamp fantasy, an LGBTQ+ romance set in an Edwardian-esque world that is not our own. While there are new devices such as automobiles on the road, there is also magic.

Marius, the botanist main character, can read minds, but Molt said it’s not a gift like most people would think.

“Because in the past, it has led to people going insane, and he has actually found himself very ostracized,” Molt said.

Add to that the character’s struggles to accept his sexuality in a homophobic society.

“AJ Lancaster just writes really adorable characters that you just want to give a hug and let them know that everything’s going to be ok,” Molt said.

It’s a self-published book, which Molt first encountered on Amazon Kindle, but she liked it so much, her store now carries it.

This large book is a treasure trove of Hawaiian history, says Keolanui, who adds that it's been flying off the shelves of their store.

Ten years in the making, the book is a collection of newspaper articles that well known historian Samuel Mānaiakalani Kamakau wrote in Hawaiian from 1865 to 1871.

Written during a transformative time in Hawaii, his articles explore the rise of Kamehamaha I, the formation of the Hawiian islands into a single government, and the rule of his son Kamehameha II.

The work was translated and published by Awaiaulu, an organization that works to increase use of the Hawaiian language and to make historical resources more accessible. Hawaiian and English appear side-by-side. The collection also includes colored images by Hawaiian artists.

The book is set in a Native community in Maine and follows characters through 12 interconnected short stories, which Leonard said reads more like a novel.

“The book really deals with issues of poverty, racism and, is quite moving and surprisingly funny,” Leonard said.

She says it’s Talty’s mix of serious topics and gallows humor that has her recommending the book to her customers.

“I tell them not to expect, you know, something, lighthearted and frivolous. That it has very dark and serious moments, but it also has, what I think they describe on the back of the book as searing humor,” Leonard said. “It's very moving and worth reading.”

With the successes of his previous books, including National Book Award winner “The Good Lord Bird,” “The Color of Water,” and “Deacon King Kong,” it's no surprise that McBride's newest novel debuted in August as an instant New York Times Bestseller. McBride says the book is worth the hype.

The novel opens in 1972 with a body discovered at the bottom of a well. Who is it, and how did it get there? The answers to these well-kept town secrets take us back to the 1920s. There in the outskirts of Pottstown, Penn., in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill, African American and recent Jewish immigrant communities live and work together. E

veryone in the neighborhood goes to the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, whose owner, Chona, has a soft spot for children. In particular, she's determined to protect a deaf boy named Dodo.

The state wants to see Dodo in an institution. Dodo's Black and Jewish neighbors must work together to try to rescue him from the sanitorium. Meanwhile, the questions raised by the body in the well remain.

“At the end of the day,” says Grebel, the author's “underlying belief in the good of humanity and his incredible way that he has of humanizing these difficult issues of race and class and gender and disability and religion come just shining through this lyrical prose that James is just a master of delivering.”

“It's a local favorite,” Weaver said. “He is a southeast Alaska writer and he is a very, very kind man, he does lots of events in town whenever he's in town. He does tour guiding in the bush country for photographers to take pictures and he does all kinds of tours for people.”

Schooler’s memoir is about his friendship with Japanese photographer Michio Hoshino, and their shared passion for finding the elusive glacier bear, a rarely seen animal. But Hoshino dies in a bear attack before they are able to find the bear.

“It's just a really, really sweet tribute to really awesome man who died doing what he loved,” Weaver said.

Written in poetry and vignettes, the narrative moves back and forth between the points of view of two brothers. Max and Jay are close: eleven months apart, they are both seniors in high school.

There's abuse at home that's gone on for years, ever since their father lost his job. The brothers don't speak of this, even among themselves, but its toll on their lives become clear when they get into a fight at school.

They are defending their cousin, but they end up seriously injuring another student.

As they face the consequences of their actions and search for a way forward, their grandfather and their indigenous Costa Rican roots play an important role in this coming-of-age novel.

This week's book is a “phenomenal read-aloud,” according to Jessica Palacios of Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose, Calif. It's the picture book “Bathe the Cat,” written by Minneapolis-born author Alice B. McGinty and illustrated by David Roberts.

Palacios says the book's bright illustrations, word play, and silly antics make it a go-to book. (Once Upon a Time has a bookstore cat, and, yes, she did read this book aloud at its annual birthday party.)

In this story, a family is rushing to clean the house before Grandma arrives for a visit.

The chores are all listed with magnetic tiles on the fridge, but the cat, who most definitely does not want to take a bath, keeps scrambling the words, leading to such fun lines as, “Sarah, scrub the lawn! Dad, you feed the mat! Bobby, sweep the baby! I'll vacuum the cat!”

David Roberts, known for illustrating the series with “Ada Twist, Scientist” and “Rosie Revere, Engineer,” illustrates the story with bold, bright colors.

One of the children, Sarah, wears a yellow dinosaur outfit throughout her chores. (Because why not?)

It's a middle grade novel aimed at kids aged 8 to 12. Anna says Robin Gow's novel-in-verse “Dear Mothman” has taken her staff by storm.

The story follows Noah Romano, an autistic, transgender sixth grader grappling with the death of his best friend. As he grieves, Noah begins writing letters to Mothman, the local urban legend in their Pennsylvania coal mining town. ‘

Noah doesn't believe the cryptid Mothman exists, but his best friend did, and that's enough reason for Noah to making finding proof of Mothman's existence the subject of his science project. Hersh says the fun, imaginary-or-not monster strikes a nice balancing note in this beautiful novel about grief and coming-of-age.

Over the course of writing these letters, Noah finds a new group of friends who support him on his journey of embracing himself as trans. We also see Noah's family circle and teachers come to accept him as well.

“It's just the most beautiful book,” says Hersh, “and one of those things that we kind of put into everybody's hands.”

Melissa DeMotte of the Well-Read Moose in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, says a brand-new picture book she loves on her bookstore's “Back to School” table is the “The Wild Guide to Starting School,” by Laura and Philip Bunting.

This silly picture book outlines all the steps a wild animal might need to prepare for and thrive on the first day of school, from packing school supplies to meeting teacher and making friends.

DeMotte says this book is great for young kids who might be nervous about the big first day. They can laugh along with the cute, colorful illustrations of kangaroos, anteaters and more who get things wrong as often as right as they set out for a great first day of school.

Having newly finished her PhD in biology, Catherine Raven finds herself living in the woods of Montana, generally removed from other people and uncertain about her next step. As she observes the natural world around her, she notices that a fox comes around at precisely the same time each afternoon.

“How do you befriend a fox?” she wonders. She takes to sitting outside, as near to the fox as she dares, and reading to it from “The Little Prince,” which includes the story of a fox who asks the little prince to tame him. Raven comes to consider her fox a friend.

Karhumaa said “Fox and I” is a beautifully written meditation on our human relationship with nature, and their relationship with us, life and death.

“It was one of those books that sort of stays with you and makes you think,” said Karhumaa.

The latest work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is a sweeping novel about horse racing — and racism — spanning from the 1850s to today. The novel is based on a real horse, Livingston, who is considered to be America's greatest racing horse, but the book’s human characters and their complex grappling with race are equally memorable.’

"Until the ‘Horse,’ I’d always pick a ‘Year of Wonders’ as my favorite Geraldine Brooks book,” says Graves, “but this this one has taken this place.”

The novel begins in 2019, when a Nigerian-American art history student who is struggling with his thesis topic picks up a dirt-stained picture of a horse from a pile of junk on the street.

As he seeks to learn more about the painting, he comes in contact with an Australian scientist at the Smithsonian, who uncovers Lexington's mounted skeleton gathering dust in an attic. They seek to piece together the history of the horse and the people around him who weren't included in the history books.

Meanwhile, in the 1850s, an enslaved boy named Jarrett is charged with raising a special foal in Kentucky. His father, a freed Black man, is a skilled horse trainer and former jockey who teaches his son all he knows while he saves up in hopes of buying Jarrett's freedom. Jarrett's bond and skill with Lexington are undeniable, yet Jarrett faces a world that would deny him ownership over his own life.

Weaving through time, with an additional stop at the 1950s New York arts scene, “Horse” is a “thrilling historical novel” that Graves highly recommends.

Set in a seaside Irish tourist town, the novel follows a group of friends at two moments in their life. In 2003, during their teenage years, one of the friends —Kala — disappears.

Fifteen years later, the remaining group reluctantly reunites again, back in the same town. Moving among the points of view of three main characters, the novel explores how each of them has changed and been formed by Kala's mysterious disappearance, and by the secrets they still carry.

“They're just such incredibly well drawn compelling characters that you really come to come to love and care about,” says Nixon. “And then the thing that really elevates this book is that you also there's just such emotional smarts and acuity into how the author had portrays these relationships and how their personal traumas and the shared experience sort of plays off one another.”

As new information comes to light, the pace of the novel builds to a climax that Nixon says makes the book hard to put down.

Kathy recommended the novel “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which she described as being a bit like "Hunger Games," but with adult prisoners instead of teenagers.

In a dystopian future America, prisoners on a chain gang compete in a circuit of gladiatorial fights-to-the-death, with the hopes of winning their freedom. They serve at CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment), a profit-driven, privatized prison system that draws protesters as well as crowds of fans to its matches. Loretta and her partner, Staxx, are fan favorites, and Loretta is only a few matches away from winning her freedom--provided that the rules don't change. After all, what incentive does CAPE have to release its profitable players?

“It's thrilling, it's fast paced, and the ending is like, you just want to throw your hands up and throw the book across the room because you can't believe what happened,” says Burnette.

The novel weaves in the voices of three main competing teams, as well as the game host and the behind-the-scenes designers of the prison games. As we follow the action and root for favorite characters, we learn how each person came to be incarcerated.  Adjei-Brenyah deftly incorporates facts about prison, inviting readers to take a closer, empathetic look at America's prison system.

Burnette, a former educator and librarian, just celebrated the fifth anniversary of Brain Lair (an anagram of librarian). Her store specializes in BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabilities, with a heavy focus on books for kids. "Chain-Gang All-Stars," though, is written for adults.

“If the Golden Girls were 30-something lesbians living in Los Angeles, this is that book,” said Bone.

The main character is Nina, an aspiring screenwriter in LA who has experienced a devastating breakup. She decides to leave LA and moves out to the suburbs with her wonderful, eccentric aunt. She spends the next three years hiding from her old life in LA.

“Enter Ari. She's a heartthrob, superstar actress up and coming, amazing. She's supposed to be like this difficult starlet to work for,” Bone said.

The book is Nina’s journey to rediscovering love.

“I laughed, I cried. I really loved this book,” Bone said. “It is a love story. But like what really, really got me about this book is it's a friendship story.”

McDaniel's novel creates twin sisters, sex workers named Arcade and Daffodil, who see their friends go missing and find their bodies washed up by the river.

Evosirch says the book has elements of a thriller, but at its heart, it's a literary novel, where both the river and the town of Chillicothe feel like characters.

The novel “hones in on the interaction between these two twins and what it would be like to feel like you might go missing at any moment and no one would care,” says Evosirch.

Still, this is a story deals with violence and other heavy subjects, as the name indicates. We follow the twins from a childhood of abuse and poverty, raised by a mother who is a sex worker and heroine addict.

It's a story about generational trauma and quiet acts of resistance, about the value and humanity of women who don't fit the kind of victim profile that triggers community-wide searches when they disappear.

“I really loved this book,” said King. “It kind of put into words a lot of experiences, thoughts and feelings that I've had being a biracial person, [that I] didn't really know how to articulate or didn't really know if they were like, valid. So it made me feel really seen and then also kind of, like, analyze my close relationships with people.”

King says that Mehta's essays are a valuable conversation starter that thread a difficult line: they examine complicated issues with understanding and generosity, aimed at growing continued relationships with loved ones.

“I'm not going to say that it's an easy read," added King. "I will say that it's a read that's really thought provoking. And I think [it's] really important, if people seek to either feel seen by this book or want to have more insight [in]to what it feels like for their family and friends to make up a biracial identity.”

“It's just the most emotionally honest and well-observed [book], and when I was done with it, I wanted to hug it,” Nixon declares.

The book follows Carlisle through two timelines, some 20 years apart. As a child, Carlisle lives with her mother, a former ballet dancer in the Balanchine Company, but she loves the few weeks a year she gets to spend with her father and his partner, James, in New York City.

Carlisle dreams of being a ballerina, and she sees New York as a magical place of art and dance. The book vividly paints the 1980s arts scene just as the devastating AIDS crisis begins to take hold.

Flash forward to the book's present, when Carlisle receives a call from James that her father is dying. The two have not spoken in nearly 20 years. The beating heart of the novel, Nixon says, is the betrayal that caused the father-daughter rift.

“You really start to wonder: What is this betrayal? How could this possibly be that this wonderful relationship [could reach a point where] they no longer talk?” narrates Nixon. “It's one of those remarkable books where, you know, you're reading [and] you're reading, and then you realize what the betrayal is. And I literally gasped.”

Tom Nissley of Phinney Books in Seattle recommends the novella “The English Understand Wool” by Helen DeWitt. It's part of a series put out by New Directions publishing called Storybook ND. These slim, hardcover books for adults are reminiscent of the classic children's series, Golden Books.

“The English Understand Wool” is a “deliciously designed story that doesn't go where you expect it to in a short period of time,” says Nissley.

The title is the first and last line of the novella, which follows a 17-year-old girl whose mother has raised her to very exacting standards of culture. The English understand wool, the girl is told; the French understand wine and cheese, etc. Phinney says that when the rug is pulled out from under her during annual Ramadan travels, she turns out to be very capable of using that high standard of behavior to her own benefit.

Part publishing satire, part amorality play, Nissley says “The English Understand Wool” was one of the rare books that everyone at the store read: “We all loved it. My wife loved it and made our kids read it. It's the kind of book we love putting in people's hands.”

Morison says one of her favorite novels of the year is “Wandering Souls” by Cecille Pin. It's a work of literary fiction that follows a girl and her two younger brothers who flee Vietnam after the war and eventually resettle in the UK. The perspective shifts beyond the confines of the three siblings, stretching to include the American military as well as a third brother who does not survive the journey.

It’s a story that explores what we owe our family and what they owe us. Stitching it all together is an unnamed narrator whose voice makes the story come alive, says Morison, and also makes the reader think about who is constructing the narrative.

"It's a short read, but it's quite impactful," says Morison. "I actually read it in a day, then picked it up and started reading it over again because it was still running through my mind."

Many of the reviewers emphasize the ghost element of the novel or label is "genre-defying," but in our conversation, Morison pushed back against such labels.

"I am a woman of color and I read mostly BIPOC authors," says Morison, "and I find that that language is often attributed to stories of people from non-Western backgrounds. When other cultures' truth systems don't perfectly align with that western standard of knowing, it's [labeled as] genre-defying: it's magic, it's a little fantastical; but I like to think of it as a reality, an epistemology that's just as strong and valid."

She loved J. Ryan Stradal's “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.”

She says it's a story about relationships and how people measure success, set against a backdrop of relish trays, steak, and grasshoppers for dessert.

Author J. Ryan Stradal spoke with All Things considered host Tom Crann on Wednesday for "Appetites."

“It’s a doorstopper of a YA,” says Devitt of the debut.

She loves the way the author weaves familial and political intrigue together in this engaging tale. It’s a wide-ranging story that navigates layers of tensions — racial, religious and magical vs. non-magical. Add to that a system of generational magic and a dash of romance, and Devitt was hooked.

Sixteen-year-old twins Clement and Cristina Trudeau come from a powerful magical family in New Orleans. But with that power come a complicated history: 30 years ago, their grandparents were lynched for a crime they may or may not have committed.

Now other members of their family are the targets of powerful magical hexes. Someone, it seems, is trying to finish their family off. The twins must work together to investigate decades-olds secrets before far more deaths occur that will affect not only their lives, but the city of New Orleans.

Hames recommends local writer Jacqueline Holland, new novel, "The God of Endings." It's an unconventional vampire story, Hames says, that's a "genuinely felt human tale as much as it is inhuman."

The story of the vampire protagonist, Anna, spans more than 100 years from 1883 to 1984. Hames was drawn to the way Anna navigates the moral and ethical nature of her strange existence. For an ageless being with a parasitizing existence, every interaction is transitory: mortals will always fade away faster than she does. Jump ahead to 1984, and we find Anna teaching preschoolers at an elite French language school in upstate New York. Teaching allows Anna the close human connection she craves while having a natural ending built in: the students move on to the next grade. (No preschoolers are harmed in this story!)

That said, this novel is "definitely horror," says Hames, and Anna is more than capable of flexing her inhuman, vampire side.

"She's such a well realized character in that way, where you totally believe that she would be right up there with you know, someone in like a movie like "Lost Boys" or "Near Dark," where they're capable of that kind level of carnage,” he said.

Other Skies Weird Fiction will host a conversation with Jacqueline Holland, along with author Tylor James, this Sunday, April 23 at 5 pm.

Bauer recommends “The Poetics of Wrongness” by poet Rachel Zucker. The book is a series of lectures adapted and expanded for the page. Don't be turned off by the word “lecture,” Bauer says, think of it as essays written to be spoken aloud to engage an audience.

Zucker engages with the idea of wrongness in a number of ways, from the practical — the ways her teenage children correct her — to the societal. She explores the work of other poets who are pushing the bounds with their work, despite the risk of being told they're doing it wrong. She delves into the work of Sharon Olds,  Bernadette Mayer, Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde and others. In the process, she challenges outdated paradigms of motherhood, feminism and poetics.

Bauer says the book reads like a Kate Zambreno novel, and it's shaped some of the ways she reads and thinks about poetry.

The novel is a fairly direct retelling of “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens, set in the 1980s in Appalachia — familiar territory for rural Kentucky-born Kingsolver.

“In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story,” the summary of the book reads on the HarperCollins website. “‘Demon Copperhead’ speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.”

The story follows red-headed Damon, nicknamed Demon Copperhead. Raised at first by a loving, addict mother and abusive stepfather, he soon finds himself journeying through the foster system.

If you haven't read the Dicken classic, don't let that stop you. Michielli says this tale of a boy's fortunes and misfortunes translate beautifully under Kingsolver's pen.

“She's able to write sentences that are short and they're concise, but they break your heart,” raves Michielli. “There's never over-description. She just manages to get to the heart of the way things feel. Just like an arrow.”

Bennett is of Māori descent, as is his protagonist, Auckland detective Hana Westerman. Hana follows the trail to a disturbing murder: a ritualist hanging whose motivation point toward the past.

When a second, seemingly unrelated, murder crosses her path, Hana pieces together that the murders are utu, the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. Soon she is delving into history and racing against time, trying to trace the bloodlines of those who committed the original crime to figure out who the next victim could be.

Westerman balances her work with life as a single mom, raising a daughter who, herself, is trying to figure out her place in the world and her connection with her heritage.

Schlademan enjoyed learning about New Zealand history and Indigenous land rights within the sweep of the page-turning mystery.

She singled out the picture book "You Be Mommy" as one where she sees her own journey reflected.

Written by Karla Clark, "You Be Mommy" shows a busy mother of three who comes home from her tech job and taps into mom-mode: driving to soccer practice, making dinner to her three kids' taste specifications, washing the dog, etc.

In this story, she offers one of her daughters the chance to be mommy for the night. The daughter is delighted to take on this role and to read her mom a bedtime story. But, come bedtime, the daughter is worn out, so her mommy gets out of bed and tucks her in so she can fall asleep.

“My four-year-old can articulate, “Oh, this mommy's doing a lot. This mommy looks really tired,’” Valentine says. “I hope that is planting a little seed for him so that he, too, can see that Mommy's doing a lot. So if there's opportunities for you to help out, that's really amazing and really helpful. And then when you get tired, I can take over and be mommy again.”

Valentine enjoys Zoe Persico's calming pictures in a cozy home filled with plants, adding, “It was really refreshing to me to see brown characters in the book as well. Seeing a family that looks similar to my own family made it even that much more relatable for me.” 

The novel's protagonist, Angus, has led a crooked path. He seems to be getting his life back together — he's married with a child on the way — when he is murdered by a man who has been living in their house. Angus heads to the afterlife, which he finds sorely disappointing.

Those who have been in the afterlife longest have better privileges, Angus is expected to work, and a pandemic on earth is leading to crowding in the here-after. (The pandemic, Bennett says, is not COVID-19, and its presence in the book did not feel burdensome to her as a COVID-weary reader.)

Meanwhile, Angus's wife is falling in love — unknowingly — with his murderer, prompting Angus to look for a way to reconnect and seek revenge. The novel takes places in the points of view of both Angus and his wife, and each has information the other can't access.

“I know this all sounds very bleak and depressing. But it's actually one of the funniest books I've read,” says Bennett. “It's philosophical and funny. It's romantic, and it's repulsive. I've been recommending it to everyone.”

The novel is partly a travel story, as we follow a mother and daughter who decide to visit Japan as a way of strengthening their relationship. The daughter is grown; her mother, she realizes, has become older than she remembered. Their story, Daniels said, forms the frame for what is essentially a novel of ideas about art, beauty, and relationships.

One of the big questions the book asks, Daniels said, is "how it might be possible to get the great feeling that really good art gives us — outside of an artistic experience. Like, can it be found in a relationship or a place, or some other kind of transcendent experience?"

Au's novel was selected from a pool of 1,500 entries worldwide as the inaugural winner of New Direction's Novel Prize in 2020, and the novel was published in 2022.

Daniels said reading the novel gave her the same kind of feeling that she gets from looking at her favorite works of art, both painted and written.

"It's nice to read something that recalls that strangely rare feeling of transcendence."

The premise for the story is simple: on the same day everywhere in the world, everyone over age 21 finds a box on their doorstep with a string inside. That string, as scientists soon determine, is the precise measure of how many days they have left to live.

The questions and decisions those strings ignite are, understandably, complex. Some people choose not to look. A political movement forms against short-stringers, who are considered to have less to lose.

Shuffling briskly among viewpoints, the novel follows eight people in the aftermath of the strings’ arrival, and Kehoe says she found herself hooked.

“I literally read it in 24 hours because I had to know,” Kehoe said.

She says the novel is sure to spark conversation at book groups.

Set shortly in the future, society is being ravaged by genetic crimes. Our protagonist Logan Ramsey is part of a government agency working to police these crimes when he comes in contact with this genome-editing tech. Slowly, he realizes that his newfound abilities are part of a larger plan to inflict changes on all humans — at a terrifying cost.

Faulkner says his store has "Upgrade" shelved in the Science Fiction section, but with its fast-paced plot, it could easily belong with the Thrillers.

“I like it because it's futuristic, but not overly futuristic,” he said. “It's not set 1,000 years from now, it's set like in an unspecified time, that seems like it could be five years from now.”

Its premise is simple: A feminist economist is up the night before she’s meant to give a lecture of John Maynard Keynes, and she doesn’t feel ready.

She’s been recently denied tenure, and Keynes’ famous optimism feels far out of reach. As her husband and child sleep nearby; she lies awake, speaking to her own fictional version of the famed economist, arguing against his ideas and practicing for the next day’s big event.

“It's just really well written and entertaining,” says Rennhack. “I found it educational, and I was laughing, which is my favorite kind of book. I weirdly couldn't put it down, and I've never said that about an economics lecture before.”

At a time of year when many people resolve to do more and better, bookseller Whit Robinson of Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia recommends one of her top reads: the nonfiction book “Laziness Does Not Exist” by Dr. Devon Price. 

Robinson says this the book came at a perfect time in her life.

As a neurodivergent person who finds social norms a challenge to navigate, she often struggled with feelings of shame and laziness in a society that expects and rewards productivity.

While struggling with burnout from a past job, Robinson found the language to address these feelings by reading “Laziness Does Not Exist.”

The author is a social psychologist and professor at Loyola College in Chicago, who draws from his experience as a person with autism who has experienced burnout.

Robinson says the writing style of this book is accessible for all readers. 

The school year for 12-year-old Ahmed Aziz has the potential to be epically awful. He is starting a new school, having moved from Hawaii to Minnesota so that his father can seek medical care for his serious, rare disease. Ahmed lands himself a bully on the first day, but he hesitates to add to his parents' worries by turning to them. His little sister seems to be getting along fine. Why can't he?

"I love that the story doesn't talk down to children about the hard times they are going through," said Brown.

She also appreciates that the situation starts to shift thanks to Ahmed's excellent English teacher, who assigns him three classic books: "Holes" by Louis Sachar, "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson, and "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E. L. Konigsburg.

Reading isn't Ahmed's favorite thing, but he finds he connects with these books, and, what's more, the stories prove helpful on his journey through the year. Ahmed realizes that this year has the potential to be epically awesome, given the right perspective.

The poem that McDowell loves is called “Consider the Deer,” which begins with a focus on two deer found dead on the side of the road, plays with the word “deer” (both singular and plural), and deftly builds into the plurality the poet contains within himself. If that particular example sounds macabre, McDowell begs to differ.

“The strongest tension, to me, with the book,” says McDowell, “is this amazing ability that Taylor can weave in very esoteric, metaphysical, sort of spiritual concerns but also deliver them to you in very rooted language. All of these poems in the collection feel very much ‘of the body.’ There’s a lot of dancing, a lot of joy in just the physicality of life.”

Many of the poems focus on trans identity and on recognizing more within oneself than first glance might reveal.

Taylor McDowell is the 2022 Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum.

Set in small-town Iowa in 1974, the novel focuses on three elderly baseball coaches determined to see the Holy Trinity High School team win the state baseball championship for the first time, despite the odds. The book reminded Deyo of the film “Grumpy Old Men.”  

“It turned out to be one of my favorite books this year,” says Deyo. 

It's a town where baseball is religion. One of the coaches, a Catholic priest, makes the team prayer the rosary before practice. The characters were highly relatable, says Deyo; learning the coaches’ backstories and seeing these men in their 80s relate to their high school team kept her smiling throughout. 

Ask a Bookseller features bookstores all over the country, so it’s worth pointing out that this week is a Minnesota triple play of bookstore, author and publisher. The bookstore, Sweet Reads, is located Austin, Minn.—"across from the Spam Museum,” Deyo is quick to add, and it’s self-published by Shoreview author Tommy Murray through Beaver’s Pond Press in St. Paul.  

She recommends the memoir “Another Appalachia: Coming up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place” by Neema Avashia, who grew up just down the highway from The Inner Geek.

“It's very nice to have something from a queer author of color come out of here so that people know Appalachia isn't just a swath of straight white rednecks,” says Brown, laughing.

Further broadening the image she knows many people carry of Appalachia, it was not coal that brought Avashia’s father to move to West Virginia, but a chemical plant.

The memoir is beautifully written, says Brown, in a voice that is smart and readable, and it provides a thoughtful, complex view of one part of rural America.

McCrina’s historical fiction novels, which explore the relationships between Poland, Ukraine, and Russia take on a sudden timeliness during on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The Silent Unseen,” is set in Poland in 1944.

A 16-year-old girl, returning from forced labor in Nazi Germany, discovers that fighting between Polish Resistance and Ukrainian nationals have left her village destroyed.

Her parents have been killed, and her older brother is a member of the Polish resistance—until his disappears. Determined to find her brother, she must partner with a Ukrainian prisoner, whom she hesitates to trust.

Sanford calls McCrina an “intelligent author who knows her history and has created stories for young adults to really fall in love with the characters.”

The story opens with Amrapali Anna Singh, a historian and audiologist, who receives a mysterious visitor to her Alaskan office. The man hands her three cassette tapes and asks her to determine all she can from the audio over the next 24 hours, without making copies of the tapes. But Singh does make a copy of the tapes and her analysis, which she sends to a friend in case something should happen to her. She is never seen again. 

The interior chapters of the novella — this book weighs in around 170 pages — contain the transcript of these curious tapes. In each, an adventurous journalist describes his search for the sublime as he visits three sites that by all accounts don’t exist. 

“I think it’s really great for people who like things like “House of Leaves,”” says Green. “It’s kind of a novel-within-a-novel… that’s telling you about this bizarre thing. Did it happen? Did it not happen?”

Green recommends this book for people who want a creepy, but not terrifying, read. 

It’s the story of Lia, a mother facing breast cancer, and the way it inhabits her body and affects the lives of her husband and daughter. Among the recognitions Mortimer’s novel has garnered so far this year, it was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Part of the appeal for Roemmich came from the writing style, which alternates between prose and poetry, voiced in part by the cancer itself.

“So it’s really interesting jumping between the two, because the prose and the verse, they complement each other very, very well, but it’s different styles of writing,” she says. “It’s truly marvelous.”

Treuer is a Professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, as well as a prolific author and speaker. This, his latest book, is partly a memoir, filled with stories and photos of Treuer’s journey to connect with his Ojibwe culture; and partly, as the title suggests, it’s a cultural toolbox. The book is organized by the four seasons, beginning with the new life of spring and progressing through to winter and elderhood. Its foremost audience is Ojibwe people hungering to connect with their history, language, and heritage.

Danfelt calls it “an enjoyable read…full of fascinating information.” As a non-native who grew up on the North Shore, Danfelt says she picked up the book because she wanted to get to know her Ojibwe neighbors better.

"I think it is just something that anyone could pick up and appreciate," she says.

She looks forward to the conversations that arise as a community read next month.

18-year-old Hsu, son of Taiwanese immigrants, loves ‘zines and record shops and declaring his own style. In college, he’s put off at first by Ken, a Japanese-American frat member whose tastes in music and fashion Hsu finds to be decidedly mainstream. Yet they form a friendship that feels both unique and universal.

Ken is killed in a carjacking while in college, and Melton admires the honest, raw way the author confronts his grief and stays true to his friend’s memory. She listened to the audio book, narrated by Hsu, which had her bawling in her living room—then rushing to recommend it to others.

NPR’s Scott Simon recently interviewed Hua Hsu about the memoir and the nature of grief.

The book explores the idea that love is bittersweet and that desire is not about having, but wanting. This, Carson says, is the source of poetry. Reworked from Carson’s 1981 PhD thesis, “Eros, the Bittersweet” is a thought-provoking look at eros and desire stemming back to the ancient Greeks that still feels relevant today.

“If you’re heartbroken, or have ever been heartbroken, and you want new language for it, that’s what this book feels like to me,” says Rennhack. 

“A Spoonful of Frogs” was written by Casey Lyall and illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Vera Brosgol. Angela Whited says she’s already read this book at story time at Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, and the book was a hit with listeners of all ages. 

The story is about a witch who is hosting a cooking show called “Bewitching Kitchen,” and today, she’s teaching everyone to make every witch’s favorite recipe: frog soup. Unfortunately, one of the key ingredients simply will not cooperate when she tries to put it in the pot.

Whited calls the book “comedy gold” that is fun to read any time of year. The witch’s big emotions and the vivid, high-contrast illustrations make this a great read-aloud book.  

It was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award back in 2006, and just this week Disney released a first look at an 8-episode series based on the novel, starring Michelle Yeoh, among other big-name actors. The series will be available on Disney+ in 2023.

The novel has three plotlines that interconnect in creative ways. One is about a boy named Jin Wang, the son of Chinese immigrants, trying to navigate a largely white school in the suburbs of San Franscisco.

The second is about a boy named Danny whose life seems perfect, except for the presence of his obnoxious Chinese cousin who continues to insert himself into Danny's life; and the third is about the mythical Monkey King.

Murvin loves the magical realism of this book and says that every time she rereads it, she spots something new.

Hannah Amrollahi of The Bookworm in Omaha, Nebraska, has a theory that for kids who've grown up around cell phones and laptops, the presence of technology in a story makes the world seem familiar, even if that world happens to include mermaids, yetis and weredragons.

That's part of what she loves about the middle grade novel "Amari and the Night Brothers" and its newly-released sequel, "Amari and the Great Game," by B. B. Alston.

In the interest of avoiding spoilers, let's focus on the first book. 13 year-old Amari's big brother has gone missing from his prestigious boarding school, and she wants nothing more than to find him.

What she finds, though, is a ticking briefcase in her brother's closet, and a special nomination from him to try out for the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Here, students train to encounter magical and alien species. Amari turns out to have a real talent for magic. Can she use it to find her brother?

What follows is a story that's "Men in Black" meets "Artemis Fowl" in a magical boarding school setting. Amrollahi says that readers who love the "Wings of Fire" and Harry Potter series will want to dive into this one

Sara Groves of Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, recommends "The Civil War of Amos Abernathy," a middle grades novel by debut author Michael Leali.

Here's the story: 13-year-old Amos is a volunteer at a living history museum, but lately he's noticed that he and his friends aren't reflected in the 19th century life their sharing with others. Amos is gay, his friend Chloe is Black, and his crush, Ben, is questioning his identity.

Amos and his friends go looking for the stories of queer folks, Black people, and women who've been left out. He encounters the story of Albert D.J. Cashier of Illinois, who was born a woman, lived as a man, and fought in the Civil War. Amos begins writing letters to Albert as he tries to imagine himself in America's history, and he hatches a plan to share that story.

Not everyone in the community is supportive of this plan, and Groves says the culminating scene was inspiring and heartwarming in a way that "just sent fireworks" through her.

"The book does a fantastic job of encouraging kids to ask questions about the world and giving them language to think about who writes our histories and why," says Groves.

A note to parents: novels labeled as "middle grade" are generally written for readers ages 8-12. If you're unsure whether a novel is middle grade or young adult (YA), check the age of the protagonist. If she or he is 8 to 12 years old, even 13, then it's middle grade. There is no upper-age limit on who can read these great titles!

Ginger Kautz of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina recommends Joseph Han’s debut novel “Nuclear Family,” which comes out Tuesday, June 7. Kautz calls the stylistically innovative novel “part family drama, part ghost story, part coming-of-age and critique of American imperialism in the Pacific.”  

The story is set in 2018, during the time leading up to the false missile alert on Hawaii. The Cho family is horrified when their older son, who is teaching English in South Korea, is caught on viral video trying to cross the demilitarized zone. What his family in Hawaii doesn’t know is that he has been possessed by the ghost of his grandfather, who is trying to reach lost family members.  

The sudden infinite infamy threatens the Cho family business, which relies on the local South Korean community. It drives their daughter Grace’s recreational week use into a serious habit. 

Kautz was struck by the innovative structure of this novel, which includes not only multiple viewpoints but also multiple formats. The words in some places form towers and walls. Words are left off the page as Grace tries to avoid certain thoughts.  

“Even though some of the topics and scenes are heavy overall, Kautz says, “it is really a very optimistic book. It's got a lot of humor in it. The love the family has for one another as much bigger than their inability to communicate effectively with each other.” 

Hughes published 14 crime and detective novels, and she also worked as a professional crime-fiction reviewer, so she knew her genre well.

Her work teems with unreliable narrators, settings that feel like characters, and surprising plot twists--key elements of modern mysteries now. Three of Hughes' novels were made into films: "In a Lonely Place" starring Humphrey Bogart, "The Fallen Sparrow," and "Ride the Pink Horse."

"I always kind of joke that there would be no "Gone Girl" or "Girl on the Train," or any of these without Dorothy Hughes first writing her books," say Brown. She says it feels like finding a lost treasure seeing Hughes’ work re-emerge.

Marra, age 30, is the youngest of three princesses, shyly stowed away in a convent, minding her own business. Or she would be — if she didn’t have to rescue her sister. Her eldest sister was married to a prince, but she has died in a way that suggests her princely husband might have been involved. Marra’s second sister has been married off to the same prince, and Marra fears for her life. Her journey to save her sister is spun from fairy-tale cloth but entirely Kingfisher’s own. There are tasks to be completed, such as assembling a dog from bones (a delightful character, Tally adds, with all the traits of a puppy — though when he scratches his ears, sometimes bones go flying.) There is a rag-tag band to be assembled: a gravewitch, Marra’s fairy godmother (whose gifts tend to go wonky), an accursed chick, and a knight who has failed so terribly at his career he has been sold to the goblin market.

Note from Emily Bright: T. Kingfisher is the pen-name of Ursula Vernon; under that name, she’s published numerous excellent and funny books for ages 8-12, including the Hamster Princess series (twisted fairy tales in their own right), the Dragonbreath series. I love “Castle Hangnail,” which features a cast of oddly loveable minions and a 12-year-old wicked witch who comes to take ownership of the castle (though her parents think she’s away at summer camp.)

It's a plot that sounds like a Hallmark movie, but the narrator handles it with a knowing wink and a nod, both celebrating and challenges the tropes of romance.

When they first meet in New York, editor Charlie and literary agent Nora hate each other, but two years later, their lives cross again while in a small town for the summer. They end up working together to help an author get a book published, and, yes, to revitalize a small town that is built around a fictional place in the author's book.

Kircher appreciates the clever voice of the novel and the fact that Charlie and Nora have real life cares and problems. She recommends "Book Lovers" as a great “romance for people who may want a little bit more realism."

The main character, referred to as Rabbit, is a 30-something Asian-American writer who finds herself igniting a relationship with a choreographer. Their connection is surprising for several reasons, Hong says. Rabbit doesn't like the older man when she first encounters him at a writer's retreat, but the enemies soon turn to lovers. Secondly, Rabbit is queer. This new hetero relationship makes her question herself and her desires, and it raises a point of conflict with Rabbit's roommate, who is also queer.

There are a number of ways a plot like this could go wrong, but Songsiridej evades those missteps. It's a complex exploration of relationships in a book that is decidedly sexy, Hong says, adding, the novel "gives us a look at, like, 'What does it look like to care about someone regardless of identities, etc?’ How can we give ourselves space to explore ourselves as we are outside of labels?"

Pugh calls the novel an excellent portrait of a teenager “in conflict with her culture and her family.” The story is set in ‘90s Naples, a city divided into a seemingly refined upper crust society and its lower quarters, where mysterious Aunt Vittoria lives.

A Netflix version of the novel, filmed in Naples, is current in production.

Part of the intrigue in this fast-paced novel comes from the way it deftly weaves together three narratives in different timelines. One timeline takes place in the dead of winter, in an isolated farmhouse when a crime writer brings in a small child she finds out in a snowstorm. The other timeline is in the heart of summer, where two teenage girls sneak out to the Iowa State Fair and “all heck breaks loose,” says Kircher. “There are gunshots, they're running through the cornfield, [they’re] not sure who's alive and who's not alive.”

Kircher says the reader doesn’t always knew who everybody is in these timelines, which adds to the suspense as the story reveals what happened on that fateful night in summer, who was involved, and how everyone is connected.

There are familiar elements to this thriller: A small (fictional) Minnesota town. A sheriff’s deputy who has left police work in Minneapolis due to personal tragedy, seeking a quieter life — only to find himself investigating a terrible crime at his new job. Two teens have gone missing after they attempted to steal painkillers from an old man whom they presumed to be harmless. But the old man has secrets of his own, and now the deputy suspects the man is holding the teens captive. The race is on to save their lives.

Jubenville says this suspenseful tale navigates LGBTQ issues and the opioid crisis along with neighbors in a small town. She says she couldn’t put it down. The Bookstore at Fitger’s is hosting Moehling for an author signing event from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday. 

The novel by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone follows a series of letters exchanged between Red and Blue, who are on opposite sides of a massive time war. Part of what makes this star-crossed-lovers novel interesting, Brooklyn says, is that the authors take care not to place gender to these two characters. The two go to creative and appropriately sci-fi lengths to keep their correspondence secret. If discovered, their bond could spell their deaths. Or, it could change everything.

“It’s probably one of the most interesting works of fiction I’ve read in a long time, and it’s beautifully written,” Lindsey said. The novel is studded with pop culture Easter eggs that made her want to go back for a second read.

Barrett Bloom is a freshman in college having a terrible day. She shows up at her Physics 101 class only to be put on the spot in front of everyone for no reason by her unbearably annoying classmate, Miles. She’s never even seen him before! Or has she? Barrett soon figures out that she and Miles are both stuck in a time loop, endlessly repeating Wednesday, Sept. 21st.

“What ensues is hilarious,” Chou says, “and [it] very nearly broke my heart. Writing a book set almost entirely in one day is challenging, but Solomon's creativity makes for a real page turner.”

Yes, Chou says, she instantly thought of “Groundhog’s Day,” the classic 1993 film that has forever stamped its name on day-repeating plot lines; though Chou hastened to add that this YA romance has an excellent and surprising plot twist.

Love getting stuck in time? Check out this past recommendation on Ask a Bookseller.

Tuzon says two aspects of this debut novel made it stand out as unique. First was the form: it's told in a series of vignettes and written in the first-person plural, which means the women in this novel speak together as "we," like a modern chorus.

Second, all of the narrators are women of color. They start as children growing up on the same street in Queens, NY., and we follow them through their lives.

We see the ones who leave for college—and have their loyalties challenged for leaving—and the ones who stay or returned. Tuzon hastened to add that this book feels relatable even if you don’t live in Queens, and said she was thinking about this novel long after she closed the book. 

The environment and climate change are key elements of this novel set in the near-future. Vigil Harbor is a former working-class fishing village on the Massachusetts coast that has been "transformed by the magic wand of prosperity into an upscale haven for the affluent," says Graves. "It's the kind of place many people wish they could call home — and might also stand as an example of being careful what you wish for."

High-profile divorces, strangers who arrive in town, and a series of eco-terrorism bombings across New England all rock this quiet community, building to what Graves calls an "energetic finale."

Katy Herbold of Sidekick Coffee & Books in Iowa City, Iowa, took a few moments out of her bookstore's preparations for the special day to recommend the novel “The Ogress and the Orphans” by Minneapolis writer Kelly Barnhill.

Herbold called the middle-grade novel "a family read-aloud" that she predicts will be an instant classic. That holds true in her family, where a family reading of the novel held the interest of her children — ages 6, 10 and 14.

"And I love it so much because the characters have unlikely traits. It's very unexpected, and it will leave you just filled with hope. It's a story of hope and love," says Herbold.

As with Barnhill's 2017 Newbery Medal-winning novel "The Girl Who Drank the Moon," kindness and villainy come from unexpected corners in this novel. The Ogress of the title is loving and giving, offering food to orphans without needing acknowledgement for her actions.

The story takes place in a town that has rather mysteriously come to ruin. When an orphan goes missing from the orphanage, blame quickly falls upon the Ogress. It's up to the orphans — each of whom shines with "incredible, fantastic character names" and traits, Herbold says — to help the townspeople see the truth and find the real villain.

Barnhill also has a novel for adults coming out May 3, entitled, "When Women Were Dragons."

Pek's novel is this week's book recommendation from Angela Schwesnedl of Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis.

Lin's family doesn't know what she does for work. They don't know she's queer, either, and Schwesnedl says those evasions lead to some close calls as she bikes across New York City to meet work and family requirements.

As for what that work entails, Schwesnedl says there's a classic set-up: a beautiful young woman walks into the agency asking for help — and then goes missing.

Part detective story, part family story, "The Verifiers" got Schwesnedl thinking about how we really know when the person we're talking to online tells the truth, and what kind of data are those dating apps getting from us.

"If you can imagine Julia Child channeling a little bit of Lucille Ball, and all of the science edginess of Madame Curie, then you'll have a really good idea of the humor and the wit and the warmth that just shine through this entire novel," says Crowe.

The novel follows Elizabeth Zott, a 1960s chemist turned cook-show host. Elizabeth is brilliant, unconventional, and determined to succeed — attributes she needs working in a laboratory where she has to fight her male colleagues for access to proper lab equipment. When she encounters Calvin Evans, their passion for science and each other is "incandescent," says Crowe.

The narrative navigates back and forth between two timelines, so it's not a spoiler to say that several years later, Zott finds herself alone with a child, cast out of her university job.

A chance encounter leads to a new career hosting a cooking show. Over recipes for casserole, Elizabeth finds a way to teach science to the housewives of America.

"She subverts the act of making dinner, giving those housewives a sense of their own value, and intelligence and accomplishment," says Crowe, who calls the novel "a deeply satisfying read."

The novel is based on the life of entrepreneur Dorothy Kerwin Thomas (1756 – 1846), who was born into slavery in Montserrat and who rose to become a wealthy, powerful landowner in the West Indies. Written in Thomas's voice, the novel spans decades of her long life.

Nebeker found herself drawn into both the romantic and the business relationships of this complex character, whose drive, love for her children, and success in business created a powerful legacy that spanned multiple countries.

Published in 2017, the novel is a go-to recommendation for Claire Margetts of Weller Book Works in Salt Lake City, Utah, even though — or perhaps because — it made her sob at the end.

Set in 2074, it tells the story of the Second American Civil War. Climate change has flooded half of Louisiana and led to an American ban on fossil fuels. The American South has seceded in protest. The story follows Sarat Chestnut of Louisiana, who grows up in a camp for displaced persons and becomes embroiled in the war.

“It's a book that stays with you. It's astounding; it's sublime,” says Margetts.

She says she couldn’t stop thinking about this novel throughout the past few years as its tales of plague, civil unrest and war seemed to unfold before her eyes. The characters are powerful, she says, and there are beautiful moments along with the darkness.

El Akkad has since published a second novel, “What Strange Paradise,” in the summer of 2021.

Conditions are harsh on the plains of Wyoming in 1876, and the Bemis and Webber families couldn't be more isolated — 20 miles from town, and a mile apart from each other. Right off the bat, the stuff of soap operas happens. Mr. Bemis catches his wife in a compromising situation with Mr. Webber and kills him. Bemis then turns himself in and goes to jail. What's interesting is what happens next, for now the women and their adolescent children are left behind to run the farm, and winter is approaching. Despite anger and regret, they must rely on each other to survive.

Bohnsack says she felt all the feelings in this novel as the narrative shifted seamlessly among the points of view of the various main characters.

Then, she could hardly put it down.

The historical fiction novel by Kim Michele Richardson is set during the Great Depression in rural Kentucky, when packhorse librarians traveled long distances on mules to carry books to Appalachian families. In Troublesome Creek, that traveling librarian is Cussy May Carter, who was born with blue skin.

Her fictional character is based on a real family in the area, the Fugates, whose blue-tinged skin was due to a recessive gene. Carter's presence in town stirs up prejudice and superstition.

Peterson recommends this "heart-filled" story of courage and the enduring power of books.

Binet, who is French, creates a novel in which the Inca emperor Atahualpa crosses the Atlantic to Portugal in the early 1500s. In Europe, he finds a downtrodden peasant class, plague, power battles among kings and popes — in other words, a world that's ripe for change. The Inca and the Aztec becomes the rulers of Europe, introducing changes to farming and religion, and becoming enmeshed in political intrigue.

Brown said the novel reads as a scribe laying out this revisionist history, often with a wink and a nod that pull the reader in. Wide-ranging in scope and humorous, the novel doesn't say "any civilization is better than another," says Brown. "Just 'what if?'"

The title comes from a quote by a Hawaiian scholar describing unfamiliar fishes blown from the deep who devour the little ones they find. This is a warts-and-all history of Hawaii's Americanization, told in a nonlinear fashion and interspersed with contemporary diary entries as well as Vowell's experience.

"I was prepared to scoff at the beginning," said Banning, whose store is located on Oahu. She was skeptical of books by "people that sweep in here and write history of a way after they've been here for three or four weeks. But she's fantastic. She tells you all kinds of things that you have totally never heard of."

Garban said Reynolds’ most recent title is particularly eye-catching. “Ain’t Burned All the Bright” is only a few sentences long and includes over 300 illustrations. It’s a partnership between Reynolds and longtime friend and illustrator Jason Griffith.

The text is a narrative poem by Reynolds that captures the experience of one Black family during 2020. The story spans the awful — the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and its aftermath, and job loss — and the good, as lockdowns led to increased family time. Oxygen is a fitting theme of the novel, and each section is divided into breaths.

The book is for ages 12 and up. Garban said both she and her teenage son tore through the book in a sitting and immediately wanted to pass it on to others.

Laurel Fraher of Menomonie, Wis., is the author and illustrator of "See Me in the Wonder," and its backstory immediately drew Gray in.

Fraher and her husband had a daughter who passed away at age 3. Fraher wrote "See Me in the Wonder" to help their other children feel connected to their older sister, whom they had never met. Her website describes the work as "a love poem," and she illustrated its simple text with watercolors depicting the natural world. Fraher and her husband co-published the book.

Gray says they not only carry the book in their store but have personally gifted it to others who are experiencing loss. She loves the final lines, which read,

"There's wonder waiting

In each moment.

Find it and you'll see...

When you embrace

This precious life,

You'll be embracing me."

The new book by journalist Ben Raines describes its scope in the title: "The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning."

In 1859 or 1860, 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was made illegal, a wealthy Alabama plantation owner funded passage of the Clotilda, the last known ship to transport captured West African men and women to the state, where they were sold into slavery.

After the Civil War, some of those survivors founded what is now Africatown, near Mobile. The Clotilda, meanwhile, was set alight, but most of the vessel remained intact and buried along the Mobile River in Alabama. In 2019, the wreckage was confirmed to be the Clotilda.

The book tracks the story of that ship and the descendants of the people it carried. Raines' narrative carries the reader from Alabama to Benin in West Africa and back, exploring the ongoing legacy of one slave ship to reach America's shores.

Frank Herbert wrote “Dune” in 1965 and went on to publish five more books in the series. Frank’s son, Brian Herbert, along with Kevin J. Anderson, later went on to write multiple additional prequels, sequels and companions.

Frankel wants fans of the film to know that the books go even deeper into creating a complete and elaborate new world. “Dune” is a hero’s journey about a boy living 20,000 years in the future. Paul Atreides’ world changes dramatically when his family moves from a water planet to accept stewardship over a desert planet, home to invaluable spice and dangerous sandworms.

Along with the adventure, "Dune" delves into philosophy, politics, religion, environmental manipulation and other factors that play out over the course of human history. Frankel calls the first four “Dune” books “essential,” adding that the fifth and six book in the series set up a new story line that Frank Herbert did not finish before he died.

The book by V. E. Schwab is set in modern-day New York, but protagonist Addie LaRue is originally from 1700s’ France. In a moment of desperation, she inadvertently prays to and makes a deal with the devil, and he gives her freedom and immortality in exchange for her soul. But the one caveat that she is unaware of until after she makes the deal is that to obtain her freedom, everyone she interacts with will forget her as soon as she's out of their sight. So if a door closes between her and another person, they'll immediately forget her. She also can't leave any kind of a mark, so she can't write, she can't draw, and her image cannot be captured by photograph. She is reduced essentially to having an invisible life, but with it, she has incredible freedom. Over the 300 years since she's made the deal, no one has been able to remember her. Until one day, when she meets someone who can.

“I honestly couldn't get enough of the book,” says Shrestha. “I found myself torn between the urge to keep reading because it was so good and wanting to slow down and savor it.”

The plot jumps back and forth between modern day and flashbacks of Addie’s experiences and adventures, spanning across time in different countries and of her encounters with the devil, who initially was the only one who could remember her. Shrestha loves the complex and multi-faceted characters, and the shifting dynamic between them keeps the plot twisting. The book also poses an interesting philosophical question about worth and the value of leaving a mark on the world. 

The students I talked to ranged from kindergarten to sixth grade. They were all students of English language learning teachers Becky Hart and Aliza Mashadi, and the kids stepped away from their bustling school day for a few minutes to recommend books they loved. Everyone had a series to recommend that either connected with their lives or led them on new adventures.

Ten-year-old Ayan Mahamud loves the graphic novel “Click” by Kayla Miller, about a girl who gets left out of all the acts for the upcoming talent show. After watching old variety shows at her aunt’s house, she gets inspired to create her own role, as the show’s emcee. Ayan is in band and is looking forward to attending band concerts through school, so she connected with this book on a personal level. “Click” has several companion books as well.

Asiya Dakol, 11, loves the sci-fi “Sal and Gabi” books by Carlos Hernandez. Together, the two friends break, then fix, the universe — so naturally, she recommends reading both.

Ten-year-old Daisy Zamorano Romero enjoys the funny adventures and drawings in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series by Jeff Kinney.

Nine-year-old Jason Chomphel turns to the action-packed adventures of “Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot” by Dav Pilkey.

Awo Mahamud, 12, says “The Series of Unfortunate Events” books by Lemony Snicket keep her guessing what’s going to happen next. Orphaned siblings Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire face continued, well, unfortunate turns of events as the dreaded Count Olaf maneuvers to steal their fortune. (And it’s funny, too.)

For 6-year-old Rosie Zamorano Romero, there isn’t a specific series she likes, but one single subject: puppies. 

"I'm always amazed when people don't know it because I love it so much," says Johnston, who runs Brookings Book Company in Brookings, S.D. The second in the two-part series is now also available.

It's the story of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, set in a racially charged 1960s' Chicago. Karen is bright and artistic, but she sees herself as a social outcast and a monster among her school peers. She fills her notebooks with drawings of monsters from magazines and horror movies. Her older brother, a womanizing artist, encourages her love of art. 

Early in the novel, Karen's neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, and Karen sets out to solve the murder. The journey leads her on a path of self-discovery where she suspects her neighbors and even her mother and brother of committing the crime.

Johnston says Ferris' art style is “a stunning mix of realism and cartoon, all presented on lined notebook paper to replicate the appearance of Karen's school notebooks. The story and images flow freely across the page, [exploring] what it means to be a monster both good and bad, and what monsters live in our art in our actual world.” 

That's the recommendation of Bob Lingle of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore in Lakewood, N.Y., speaking of the novel "Tiny Americans" by Devin Murphy.

Set in western New York where Lingle's store is located, the novel starts in 1978 and follows a family of five over the next 40 years.

Each chapter is a year, told by or about one member of the family as they grow, move away, disconnect and reconnect. Murphy's background is in short story-telling, says Lingle.

"It's really like you're checking in with the family with each chapter, like 'Where is Connor now? What's Terrence up to?' " Murphy said. "So it's very much a series of 40 short stories that all tie in together."

The unnamed narrator, armed with little more than her purse and a breast pump, leaves her husband and newborn daughter for a speaking engagement in Reno. Once there, she decides not to go home.

What follows, Schmidt says, is a wild journey through the Mojave Desert where the narrator grew up. As she questions her decisions and her domesticated life, her story ties in with her parents' stories, their choice to live off the grid, and her father's previous involvement with Charles Manson's cult.

"The writing is wonderful," says Schmidt. "The voice is is so electric and you love her and you're also like, 'What are you doing with your life?' I couldn't put it down."

Yes, there’s a party gathered at the crumbling Blackheath Manor that results in a murder, but what’s unique about this who-done-it is its “Groundhog’s Day”—like premise. When Aiden Bishop first wakes up in the middle of the woods, he doesn’t know what he’s doing there nor who he is. As he proceeds to wake up each day in the body of a different guest at the manor, and it becomes apparent that the only way for him to break the cycle is to put all these perspectives together and solve the mystery of Evelyn Hardcastle’s death. 

Stocks describes the novel as part mystery, part fantasy, part crime novel with historical elements thrown in. She says that, at first, the scenario was confusing, but as the book continued and the story grew increasingly complex, she found she couldn’t put it down. 

It’s set in a dystopic reality where climate change has taken a drastic toll on Earth, resulting in a split in the world population: 25 percent live in floating cities, spending much of their lives in virtual reality to reduce their carbon footprints. The other 75 percent live back on the ground, amidst the elements.

The story is told by two sisters who are separated. Cee wakes up marooned on an island with no memory of who she is, other than a need to return to her sister. Back in her floating city, sister Kasey must fit together the pieces of her sister’s disappearance.

“There is a very, very good plot twist that I think readers will really enjoy,” says Abesames. Without revealing any spoilers, she says she appreciates the novel’s message about the consequences of our actions and the ways those actions trickle through the generations.

Whited recommends the novel “The Great Ghost Hoax” by Emily Ecton, with spot illustrations by David Mottram. It came out Sept. 7. 

Butterbean the dachshund and her housemates, Oscar the mynah bird, Walt the cat, and Marco and Polo the rats are looking for their next adventure, having previously pulled off an amazing apartment heist (more on that in a minute). So, when first a human neighbor, then a rat neighbor, burst into their living room with news of a haunted apartment upstairs, they are ready to take the case.

There are challenges, of course: The pets have to work their investigation around some professional ghost hunters who show up. Also, it’s up to Butterbean, as the one pet who gets taken out for walks, to remember the details of leaving the apartment. Butterbean is a good dog, but she’s not all that smart, and not all that key information gets remembered. 

Author Ecton is a former writer and producer on NPR’s “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me,” and Whited says the jokes are hilarious. She says the story is written at a fourth grade level, but “there's nothing in it that makes it too scary or too edgy or to anything to read to a younger reader” who is reading or listening along. 

“The Great Ghost Hoax” is the sequel to “The Great Pet Heist.” That novel came out in 2020, but Whited says it has been largely on back-order, so this fall is a great chance to pick up both books at once. 

First up: Harriett Logan of Loganberry Books in Cleveland, Ohio, recommended the picture book “I Talk Like a River,” with an inventive metaphor that reframes stuttering.

It’s written by poet Jordan Scott, based on his own experience, and illustrated by Sydney Smith.

The story follows a boy through a frustrating day of school where his stutter gets in the way of all the things he wants to say. After school, his father brings him to his favorite place — the river — and asks him to watch how the current ripples and eddies and rushes.

“You talk like a river,” his father tells him. This beautiful metaphor becomes a point of calm and pride for the boy. 

The pictures match the mood, transitioning from brown hues to big swirling blues at the riverside, Logan says.

The stories come in snippets, vignettes and therapy sessions, re-set in contemporary environments — in one, Hades is a bar — to breathe fresh perspective into these classic myths.

“It's really raw and edgy and very, very well done,” says Siders. MacLaughlin “really knows the tales inside and out.”

The book grew out of an advice column Brammer wrote for the LGBTQ dating app Grindr; he quickly found that the questions he received from readers were deep and wide-ranging. Brammer also describes growing up as a self-described queer, multiracial kid in Oklahoma.

Otis has long followed Brammer on Twitter, so she knew he was "a very funny man," but she was surprised by the thoughtful dives the book takes into mental health, queer issues, and racial identity. She recommends this book for fans of short, humorous essays such as Samantha Urby’s "Wow, No Thank You" and "We Are Never Meeting in Real Life."

Skunk and Badger are the unlikeliest of friends and roommates: Badger loves to stay at home with his books and gemstones. Skunk is much more adventurous, and he pulls Badger into a new world of adventure in the forest.

"This book will be a classic someday," predicts Crowder.

She likes the characters and the illustrations, but she's particularly enthused that Skunk and Badger's adventures resonate with boys, who she says tend to pick graphic novels over chapter books, like this one.

"I've tried ["Skunk and Badger"] out on many of my customers. The girls love it, but the boys just go crazy for it," she said.

She recommends the book for readers age 8 and up. The second book in the series, "Egg Marks the Spot" is due out in September.

Protagonist Linus Baker lives in a gray, rainy city, where he duly files his reports at his job overseeing the welfare of magical children. The only color in his life are the sunflowers around his little house and the mousepad on his desk with a beach picture that says, "Don't you wish you were here?" ("Yes, yes he does," is the book's refrain on the subject.)

Linus is assigned by Extremely Upper Management to inspect a home for magical children whose abilities have been deemed to be particularly dangerous — one of them is a child of the devil, with an appropriately diabolical sense of humor. With his trusty book of rules and regulations in hand, Linus boards the train — and arrives, for the first time, at the sea.

He finds a world full of color, with inventively magical but loveable characters who quickly fill his life with joy and some trepidation, as such attachments fly in the face of professional, distanced observation. The writing style is witty and charming, as is the gentle love story woven into the book.

In 1959, at a small New York college, history professor Ruben Blum reluctantly hosts visiting lecturer Benzion Netanyahu. He arrives with his entire family, including a young Benjamin Netanyahu, who until recently was prime minister of Israel. Rather than reveal any of the surprises in the plot, Hlavinka simply says that "many shenanigans ensue."

The story is modeled from one that scholar Harold Bloom told the author, and was expanded through the powers of fiction. Part campus novel, part lecture, full farce, the story is also deeply engaged with the history of Judaism and midcentury politics.

Hlavinka called Cohen's writing "complicated and interesting," adding that this novel, which weighs in near 250 pages in paperback, is an excellent entry point into Cohen's larger body of work.

In the book, 28-year-old Grace Porter has just finished her Ph.D. in astronomy. She's from a conservative, military family. And so it's very unlike her to go to Las Vegas and get drunkenly married to a complete stranger. Grace decides to step away from her stressful life and join her new wife, Yuki Yamamoto, in New York City for the summer.

Nopenz Fairley called it a charming story, complete with an entertaining cast of characters in Yuki’s roommates. As Grace falls for Yuki, they settle into a pleasant routine; but reality comes hurtling back, as Grace must decide what to do with her future. Nopenz Fairley calls “Honey Girl” a millennial novel about accepting the love you deserve, celebrating “found families,” and defining relationships beyond the romantic.

The book came out in February 2021 and went straight to paperback, making it an easy book to bring to the beach this summer.

The bookseller from Taylor Books in Charleston, West Virginia dove in.

"I would describe it as a wonderous slog," said Carlisle of the nearly 800-page book, filled with humor and clever wordsmithing. (The paperback, out now, is not scented.)

The novel is set in a version of the present day in which the internet does not exist. Instead, clever inventors in the 1980s and 90s created Botimals: tiny, adorable robots made of flesh and bone. They became an enduring, world-wide craze. The novel follows 38-year-old Belt Magnet, who as a child was an early recipient of the new technology when they were being piloted as an alternative to therapy animals.

The complex novel explores everything from viral ideas to violence as it wends its way. Though this alternative technology is the unique jumping-off point for this novel, "it's not so much the Botimals that are the problem; it's the humans," says Carlisle.

Leonard and Hungry Paul are friends; they’re both single, in their 30s, and still live at home. Leonard is mourning the loss of his mother. He writes children's encyclopedias, and he’s held onto a sense of youthful wonder about the world. Hungry Paul — we don’t really ever learn how he earned that name — is content to live happily with his parents and doesn't see anything wrong with that (though his sister does.) He lives in the present and takes pleasure in whatever is around him. 

“So this sounds like not much,” Hochschild says “but it is charming and warm, and generous and funny. It's not a book for people who are looking for action or adventure or exotic lands. It’s a book that celebrates the beauty of the everyday, the poetry and family and friends and just playing Scrabble over dinner.” 

She also appreciated the clever turns of phrase in the writing, which nabbed her with this first sentence: “Leonard was raised by his mother alone with cheerfully concealed difficulty, his father having died tragically during childbirth.”  

How could you not be curious to keep reading? 

All the stories involve ghosts in some way, but they range from scary to funny, charming to thought-provoking. And they’re short: Many of the stories unfold in 500 words, which Lent says makes this book easy to pick up for a quick story — and hard to put down. It’s full of fascinating first-lines and clever wording that kept her reading just one more, over and over.

Here’s one opening she shared from story No. 35 "New Life, New Civilizations:"

By the 24th Century, the question had been answered definitively: transporters did not in fact convey a person, bodily, from one place to another. They killed him and replaced him with an exact duplicate. The new question was whether the copy, like the original, was endowed with a soul.

Lent said she couldn’t resist continuing after an opening paragraph like that, particularly when the story resolves in a page and a half. 

Lent also recommends a previous novel by Brockmeier, “The Brief History of the Dead,” which also has ghosts. Published in 2006, it’s about the aftermath of a pandemic. 

Ingrid lives alone on an island in Norway, and the story follows the consequences of her decision to shelter a wounded soldier who washes up on her shore following a shipwreck. She doesn’t know which country he’s from when she finds and begins to care for him. The mystery of his identity unfolds during the novel, as do its consequences: Ingrid is taken from her beloved island and must struggle to journey back home. 

Jacobsen’s spare and unsentimental prose tells a story that’s dramatic without being melodramatic, says Rains. “It’s atmospheric and totally gripping. It’s a real page-turner … about love and what we endure, and how we make a home.” 

“White Shadow” is the second novel in Jacobsen’s Ingrid trilogy, although Rains says you don’t have to have read the first book (“The Unseen”) to engage with this one.

Aldrich refers to the book as a comic; publisher Simon & Schuster refers to the book as “comedic, autobiographical, and illustrated essays.” Regardless of the label, Brosh's illustrated stories describe her antics, growing up as a self-described "weirdo."

Aldrich calls the book "laugh-out-loud funny," intermixed with sudden swerves to more serious topics. As in her first book, Brosh explores her depression and anxiety, while not losing sight of her humor.

“It’s simultaneously hilarious and very revealing about the human psyche," says Aldrich.

Brosh gained a following through her website, “Hyperbole and a Half,” and her New York Times best-selling book of the same title. "Solutions and Other Problems," arrived on the scene seven years later, in 2020, to similar acclaim.

She called the novel a "mystery for readers looking for something outside your usual police detective procedural," set in the otherworldly geography of the Monument lands of the Utah-Arizona border.

At first, the book appears to be a small-town mystery. A famous collector of Native American artifacts is killed. A local sheriff sets out to investigate. But then, Welshans says, the story evolves into something that is part mystery, part thriller and part rumination of history and heritage — and what that means for the future of our public lands.

Welshans calls the book a natural fit for fans of Craig Johnson, Paul Doiron or C.J. Box, adding that, in her opinion, the colorful cast of characters and exciting chase scenes would make for an excellent Coen brothers film.

The Michigan bookstore has a Minnesota connection: They fulfill the Girls Empowerment Collections for St. Paul–based charity Books For Africa.

The story follows two teenage witches who are sworn enemies, both driven by vengeance. They need each other’s magic to defeat a common enemy, but they don’t trust each other, and Desuze says we readers aren't sure that we can trust them. Add to that a love story between one of the witches and the other’s best friend, and you have a page-turning plot.

“It’s fun, it’s talking about real issues, it’s feminist, and I’m loving it,” says Desuze.

Desuze, who is Afro Latina and has Jamaican family, says she’s excited to see this book steeped in Jamaican culture enter the world.

Its descriptive title sets the stage; it's called “The Bee Cottage Story: How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happiness” by Frances Schultz.

Schultz made her career as a style maven, says Koropp, and this 2015 memoir expands on a popular series Schultz wrote for "House Beautiful" magazine.

Schultz had bought a house in East Hampton, N.Y., with her partner, full of ideas for their future. Instead, he left; she stayed and remade the house, reflecting on her new path in life as she went.

The book is filled with pictures of the process. Schultz is "hilarious, very Nora Ephron-ish," says Koropp, "and she makes herself very vulnerable. She draws you in as if you're [sitting] with a cup of tea and a friend."

Daisy the Warthog gets bullied other animals who don’t think she lives up to the beauty of her name. Her head hangs low at others’ mean words, but looking down causes her to discover all sorts of forgotten and lost objects: treasures on the forest floor.

Daisy bedecks her special fort with these treasures, and soon she finds that someone else has been adding to her collection. By being herself and exploring what she loves, Daisy makes a new, true friend.

Morgan says she tries to stock her bookmobile with diverse characters and languages “so that kids can see themselves on the shelves,” but the animals in this book open up a conversation about bullying, friendship — and being yourself in a way that is organic and positive. Plus, she loves Bagley’s sweet watercolor illustrations.

Rachel is a food-obsessed calorie-counter living in LA until she meets the clerk at the local frozen yogurt store, who tempts her with a bit of a topping on her daily fat-free frozen yogurt. Rachel falls in love with both the female clerk and with eating.

What follows is funny, honest and erotic, Benedict says, as it explores all the factors in Rachel’s life: “food, love, sex, spirituality, mother’s approval—what is it that feeds our souls?”  

Aurichio read the book when it came out in 2020 and said its memorable characters have stuck with her. She called the novel a thoughtful twist on a “classic beautiful dead white girl thriller.” 

Claire is a child when her college-aged sister Alison goes missing on a family vacation on the tropical island of Saint X. When Alison is found dead, two men who work at the resort are blamed for her death.

Eighteen years later in New York, Claire has a chance run-in with one of the accused. She befriends him to find out more information and learns a much wider story than she bargained for.

“The book just blows open the story of ‘dead missing white girl’ and subverts that trope,” says Aurichio. It becomes “this really nuanced commentary on race and class and privilege.” 

The story follows professor William Kessler, who has been declared the hero of the day, though he’s never told anyone the exact details of the day. He discovers that the college’s active shooter alert did not launch in time and that the college is trying to cover it up, but revealing the truth could bring more pain to those around him. 

Wizik Wills wants readers to know that the shooting happens largely off-stage in the novel and the tragic events are tempered by humor. She enjoyed reading this page-turner novel, as Kessler discovers the healing powers of a close friendship, a new dog, meaningful work and fishing. 

Koh was born in the United States, but when she was 15, her parents moved back to South Korea for her father’s job. Koh remained in the U.S. with her older brother, separated from her parents during those formative years as she continued her schooling. 

The memoir explores not only her long-distance relationship with her mother, but also her mother’s and grandmothers’ lives in Korea. Interspersed among the sections of the book are her mother’s letters, written in Korean during their separation and later translated by the author.

Toronto says the memoir at times reads like poetry, calling it a “compassionate, vulnerable, sad, and loving book about mother-daughter relationships.” 

Use the audio player above to listen.

Saunders is a national bestselling novelist whose many-voiced novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” won the 2017 Mann Booker Prize. He also teaches in the Masters of Fine Arts program at Syracuse University, and this collection is a view into his Russian short story class. The book combines short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol with seven essays by Saunders that explore how and why these stories work. 

Bock says, “I think it’s the perfect book for anyone who, like me, has kind of a reduced attention span right now, or who is looking to become a better writer or a better reader. It’s just an all-around fabulous book.”

It comes out on Jan. 12 from Penguin Random House.   

The book explores the work of Franz Boaz, founder of cultural anthropology, and a circle of women scientists whose work 100 years ago helped inform our notions of identity today. Among the luminaries in this collective biography: field researcher Margaret Mead, Dakota Sioux activist Ella Deloria, and novelist Zora Neale Hurston of "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

Vogelgesang said she likes to recommend page-turning nonfiction works like this one when she's not sure what people have already read, and she said there's something to learn for everyone in King's book.

You might recognize Goldstein as the co-host of NPR’s Planet Money. Neal called it “a quick read: concise and easy to understand” that covers a vast history, ranging from the earliest coins to digital currency like bitcoin. 

The underlying theme, according to Neal, is a five letter word: trust. It’s the solid foundation for every monetary form, one that is hard-won and easily lost. 

You can hear Planet Money and How I Built Saturdays at 7 p.m. on MPR News.

Palmer loved this literary novel, with its memorable characters and a bit of mystery.

The story follows the very likeable Violette Toussaint, caretaker of a cemetery, whose days are punctuated by cemetery visitors. One day, police chief Julien Sole shows up with his mother’s ashes and her request to leave those ashes on the tomb of a man he has never heard of before.

Fittingly for a story set near a cemetery, each chapter starts with an epitaph, and Palmer says her copy of the novel is bursting with Post-it notes, marking all the epitaphs she wanted to read again.

He recommends Minnesota writer William Kent Krueger’s mystery novel "Mercy Falls," which won a prestigious Anthony Award for Best Novel in 2005. In this 5th book of the Cork O’Connor series (which is now up to 17), Tamarack County Sheriff O’Connor shows up to a supposedly routine call on a nearby Ojibwe reservation, only to find himself ambushed by sniper fire.

The encounter sets off a string of events bound by murder, greed, and jealousy.

“Krueger’s got this unique ability to weave multiple plot threads without a tangle,” says Lenaz. “It’s masterful how he does it.” 

The book is divided into four sections—Roots, Core, Heart, and Head—which come together in a final chant. Vallez explores the connections among body, mind, and spirit and—importantly—the ancestors who contributed to who she is today.

Prose, monologue, theater-style scripts, and illustrations by John Jairo Valencia round out the poetry in this collection.  

Sims says she can open up to basically any page of this coffee-table book and smile. Each spread includes a photo of Byer showing off her bikini collection, along with humorous observations and tips. Byer uses the commentary to push back against the comments she’s heard about fat people and their clothing choices.

Sims calls this book “a heaping helping of joy. It doesn’t matter which page I flip to. Her bikinis are so cute. The cations are really funny, and the ‘self-help’ tips and tricks that she includes in the book are extremely relevant and timely” and refreshingly body-positive.

Bookseller Jonah Barrett of Orca Books Co-op in Olympia, Wash., recommended “The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix. It's a southern-flavored novel set in the 1990s.

Homemaker Patricia Campbell is bored at home, and an initially attractive stranger who moves into the neighborhood is a welcome addition. That is, until children begin to go missing. Suspecting the worst, Campbell enlists her book club into helping her investigate. 

Reading the book, Barrett said they had to scream into a pillow more than once, following both horror scenes and awkward social. All in all, they called it “a horror thriller for people who don’t like horror.” 

It begins with a utopia gone wrong. A family of four is vacationing off the grid at a secluded rental on the East Coast, when they are interrupted by a knock at the door. The owners of the rental (so they say) have fled a mysterious blackout in New York City and would like to come stay. Service and Wi-Fi is down (naturally), and from there, the family notices many happenings that are not quite right: strange animal noises, cracks in the windows, and other chilling sounds.  

West says, “you know there’s something apocalyptic going on, but it’s not this violent, graphic apocalyptic story. It’s just very ominous and unsettling.” As the author reveals details bit by bit, West says she found herself asking, “What would I do in this situation? How would I protect my loved ones when I don’t know what the danger is?...One of the things I’ve constantly been thinking this year is ‘What else could happen? What else could happen in 2020?’ and I found myself thinking the same thing while I was reading the book.” That not-knowing kept her turning pages and then eagerly discussing with friends afterward. 

The novel takes place inside “The House,” in a world of seemingly endless hallways, statues and changing tides.

Piranesi chronicles this labyrinthine world, nearly always alone — until, suddenly, someone new arrives. 

The narrator of the story is Piranesi himself, whom Deblois called “one of the most likeable characters I’ve read in a long time: very smart, but naïve in a way that makes you kind of nervous as a reader.” 

It’s a “David-Mitchell-esque, mysterious, wonderfully haunting, perfect fall read,” says Deblois. For readers feeling the Halloween spirit, Deblois says this novel is “definitely chilling, and the mystery as it slots into place leaves you feeling a little spooked, but also you just can’t wait to continue to read and solve more of these mysteries.” 

On a planet that is half in constant darkness and half in unending sunlight, humans can only survive in the margin where the two halves meet. From two opposite cities — one autocratic, one lawless — come two girls whose lives intertwine.  

Goodrich found both the worldbuilding and the characters enticing. In the writing, she sees echoes of Ursula K. LeGuin’s "The Left Hand of Darkness" with “Mad Max” vibes. 

Set in Hawaii beginning in 1995, the story opens with a miraculous event: seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard into shark-infested waters — and is rescued by a shark. His family takes the rescue as a sign that he is blessed by the ancient Hawaiian gods.  

The multiple viewpoint story blends the mundane and the mystical as it follows the family through their struggle to adjust to changing times. Reed says the novel addresses many of the contemporary social issues and struggles that are a part of the fabric of life for people who live in Hawaii and those who have moved away.

Reed sums the novel up this way: “The language is lyrical, the characters are unforgettable, and their struggles and triumphs and, ultimately, their love are poignant. It captures much of the essence of these islands, and I couldn’t put it down.” 

Bookseller Christian Nardi of the kids' bookstore Bee Hive in Santa Fe, N.M., recommends "Vote for Our Future" by Margaret McNamara and Micah Player.

The children at Stanton Elementary School are curious why their school closes on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. They learn all about voting and elections, and even though they are too young to vote, they get involved by encouraging people in their community to do so. The increased turnout makes a difference in the election.

Nardi said the book has bold, colorful pictures featuring diverse characters, and she recommends this as story for sparking conversations about voting in family and classroom settings.

Margit says the novel is part family epic, part mental health discovery, part imaginative backyard world-building. Main character Finley Hart has undiagnosed anxiety, and she's been sent off for the summer to her grandparents' house while her parents focus on a difficult time in their relationship. The woods behind her house become a kingdom fueled by imagination in a way that reminds Margit of "Bridge to Terabithia."

"I read this during quarantine," says Margit, "I think this book is great for young readers and also adults because sometimes you just need that character who's just going to sit with you when you're having one of those blue days, who understands you and who's going to make things feel less alone even if it doesn't make it feel better right away. That was the protagonist of this story, for me."

“To me, it is the perfect debut,” says Stack-Nelson. “You always hear the adage, that you have your entire life to write the first book and then two years to write every book thereafter. You can just tell that Jordan Ifueko has been writing this book her entire life. It has so much depth, and so much detail. There’s so much love for and between the characters. It’s got this depth to it that you expect from somebody at the top of their game, and it’s only her first book.” 

In this West African-inspired fantasy, a girl names Tarisai has been raised basically in isolation, schooled by tutors. Because she’s half-demon, she has the ability to pull memories out of people whenever she touches them. The ability really scares the people around her, but immediately impresses everyone at the palace when she’s taken there at age 11 to compete for a spot on the future emperor’s council. 

Stack-Nelson recommends this young adult fantasy novel for anyone over 12, including adults. Recommended for fans of Tom Adeyemi’s “Children of Blood and Bone,” Melissa Bashardoust’s “Girl, Serpent, Thorn,” or Roseanne A. Brown’s “A Song of Wraiths and Ruin,” and other books whose intense world-building draws you in.

To start the month, Lorielle J. Hollaway of Cultured Books, a multicultural children’s bookstore in St Petersburg, Fla., recommended the brand-new picture book “I Am Every Good Thing” by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James.  

The picture book is filled with affirmations for black boys. 

“When there are so many negative stereotypes against black boys and black children, this is just a beautiful poem, almost a love letter, letting them know that they are every good thing,” said Holloway. She recommended it as a book for all children “because we all need to see that black boys are loved and valued.” 

Holloway couldn’t resist sharing her favorite line from the book: “I am good to the core like the center of a cinnamon roll. Yeah, that good.” 

Many high school English classes have battled their way through the story of the hero Beowulf, who (spoiler!) defeats the monster Grendel and the monster’s mother. Ascione recalls those classes clearly, saying, “my English teacher can tell you, I never thought Grendel’s mother got a fair shake.” In Headley’s new translation, Grendel’s mother gets credit as a warrior trained with a sword, rather than an ugly follow-up to the main action. 

Headley gained attention for her 2018 novel “The Mere Wife,” a modern retelling of Beowulf that puts women at the center. Publisher MacMillan states that while researching that contemporary story, “Headley unearthed significant shifts lost over centuries of translation." 

Headley’s translation is the first in over 20 years, since Seamus Haney’s version was published in 1999. It came out in paperback this week.  

In “Empire of Wild,” Joan has been searching for her missing husband for almost a year when she finds herself drawn into a revival tent by the voice of a loud, charismatic preacher. There, she recognizes her husband—but he insists that he is a different person entirely. One mystery is solved, but a new one begins. 

Also, the story incorporates the traditional Métis story of the Rogarou, which Teisberg says is “like a werewolf but way scarier.” 

Fans of young adult books might recognize Dimaline as the author of “The Marrow Thieves,” which was a Read Brave St. Paul book for 2020. 

Bookseller Stephen Sparks of Point Reyes Books in Point Reyes Station, Calif., recommends the nonfiction work “Fathoms: The World in the Whale” by author Rebecca Giggs.

When Giggs finds a humpback whale stranded on a beach in Australia, the encounter sparks an exploration into the lives of whales in a time of climate change. The book is a blend of natural history, philosophy, science and memoir. Sparks calls the writing style “luminous … as if Annie Dillard wrote about whales.”

The novel interweaves a unique cast of characters in a small Oregon town, along with elements of magic. Tank called it the kind of book you slow down on reading toward the end in order to keep the story going as long as possible.

Bookseller Jody Hardy recommends “The Empire of Gold” by S. A. Chakraborty, the newly released third book in the historical fantasy Daevabad series.

Set in 18th century Cairo, the novel follows a con-woman who did not believe in magic at the start of the series, but soon finds herself entwined with the fate of a magical kingdom. The series has been compared to Patrick Rothfuss’ “The Name of the Wind” series for its deeply imagined fantastical world, and to George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series for its palace intrigue.

Bookseller Derrick Young says he loves recommending “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker” by Damon Young because Young’s fantastic sense of humor allows him to take on very heavy subject matter with levity.

The book covers toxic masculinity, racism and stereotypes that face Black men. Derrick says this memoir is part of a new wave of African-American men writing memoirs that are more vulnerable, like Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir “The Beautiful Struggle” and “Heavy” by Kiese Laymon.

Mark your calendar to grab “A Burning” by Megha Majumdar when it comes out next week.

“I am thrilled to recommend one of my favorite books of the year,” said bookseller Emilie Sommer. “This is a powerful debut, and in this debut, a casual Facebook comment in the wake of a terrorist attack leads to dire consequences for a young Indian girl. … This is a novel of modern India that should be required reading for anyone who reads to seek a greater understanding of the world.”

“The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart” by Stephanie Burgis tells the the story of young dragon who is accidentally turned into a human — but that allows her to discover the wonder of chocolate. 

“It is written for about 8 to 12, but also makes a really great read-aloud for littler kids. And it’s super fun for grown-ups to read as well,” says bookseller Lily Tschudi-Campbell. “It’s one of my favorite stories for this age, one of my favorite reads generally — it’s so comforting, so cozy.” 

Paulette Jiles was a National Book Award Finalist for her previous book, “A Map of the World,” and this story picks up some familiar characters. Set in Texas at the very end of the Civil War, a fiddle player named Simon spots a woman at an officer’s dinner: she’s an Irish indentured servant, working for an officer from the opposing side.

As their travels separate them across Texas, bookseller April Gorksi says, this is “a story of how far people will go to be with the ones they love.”

Gwen Danfelt recommends a novel that was first published in 1976, but feels like a “balm” for current times.

What drink made Wisconsin famous? — Think less dairy, and more beer.

Bookseller Brian Roegge recommends a deeply researched nonfiction dive into the history of Wisconsin and beer. The book goes all the way from the big names in brewery history to the modern micro-brewery.

Bookseller Danny Caine describes Kiley Reid’s debut as “a hilarious and razor-sharp novel that kind of skewers a lot of issues of race and privilege and obsession.”

The book follows a young black woman, Emira Tucker, who works for a wealthy white family.

“The drama between this babysitter and the family is really hilarious, but also incredibly smart just about the way class and race works. It’s a book that’s a combination of funny and smart, and that’s my favorite thing, when something can be hilarious with a lot to say.”

“Once specific thing I really, really loved about this book, and I think is rare in contemporary fiction, is that we know a lot about Emira’s financial situation. It’s almost like in novels it’s taboo to talk novels, to talk numbers. You refer vaguely to people’s financial struggles, but you never know exactly what’s going on.”

“But we know Emira’s rent, we know how much she gets paid, when she applies for a job we know how much those jobs pay, and aside from being really honest and refreshing, that adds to what this book has to say about privilege. It was such a breath of fresh air to see such frank discussion of privilege and trying to make it as a young person in a big city.”

Susan Meissner’s novel “A Fall of Marigolds” first came out in 2015, and it hasn’t stopped selling at Annie’s Book Stop in the small town of Wells, Maine.

“I can’t tell you how many copies we’ve sold in my tiny store,” said Francine Tanguay. “And the fact that it is still selling today.”

The novel follows two women living a century apart, who share a tragic connection. Clara is a nurse working on Ellis Island in 1911, who loses her husband in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Taryn, who works in a fabric store in Manhattan, circa 2011, lost her husband in the World Trade Center on September 11. Through a trick of history, a scarf that Clara once owned has made its way to Taryn.

“Both women survive the tragedies, but it marked them. And both women realize, because of their tragedies, they couldn't quite move on with their lives. And they -- not physically, but mentally -- went somewhere in between what their life was and what their life became later.”

“The thing that struck me as most important is that when we love somebody and we lose somebody, we think our life is over. And for a period of time, we go to that in between place, no matter what century we’re living in,” Tanguay said. “And when we’re ready, we come out of it again and find that life is worth living. There are still things like love, and that we can move forward. Life is not the same. It’s different, but just as good.”

Some people at Tanguay’s shop have been initially hesitant to pick it up because of its heavy topic, or because of the split-century story, but so far everyone has been won over by Meissner’s writing.

That’s the wonder of a small bookstore, Tanguay said. People there can hand-sell just the right book, even if it’s not a best-seller elsewhere.

Mira Jacob was a novelist first, earning praise for her fiction, before she embarked on a memoir: “Good Talk.”

That memoir is unlike anything else, says bookseller Jhoanna Belfer.

“It’s a graphic memoir, and so it’s written in the format of essentially what looks like cartoons.” The art is a collage of drawings and photographs.

“I don’t think she trained as an artist, but she had this idea to write her memoir in this format because she wanted to really show people what her life was like, and the conversations she has with her son,” Belier explained.

“It’s just a wonderful memoir that is tackling the issues of being a person of color who grows upon the U.S., thinking America is getting better in a certain way, and then you start to see events happening in 2012 to 2016 … and seeing that maybe it’s not as great as you think it is. [She’s] trying to make sense of the world for her son, as well, who is a child who is mixed race.”

“I would say the thing that really impresses me with Jacob’s memoir is that she specifically decided to present it in a graphic novel format … And that’s a different way of understanding the story because you have to visually see it, and you’re essentially just listening in on these conversations she’s having with herself, her family and her friends … It’s much more immediate than reading it as an essay.”

Gwen Danfelt read “Annabel” by Kathleen Winter for the book club at her shop.

“Everyone learned something,” she said of the conversations it sparked. “We talked a lot about how we raised our own children.”

The book takes place in a remote region of rural Labrador, in Canada. It follows a man, a woman and their child, who is born intersex, with some male genitalia and some female genitalia.

“This is a big societal conversation now in 2019,” Danfelt said. “But in rural, remote Labrador in the 1960s, there was no conversation at all.”

“Through the novel, you get the thoughts of both the father and the mother and the child … They had to pick a gender, that was how it was done back then with the medical establishment,” Danfelt said. The story follows the repercussions of that decision, and it’s “beautifully told.”

“So, there’s that whole really thought-provoking piece, and the other beautiful thing is that this author, Kathleen Winter, clearly knows the land of Labrador and the history of it… The land and the animals are beautifully described, and it made me want to go there and it made me want to read more nature writing by her.”

Beryl Markham was the first person to fly solo, nonstop across the Atlantic, from east to west. She also wrote the kind of sentences that made Ernest Hemingway jealous.

“Hemingway was a huge fan, and he wishes he had written something like [Markham],” said bookseller Jinny Amundson. “It’s really lovely.”

Markham’s memoir, “West with the Night,” was first published in the 1940s, and it tells the story of her “growing up in Africa as a bush pilot, as a horse trainer at the age of 17, and the stories that she shares are so matter-of-fact at times, there’s an authenticity to that is so refreshing and enjoyable.”

Markham was born in England but raised in Kenya, when it was under British colonial rule.

Anyone who is a fan of Eric Larsen or Jon Krakauer will enjoy Markham’s memoir, Amundson said.

“Markham is one of the first and best — for me, and in a lot of people’s opinions — adventure novelists. … There’s a point where she gets attacked by a lion and then pretty much goes into what she had for dinner,” Amundson said. “It’s so interesting that she is able to pair the fantastical and just the ordinary, and still make something that’s enjoyable to read.”

Some people devour horror all year-round, while others only dip their toes into terror when it’s Halloween.

Bookseller Aaron Cance has a perfect recommendation, no matter which category you fall into: “A ‘Cosmology of Monsters’ is the best possible type of Halloween novel, because it will appeal both to readers of horror fiction, and to readers to don't usually partake in frightful fare.”

The novel follows the Turner family: Harry, Margaret and their three children. They “find themselves in the haunted house business,” Cance said. Their specialty is a venue called The Wandering Dark.

The monsters that lurk in the novel are both real, and metaphorical. The characters are not only dealing with hauntings, but also depression and other harsh realities of life.

“Anyone who has enjoyed horror fiction and film will really love this novel, not only because it's shot through with H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos but it's also laced with pop culture references: everything from ‘Rosemary's Baby’ to ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ from ‘Aliens’ to the fat little digests of Archie comics.”

“It seemed to read much less as horror fiction and more a work of literary fiction that's been cleverly disguised as horror.”

Shirley Mullin was entranced by Ruta Sepetys’ last novel, “Salt to the Sea,” which looked at the largest maritime disaster in known history: the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. The ship sank during World War II, killing as many as 9,000 people.

Septys weaves historical research into her fiction. When “Salt to the Sea” was published, Sepetys was already researching her next book.

“She said she was researching another book about the Franco regime, and his dictatorship in Spain and how he had been stealing babies from poor Spanish women, particularly people who aren’t in support of his politics, and he was selling them for a lot of money,” said Mullin. That research became Sepetys’ new novel, “The Fountains of Silence.”

“It’s really a sad story, but it’s really fascinating because she then takes all this research and puts it into historical fiction — although it has mystery and romance it in also.”

The book follows two families caught up in the kidnapping arrangement: One from Spain and one from Dallas, Texas. “A lot of the babies were sold in the U.S., as recently as 1975 this was happening.”

“I find [Sepetys] fascinating because she uncovers this history we’ve not talked about, and we don’t know about.”

Plus, Mullin said, the book has “an amazing ending that I didn’t see coming at all.”

When Adah Fitzgerald picked up “In West Mills,” a new novel by De’Shawn Charles Winslow, she “very quickly realized that this could potentially be one of my favorite books of the year.”

“You know you’re reading a story that’s about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. It’s about a seemingly very ordinary community, but fairly early on, our main character — her decisions becomes so compellingly unusual that that’s the hook.”

The main character, Azalea, who goes by “Knot,” is a “fiercely independent but incredibly lovable woman in an African-American community in this small, nearly coastal town in North Carolina. This book wrestles a lot with friendship, love, lust and relationships with our parents.”

Knot “strikes out on her own at the risk of severing all ties with her parents, who are a prominent couple in the town she grew up in. Because she loves alcohol, and because she loves men, she has trouble holding down the job that brings to this North Carolina town; but because she also befriends a neighbor whose life’s work seems to be fixing people, they have this lifelong friendship that lets her live the life she wants to live, which is one that no one else approves of.”

“It’s really an incredible depiction of small town life,” Fitzgerald said. For people who loved Angela Flournoy’s novel “The Turner House,” Fitzgerald said this will be a welcome addition to the bookshelf.

The siege of Leningrad is just one of the horrors of World War II — but it was one Holly Brooks had never learned about before.

The Germany army surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad during the war, intent on starving the entire population to death.

The siege lasted over two years, during which more than a million people died. It’s in that starving and desperate city that David Benioff’s novel, “City of Thieves,” takes place.

“A Jewish teenager and a cocky Russian deserter are released from prison [in Leningrad] with the unlikely mission of returning with a dozen eggs to be baked into the wedding cake for the Russian commander’s daughter,” Brooks explained. “As they hike behind enemy lines, you’re made to feel the bitter cold of the Russian winter — and also the warmth of their growing friendship.”

“There is humor and heartbreak. It’s an exceptional and unforgettable book. … This book was recommended to me by a colleague, which is the beauty of a bookstore or a library: you get recommendations for books you would never think of reading.”

What wisdom does your favorite cultural icon have to impart to you?

Chances are you can find it in Melville House’s Last Interview series. The publishing house compiles interviews with influential figures over the course of their careers and makes them available in one volume. You can read through the interviews of everyone from Ernest Hemingway to Billie Holiday to Ursula K. LeGuin.

Bookseller Hans Weyandt recommends picking up “Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview,” which was published in August. The influential chef and author died last summer.

“It was, for me, a really nice way to armchair travel, and just really look at his whole career and how he really remained the same person from beginning to end,” Weyandt said. “He was charming — he was intentionally not charming — but he was always interested in people and places that he was visiting, and I think he was always a great advocate for people of all kinds from all places.”

“The book kicks off with an interview that was published in Rain Taxi, which I guess was one of his first in-print interview, so it’s fun to see that … And then it kind of goes through time and spans his career, and throughout he just remains the same charming, belligerent, interesting traveler.”

Lucy Ellmann may be “the greatest American novelist you’ve never heard of,” says bookseller Lori Feathers.

Ellmann has more than five books to her name, but she’s lived overseas for decades, making her a relatively unknown name for American readers.

Her latest novel, “Ducks, Newburyport,” is changing that. The nearly 1,000-page tome has landed on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize.

“I think it’s simply the most brilliant and, at the same time, the most audacious novel of 2019,” Feathers said.

“In the book, there’s an unnamed narrator and she’s a frazzled, middle-aged wife and mother of four, living in rural Ohio. … We really get into her head and into her thoughts. In some ways, the book is just a stream of consciousness of her thoughts,” Feathers said. “But it reads so easily and it’s so immersive that the pages just fly by.

“The narrator’s voice is authentic and real. You get just kind of a dazzling torrent of her thoughts as she worries about everything — from gun violence to President Trump to polluted drinking water, down to the most mundane things like soft-boiling eggs and cleaning behind the refrigerator and perfecting a lemon drizzle cake recipe. But somehow all of this just works in a structure and in a book that’s so enjoyable and very relatable.”

“There’s a certain rhythm and almost addictive quality to the book. I never looked up and thought, ‘Oh my goodness, how much more?’ The time just passes and it’s really, genuinely a very enjoyable read.”

Lillian Schmid had always been intimidated by the thought of diving into Greek mythology. It seemed complicated and full of unpronounceable names, not to mention the Roman counterparts one was expected to memorize.

“Circe,” by Madeline Miller, made the trip into myth not only painless, but a wondrous ride.

“I rarely use the word ‘beautiful’ for fiction,” Schmid said. “But this is just really a beautiful novel.”

The novel follows Circe, a sorceress who gets only a brief interlude in Homer’s “The Odyssey.” She transforms Odysseus’ men into pigs when they land on her island; Odysseus has to convince her to turn them back.

In Miller’s tale, which unfolds from Circe’s point of view, the reader gets the full backstory for this tormented figure with awesome powers.

Circe is “a little abnormal from everyone else in her family because she’s not stunningly beautiful or obviously magical or very powerful in any way,” Schmid explained. “She doesn’t fit into her family, and because of that she looks to the mortal world for companionship. She ends up falling in love with a mortal and discovers she is able to use witchcraft.”

From there, chaos ensues, and Circe is eventually banished to the island where we first meet her in “The Odyssey.” Over the course of the novel, she encounters figures big and small from Greek mythology, and we watch her journey as she discovers herself and her own power.

Miller’s approach of giving voice to a minor character “kind of opened up the door to myths for me,” Schmid said.

“Because I read ‘Circe,’ in my book club, I had the next choice, and so I picked ‘The Odyssey,’ which I never in a million years thought I would read. I thought that was just for academics or, I don’t know, super nerds, or something. I was pleasantly surprised to realize how good of a story it is. I read the Emily Wilson translation, so I know that’s a little fresher than the others, but I was really excited about that.”

This premise may be familiar to some in the world of science fiction: Earth is gone. The last of civilization is on board a spaceship, hurtling through the darkness.

But Rivers Solomon has so much more at play in their debut novel.

“The first thing you notice is that this is not ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ it is not ‘Star Trek,’ it is not your father’s colony ship story,” says bookseller Nialle Sylvan. The ship at the center of the novel has “tragic similarities to the world as we actually know it … The society has resorted to slavery. The social class distinctions are so intense that there are different languages spoken inside the ship.”

The book follows Aster, who “has grown up with the mentorship of a medical professional, who is also this sort of fluid character, moving between ranks of society.” Aster can do what most can’t: move around the ship. They use their medical training as a pass to navigate the strict social structure.

Aster is on a personal quest to find out the truth about their mother, who they’ve been told died by suicide. At the same time, the ship is facing debilitating disrepair and a fatal disease affecting those at the top.

“Aster’s keen to find out what their mother’s discovery is about this, which is encoded in some notebooks, and what is Aster’s own purpose … What does a trans, neuro-different person inherit and pass on in a lineage of mothers?”

Sylvan said Solomon’s work earns comparisons to some of the biggest names in literature: Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, and even the lyricism of Toni Morrison.

If you tore through Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” or Stephanie Danler’s “Sweetbitter,” bookseller Annie Metcalf has another recommendation for you: “Supper Club” by Lara Williams.

“It’s a story about a young woman who isn’t very good at making friends,” Metcalf explained. She “makes a very intense friend at work, and they sort of become each other’s universe, and they set up this very bizarre supper club for women where they eat copious amounts of food and drugs and alcohol. And they do this all in spaces they go into in the dead of night.”

“It’s just this really sensual and bold exploration of female love and pain and appetite. It’s beautiful prose, really good insight on relationships, especially family and friendships, and a very satisfying and empowering denouement. It’s really great.”

“A Natural History of Dragons” is, as the title suggests, a book about dragons.

“But it isn’t your typical dragon book,” said bookseller Greta Helmel. “There’s no dragon riding, there’s no real magic to speak of. It’s actually written in the style of a Victorian-era memoir.”

With the memoir form, Lady Isabella Trent “tells of her adventures and the discoveries that led her to become the world’s most revered dragon naturalist,” Helmel explained. “She sort of is this dragon scientist, which is a really, really unique spin on dragons and fantasy in general, because I had never seen something like this when I first picked it up.”

“It’s got so much sass and sarcasm, because she’s this old lady who is very amused and honest about how naïve and reckless she was as this young, budding scientist.”

There’s plenty of commentary on the uptight society that stands in her way as Lady Trent pursued her research. “As you might expect, she has to fight to be recognized and be taken seriously as a naturalist, being a woman.”

Even if the book has a healthy dose of fictional creatures, the scientific elements shine.

“I just think it’s wonderful, whether you’re an aspiring scientist or not, to read about a young woman who is pitching headfirst into her passion for science and natural history, and going on these awesome expeditions to these remarkable places.”

The book is part of a series, which follows Lady Trent’s life and research. In addition to the stunning stories, the books are also illustrated with sketches from her research notebooks.

“It makes you want to go out on your own adventures,” Helmel said.

Ocean Vuong has earned glowing reviews for his poetry, and now his mastery of language extends into the fiction realm.

Bookseller Aaron Cance recommends Vuong’s novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.”

The novel follows Little Dog, a young boy drawn from Vuong’s own childhood self.

“It’s a novel about identity. It’s about Little Dog’s insatiable hunger to find his place in the world,” Cance said. “But before he can find his place in the world, he has to find out who he is and embrace that person.”

Little Dog lives with his mother and maternal grandmother, whose presence “provides this inescapable backdrop of the Vietnam War, which is a very passive element in the story, but it’s always there … You can kind of feel its presence behind everything.”

“Sadly, as Little Dog searches for that sense of identity, he encounters plenty of other people who are eager to challenge that search,” Cance said. The boy is bullied by a group of his white classmates, who meet him with taunts of “Don’t you speak English?”

The novel explores “what it’s like to try and find acceptance while being both gay and Vietnamese in 21st century America.”

“The language of the prose is so excruciatingly beautiful that it threatens to crush the reader from within,” Cance said. “It really ends up being a novel that will touch every single one of its readers, because it becomes a novel just about finding the core of who you are, and embracing that person, whatever that person looks like.”

“I think this book honestly has ‘Pulitzer Prize winner’ written all over it. It instantly, for me, became the book to beat in 2019. Everything else I read for the rest of this year is going to be measured against this novel.“

What do you do after snagging both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award? If you’re Colson Whitehead, you come back with another masterpiece.

Whitehead’s new novel “The Nickel Boys” will be one of the biggest books of the year, says bookseller Danny Caine.

It’s set in a fictional reform school, though it’s based on an actual institution where young black men were imprisoned.

“It’s based on a real-life reform school in Florida, and the investigations that are ongoing into its cruel past,” Caine said. The novel follows Elwood Curtis, who is accidentally sent to Nickel.

“The story traces his time there, trying to avoid the cruelties of the system and befriending a kind of wild and rebellious fellow student there. … It’s much like ‘The Underground Railroad,’” which is Colson Whitehead’s previous novel. It’s a reimagining and retelling of a historic part of American history known for its cruelty to black people.

“I remember my first thought when putting it down after I finished it was: Colson Whitehead is our best novelist. This is the work of a master. I think we’re really watching Colson Whitehead enter the peak of his power, and it’s a thrill. … I really feel like this is the rare novel that lives up to the hype. I can imagine teaching this to high schoolers in years to come.”

With the release of the “The Nickel Boys,” Whitehead gave a nod to the community of indie booksellers who have hand-sold his novels for years: Signed first editions of the book are only available through indie shops like The Raven Book Store, where Caine works.

“We are in 1506 Constantinople and Michelangelo is hired by the sultan of the Ottoman Empire to construct a bridge over the Golden Horn.” That’s the setting for Mathias Énard’s novel “Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants,” as laid out by bookseller Matt Keliher.

“Énard is one of France’s greatest living writers in my opinion, and this book is a master class in short fiction. Each of the chapters is only about a page and a half, but the short paragraphs are filled with such detail and beauty that this is a book you will not regret. It also has, in my opinion, one of the best covers the year.”

“I absolutely loved it and can’t recommend it highly enough.”

Brandy O'Briant didn't choose to read this classic in college — she was assigned it.

"I took a class called Absurdity in Literature," she said. "It wasn't a class I was comfortable taking, or wanted to take. I really cared much more about 19th century heroines, but this is something I was required to take."

"We read a lot of interesting stuff. We read 'Gravity's Rainbow' and 'The Crying of Lot 49' and things that in hindsight I'm really glad I have read and experienced. But the one book that stuck with me, that I re-read regularly is 'The Master and Margarita.'"

"The basic premise is that the devil shows up in [Stalinist-era] Moscow, and he's a very well-dressed, dapper gentleman, who comes with this really motley crew of characters," O'Briant said. "The main thing I like about this book is that it's hilarious."

"There's a lot of sharp satire and commentary about the intellectual elite in Russia ... The first part of the book is set in modern Moscow, and the second part of the book is set in ancient Jerusalem, around the story of Pontius Pilate."

There's a writer, who has been sentenced to an asylum for his book about Pilate; and there's the writer's lover, Margarita, who attends a ball at the invitation of the devil.

"I know all of those sounds incredibly crazy and complicated, but it isn't when you're reading it. Part of it you're laughing so hard at how absurd the book is but also how right-on it is about the time in which it was written."

"You think about the idea of the devil coming to Russia during the Soviet Union, and you think: OK, could you hit me over the head any harder with symbolism? But he doesn't play it like that; it's not heavy handed at all. You leave the book with the feeling of, well, I think the line in the book is: If you can't cry, you might as well laugh."

O'Briant recommended this book while working in her brand-new bookstore, Page 1 Books, which just opened in Evanston, Ill. — the same place where she first read "The Master and Margarita."

Brown White Black Brown White Black

When Nishta J. Mehra goes out with her family, people stare.

That's just one of the realities she addresses in her essay collection, "Brown White Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion."

Bookseller Allison Punch recommends the book and its "beautiful essays."

"[Mehra] is an first-generation Indian-American woman who is married to a white woman, and they are raising a black, gender-nonconforming child," Punch said. The essays discuss "her family and her growing up in Memphis, and everything that comes with living with a family with such various identities and lived experiences.

"It really resonated with me, because I am also in a queer, interracial relationship, and she talks so beautifully about both sides of the stares and looks they get, existing as a family and loving one another," Punch said. "She talks a lot about their visibility as a family.

"She does a good job of not really judging others, but helping folks be aware of the ways in which society's norms affect how we treat one another, in personal relationships but also strangers on the street.

"Because [Mehra] does hold such a variety of identities, really anyone can connect with this book ... She talks a lot about motherhood, she talks a lot about her relationship with her father, she talks a lot about growing up and just her relationship to race in general, as someone who is from a South Asian immigrant family. I feel like everyone can see themselves reflected in this book, but also learn from something completely new."

Brown White Black Brown White Black

Elizabeth Gilbert is most well known for her take-the-world-by-storm bestselling memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love." But her novels should not be missed.

In her latest, "City of Girls," she sends readers to New York City in the 1940s.

The book follows 19-year-old Vivian, who is kicked out of college for her less than stellar performance.

"Our hero gets a job working for her aunt in New York City," explained bookseller Darryl Peck. Vivian begins helping out at her aunt's off-Broadway theater, and she "becomes completely enmeshed in the theater community — which in those days, apparently, was very much the same as it was when I worked in the theater community many, many years later."

There's "lots of sex, lots of drinking, and it's kind of astonishing to read of what life could be like in the 40s, during the war and after the war," Peck said.

"The characters are magnificent. I confess I've never read any of [Gilbert's] books, but I thoroughly enjoyed her writing and the storytelling ... Great read, great writing, great style, a nice long page turner, and you kind of fall in love with the heroine, which is always a nice way to make it through a summer read."

City of Girls
City of Girls

Correction (June 21, 2019): An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Elizabeth Gilbert's novel.

Gerilee Hundt recommends a novel that rose to international best-seller levels of fame a decade ago, but shouldn't be missed if you didn't catch it the first time around.

Muriel Barbery's novel, translated from French, is "about two people who live a very ritzy apartment building in Paris," Hundt explained. "One of them is the concierge: She's a woman in her 50s, who doesn't want anyone to know how smart and educated and culture she is. So, she pretends to be a peasant, which everyone believes because they're rich and they can't see her. She's totally invisible to the rich people around her."

The second character is a 12-year-old girl, the daughter of one of the families who live in the building. She is "also keeping herself invisible, not wanting anyone to know who she really is."

The novel is told through their internal monologues, alternating between their perspectives.

"There are class issues and lots of psychology and philosophy. It's a very intellectual novel," Hundt said. "When a third character is introduced, everyone starts to discover who these people really are and then the story starts to evolve ... It's really lovely and very dramatic, and of course there's tragedy and also a beautiful happy ending for one of the characters. ... It's absolutely wonderful."

Elegance of the Hedgehog
Elegance of the Hedgehog

Wesley Minter doesn't just want you to read "Why Did I Ever." If you spend any amount of time with him, he will require that you read it.

"Mary Robison's books are the hill upon which I will die," Minter said.

Robison is a short story writer and novelist whose work largely fell out of print, until Counterpoint recently reissued a large chunk of it.

So now that it's back in print, there's really no excuse not to read "Why Did I Ever."

The novel follows a script doctor named Money Breton. "She's very concerned about her son, and he's been a victim of some very grisly, violent crime having to do with the mob, and she's got this daughter who is coming off methadone, who has some of the best quips in the book," Minter explained. There's also a lost cat, named Flower Girl, who she looks for — when she remembers, that is.

"Hands down, it's the best book I've ever read," Minter said.

"It's told in very disparate parts, where there's just little vignettes. They're broken up into these little bite-size scenes that sort of leads the reader to hang them and frame the narrative however they choose. Some of them are very dark, some of them are very funny, and it's really interesting, how with each reading, it's a different book every time.

"The great thing about the book, the absolute best thing about the book, is the dialogue. She's the master of this really great flip, pithy zinger that feels really timeless," Minter said. "It was written in 2001 — it could also could easily hang with Carver and all of those good dead guys from the late 70s, early 80s."

Why Did I Ever
Why Did I Ever

Have you ever fallen totally in love with a character in a novel?

For Lori Fisher, that character is Birdie Rocas, from the novel
"If the Creek Don't Rise," by Leah Weiss.

Birdie is a medicine woman of sorts, who lives in the North Carolina mountains, in Appalachia. She walks around with a crow named Samuel in her hair.

"She was my absolute favorite character," Fisher said.

But the whole novel is packed with unforgettable characters: "I read it a year and a half ago, and it's one of those books — the characters have just stayed with me. ... Some of them are just so lovable and some of them are pretty mean and nasty."

The novel unfolds in the small and isolated community of Baines Creek, where a young woman named Sadie Blue finds herself regretting the path of her life.

Weiss' writing brings the people and the places alive. "When she describes the characters, you can clearly picture them in your mind. The writing is so good because even the scenery or certain locations or someone's reaction to someone else's comments, she describes everything so purely, you can see it in your mind very clearly."

"The women she has in the book are all very strong," Fisher said. "I just love the book."

Quarter Moon Books
Quarter Moon Books

Rayna Nielsen recommends "Letters to the Lost" for a huge age range.

It's a young adult novel, she says, but "I loved it. I really enjoyed it." Since then, she's sold it to everyone — from other adults to teenagers to even middle-grade readers.

"The thing I like about it from a bookseller point of view is that it's not really a boy book or a girl book. When you're talking about middle-grade and YA, that's a question people ask all the time: Is it for boys? Is it for girls? This is truly for both. Brigid [Kemmerer] does an amazing job getting inside the head of the girl main character and the boy main character."

The story begins in a cemetery, where Juliet is grieving her mother's recent death. She writes a letter and leaves it on her mother's graves.

There, Declan finds it. He's been sentenced to community service, and his assignment is mowing lawns in the cemetery.

"When he's mowing the lawn, he finds this letter," Nielsen explained. "He decides he's going to answer the letter."

Soon, Juliet and Declan are writing to each other.

"They go back and forth like that for quite a while, not knowing who the other one is, but writing letters, learning about who they are through these letters. That's really over half the book ... Then, eventually, they do find out things about each other and meet."

The book switches perspective every chapter, from Juliet to Declan, so you "get the same story, from both points of view," Nielsen said.

"I will say that if you do read this and you love it, there is a second book, called 'More Than We Can Tell.' If you like this, which I'm sure you will, continue on with that book."

Letters to the Lost
Letters to the Lost

Carmen Maria Machado's short story collection, "Her Body and Other Parties," was a finalist for the National Book Award — and remains a favorite of Jen Murvin's.

"It is just one of my favorite story collections I have ever read," she said. "I am a big fan of magical realism and these stories are so contemporary. ... Typically with magical realism, the writer is working with a particular kind of myth or folklore and colliding it with our real world. And in this collection, [Machado] is regularly utilizing real world medical things that we do to women's bodies, and colliding them with mythology and folktale to create this really wonderful metaphor. The stories are really inventive, they're often horrifying, beautifully lyrical, just different than anything I've read in a really long time."

"It's really hard to pick a favorite story out of this collection. I think the story that brought me to the collection is 'The Husband Stitch,' which is based on a real procedure that often happens to women when they give birth," Murvin said. Machado mixes that medical procedure with a dose of urban legend, weaving it together with the story of the girl with the ribbon around the neck — which may be familiar, terrifying territory for some.

"I'm also a professor at Missouri State University and I love to teach this particularly story, 'The Husband Stitch,' in combination with 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' [by Charlotte Perkins Gilman]. To me they have a lot in common about the ways in which sometimes we are betrayed by maybe our doctors or the people closest to us."

The whole collection is "just very stunning. It's a little disturbing, often horrifying, but just so effective you can't look away once you start reading the first line."

Her Body and Other Parties
Her Body and Other Parties

Looking for a thriller that cuts through the genre? Pick up "The Plotters" by Un-su Kim.

Bookseller David Enyeart recommends the novel "for the adventurous reader who is looking for something a little off the beaten path."

"It's set in a near-future Seoul, and what's happening in the country is that assassination has become institutionalized. It's basically what private investigators are now. It's open, you hire people, you send them out, and they do their business. And it's controlled by these people called the Plotters."

"The particular story is one guy, an assassin, and he's coming to realize that he's not going to last long in this business," Enyeart said. "He's looking for a way out.

"You can ready the novel on the one hand as a simple noir sort of novel, one man against the system trying to make his way out — and it's great on that level. It's a little violent in a Tarantino-esque way, so it might not be for everyone, but if you're along for the ride, it's really thrilling.

"And if you read it with an eye toward contemporary society, he has a lot to say about corruption, about power and how it corrupts and how systems come together to really bring out the worst in us, as we go on."

The Plotters
The Plotters

Come in, sit down and just read the first 10 pages.

That's how Matt Keliher sets the pitch for Valeria Luiselli's novel "Lost Children Archive."

"There's a scene in the first 10 pages of this book that is probably my favorite scene in fiction this year," Keliher said. "It's a beautiful portrait of a small family in a really intimate moment, and it sets the stage for the rest of this book in a really interesting way.

Luiselli's novel tells the story of a family on a road trip from New York City to Arizona.

"And the whole way on this road trip, you get an interesting portrait of the border histories of these states, and also the migrant experience of coming north into America. It is just a brilliant piece of storytelling," said Keliher.

"It's a phenomenal book — one of my favorites of the year for sure."

Lost Children Archive
Lost Children Archive

Stella Fortuna has escaped death not one, not two, not three — but seven or eight times.

That's where the title of Juliet Grames' novel comes from: "The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna."

The book draws on Grames' own family history; Stella is based on the author's grandmother.

Bookseller Carol Price recommends the book, which follows Stella's life from birth to death (the last one, anyway), and spans most of the 20th century.

It begins in Italy, where Stella is born, and follows her on a boat when she emigrates to New York City during the middle of World War II.

The book is divided up by her near-death experiences. "It's like Death One, Death Two, Death Three, Death Four..." Price explained. "The different ways that she almost dies are very interesting. There's burns, evisceration, bludgeoning, drowning, rape, exsanguination, choking and cerebral hemorrhage. It's a really interesting and fun book to read — not always easy, though. The society in which Stella grows up is a very oppressive patriarchy, and women have no agency. Basically, they have to be married and be under the subjection of a husband to be considered people.

"Stella is unusual because she is not like that. She's very independent, and she's beautiful, and she resists her whole life what is expected of her."

When the book opens, we meet Stella as an old woman. She is no longer speaking to her sister, with whom she was incredibly close for their entire lives — until something happened.

"In their old age, Stella has not been able to be in the same room as her sister," Price said. "It starts there, and then it goes back to the beginning to try and explain what happened, how they got to that point in their life, what could possibly explain that rupture between the sisters."

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

"Dear Evan Hansen" is a smash Broadway musical — and now it's a novel, too.

Bookseller Susan Smelser recommends the adaptation of "Dear Evan Hansen," which takes on the very difficult topic of teen suicide.

Evan Hansen is a high schooler who feels totally alone and isolated. When another so-called "outcast" teen dies by suicide, Evan finds himself pretending to have been his best friend.

One lie gives way to another, and Evan's whole life is upturned. Suddenly "everything that Evan Hansen did was so that he could keep this lie going," Smelser said.

Despite taking on a heavy subject, the book brings a fresh look, Smelser said. "It's light-hearted, but there's just so many lessons to be learned."

Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen

Bookseller Abbey Paxton thinks you should write this name down: Kali Fajardo-Anstine.

Fajardo-Anstine is the author of "Sabrina & Corina," a new short story collection.

"It's a debut, and she's coming out of the gate so strong. I think we're all going to know about her by the end of 2019. I'm not going to stop talking about her, for sure," Paxton said.

The collection features stories of indigenous Latina women living in Colorado. "Mothers, granddaughters, sisters, cousins are the protagonists of every story," Paxton said.

The title story — "Sabrina & Corina" — centers on two cousins who have grown up together, almost like sisters. It opens with Corina reflecting on Sabrina, who has been murdered.

"The whole thing is a subtle reflection on the value of beauty and what costs does beauty come at, for women particularly," Paxton said. "They're the kind of stories that are going to linger with you for a long time."

"One thing that [Fajardo-Anstine] does remarkably well is develop this sense of place. ... She's able to look head on at the beauty of these mountain places, while also not flinching in addressing the complications of the state of flux that Colorado and Denver have been in," Paxton said. "The wounds of gentrification are really handled with such grace and power in this collection. It's unbelievable."

Fans of Lauren Groff will find a similar feel in this collection, Paxton said. "Her style of being so directly indirect is very similar to what reading 'Florida' by Lauren Groff kind of felt like. Her insight into women and the way these women are thinking and moving through the world, there's a subtlety that gives it so much power."

Sabrina & Corina
Sabrina & Corina

Get ready for a sci-fi epic that knows its history.

"A Memory Called Empire" is a new novel from Arkady Martine — that's a pseudonym for Anna Linden Weller who happens to be an expert in Byzantine history.

For bookseller Aaron Cance, that background enriches the novel: "It's a fantastic space opera that loosely follows the Byzantine Empire's annexation of Western Armenia in the fourth century."

"It's amazing science fiction, but instead of thinking about explosions, exchanges of gunfire, that kind of thing, what a reader is going to find in 'A Memory Called Empire' is espionage and political intrigue," Cance said. "One of the more interesting things that the book does is that it explores the complexities of cultural imperialism."

"What we find in Martine's novel is a smaller culture ... that is in imminent danger of being consumed by a leviathan-like empire."

The book's main character, Mahit Dzmare, belongs to the smaller, threatened culture — "but at the same time she recognizes the beauty and eloquence" of the dominant, looming culture.

In her job as ambassador, "her very first task is to discover the whereabouts of her predecessor, who has gone missing."

Those are all the plot details you need, Cance said. More will spoil the read.

"The whole time I was reading the book, I felt like I was reliving the experience of reading Frank Herbert's 'Dune' for the very first time. It's this sprawling, intricately detailed, really, really well-manufactured culture with extremely well fleshed-out characters, and you are invested almost at the very beginning."

"I felt like I was reading tomorrow's classic. This was exquisitely written and it had that same sense of scope and that line of philosophical inquiry [as 'Dune']," Cance said. "It's a big book asking important questions and doing it really well."

A Memory Called Empire
A Memory Called Empire

Need your next can't-put-it-down read?

Bookseller Joe Chevalier recommends "Who Fears Death" by Nnedi Okorafor.

It's so engrossing, Chevalier almost missed his flight at the airport because he didn't realize how much time had passed while he was tearing through it.

Okorafor is a prolific, critically acclaimed author who mixes fantasy and sci-fi elements to thrilling effect in her fiction.

"Who Fears Death" is a "fantasy, vaguely science fiction book set in a future Africa," Chevalier said.

"The protagonist is a biracial child, a child of rape, who grows up with this knowledge and ends up developing magical powers. [She] becomes a reluctant messiah figure and sets out on a quest to both destroy her father and attempt to heal the rifts between the two races in her region," Chevalier said.

"I love the arc of the story. I don't think anyone is writing like this right now, dealing with these sorts of issues, these kinds of characters. It's very original in its approach to magic."

Chevalier said the book is like "reading the beginning of a myth, even though it's set in the future. It's a powerful, gripping story, and a story you immediately fall into."

"Who Fears Death" may also soon be on TV: It was optioned by HBO, with George R.R. Martin — of "Game of Thrones" fame — attached as a producer.

Who Fears Death
Who Fears Death

A man walks into a bar.

It's not a joke, but rather the beginning of "When All Is Said" by Anne Griffin. That man, who is in his late 80s, orders a drink. The drink is just the first in a series of five; those five drinks form the structure of the novel.

"Each drink is a toast to someone who is very important in his life," bookseller Vicki Burger explained. "For example, the first drink is to his older brother, who passed away in his early 20s. ... Each drink that he has is that particular person's favorite — or, in the case of his daughter, who died at birth, it was something he was drinking at the time."

"You get this short story that's more in form of an elegy to each one of these people," Burger said. "It's just beautifully told. It ranks right up there with the beauty and emotions that are evoked in 'A Gentleman in Moscow,' which is my previous absolute favorite."

"To find something that is just such a beautiful tribute to these five people — it's just lovely about how we look back on our lives ... and the people who have been important to us either for good or bad."

When All is Said
When All is Said

The novel "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt first caught bookseller Jake Howell's eye because it shares a title with a Tom Cruise movie.

Sorry, Cruise fans, there's no relation. But you don't want to miss the book.

DeWitt's novel is instead a meditation on family that experiments with form and style.

It follows a woman who gives birth and chooses to raise her son without a father. "The mother is completely unwilling to let him know who the father was," Howell explained. "At the age of four or five, very naturally, he starts to question why there's no dad around and why she raises him alone."

The son is preternaturally intelligent, and his mother does everything she can to encourage that. The book includes passages from philosophers and thought leaders on parenting - including Yo-Yo Ma's father's thoughts on education. The mother devours all of this.

"She starts putting that into practice with her own son," Howell said. "This mother, who is clearly in over her head ... she has a prodigy for a child. She openly is telling him: 'I don't know how to raise you.' She's doing her best and doing a good job, but she's being very forthright with him."

Halfway through the book, the perspective shifts from the mother's to the son's, Howell said. "He's still so concerned about finding out who his father is, rather than fixing his relationship with his mom."

Howell found it to be a powerful examination of family roles. "That was the most interesting part about it - the role of a son, the role of a mother and what a father means to a child who has never had one."

The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai

Shakespeare wrote some of the most dastardly villains in literature, and a new book from scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores that dark side.

Bookseller Chris Upton recommends Greenblatt's "Tyrant," which "explains the psychology of tyrants, how they came to be, and the psychology behind despots and authoritarians and dictators."

Greenblatt delves into the hidden — or, not so hidden — messages of Shakespeare's malevolent characters. "Shakespeare and Shakespeare's contemporaries would use historical characters, historical people or events or places to get around the laws of the time" that forbid them from criticizing the ruling class or those in power.

The book is a timely read for a reflection on politics and powers, Upton explained.

Tyrant
Tyrant

Sara Rishforth first heard Mark Kurlansky expounding on the history of milk on the Sporkful podcast — and she needed more.

Luckily, Kurlansky has an entire book on the subject: "Milk!" It's not the first time the author has tackled the history of an ingredient: He's also written "Salt" and "Cod."

The book is packed with plenty of facts that Rishforth's still thinking about, like the fact that sixty percent of the world is lactose-intolerant. Or that almond milk isn't a new trendy sensation — it's actually more than a thousand years old. And probiotics? They've been experimenting with those for centuries. Plus, before Wisconsin residents got a reputation for loving cheese, it was the Danish who were called "cheese heads."

The book is also filled with historical recipes, which Rishforth didn't experiment with, but if you want to make yogurt or ice cream like they did hundreds of years ago, the option is available.

Milk
Milk

Get ready for a road trip.

Bookseller Dave Richardson recommends a new young adult novel about a young girl's adventures on the road with her father, and the whole cast of quirky characters they pick up along the way.

The book is Dan Gemeinhart's "The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise."

"Coyote Sunrise and her father are traveling around the country in a converted school bus," Richardson said. "In reality, they're running away from the grief of losing her mother and two sisters in a car accident. Coyote finds out from her grandmother that she needs to come back home, but her father has refused to do that."

"So she has to come up with a plan, and part of that includes picking up several passengers: a cat named Ivan, who is probably one of the coolest cats you'll ever read about; Lester, who is trying to get to a lost love; Salvador and his mother, who are running away from an abusive man; Valerie, a young lady who has been picked out of her house because her parents found out she was gay; and then there's this very, very spunky goat named Gladys."

But beware: This book is going to go straight to your heart.

"There are plenty of issues and serious scenes, and I really would suggest you have tissues ready by the end," Richardson said. "But there's also some laugh-out-loud humor and a great police chase. And really, it's a book about dealing with loss and finding closure and choosing your future."

"A sophisticated fourth grader could read it, all the way up through eighth, ninth grade. And if they like realistic fiction, they're going to love this."

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

The first thing to love about Camille Acker's short story collection "Training School for Negro Girls" is the cover.

"It's got this stunning cover, which makes people who may or may not feel like this is a book for them pick it up. I love when people are creative with covers," said bookseller Hannah Oliver Depp.

The insides are equally stunning. "It's a short story collection, and this has been the year of short story collections, I feel. It has been a wonderful time if you like short stories or are looking to get into them."

"Training School" is Acker's debut, "which makes me really happy, because I get excited about what someone will do as they go forward," Depp said.

The stories in the collection are rooted in Washington, D.C., where Depp operates Loyalty Bookstore. "I think it's a love letter and also a bit of a harsh mirror to Washington, D.C., and also the lives that the women in Washington, D.C., have lived or are currently living through."

Acker's writing is "really, really astounding," Depp said. "She gets into characters' heads in a way that is just wonderful. You find yourself completely and utterly involved, and on the side of these women, no matter what is happening to them.

"Sometimes you end up agreeing with or siding with a woman who — if you just looked at them on paper — you'd be like: That woman is terrible. Whether or not you end up agreeing with them, you 100 percent understand them and feel like you inhabit their bones, which is a really incredible gift as a storyteller. ... I think there's no one kind of woman and I think she really drives that home in the stories.

"She writes crisp sentences, which means that the book moves deceptively fast. I think you tend to page through it really quickly, and then sort of be hit, almost slammed in the face with a door, when you're done reading it, when you realize what you've been through emotionally."

The collection takes its name from D.C. history, Depp explained:

"I encourage everyone to look up the Training School for Negro Girls and learn about what that was, and the history of Chocolate City, and what black women have been trying to do for one another for a long time.

"To top it off, one of the best stories in the collection is about a TSA worker, so it's very timely."

Training School for Negro Girls
Training School for Negro Girls

"Mississippi is renowned for so many fabulous authors: Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, more contemporary authors like Jesmyn Ward," says bookstore owner Kelle Barfield. "But we also have a very rich tradition of storytellers."

When William Ferris was growing up on a farm outside Vicksburg, Miss., he got access to a tape recorder — a rare technology in the 40s and 50s. And he began to record everything, says Barfield. "Everything from quilt makers, to a mule trader, to baptisms in the local pond."

Ferris went on to a career studying storytelling and documenting everyday life. A new box set, "Voices of Mississippi," includes not only his writing but also recordings and documentary films.

"There is blues music, gospel music and folklore storytelling," Barfield said.

Ferris' collection showcases his life's work, and Barfield highly recommends it. Ferris also has advice that he shares when he stops by Barfield's store, Lorelei Books: More people should be documenting the stories of their relatives.

"Grab your phone," Barfield remembers Ferris saying. "You have the advantage of technology today, you can sit down with your granddaddy — you can capture on your phone what used to require elaborate recording technology."

Danny Caine has a new poetry recommendation for those tucked inside reading this winter: Fatimah Asghar's "If They Come for Us."

"It's this dazzling poetry collection which tells a story that's at once very intimate and sweeping," Caine said. "It intertwines personal history and identity with global history in a really interesting way."

"There's this recurring series of poems called 'Partition' that are ostensibly about what is now India and what is now Pakistan, but there's also themes of partition with family. The speaker of these poems is an orphan — that's just one of the ways the personal and the political intersect in this book."

The book explores "the violence of partition, and also the violence of coming of age today in white-dominated America."

"One of my favorite parts of the book is her use of poetic forms," Caine said. "It's kind of a tour de force of the different forms a poem can take. There are poems in here that look like a film treatment, there's a poem that looks like a floor plan of a house, there's a Mad Lib, there are charts, there is stuff about translation."

"I love this book."

If They Come for Us
If They Come for Us

C.S. Lewis is on many a bookshelf. The scholar and author is widely known for his writings on Christianity, and for the wonder of "The Chronicles of Narnia."

But Joy Davidman is not often part of the story.

That changes with Patti Callahan's book, "Becoming Mrs. Lewis." It's a historical novel that draws on the true love story between Davidman and Lewis.

When Davidman first came across Lewis' writing, she had very little in common with him: He was a Christian theologist in London, she was a Jewish atheist in New York. But they struck up a correspondence that turned into a friendship, bookseller Betsy Grant explained.

The two met in person when Davidman visited London. When she decided she wanted to move there permanently, she needed Lewis' help. She needed someone to marry her.

He agreed.

But it wasn't just for convenience. "She realized that she was in love with him, and he finally realized he was in love with her," Grant said.

"Callahan did her homework, she did the research, she read everything that only he had written, but she, as a writer and poet, had written as well."

"The book is in the first person, [Davidman's] voice, so it's this strong, sort of feisty, neat woman."

"It's just the love story for all time, really."

Becoming Mrs. Lewis
Becoming Mrs. Lewis

The short pitch for "Last Days" by Brian Evenson?

"An ex-detective who retired after a particularly traumatic case is kidnapped by a cult who worship through amputation to find out who murdered their leader — who may or may not actually be dead."

That's Josh Myers' synopsis for this dark and disturbing mystery. He promises "you're not going to get anything quite like this from any other mystery."

"It's got this fever-dreamy quality to it, like a David Lynch movie with David Cronenberg's kind of body horror stuff," Myers said. "It's a good blend of mystery, horror — definitely not for the squeamish, but endlessly fascinating."

"If you're a fan of detective stories, this definitely going to be up your alley, but just a bit darker, a little bit more out of left field."

Last Days
Last Days

In the mood for something scary, but don't need it to be supernatural?

Try "Mina," an unsettling, unusual novel that follows a group of high school girls in South Korea.

Bookseller Annie Metcalf recommends it "for readers who want to be challenged and scared — but are also interested in new voices in translation."

Written by Kim Sagwa, a novelist from South Korea, "Mina" was translated into English by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton.

The book follows Crystal, and her friends Minho and Mina. Crystal "has a problem understanding and respecting people who have emotions and show emotions," Metcalf said. "She views these people with derision and incomprehension. She has a lot of rants about 'idiots around her.'

"When Mina and Crystal have a falling out, her scorn for these kind of people intensifies and her behavior gets more and more erratic. It leads to this gut-wrenching conclusion that is not for the faint of heart."

If you loved Han Kang's "The Vegetarian," which reached acclaim in 2016, "Mina" has a "similar mix of horror and elegance. It's really dreamlike, and there's some astounding little set pieces between Crystal and some of the other characters.

"It takes the unlikable protagonist to a whole new level, that I've never seen before. Sort of nihilist and brutal, but definitely great for people who are still sort of in Halloween mode," Metcalf said. There are no supernatural elements, but "the real world is plenty scary."

Mina
Mina

The unnamed narrator at the center of "Scribe" lives in a harsh world, ravaged by war and fever.

People survive by bartering what they have, and what she has is pen and paper. In exchange for firewood or food, she writes letters for people.

"The book starts with this man named Hendricks coming to her and asking her to write his confession of all of the terrible things he's done through his entire life," said bookseller Margaret Leonard. "And he's asking her to then go and share his words with the people that he's wronged."

But the world outside her farmstead is filled with dangers. No one can be trusted.

"There's very little security in the way that they're all living, so she has a lot of doubts," Leonard said. "But I also think it's clear that she really doesn't want to live that way anymore.

"So I think even though you have this entire book that's pretty shadowy, pretty dark, kind of violent, ultimately it ends with this very hopeful discussion that if you allow yourself to trust and maybe even love someone, there's healing."

For a book set after the destruction of society as we know it, Leonard said, "I found it strangely uplifting."

Scribe
Scribe

Aminder Dhaliwal's graphic novel began on Instagram.

She started posting comics that unfolded in a post-apocalyptic world — a world missing something very specific: men.

Dhaliwal's comics imagined a scenario in which a birth defect wiped out all human males. Compiled into a new collection from Drawn & Quarterly, those comics form "Women World," her debut book.

"It's both very funny and very serious," said bookseller Emma Nichols. In "Woman World," the future is uncertain, anxiety can run rampant and there's the nagging question of how to reproduce and keep the population going. But there are also fart jokes.

Some scenes feature the surviving women trying to puzzle out the artifacts left behind.

What were high heels even for? "They think it was for creating sharp holes," Nichols said.

Nichols' favorite comics revolve around a grandmother who lived before the apocalypse, and how she explains — or doesn't explain — life with men to her granddaughter.

"It's the silly but relevant humor that really makes this book special ... This is perfect for anyone who doesn't want to go for a super serious book, just wants something that's going to make them laugh, but also isn't ignoring the current situation we're in."

Woman World
Woman World

The best reads are the ones you find yourself still thinking about, even after the last page. That's the case for bookseller Daley Farr and "The Second Body" by Daisy Hildyard.

"I just finished it the other night, and I have been thinking about it for three days. It totally caught me by surprise," Farr said.

The short, nonfiction book explores climate change through the idea "that we have two bodies: the human body, which is us with our personalities and our normal human lives, and then this more kind of permeable, animal body that affects other life on earth, that interacts with water and other animals and the air."

"I loved it because it deals with a theoretical, complicated idea, but it's so readable. She's kind of funny and really straight-forward."

It's the kind of book that shifts how you see the world, Farr said. "It really knocked me out."

The Second Body
The Second Body

Aaron Cance has been selling books for 22 years. After more than two decades, some books can start to blur together or feel repetitive.

"Sometimes halfway through a book, I think I've read this already — but it had a different title and was written by someone else," Cance joked.

That's why he was so transfixed by John Larison's novel, "Whiskey When We're Dry."

"It's really an unpredictable book. I like to be surprised when I read," he said. "I really wanted to find out what was next, because I didn't feel like I knew what was coming."

The story follows 17-year-old Jessilyn, who lives with her father and brother, Noah, on a homestead in the late 1800s. When her father and Noah get in a vicious fight, Noah runs off and Jessilyn is left behind to care for father.

The next she sees of Noah is his face on "wanted" posters at the local post office. The reward grows, people gossip, and her brother becomes more and more of a notorious outlaw.

Jessilyn is "a very strong female character, which is not common in Western fiction," Cance said.

When her father dies, "she realizes that because of the limitations of the time she's living in, she has no way of maintaining or running her family's homestead — and she had to find her brother. She binds up her breasts, puts on a bunch of his abandoned clothing, cuts her hair ... and she sets off to find him. And that is what I think makes it an extraordinary story."

What's more, it's Larison's debut novel.

"I'm always drawn to a really good debut," Cance said. "I love being able to find a new author."

Whiskey When We're Dry
Whiskey When We're Dry

Keith Gessen's portrayal of modern Russia in his new novel, "A Terrible Country," is so vivid, bookseller Kate Jacobs initially thought it felt a little too real.

"Being half-Russian, I'm always worried about Russia, and I'm always very defensive about people's poor impressions of it, because it's such a complicated and tragic place in so many ways," Jacobs said.

"But then, thinking about it, I really lived with the book and the story."

The novel follows a man who emigrated to America from Russia when he was young. He grows up as an American, becomes a Russian studies major, and when the book opens, he's looking for work.

"He can't get a job, he's a depressed academic," Jacobs said. Then, he gets a call.

His brother, who stayed behind in Russia, is a "wheeler-dealer oligarch." Come back to Russia and take care of grandma, his brother tells him, I have to leave the country for a while.

Summoned back to Moscow, the man moves in with his grandmother.

"The grandmother is the most wonderful character. She's a very elderly and frail Jewish lady who was very much part of the political resistance in her time, she is ironically living in an apartment near Stalin's prisons. She's fading, but she's brilliant at word games and she has very strong feelings about what's going on in Russia."

As he settles in with his grandmother, he also pursues a new life: "He meets a girl, he gets involved disastrously with some politics ... It's just this utterly real, modern description of what it is like to be there at this time.

"It's very harsh and it's full of violence and incongruities, but it's also truly full of the Russian spirit. There's the warmth and character of what Russian people are like, so it's very moving."

Also, "it's a beautiful portrait of the relationship between the man and his grandmother, if you've ever cared for an elderly person."

Ultimately, Jacobs said, she came around about whether to recommend the novel. "I think it's actually a really humane view, and a very realistic view [of Russia]."

Terrible Country
Terrible Country

Those hungering for a new poetry collection, take note.
Bookseller Danny Caine recommends "Citizen Illegal" from José Olivarez.

"It's a funny and occasionally devastating portrait of life as a first generation Mexican-American, as the son of Mexican immigrants," Caine said.

"It starts with some really brash and funny poems, and towards the end it gets into some really tender poems about death, about the loss of a grandparent. The collection is just a really satisfying read."

The collection is published by Haymarket as part of their BreakBeat Poets series.

Caine says the series "is putting out some of the most exciting poetry today. I tend to read everything they put out. I like it because it's coming from the Midwest, too. It definitely has a Chicago feel to it. I always look for great art coming from the heartland."

Citizen Illegal
Citizen Illegal

You know that feeling where you follow a thread and find yourself down the rabbit hole of a great book?

That's what happened to bookseller Ruth Hulbert.

Years ago, she heard a bar full of people in Seattle break out into song to Woody Guthrie's "Roll on, Columbia." That sparked an interest in Guthrie, and that eventually led her to this book: "Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913" by Daniel Wolff.

"More than a history of music, this is actually a history of the United States, and of protest in the early twentieth century," Hulbert said.

"It's a story of three generations of protests, and it's linked together in a really interesting way. I think part of what makes this such a gripping read is that it's actually structured a lot like a piece of music.

"We get the story of Bob Dylan's musical education and political education and his music career in the turbulent 1960s." Dylan's experience is then "woven in together with Woody Guthrie's musical and political education in the 1930s, which was this restless and cataclysmic time in American history.

"There were all these interesting streams of American music coming down out of the hills and mixing in the cities and going out on the airwaves. So the 30s and the 60s have all these resonances between them, and underneath these melodies that are being told, there's this baseline of protest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century — of line protests and labor strikes and all these people fighting and singing for a better world."

"I picked it up because I was interested in Woody Guthrie and it really just knocked my socks off with how good the writing was. There's nothing unnecessary or ornamental in it; it's very straightforward. I thought the writing of the book was very similar to how the author describes Woody Guthrie's singing style: It's very plain and direct and it's someone who wants to tell you the truth. That really comes through in the writing of this book."

Grown-up Anger
Grown-up Anger

Innosanto Nagara first caught readers' attentions with his colorful board book, "A is for Activist," which explains civil rights, social justice and activism for kids as young as two.

He's back with a new book, "The Wedding Portrait," which bookseller Sara Luce Look instantly fell in love with.

"It made me cry about three times, and I just read it again this morning and I cried again," Luce Look said.

The book is centered around a wedding portrait taken at a protest against nuclear war. "The couple had met at a protest, so they decided to get married at a protest. They got married, and got arrested, along with the entire wedding party."

"In the book, it talks about why [this couple] has the portrait up on the wall, and it talks about why sometimes you need to break the rules: You need to break the rules to protest things that are wrong."

The picture book goes on to offer kids "explanations about segregation, civil disobedience, direct action — and it uses real-life examples." It covers Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks and others, all the way up to modern figures who have been involved in protest movements.

"When I read it, I wanted to show it to every customer who walked through the door."

The Wedding Portrait
The Wedding Portrait

Circe is perhaps the world's oldest sorceress, but until now, she was only a bit player in the story of Odysseus.

Bookseller Stephanie Schindhelm recommends Madeline Miller's novel, "Circe," because it puts an end to that.

If your memory of "The Odyssey" is rusty, or it never landed on your syllabi, Odysseus and his men wash up on the shores of Circe's island during their oh-so-long-journey. She promptly turns all his men into pigs, and Odysseus must convince her to reverse the spell.

Miller's "Circe" expands her story far beyond that. It starts "from the moment she's born, on and on for thousands of years, because she's an immortal goddess and she lives forever," Schindhelm said.

"Fairly early in the book, she discovers that she has witch-like powers and can actually transform other gods. Because of that, she is banished to an island, which is really where the meat of the story takes place. It's where she deals with being alone and working hard to develop her power, with the occasional people coming through her island.

"Miller does a fantastic job of making an immortal goddess very relatable. ... She has an obsession with humanity and with humans and with the mortal realms. She comes to really have more of a connection with mortals than she does with other gods and goddesses."

Schindhelm says her store's staff book club all devoured the book. "Our meeting was just all gushing about what an amazing character she was, and how impressive it was that Madeline Miller could write an immortal character who is so relatable."

Circe
Circe

Instagram models. Social media stars. "Influencers."

If you can't keep track of who is famous these days, you're not alone.

Natasha Stagg's novel "Surveys" dives deep into the stew that is sudden, baseless fame.

Bookseller Tom Roberge recommends this story of a young woman, who spends her days at a survey center in a Tucson, Ariz., strip mall. She facilitates consumer surveys about a slew of topics — a new flavored vodka or an explosive action movie.

She drinks. She does drugs. She lives alone and deals with nasty neighbors.

"It's unclear how exactly this happens, but within a very short time, she becomes 'internet famous,' and her life changes dramatically," Roberge said.

"She moves to L.A. and adopts the lifestyle of someone who is famous for the sake of being famous. There begins a very self-aware examination of what all of that means, and the way that her life is monetized."

"This is à la Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie in the early 2000s, who would get tens of thousands of dollars just for showing up for 10 minutes at some DJ's party at some club in Las Vegas or something. She is essentially that."

But it doesn't last. She becomes disillusioned.

"It sort of spirals out of control when she starts realizing just how vapid and useless and corrupt the entire ecosystem she is now in is. ... This is a very timely book about the economy and the way that capitalism is affecting people — especially young people in the modern era."

Surveys
Surveys

Novelist Richard Wagamese made his mark on the Canadian literature scene as a novelist and essayist. Though the author died last spring, his work is steadily finding a new audience in the U.S.

Several of Mara Panich-Crouch's fellow booksellers urged her to pick up Wagamese's "Indian Horse" — and when she did, she immediately understood its power.

"The book is about Saul Indian Horse, who is a First Nations Ojibwe boy, taken by the residential schools," Panich-Crouch said. "It's about the idea of being a residential school survivor."

Though Panich-Crouch knew the history of Native Americans and boarding schools in the U.S., Wagamese's work offered another perspective. "Reading this, it made me realize that Canada had a lot of the same programs that we did."

In the novel, Saul "finds sport through hockey ... And that helps him basically overcome the trauma, and get through the trauma of the residential school situations."

The writing "really made me want to start sharing it with people who ... wanted to find new, fairly unknown — at least in the U.S. — Native writers."

Indian Horse
Indian Horse

Heading out on a summer picnic? Pack your basket, your sandwiches, your thermos — and your copy of "Pignic."

"'Pignic' is a sweetly drawn book. It's super charming," says bookseller Rebecca Dowling. "It's perfect for a family to take with them on their own picnic."

The book unfolds on a beautiful summer day when a family of pigs heads out for a picnic. "They climb trees, they fly kites, they make all kinds of friends, and they have lunch."

Then come the rain clouds. And while that might ruin the day for most families, it's nothing but luck for this crew.

"After the clouds part and the rain stops, all of the pigs are knee-deep in mud, and they're having a blast."

This delightful children's book turns bad luck on its head. "It is just the perfect summer book," Dowling says.

Pignic
Pignic

Bookseller Aubrey Restifo has "the perfect mystery for summer."

It's Tiffany D. Jackson's "Monday's Not Coming."

The young adult novel centers around the closer-than-close friendship of two teenage girls, Monday and Claudia, who live in D.C. "They are utterly inseparable — do everything together, do all their homework together, dance team together, planning out their high school career together, you can't keep them from each other's lives," Restifo explained.

But one summer, Monday goes missing.

"And not only does she go missing, but Claudia, who is telling the story, who is the protagonist, doesn't feel like anybody else notices."

Claudia starts the new school year and the teachers don't know, the school nurse doesn't know, but she doesn't stop asking. "She goes around the neighborhood, which is a very tightknit community, but no one can explain where Monday, or Monday's many siblings, are."

"That's the mystery that is investigated very intensely in 'Monday's Not Coming.'"

"It is too intense to read in one sitting, but it's almost impossible not to. ... When you approach the excellent twist in this novel, and as you get to the truth, you will be absolutely rattled."

Monday's Not Coming
Monday's Not Coming

"A lot of folks do not know the name Eowyn Ivey outside the state of Alaska," says Charlotte Glover.

But they should.

Ivey's first novel "The Snow Child" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It's her second book, though — "To the Bright Edge of the World" — that "has ruined me for all other books, for almost two years," Glover said.

"It is an absolute masterpiece of tone and content and historical fiction. I'm just completely in love with it, and I don't think any other book is going to equal that in a long time."

In it, Ivey melds historical fiction "with a smidge of magical realism."

"It's strongly based on the real journals of an Army captain who mapped part of Alaska," Glover said. In the novel, a fictional Army captain sets out on a mapping expedition. His young wife plans to accompany him, but when she becomes pregnant, she has to stay behind in the barracks in Vancouver.

"The bulk of the book is their correspondence, and so it is a Lewis and Clark-type wilderness expedition, mapping a fictional river in Alaska, but told in the voice of a very lyrical woman. It's the most yin-yang book I've ever read in my entire career, where it's so lyrical and lovely, but at the same time it's dealing with an incredibly hard expedition."

"There are just so many elements to this book that make it so satisfying and so delicious and so worth reading over and over again that it's just ruined me."

To the Bright Edge of the World
To the Bright Edge of the World

Anthony Horowitz knows a good mystery.

The author has multiple novels to his name, on top of a slew of British television series like "Midsomer Murders" and "Foyle's War."

But he keeps outdoing himself.

Bookseller Melissa DeMotte was hooked by the doubled stakes of "Magpie Murders."

Horowitz, she said, "styles his mysteries much like Agatha Christie. It's definitely a whodunit, a lot of suspects, but what makes this really fun is that there's a novel within the novel. So there's two different mysteries that you ultimately are trying to figure out."

While the narrator of "Magpie Murders" starts explaining the story of one mysterious death in the publishing world, the book also dives into portions of an author's unpublished manuscript, where there are even more murders afoot in a secluded British village.

"This guy knows how to create a mystery. He's very crafty. There's not a lot of red herrings — everyone has a purpose in the story. And the sense of place! I loved the description of that little town. It felt very real and very old, and I could just see those nosy neighbors."

Ultimately, DeMotte said, "It's a really fun read, a very different style. You have to do a little more thinking. It's a thinker's summer read."

Magpie Murders
Magpie Murders

If you walk into the Subtext bookstore in St. Paul, it sounds like there's a fair chance you're leaving with Tommy Orange's debut novel "There There."

Bookseller Matt Keliher calls it "the book of the year" and "a book I can't let people leave without."

Orange's novel follows twelve Native Americans living in Oakland, Calif., over several decades. It traces their connections, and sometimes their collisions, as the narrative jumps from character to character.

"It is an incredible book that is brimming with emotion and force," Keliher said. "The writing is just electric. It's a propulsive novel that makes the reader want to just turn the next page and keep reading."

"I just absolutely love it. It's one of the books that reminds me why I love what I'm doing."

There There
There There