Read our latest staff reviews and recommendations featured in the The Southern Bookseller Review.
Another poignant work from Lily King, who has tremendous talent for authentically capturing the emotional reality of her protagonists over decades. In Heart the Lover, King shows us how our hearts vividly remember the way long-ago things felt, even when our minds have mixed up or forgotten the factual particulars. If you’ve ever been in love–especially if you’ve ever been deeply in love with a soul-match but were too young to consider a lifelong go of it–this book will be especially meaningful for you. Like Writers & Lovers, Heart the Lover is a delicious, aching, and deep-digging story that will hit home for all readers, but perhaps with more gravity for English majors and creative writers. Seeking catharsis regarding romantic entanglements of your early adulthood? This one’s for you.
Heart the Lover by Lily King, (List Price: $28, Grove Press, 9780802165176, September 2025)
Reviewed by Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Thou shalt read this book for laughs, tears, awesome sibling dynamics, romance, and a comedy of errors. This one’s healing, hopeful, and all about learning how to accept and embrace yourself with a little help from the important people in your life.
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes, (List Price: $18.99, Balzer + Bray, 9780063060234, May 2022)
Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
I’m SMASHING that “like” button on Racebook, Onyebuchi’s foray into essay collection, all centered around the hot button topic of the internet. Onyebuchi talks about Xbox live chats, the edgy-older-siblingness of Sonic the Hedgehog (sorry y’all; my allegiance lies with Shadow), and Facebook content moderation, all to the end of deciphering just what role the internet plays in the last thirty years of cultural history. Most striking about this collection is the refreshing way that Onyebuchi does not unilaterally dismiss the internet, instead acknowledging the good that the web has offered us. I love essay collections that don’t have easy answers, and this one sure doesn’t have one, but it left me thinking deeply about my own interfacing between my “self” and my “internet self” in a way that has shaped my fall already. If you, too, have distinct memories of choosing the perfect MCR lyric for your AIM away message, or teaching yourself HTML to code a glittery monstrosity of a Geocities, Neopets, or Myspace page, this collection will speak to your soul. And even if you don’t have those nostalgia glasses, still take a dip – I promise you’ll find something new here anyway.
Racebook by Tochi Onyebuchi, (List Price: $27, Roxane Gay Books, 9780802166258, October 2025)
Reviewed by Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Gotta admit: after reading the Warning on page one, I almost put this one on the back burner. Twenty pages into the main story, however, I was swept away by an incredibly ardent undertow. The paragraph/sentences were in no way as overwhelming as the Warning. If anything, these “sentegraphs” felt more like I was pulling the string of a Mattel “Farmer Says” See-N-Say, bouncing from character to character with such flawless fluidity that I occasionally had to come up for air, take a five-minute break, then dive right back in. Wonderfully exhausting.
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai, (List Price: $29.95, New Directions, 9780811226646, December 2025)
Reviewed by Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Fracture the Ultimate Protagonist into a trio of sisters broken? [no], incomplete? [definitely not] um… imperfect in their own uniquely saw-toothed, imperfectious ways [sure], so that the collective “We” can see Ourself reflected back in all three [well, at least here and there in their constellated phases and crenelated stages throughout the three decades of documentation on display]. In walks an unreliable author that does his best to wedge himself into their story, creating a highly entertaining 600-page back-and-forth bout of I-Said/I-Said [scattered throughout, there’s plenty of a He Said where there shoulda been a She Said and vice versa]. Is this a therapeutic breakthrough for the author, or just a fun headtrip he’s created for the reader to make their own self discoveries? Let’s say it’s both [this ticket’s a two-way, but it’s your call if/when the return voyage even happens].
The Sisters by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, (List Price: $30, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374618896, June 2025)
Reviewed by Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
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