Read our latest staff reviews and recommendations featured in the The Southern Bookseller Review.
Álvarez’s illustrations alone are enough to make this stunning picture book a winner—the dreamy feel of the milky moonlight against the deep-dark night and the crisp simplicity of the animals and their world is masterful. When paired with interwoven traditional Mesoamerican tales of the magic and power of our lunar companion, the story sings, enchanting readers with its mystery and beauty. Don’t miss this one!
Ancient Night by David Alvarez, (List Price: $18.99, Levine Querido, 9781646142514, March 2023)
Reviewed by Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Oh my goodness. I never thought any book would have me weeping more than A Little Life, but Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things broke that record along the floodgates. This is not to say the novel is a depressing one: in fact, its depictions of life-affirming, forever-friendships veritably burst with love and wit. Newman perfectly captures the confusing contradictions that accompany end-of-life care: the emergencies among the mundanity, the darkly hilarious moments that punctuate the slow-motion, eviscerating heartbreak. Some readers who’ve said goodbye to terminally ill beloveds may find that their wounds are too raw for this novel. I, on the other hand, read it a few months after cancer took a very close friend of mine and I found it to be incredibly cathartic. Many moments were eerily—no, magically!—similar to moments I shared with Becky toward the end. I underlined like mad and scribbled in the margins; more than once I started to make a mental note to share certain excerpts with Becky, knowing she’d recognize herself and our friendship in the words, then remembering she’s not anywhere I can reach her. Five stars. Pairs well with Kathryn Schulz’s Lost & Found and/or Janine Kwoh’s Welcome to the Grief Club.
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman (List Price: $25.99, Harper, 9780063230897, November 2022)
Reviewed by Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Claire Keegan’s books are little, quietly epic works of art. Foster is the story of a lonely child sent to live with relatives one summer, not knowing whether she would return home. The love and compassion shown to her on the Irish farm starkly contrast with the child’s family. Keegan’s prose is gorgeous.
Foster by Claire Keegan, (List Price: $20, Grove Press, 9780802160140, November 2022)
Reviewed by Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
It’s human nature to look for validation of oneself in the art we consume, and It Came From the Closet is a collection of essays by queer and trans authors on their interpretations and interactions with horror films. Edited by Joe Vallese, these essays are tender and funny, vulnerable and courageous. It Came From the Closet will make you see movies you’ve watched numerous times in a different light and that is a spectacular point of view.
It Came from the Closet by Joe Vallese, (List Price: $25.95, The Feminist Press at CUNY, 9781952177798, October 2022)
Reviewed by Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
A full-hearted homecoming story of reckoning with the past as it hits you hard and fast all while trying to carve a way forward–when for so long it looked like the only way was straight. Bounces around the lives of late 30s queer Latino and his former classmates and family to map out the landscape of the suburbs and the inner lives America so often pushes aside. Astute, enraged, and charming as hell.
The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela, (List Price: $27, Astra House, 9781662601033, March 2022)
Reviewed by Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
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