Book Buzz

Book Buzz: Tilt by Emma Pattee

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Emma Pattee, photo credit Heather CampbellI live in Portland — so very close to Seattle — and like you said, everyone in the Pacific Northwest lives under the shadow of something coming that you can never really prepare for. And as a climate journalist, I was really interested in that. I was interested in the ways that we can’t get prepared. And at the time that I started writing this book, I was also pregnant. Pregnancy and having a kid is another thing that everyone tells you to get prepared for, because of how scary and unknowable it is, but the reality is that it’s completely unknowable. You cannot imagine it until you have lived through it. I think that, thematically, is what brought me to the book. What gave me the idea for the book was definitely that I was terrified of the earthquake. I was pregnant, and I could not stop thinking about the earthquake.

― Emma Pattee, Interview, Bookweb

Tilt by Emma Pattee

What booksellers are saying about Tilt

  • This debut’s cover looks sweet, but don’t be deceived. A journey through post-apocalyptic-earthquake Portland, it gave me Portlandia meets The Road vibes. Apocalyptic fiction and disaster movie lovers, this one is for you.
      ― Leslie Logemann, Highland Books in Brevard, North Carolina | BUY

  • Who knew such a quick read could feel so long! Following our extremely pregnant narrator from beneath a pile of IKEA furniture through the dusty, confused streets of Portland on her search for home and her husband, leaves you feeling like you’re right in the chaos with her! You’re agonizing through the hot hours of walking right alongside her all the while hearing her deepest darkest thoughts. This book had me flipping through the pages dying to know what happens next!
      ― Mandy Martin, Novel in Memphis, Tennessee | BUY

  • A truly immersive read, Annie narrates her day to her unborn child, called only “Bean,” through a day that starts with a poorly planned Ikea trip disrupted by a massive earthquake. Tilt’s tight point of view engages readers as Annie navigates the present, persistent threats presented by aftershocks, damaged infrastructure, and other humans, and as she reflects back on her life leading up to the quake in chapters exposing the faultlines of her marriage.
      ― Ginger Kautz, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina | BUY

  • I can confidently say that this novel lives up to its description of being a heart-racing debut. Our main character is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Oregon. I read this in one sitting because it was just so captivating. I did have to take a few breaks in between because there were parts where I needed to take a deep breath since I was holding my breath turning each page.
      ― Percy Castillo, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana | BUY

About Emma Pattee

Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and fiction writer. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She lives in Oregon.

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Book Buzz: Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

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Torrey Peters, photo credit Hunter AbramsWhen I first conceived of these stories, around 2016, a lot of trans writing was very sure that it had to be a specific thing: In order to capture the trans experience, we have to invent a totally new narrative for this wild and different style of life that has strange punctuation and asterisks and parentheses in it! And I was very resistant to this because I was like, I actually think that trans lives are built out of the exact same things that any other life is built out of. The emotions that are operative for a trans person are the exact same emotions that are operative for anybody else. It may be arranged slightly differently or with slightly different balances, but 99 percent of them are all the same. And so, there was a way in which I was like, You know what? I’m going to just write trans stories to show that you don’t need to invent some othering form to explain a trans life. You can explain a trans life in a teen romance. Then, I just started finding them fun.

― Torrey Peters, Interview, The Cut

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

What booksellers are saying about Stag Dance

  • Peter’s is really pushing the bounds of everything gender and sex in such a unique and weird literary experience. I was pretty confused some times but it spoke to me, even as a cis, straight woman. Because who the hell tells us we are only on thing? Gender experience isn’t just this or that, it fluctuates through life and experiences.
      ― Meghan Haile, The Lynx in Gainesville, Florida | BUY

  • Stag Dance presses against the fringes of humanity, asking characters to confront the limits of their knowledge and their self-concepts. Moving between genres with ease, what links these four stories is the way that Torrey Peters asks her audience to reconfigure their attitude towards shame and fear.
      ― Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia | BUY

  • Erotic and quietly touching, instinctive and temperamental, this novella and added short stories delight as much as they disturb. Lumberjack jamborees, dehumanizing skin suits, the shrieks of baby pigs, and a world wracked by a hormone famine come together to make an unsettling experience highlighting the complexities of the queer/femme experience.
      ― Joshua Lambie, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia | BUY

  • The risks are high and outcomes are brutal in STAG DANCE, all circling around big questions of is it worth it? Survival, masking, and the consequences–and you feel the punch in every direction each time. Torrey Peters captures the nuances of these spiraling feelings so well, but allows them to play out in painful but satisfying ways.
      ― Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina | BUY

About Torrey Peters

Torrey Peters is the bestselling author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa and an MA in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth. Torrey rides a pink motorcycle and splits her time between Brooklyn and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.

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Book Buzz: The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry

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Patti Callahan Henry, photo credit Liesa Cole PhotographyFor me, stories begin with a curiosity, a question that won’t let me go. For The Story She Left Behind, that question was: What happened to Barbara Newhall Follett and her language? I was captivated by the real-life mystery of this child prodigy who published a fantasy novel at twelve years old, invented a language, and then vanished without a trace at twenty-five. I knew I would fictionalize her so I started imagining a daughter left behind by a mother’s disappearance (the real Barbara never had a child), and a book that daughter could not decipher as it was written in her mother’s made-up language. The more I thought about it, the more I knew—this wasn’t just a story about a missing woman, it was a story about how we find ourselves in the things left behind.

― Patti Callahan Henry, Interview, Fresh Fiction

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry

What booksellers are saying about The Story She Left Behind

  • I enjoyed this poignant, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hopeful meditation on imagination, yearning, and motherhood. The literary mystery at the center of the novel kept me turning the page to see what would happen next.
      ― Christina Henderson Harner, The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama | BUY

  • Clara Harrington is summoned to England to retrieve the dictionary of her mother’s lost language. The dictionary disappeared, along with her mother, many years ago. Clara’s journey is full of more questions than answers, but she refuses to leave until she uncovers the truth. This is an enchanting novel inspired by a true literary mystery.
      ― Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY

  • What an absolutely lovely world to stumble into as society collapses around! I loved this even more than Henry’s last novel, Flora Lea, which was a total delight as well. And the fact that she recommended MOTHER HUNGER in the appendix, given the incredibly complicated relationship detailed in these pages – just perfect.
      ― Alissa Redmond, South Main Book Co. in Salisbury, North Carolina | BUY

About Patti Callahan Henry

Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of several novels, including Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the recipient of the Christy Award, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year Award, and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year. She is the cohost and cocreator of the popular weekly online live web show and podcast Friends and Fiction. She lives in Alabama and South Carolina with her family. Find out more at PattiCallahanHenry.com.

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Book Buzz: Akeem Keeps Bees by Kamal Bell

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Kamal Bell, photo courtesy Sankofa FarmsThe farm is more than just a place to produce food. Actually, our approach switched off of food production this year and focused on the bees, because it came naturally to the students and myself. That was something that we were able to really build upon this year. In my mind, the bees can provide economic opportunities for us all. Economics is a big factor that can change things in our communities. We focused on that because we’re dealing with human lives too. I don’t want the students to get interested in the farm and then leave because they need money. This is to show them you can make that money. You don’t have to keep worrying from day to day. You can break cycles in your family.

― Kamal Bell, Interview, Edge Effects

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About Kamal Bell

Kamal Bell is the owner of Sankofa Farms, a 12-acre regenerative farm working to address the impacts that food deserts have on both urban and rural communities. Sankofa Farms Agricultural Academy provides opportunities for young men to engage in agriculture-focused STEM skill development and partners with community organizations to take food from the farms to the tables of people who need it most. The farm has been featured in Forbes, Southern Living, The News and Observer, Earth Eats, and ABC News. Bell is a doctoral student at NC State in the Agriculture Extension Education program whose work focuses on sustainable agriculture, the state of Black farming, youth advocacy, and social entrepreneurship. He lives with his family in Durham, North Carolina. 

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Book Buzz: The Witch’s Table by Melinda Beatty

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Melinda Beatty, photo courtesy the author

In her official bio, Melinda Beatty says she is, by day, “a mild-mannered bookseller at an independent bookstore.” She spoke to Books Forward about what it means to wear that particular hat as a children’s author, including taking pains to clarify “sitting around reading all day” myth:

“There is WAY too much to do to have time to stand still long enough to read. There’s always a customer to help, a shipment to receive, displays to make, shelf-talkers to write or dusting to do!

For pure aesthetics, my favorite area of the bookstore is our children’s section. It is just marvelous! The back of the store is enclosed in a little tiki hut, which holds our board books, picture books and emergent readers section. Just outside is our middle grade and YA. But sci-fi/fantasy is my soul section — it’s where I do most of my reading! In our store, this section is housed on a huge baker’s cart, front and back and it’s the area I do most of my recommendations from!””

― Melinda Beatty, Interview, Books Forward

The Witch's Table by Melinda Beatty

What booksellers are saying about The Witch’s Table

  • I enjoyed reading “The Witch’s Table” and looking at all of the illustrations. I enjoyed how the illustrations are all hand-drawn and there is so much depth in the scenes it makes you want to look at all of the nooks and crannies of the rooms in the house. The relationship between the Witch and the Table is a cute story, too. It’s like having roommates, you don’t have to agree on everything to respect each other and live together. Overall, this is a story about seeing “eye to eye” with others around you.
      ― Kait Boyd, The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, Alabama | BUY

  • Such a cute story, with a deeper meaning behind it!
      ― Kenzie Karoly, E. Shaver, Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia | BUY

  • An entertaining and amusing tale! Funny and charming- The Witch’s Table is sure please readers of all ages!
      ― Michelle Weiler, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina | BUY

  • What a funky, cute way to teach kids how to care for each other even when its difficult! Bonus: This is a great book for the kids who wish it was spooky season all year round. (It’s me. I’m that kid.)
      ― Tori Finklea, Union Ave Books in Knoxville, Tennessee | BUY

About Melinda Beatty

Melinda Beatty has had years of practice trying to explain to others why she was just having an imaginary conversation between two people that don’t exist, so becoming a writer seemed like the best way to stop everyone from looking at her funny. After years of narrowboat living on the English canals, she and her British husband are now back on dry land in Maryland, where by day, she’s a mild-mannered indie bookseller, and by night, she wrangles words, crafts projects, and raises a Labrador and two fierce mini-women.

Stefano Tambellini was born in a small town in Tuscany, Italy. He studied traditional animation at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and then moved to London, where he worked as a freelance illustrator for animation and publishing. He lives with a gray cat named Mandragola, and he’s also a stop-motion puppet maker and filmmaker. See more of Stefano’s work at ste-tambellini.format.com.

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Book Buzz: Soft Core by Brittany Newell

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Brittany Newell, photo courtesy the author

I think of San Francisco as a main character in the book, exactly like you say. The book is about all the different sorts of intimacies that fill up Ruth’s life, from easily recognizable relationships like her romance with Dino to her intensely emotional and sometimes libidinal friendships with Mazzy and Ophelia. Also, the intimacies that are harder to name but just as impactful, i.e. her intimacies with different johns. All this is to say, a hugely intimate relationship in her life is the relationship she has with San Francisco, especially as she wanders around in her unraveling fugue state and revisits all the different places where special things have happened to her…Grace Cathedral, China Beach, the bus where she met Dino…She traces the city like you might trace a lover’s sleeping face.

― Brittany Newell, Interview, Chicago Review of Books

Soft Core by Brittany Newell

What booksellers are saying about Soft Core

  • I love a messy FMC making terrible choices, and Ruth did not disappoint. Ruth is chaotic and seeing things in this story about a stripper/dominatrix who is looking for anyone or anything to love her. However, things aren’t always what they seem, and Ruth makes poor choices based on what she thinks she sees..
      ― Jackie Davison, The Lynx in Gainesville, Florida | BUY

  • Soft Core sinks it’s teeth in and doesn’t let up. It’s a beautiful, fun, and at times devastating novel that unveils the inner life of sex worker Baby as she deals with the aftermath of her ex disappearing. It’s raw and honest and a wild ride from start to finish!
      ― Hallee Israel, Pearl’s Books inFayetteville, Arkansas | BUY

  • This novel mixed humor, nihilism, sex, and mystery to create one of the most interesting books I’ve read. It is engaging and explorative and you fall into the story as the narration goes on. It was easy to get caught up in the narrative since the blunt descriptions allowed you to feel what Baby, the main character, is feeling. I was both shocked and delighted while reading Soft Core since I became entrapped in Baby’s world.
      ― Ashton Ahart, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina | BUY

  • What is a word for feeling despair but also feeling hot? The vibes are feverish, dancing till we die even though we are missing something inside. Think Euphoria (but it’s adults) with Heavy themes of envy, daddy issues, obsession, and low self-esteem. This was impossible for me to put down, the way that the main character found herself emotionally fulfilled by dancing and working in BDSM was STUNNING. Truly a one of a kind reading experience.
      ― Shelby Barnett, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana | BUY

About Brittany Newell

Brittany Newell is a writer and performer whose work has been published in Granta, n+1, The New York Times, Joyland, Dazed, and Playgirl. She published her debut novel, Oola, at the age of twenty-one. She lives in San Francisco, where she works as a professional dominatrix.

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Book Buzz: Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

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Clay McLeod Chapman, photo credit Shortwave Publishing

To be honest, every book [I write] has different origins. I remember reading a lot about recruitment videos for Al Qaeda. TikTok and Facebook were being used as recruitment tools for terrorist cells. It was rare, but there was a lot of pearl-clutching when some young suburban white woman was radicalized. To me, that was so fascinating, because on some level, regardless of where these radicalizations came from, there was always a moment where the common refrain from family members was that they weren’t like themselves anymore. They were possessed. You could start listing instances that were said about someone. It was never one thing. It was never just Fox News, or just Facebook. I’ve had family members caught up in the wellness craze that existed before Goop. There’s a mistrust in conventional medicine, where people leap over doctors into untested, unregulated [medicine]. To me, that was alarming, because it was all coming from Facebook ads and memes. It’s like a sinkhole. From doing the deep dive, it’s like wellness culture leads to right-wing extremism. It’s so apparent. There’s like a digital paper trail to maneuver. It’s easy for an outside observer to see it, but if you’re caught in that rabbit hole, it’s terrifying, because you’re just not aware of it.

It makes me think “what’s going to be MY rabbit hole?”

― Clay McLeod Chapman, Interview, Macabre Daily

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

What booksellers are saying about Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

  • This may be Chapman’s most brutal yet! Noah is used to his Boomer parents being unreasonable about things and that they’re getting increasingly more racist and right-wing as they age – but he’s not prepared for what happens when the Great Reawakening hits. People have been turned into zombies through right-wing news outlets and social media links and the results are horrifying. Can Noah and his nephew get out of Richmond VA safely – and what will happen to them if they can? This book is tense, timely, and terrifying and it might just make you unplug forever.
      ― Andrea Richardson, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia | BUY

  • More orgies per page than any book i’ve ever read. absolutely insane and chilling, chapman’s best so far.
      ― Meagan Smith, Righton Books in St Simons Island, Georgia | BUY

  • Deeply outlandish yet relatable in the scariest sense. This book will make your skin crawl and fill you with an overwhelming sense of dread that will stick around for days.
      ― Kassie Weeks, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida | BUY

  • FAX news is brainwashing our nation. Noah Fairchild no longer recognizes his parents. Literally. Did he really just unhinge his dad’s jaw by shoving the remote control down his throat sideways? “The Great Reawakening” has invaded far-right news and social media in the most terrifying way possible as family turns on family, neighbor on neighbor. Part apocalyptic but mostly slap you in the face metaphorical, this book is 1000% my jam! If I am looking for grotesque, shocking, controversial, skin crawling imagery, then I have to look no further than the modern horror master, Clay McLeod Chapman.
      ― Suzanne Carnes, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia | BUY

About Clay McLeod Chapman

Clay McLeod Chapman writes novels, comic books, and children’s books, as well as for film and TV. He is the author of the horror novels The Remaking, Whisper Down the Lane, Ghost Eaters, and What Kind of Mother. He also co-wrote Quiet Part Loud, a horror podcast produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw for Spotify. Visit him at claymcleodchapman.com.

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Book Buzz: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

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Omar El Akkad, photo courtesy Penguin Random House

Last year I started writing about what it feels like to live in this part of the world and essentially watch my tax dollars pay to finance wholesale slaughter. And for basically the next year it was all I could write about, it was the only thing I was able to put down on paper, and the result is this book. I think of it as sort of part memoir, part of it is about my life my experiences from a very early age and why I sound like this, why I speak this language, the sense that I’ve been attuned to the west from a very early age as this place where there are theseunderlying foundational principles of fairness and equal justice and so on. And to be in this moment, this culmination of so many previous moments, where I’m questioning all of that. The other part of the book is essentially an accounting of the last year of waking up every morning and seeing evidence of the worst things that human beings can do to one another, and trying to exist in that framework. It’s the kind of book that’s going to barge in through the door pretending to be an argument. In truth I’m not trying to argue with anyone, I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind. Ishiguro once said that ‘all literature essentially boils down to someone saying this is what it feels like for me, can you hear me? Does it also feel that  way for you?’ And I think that’s essentially what this book is.

― Omar El Akkad, Interview, The Lighthouse Bookshop

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

What booksellers are saying about One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

  • If you are living and breathing in the 21st century, you must read this book. Many who should still be on this earth are not, and reading this book is one small thing you can do to unlearn many harmful narratives that have caused unthinkable atrocities..
      ― Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY

  • This breakup letter to the West is sorely needed. Omar El Akkad puts words to feelings I didn’t know how to articulate before reading this. He not only directly confronts America’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, but also forces the reader to recognize that the failure of American liberalism is not limited to this issue. This will be a book I return to over and over again.
      ― Becca Naylor, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY

  • A brilliant, beautiful, absolutely essential read.
      ― Gaël LeLamer, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida | BUY

  • “Essential reading” has become a hollow phrase, but if any book could restore its meaning, it would be this one. This is a book about Palestine, but it is equally a book about the large-scale brand of dehumanization that gets normalized under the auspices of power. As a Middle Eastern person, I’m in awe of El Akkad’s ability to give language to the experience of a particular kind of otherness in the context of a country–ours–that has been so hellbent on destroying my family’s part of the world for decades. But it’s not my heritage, or even El Akkad’s, that makes this book so important, and so urgent. It’s the clarity with which he is able to cut through all of the levels of noise, bias, and hypocrisy that most of us have grown inured to, that all of us need to reckon with. I believe the sad promise of this book’s perfect, gut-punch title–how clear our vision gets when it’s too late to do anything at all–and I believe in its ability to open eyes and dramatically rewire awareness and understanding.
      ― Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama | BUY

About Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager, and now lives in the United States. He is a two-time winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Oregon Book Award for fiction. His books have been translated into thirteen languages. His debut novel, American War, was named by the BBC as one of one hundred novels that shaped our world.

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Book Buzz: We Do Not Part by Han Kang

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Han Kang, photo by Murdo Macleod

I moved from Gwangju to Seoul in January 1980, at the age of nine with my family. It was just four months before the Gwanju uprising/massacre occurred. After a few years, there were photo books which were printed and circulated secretly to bear witness. I found one of the photo books on the bookshelf of my father, and it became sort of a defining experience in my life. If I were not that young, I would have been more aware of the political aspect. But I was just 12. The photo book contained numerous dead faces with deep wounds and after reaching the end of the photo book, I thought to myself, ‘Humans are scary’. I couldn’t find a way to accept that I am one of these ‘humans’.

However, there were also examples of human dignity and inexplicable strength in the photo book. For example, I saw the endless lines of ordinary people who wanted to donate blood for the wounded right after the mass shooting by the Martial Law army. It was like two unsolvable questions were imprinted on my mind:

How can humans be so violent?

What can humans do something to fight against that extreme violence?

― Han Kang, Interview, Banana Writers

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

What booksellers are saying about We Do Not Part

  • Devastating, gorgeously written and translated. I will be thinking about this book, about Kyungha and Inseon, the snow and the trees, the birds Ama and Ami, and the generations of spirits brought to life in these painful, breathtaking pages. Reading Han Kang’s work feels like a precious honor, and in the incredible wake of her Nobel win, We Do Not Part is an astounding introduction for many new readers.
      ― Emily Tarr, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama | BUY

  • A story of friendship/loyalty/loss/war. A dream-like supernatural journey. The reader often wonders what is real and what is not. It is a horrific read (set amidst the genocide on the island of Jeju, Korea in 1948). I found there was almost too much to digest/make sense of while reading this book. But the writing is immersive and beautiful (which powered me through the pages).
      ― Sarah Goldstein, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia | BUY

  • Wow. Nobel laureate Han Kang’s latest work is just brilliant – a profound meditation on friendship and the impact of buried trauma. Kyungha – a writer, troubled by recurring nightmares following her most recent book about a historical massacre – is called on by her friend Inseon to go to her house to look after her pet bird while Inseon is in hospital. While there Kyungha discovers how intimately connected her friend’s family was to the massacre she’d written about. Blurring dream with reality – at once haunting and terrifyingly specific – We Do Not Part proves Han Kang’s Nobel win to be justly deserved.
      ― Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi | BUY

About Han Kang

Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. She is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, Human Acts, The White Book, and Greek Lessons. In 2024 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. e. yaewon is based in Korea and translates from and into Korean, including titles by Hwang Jungeun, Jessica Au, and Maggie Nelson. Paige Aniyah Morris divides her time between the United States and Korea. Recent translations include works by Pak Kyongni, Ji-min Lee, and Chang Kang-myoung.

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Book Buzz: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

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Kimberly Lemming, photo by the author

I was just desperate for a bit of fun. The world is dark and terrible enough as it is. When I wrote the first book, I just wanted to take myself on a fun little adventure where I knew everything was going to be ok in the end….Imagine you’re minding your business as an animal researcher and then out of nowhere you get attacked by a lion. Rude right? Now imagine you and that lion get abducted by aliens and brought onto a ship with a bunch of freaky looking birds trying to poke and prod at you. You manage to fight your way to freedom, steal an escape pod and crash land onto a planet populated by taller, hotter aliens and dinosaurs. Also, the lion talks now. So, there’s that.

― Kimberly Lemming, Interview, Parnassus Books

I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming

What booksellers are saying about I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com

  • Kimberly Lemming’s stories are pure joy. They’re comforting and cozy, while also being funny and bringing the spice and heat. I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com is all of that and more. It’s a wonderful start to a new series and Kimberly does a wonderful job at complicated world building and making us believe everything that happens to Dorothy Valentine is possible. I laughed out loud so many times and could not put the book down. I can not wait to read more Cosmic Chaos and see more of Dotty, Sol, Lok, Toto, and Cupid. There is so much to be explored!
      ― Preet Singh, Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Georgia | BUY

  • I am a sucker for alien romances in general, but I have to say that Ms Lemming has done an amazing job with this one! I’ve read her previous works and it’s amazing how much you can see her growth as an author! I immediately fell in love with Dorothy and Toto, they made me grin like a fool as I read. This is also a fun “why choose?” novel that does the trope well. Most of the time it feels almost too cheesy for me to believe, but Lemming knocks it out of the park with Sol and Lok, creating a perfect foil between the two that still manages to be balanced. I eagerly look forward to the next Cosmic Chaos book! If you need a break from reality with some spice and cuddly lions that adopt you into their pride, this is the one for you!
      ― Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia | BUY

  • Sure, Lemming brings the hilarity, but she also brings the sweetness and the spice! Dory is SO close to getting her PhD when she’s abducted by aliens and plopped down on a new world. All she wants is to figure out a way home, but her new BFF, Toto the lion, and her new love interests, Sol and Lok, are making her feel more at home every day. But she’ll have to fight her way through the terrain of this new planet and defeat or befriend the wildlife before she can even attempt that. As a wildlife biologist, that shouldn’t be too hard. Key word: shouldn’t.
      ― Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia | BUY

About Kimberly Lemming

Kimberly Lemming is a USA Today bestselling author who is on an eternal quest to avoid her calling as a main character. She can be found giving the slip to that new werewolf that just blew into town and refusing to make eye contact with a prince of a far-off land. Dodging aliens looking for Earth booty can really take up a girl’s time. But when she’s not running from fate, she can be found writing diverse fantasy romance. Or just shoveling chocolate in her maw until she passes out on the couch.

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Book Buzz: The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

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Kate Fagan, photo by Kristen LeQuire

I think that was the scariest thing for me going into fiction was, I have relied my entire career on conversations, on reporting, to understand what made a person tick and what made them do the things they had done. And also to be able to collect the details that made a book. I think, because I had done That for 15 or 20 years, I was really worried that I would not have the skill set, or the muscles would have atrophied to be able to build a character out of whole cloth, rather than relying on observing someone else. So that was really scary for me.

But I realized that a lot of the observations one makes as a journalist, that skill set of being able to observe things and knowing which details are most interesting and relevant, serves you really well in fiction as well, because that is the same muscles. If I’m going to write a profile on somebody my job as a journalist is noticing the details and conveying the things that separate that person from the one next to them. And that is very similar to what you’re trying to do when you’re building a character. So in the end, I feel like this thing, I was really scared about because I “don’t build characters in non fiction,” it is a similar skill set that you are using, which is noticing the details that make a place and a person differentiated from just any place or person.

― Kate Fagan, Interview, Friendly City Books

The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan

What booksellers are saying about The Three Lives of Cate Kay

  • This is the perfect plane read. Cate flees a traumatic incident as a teen and runs away from her past for more than a decade. She finally comes into her own after years of hiding her identity, during which she has written a trilogy that becomes a worldwide phenomena. Along the way she falls in love, comes to terms with her past and discovers how she wants to live her future. A wholly entertaining and romantic romp, I dove right in and loved it! Cate is great, you’ll love her too.
      ― Maggie Robe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY

  • The Three Lives of Cate Kay is everything I’ve been wanting! The tagline “Seven Husbands” meets “First Lie Wins” is absolutely perfect but with all the depth and queer messiness that catapult this book forward. This is the book that I’ve passed to all of my other booksellers, just so that I can have someone to talk to about this. Fingers crossed on getting an event, because I need everyone to read this book!
      ― Kristin Kehl, Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Florida | BUY

  • The Three Lives of Cate Kay is an adrenaline rush of a story that doesn’t compromise on sincerity. Whether she is exploring first love, queer identity, female friendship, or self-forgiveness, Fagan leaves everything on the page and delivers a novel that demands to be deeply felt by its readers.
      ― Courtney Ulrich Smith, Underbrush Books in Rogers, Arkansas | BUY

  • This was such a wonderful surprise! The jacket said “Not Pete’s usual cup of tea” but the plot description intrigued me enough to bring a copy home. And I’m glad I did. I was hooked from page one. It’s just a wonderful novel of love and friendship, lost and found over and over again, that really resounded with me. Thank you, Ms. Fagan!
      ― Pete Mock, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina | BUY

About Kate Fagan

Kate Fagan is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Made Maddy Run, which was a semi-finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for literary sports writing. She is also the author of three additional nonfiction titles, a former professional basketball player, and spent seven years as a journalist at ESPN. Kate currently lives in Charleston with her wife, Kathryn Budig, and their dog, Ragnar.

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Book Buzz: Victor, the Wolf with Worries by Catherine Rayner

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Catherine Rayner, author image credit the author

I love making up stories, reading to children, designing characters, helping children learn to read, helping children develop a love of books that will help them throughout their lives. I love that I get to visit children in schools and at events. I love the letters and pictures I get from children from all over the world. I love the people that I work with on the books. I love the challenges that come with creating something new. . . I tend to develop a character and a story at the same time. But this does change a little with each book I make as every single one has a pattern of its own. People often ask me what the magic formula for creating a good picture book is. I wish I knew! It’s a new challenge every time as books are a bit like living things; each is individual with its own problems to overcome. Each one takes a different amount of time to create, too. Some are quicker than others, some have been bubbling away in the back of my mind for years, and others appear in a “light bulb moment.” I never find making a book easy—but it’s always worth it in the end.

― Catherine Rayner, Interview, Peachtree Books

Victor, the Wolf with Worries by Catherine Rayner

What booksellers are saying about Victor, the Wolf with Worries

  • Victor, The Wolf With Worries, immediately stole my anxious heart. A beautifully illustrated book with an important message. Having the courage to share our worries can make us feel braver, and bigger, and fiercer. With a few great tools to help keep worries away, and the bigger message of realizing that everyone worries, this book is sure to help some littles, and their parents, feel much more wolfish.
      ― Mary Salazar, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina | BUY

  • Sweet Victor! This little wolf worries that he’s not big enough, fierce enough, wolf-ish enough. Thankfully, he has a friend who helps take his mind off his worries. A great lesson for worries and thinkers of anxious thoughts (of all ages!).
      ― Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina | BUY

  • Victor, The Wolf With Worries is a picture book about a young wolf with plenty to worry about. Is he big enough? Is he “wolfish” enough? Is he brave enough? Through talking to his friend Pablo, play, and imagination Victor is able to lessen his worries. This book normalizes anxiety and teaches small and simple coping strategies, as well as building empathy for those living with anxiety. The muted watercolor illustrations fit the story well. Overall a lovely book with a lovely message.
      ― Stacey Riggins, Book No Further in Roanoke, Virginia | BUY

About Catherine Rayner

Catherine Rayner was born in Harrogate in 1982, and grew up in Boston Spa, later studying at Leeds College of Art and Edinburgh College of Art. She won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2009 for Harris Finds His Feet, and she was shortlisted in 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2015. In 2014, Norris: The Bear Who Shared was named by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 Children’s Modern Classics of the past ten years. Previous titles by Rayner published by Boxer Books include the award-winning Five Bears. Rayner is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Spotlight on: Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson

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Lana Ferguson, author image credit the author

I love having a space to dump all the silly things running through my brain. I feel like living in my head is like sharing an apartment with five other personalities at any given time, and being a writer means not having to ignore them aggressively (and possibly vent about them to my therapist), but instead write them down, free them into the world, so to speak. Writing means the stories running through my head and the ideas that wake me up in excitement in the middle of the night aren’t just for me, but something I can share with everyone, in a sense, and that is just very cool to me.

― Lana Ferguson, Interview, Nerd Daily

Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson

What booksellers are saying about Under Loch and Key

  • Lana Ferguson is an A grade writer of smart smut. She has quickly become a favorite author of mine. I never know what genre she’s going to write in, but I know I’m guaranteed an unforgettable story. Under Loch and Key takes the premise of the Loch Ness monster and gives it a twist that is unique and then does it so well. The story is about so much more than Nessie- the themes of finding family are so well woven into Keyanna and Lachlan’s individual character arcs . Finding who you are is as important as finding the one for you. Under Loch and Key has the steam and spice I’ve come to see as Lana Ferguson’s hallmark, but with a depth of emotion and mystery that will leave you turning the pages as fast you can read them!
      ― Preet Singh, Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Georgia | BUY

  • Okay, so, I didn’t know going in that this was a shape-shifter cryptid romance. It is, for the record. It happens to be my first not-vampire-or-werewolf shape-shifter rom I’ve ever read, and I have to say…………I kinda really enjoyed it! It’s a hundred percent ridiculous, but it’s also hot and charming and fun with a lil mysterious element that (spoiler) gets worked out. How? I’ll never tell! Give me a story about an American gal falling in love with (and getting taken to poundtown by) a hot Scottish stud any day. Mix in a lil shapeyshifty and a quest to break a family curse, and you have me ten toes down for it all day every day.
      ― Thomas Wallace, Reading Rock Books in Dickson, Tennessee | BUY

  • A cute and thoughtful reimagining of the Loch Ness monster! I think this book could’ve easily been 300 pages and not closer to 500, but I enjoyed it nonetheless! Lana’s creative way of tying in with the OG tale was truly fun to read! and who doesn’t love a bit of a monster romance!?
      ― Fiona McPherson, Givens Books Little Dickens in Lynchburg, Virginia | BUY

  • My auto buy author does it again. A splash of paranormal with enemies to lovers made this a wonderful book to read. The banter and tension between Loch and Key were top notch and I believed them when they believed that they didn’t like each other. But as always Lana Ferguson writes, sexy , heartwarming and hilarious books that make it to the top of my lists every time.
      ― Mekhala Villegas-Rogers, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida | BUY

About Lana Ferguson

Lana Ferguson is a USA Today bestselling author and sex-positive nerd whose works never shy from spice or sass. A faded Fabio cover found its way into her hands at fifteen, and she’s never been the same since. When she isn’t writing, you can find her randomly singing show tunes, arguing over which Batman is superior, and subjecting her friends to the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings. Lana lives mostly in her own head but can sometimes be found chasing her corgi through the coppice of the great American outdoors.

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Spotlight on: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

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Kay Chronister, photo credit the author

The mythology of the bog wife began with other stories about nonhuman women who marry into human families, like selkies. There is Welsh folklore of a woman made out of flowers who is brought to life. Thinking about those stories, what I find fun is that there is a certain amount of ambiguity as to how human this woman appears and how human she really is, and how much the husband in question is willfully deluding himself about having some kind of quasi-human marriage partner. I went back and forth about how much to physically describe the bog wife and how much to describe the logistics of this dirt and plant woman who had raised five children and lived in a house and seemed to exist like a human for a while. I ultimately decided, which is pretty habitual for me, that I don’t care very much about the logistics. I wanted her to be in a state of flux. She is more human for a period of time and then less.

― Kay Chronister, Interview, Electric Literature

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

What booksellers are saying about The Bog Wife

  • This book is incredibly atmospheric and full of gothic vibes! The Bog Wife is part family story, part environmental story and one I will be thinking about it for a long time. I love the questions it asks about ownership and land, about inheritance and duty.
      ― Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY

  • This book has changed my brain chemistry. Chronister has created this devastating, beautiful, and just plain weird story and group of characters to dissect generational poverty and trauma in a very tangible, jarring way. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, as I wasn’t ever sure what was real or just imagined. Just an absolute masterpiece.
      ― Tori Finklea, Union Ave Books in Knoxville, Tennessee | BUY

  • This book is so, so weird—in a really good way. The Haddesley family has an ancient pact with the Appalachian bog they live in. With each generation, the patriarch succumbs to death, and the bog provides a new bride for the eldest son. The family line mustn’t branch off. The bog belonged to them and they to it. This is Southern gothic perfection and would make for a fantastic October read.
      ― Sydney Bozeman, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY

  • This is an eccentric, vivid, and devastating Appalachian folk/gothic horror. The Haddesley’s have always believed it was their family’s duty to take care of the bog on their land. Every time a patriarch dies, the siblings must feed the body to the bog, who, in return, will give them a wife for the eldest son to carry on tradition. Except this time, the bog doesn’t give Haddesley’s eldest son Charlie a wife. What happens now? The house is falling apart as the siblings fall apart, trying to figure out the next step. This novel is so beautifully weird. I became emotionally attached to the Haddesley siblings as they try to navigate a new way of life and as they figure out that their whole family history might be a lie.
      ― TMegan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia | BUY

About Kay Chronister

Kay Chronister is the author of Thin Places and Desert Creatures. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Dark, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy awards. She lives outside of Philadelphia.

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Spotlight on: The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

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Nghi Vo, photo credit CJ Foeckler

I’ve been describing The City In Glass as three hundred years of grief and city planning.

It’s about a demon named Vitrine who loves a city called Azril, and what happens when angels from across the sea destroy that city. Vitrine has to decide what she does after the end of the world and what revenge she can possibly take on one of the angels responsible.

If The City In Glass was inspired by anything, it’s the end of the world and how often in your life you might be confronted with such a terrible thing. It’s inspired by what comes after the end of the world, because so far as I know, there’s always been a time after the end of the world, whether or not we’re around to see it.

― Nghi Vo, Interview, Paul Semel

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

What booksellers are saying about The City in Glass

  • If something or someone is lucky enough, in their life they will love and be loved. The demon of Azril, Vitrine, knows what is like to love, to love her city and each person in it, to know their story as intimately as she does her own. She also knows what it is to grieve, when angels come to rain fire on her city, destroying every carefully laid stone and extinguishing every last soul. As Vitrine rebuilds her city over the centuries, accompanied by the angel who she cursed to stay with her, she learns what it is like to be loved: by the new inhabitants, and by her angel, try as she might to get rid of him. Vo’s prose sings in her latest novel, a gorgeous explosion of color and life that blooms and decays as Vitrine’s narration alternates between the Azril of old and new. At once a history, a love story, and voyage into the fantastic, The City in Glass is a genre-defying triumph.
      ― Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY

  • While a demon rebuilds her beloved city brick-by-brick after its utter devastation, the angel responsible looks on, cursed to witness the destruction he caused. The years that pass between them are raw with grief and rage, but also soft with hope and new beginnings, and by the end of the book our hearts are just as wrapped up in this magical, improbable city as the demon and the angel. Every book Nghi Vo writes is a revelation, and The City in Glass is an exceptional example of her unparalleled imagination. It is diamond-sharp, sumptuous, and heady, full of luscious prose and a healthy dose of erotically-charged angel-humbling, and will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.
      ― Rebecca Speas, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina | BUY

  • This is a novel of feminine rage, grief, and loss. Nghi Vo masterfully asks, “Who do we become in the face of loss?” “How much of ourselves die with those we’ve lost?” and “What happens when we finally accept that loss and realize that grief is a symbol of love (a love that never fades), not loss?
      ― Hezekiah Olorode, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia | BUY

About Nghi Vo

Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The series entries have been finalists for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Crawford Award, the Ignyte Award, and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.

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