Book Buzz

Spotlight On: Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey

This is the challenge going into a modern romantic comedy. Readers expect there to be high stakes on the road to happily ever after. We don’t need the path to be easy, simply because the book has humorous situations or a humorous tone. A lot of us deal with the heavier aspects of life by laughing or creating levity. So that is my balancing act—making sure there is depth to the characters and their struggles, while also making sure the champagne bubble, fizzy feeling of romance is on the page.
― Tessa Bailey, Interview, Bookpage

What booksellers are saying about Wreck the Halls

I cannot say enough about this book. I finished it in 2 days and it would have been done in 1 day but life got in the way. The perfect hilarious, laugh out loud, feel good, swoon worthy, libido enhancing holiday romance! You fall in love with these characters from the very start and fall even harder throughout this book.
― Mandy Harris, Angel Wings Bookstore in Stem, NC | Buy from Angel Wings Bookstore
Melody and Beat grew up the children of former bandmates, but they never met before they were 16 because their moms broke up their band just before they were born. But the world is clamoring for a reunion, and when a reality TV show producer comes knocking with a very lucrative deal, Beat needs the money enough that he can’t say no, and Melody decides to go along for the ride (and also for Beat). While they attempt to coerce their moms into performing together again (or even just mentioning each other’s names without the world ending), Melody and Beat develop an intimacy born of knowing that they understand each other more than anyone else possibly could — though the millions of people tuning in to their livestream certainly understand something is going on. I love Tessa Bailey, and this book is no exception. A fun and steamy holiday read about finding your person, with absolutely delightful characters.
― Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC | Buy from Fiction Addiction
Tessa Bailey just keeps getting better and better! My heart leaped to the music of Melody and Beat as they worked through their issues to reach their HEA! I also appreciated the subplot of their mothers.
― Angela Trigg from Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL | Buy from Haunted Book Shop

About Tessa Bailey

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey can solve all problems except for her own, so she focuses those efforts on stubborn, fictional blue-collar men and loyal, lovable heroines. She lives on Long Island avoiding the sun and social interactions, then wonders why no one has called. Dubbed the “Michelangelo of dirty talk,” by Entertainment Weekly, Tessa writes with spice, spirit, swoon and a guaranteed happily ever after. Catch her on TikTok at @authortessabailey or check out tessabailey.com for a complete list of books.

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Spotlight On: West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

Crime, Literary, Mystery & Detective, Private Investigators

Dann McDorman, photo credit Beowulf Sheehan

Q: Why set the novel in the 70s?
A: The superficial reason is that it was fun! The hairstyles alone defy belief…The zeitgeist of the 1970s felt intensely familiar to me. We’d lost trust in institutions and in each other; the old solutions didn’t work; the new ones seemed inadequate; a creeping disillusionment had overtaken the best of us, while the worst seemed full of passionate intensity. As an era, the 1970s seems extraordinarily relevant to writers and readers today.
― Dann McDorman, Interview, Bloomsbury UK

What booksellers are saying about West Heart Kill

This one is an absolute must read for devotees of the classic mystery genre. Unique in concept while at the same time holding true to the classic formulae that make the mystery novel so intriguing to us. In this tale we join Adam McAnnis, a somewhat sketchy private eye who joins a list of colorful characters on a long weekend getaway to a private hunting lodge. As the weekend progresses and the bodies start piling up we partner with Adam as he investigates the twisted relationships and subtle clues that will help him find the killer (or killers?). Interspersed in the story are vignettes by the author who leads us on an academic study of the mystery novel that at times almost seems to mock both the reader and the genre itself while at the same time crafting an entertaining and thoroughly complex and mesmerizing mystery thriller. If for nothing more than for it’s unique approach to story telling, for true fans of the mystery novel, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this one.
― Brent Bunnell, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC | Buy from Fiction Addiction
Wow! This book is entirely captivating and such an interesting take on the mystery genre. Adam McAnnis, detective and friend of one of West Heart Hunting Club’s founding family members, is allowed to join the Bicentennial weekend at the exclusive club. All seems relatively normal, but with a mystery it never really is normal, is it? Murder, lies, old money, infidelity, and an unreliable narrator voice guide this story, and McDorman bends the book’s structure in a way that I have never seen before, making comments about the genre, plot, characters, and reader as it moves along to make for a fully immersive experience. Loved it!
― Kalynn Simpkins, Underground Books in Carrollton, GA | Buy from Underground Books
Everything about this novel was new and invigorating. I’ve never come across storytelling in this way especially with mysteries. The author subverts the status quo of mystery point of view. Always have the focus on one person or never give in depth insights into the detectives thoughts. With West Heart Kill, we are integrated into every single part of the story. The use of first, second, and third omniscient POVs was a little jarring at first, but once you get used to it, you can understand the utilization of them. Mysteries lay out the clues so that the reader can solve the crime along with the detective, but with this novel, you’re the detective. You are in the book. You’re being guided by the author as if he was writing YOUR story. You are given quizzes, clues, and questions from the character themselves. Though we do follow the main character, we are also the main character, and that experience made this one of my favorite novels I’ve read this year.
― Ae Fuller from Novel in Memphis, TN | Buy from Novel
This book is a ball to read. For obvious reasons: because it scratches that edge-of-your-chair itch, because it’s a 1976 period drama, because it’s full of rich people behaving badly, etc. And for not so obvious reasons: because the narrator acknowledges our presence as readers (!), because Mc Dorman offers us a history of the mystery genre (!!), because well it’s so darn funny and surprising (!!!)
― Laura Cotten from Thank You Books in Birmingham, AL | Buy from Thank You Books

About Dann McDorman

Dann McDorman is an Emmy-nominated TV news producer, who has also worked as a newspaper reporter, book reviewer, and cabinet maker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.

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Spotlight On: System Collapse by Martha Wells

Action & Adventure, Adult Fiction, Crime & Mystery, Science Fiction

Martha Wells, photo credit Lisa Blaschke

I got this idea for what was going to be a sad, short story that was basically the plot of All Systems Red, about a SecUnit that basically had to expose the fact that it had hacked itself and was now free in order to save the people it was guarding. It was kind of—I’ve heard them called “attack novels” or “attack ideas” or “attack stories”—this overpowering idea that you want to write it right then. So I was just going to jot down some notes on what the story’s plot was but ended up writing five pages of All Systems Red.
― Martha Wells, Interview, Monster Complex

What booksellers are saying about System Collapse

Nothing makes me remember how amazing science fiction is more than a Murderbot Diaries book. It reinvigorates my love for the genre every single time and makes me yearn for more. This installation just reaffirmed my love for Murderbot. The way they care for their humans and mission, and for doing the right thing- which for someone who is a “construct” and learning how humans and the world can be, is so heart warming and endearing. The story is not as fast paced as some of the others, but the way it builds to it is amazing. System Collapse really felt like a diary entry, but also an adventure. I can’t wait for more adventure with Murderbot, ART, and their crews
― Preet Singh, Eagle Eye Bookshop in Decatur, GA | Buy from Eagle Eye Bookshop
Murderbot! Another great installment in the adventures of our favorite rogue bot. I also enjoyed that it also wasn’t *just* another adventure–murderbot also wrestles with some very human consequences of trauma. As always, we’re huge fans here at the store and look forward to more!
― Angela Trigg from The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL | Buy from The Haunted Book Shop
There will never be enough Murderbot to make me happy. I could reread these books nonstop and it would never get old. Martha Wells is a genius and if you haven’t been introduced to this series, you do not need to begin with the first to enjoy the majesty that is Murderbot.
― Jamie Southern from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

About Martha Wells

Martha Wells has written many novels, including the million-selling New York Times and USA Today-bestselling Murderbot Diaries series, which has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards. Other titles include Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.

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Spotlight On: Last Girl Breathing by Court Stevens

Coming of Age, Family, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Parents, Psychological, Thrillers & Suspense, Young Adult Fiction

I read and write young adult fiction for the same reason people go to high school reunions — there’s something about figuring out how to be a person that begs us to return. Fiction is a natural place to explore those beautiful themes.

The first time we loved, lost, were heartbroken, broke hearts, made mistakes, had success, won trophies, came in last, found freedom, felt contained by adults, broke rules, were punished, got away with something, cared about people, cared about the world, etc. The first time. That’s the key. You don’t have to read young adult to know that formative experiences are vital understanding humanity on the whole and self-identity. We don’t ask people about the third or fourth time they fell in love. We ask them about the first time so we’ll understand their starting point. If every person is a road map with a marked journey; we want to put a pin in the place they began. Young adult fiction is that pin.
― Court Stevens, Interview, Musings, Parnassus Books

What booksellers are saying about Last Girl Breathing

am so excited that Court Stevens is back with another small town thriller! Her exploration of family, grief, and truth, all with underlying simmering suspense, is the hallmark of a Stevens novel, and Last Girl Breathing has it in spades. If you loved The June Boys and We Were Kings, don’t miss Court’s newest!
― Sarah Arnold, Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN | Buy from Parnassus
Once again, Court Stevens has delivered an enthralling thriller. On its surface Last Girl Breathing is a murder mystery, but – as is often the case with Stevens’ novels – the story goes much deeper. This is a book about trauma and grief and family – about the wounds that shape us and the people who help us bear them. All of these themes are masterfully rooted in a sense of place. Stevens deftly paints her Kentucky setting, giving the town and its people a southern vibrancy and authenticity that never once slips into the realm of stereotype.
― Kate Snyder from Plaid Elephant in Danville, KY | Buy from Plaid Elephant Books

About Court Stevens

Court Stevens grew up among rivers, cornfields, churches, and gossip in the small-town South. She is a former adjunct professor, youth minister, and Olympic torchbearer. These days she writes coming-of-truth fiction and is the director of Warren County Public Library in Kentucky. She has a pet whale named Herman, a bandsaw named Rex, and several novels with her name on the spine: The June Boys, Faking Normal, The Lies About Truth, the e-novella The Blue-Haired Boy, Dress Codes for Small Towns, and Four Three Two One. Find Court online at CourtneyCStevens.com; Instagram: @quartland; Facebook: @CourtneyCStevens; Twitter: @quartland.

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Spotlight On: Unholy Terrors by Lyndall Clipstone

Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult Fiction

Lyndall Clipstone, photo credit the author

I’ve always loved to write, and storytelling is an enormous part of how I make sense of my emotions. Especially as a young adult, a time in my life where I felt quite adrift, immersing myself into books and writing provided so much solace. I love the endlessness of possibilities with speculative fiction, and how I can use things like magic, or monsters, or body horror as a lens through which to examine the real world.
― Lyndall Clipstone, Interview, Geeks Out

What booksellers are saying about Unholy Terrors

A Monsterous boy and a fierce girl, Clipstone delivers another beautiful YA gothic fantasy. From the moment we first cross through the bone wall with Evie, to traveling through the moorland with Ravel, and facing down the Thousandfold. Clipstone takes us on a journey that feels like a Studio Ghibli film crossed with a horror movie. A gripping family legacy that makes you question everything that happens to Evie, is it fate that Evie and Ravel journey together or is it a curse? A curse that has Haunted Evie since before she was born.
― Cass W, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC | Buy from The Country Book Shop
Clipstone’s Unholy Terrors takes us to a Wuthering Heights-esque setting, wildly beautiful in its ruin, and drops us off with only the honey and ash prose we fell in love with in her Lake’s Edge duology to guard our hearts and souls against the monsters of truth and generational loyalty that howl in the Thousandfold. A beautiful and haunting read for fans of transforming girls and kissable monsters.
― Candice Conner from The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL | Buy from The Haunted Book Shop
Unholy Terrors is the perfect gothic romance fantasy for all your October spooky season needs. For fans of Crimson Peak and Labyrinth and every dark, haunted thing that deserves to be kissed and killed and brought back again. For the ghastly, and the horrifying, and still beautiful despite it all. Unholy Terrors is perfect, full stop.
― Caitlyn Vanorder from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

About Lyndall Clipstone

Lyndall Clipstone writes about monsters and the girls who like to kiss them. A former youth librarian who grew up running wild in the Barossa Ranges of South Australia, she currently lives in Adelaide, where she tends her own indoor secret garden. She has a bachelors in creative writing and a graduate diploma in library and information management. She is the author of Lakesedge and Forestfall.

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Spotlight on: The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

Adult Fiction, Gay, Historical, LGBTQ+, Literary

In my teenage years, when I first read Somerset Maugham’s The Letter, I was intrigued to discover that he had based it on Ethel Proudlock’s trial in Kuala Lumpur in 1911. She was the first white woman to be charged with murder in Malaya. She claimed that the man she had shot dead had tried to rape her in her home.

The House of Doors is about many things, but at the heart of it all, it is really about the acts of creation: how Maugham had come to hear about the trial, and how he had transmuted it into his story. It’s about the power of stories, how they can transcend cultures and borders, transcend even time itself.
― Tan Twan Eng, Interview, The Booker Prizes

What booksellers are saying about The House of Doors

I walked the streets of Penang along side Somerset Maugham. I felt the rough paths beneath my feet, as the clatter of Mah jong tiles felll from a doorway. We were on our way to the House of Doors. My fingers caressed the worn wood of its front door. But neither of us gained entry. Entry was reserved for others. This is a rare book. All my senses were captured by Tan Twan Eng. The pages glowed with atmosphere as the story propelled me into the lives of Cassawary House. Best book I’ve read this year.
― Trish O’Neill, MacIntosh Books & Paper in Sanibel, FL | Buy from Macintosh Books & Paper
Gorgeously written with strong characters telling the tale of Malaysia between the two wars. Who knew I needed to know all of this. We sometimes focus on what happened to us. This story will get right under your skin. I am a huge fan of Somerset Maughn and loved this story that drops him in there. Based on real events you are invited into this world and you won’t be the same!
― Suzanne Lucey from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC | Buy from Page 158 Books
Nobody transports a reader in time and place like Tan Twan Eng. Bringing the same beautiful, lyrical writing as he did in The Gift of Rain and The Garden of Evening Mists, he sends readers back in time to 1921 when writer Somerset Maugham arrives in Penang at a crossroads in life. The House of Doors reads like a magical look back in time into the life of one of my favorite writers as well as an entirely new story whose layers unfurl one a time, revealing an overlapping web of love, friendship, power and more.
― Beth Seufer Buss from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

About Tan Twan Eng

Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang but lived in various places in Malaysia as a child. His first novel, The Gift of Rain, was longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker. His second, The Garden of Evening Mists, was a major international bestseller, shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker, and winner of the Man Asia Literary Prize 2012 and the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. It was adapted into an award-winning film in 2019, directed by Tom Lin. Twan divides his time between Malaysia and South Africa.

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Spotlight on: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Adult Fiction, Gothic, Historical, Horror, Romance

Isabel Canas, photo credit Photo by Kilian Blum

I am more conscious of writing characters with agency than I am of writing “strong” characters. This is in part due to the fact that many of my early drafts flounder when the main characters lack agency, which I then need to address in revisions! With this story, however, I knew from the start I would intentionally give my main character a voice and a choice in her fate. I decided this for two reasons. First, women, especially those who were not members of the elite, are often silenced in the historical record due to the nature of the sources that survive from the pre- and early modern periods. Giving them a voice in fiction is very important to me. Second, female victims who lack agency is one of the great tropes of classic vampire fiction. Writing vampire stories in the post-Twilight era is a deft game of trope-tipping, and I absolutely wanted to knock that trope in particular on its head in a way that felt organic in a historical setting.
― Isabel Cañas, Interview, Nightmare Magazine

What booksellers are saying about Vampires of El Norte

An epic adventure, gothic love story. The romance of Nena and Nester, torn apart as children, captured my attention in the first few chapters and never wavered throughout the book. A great follow up book to The Hacienda.
― Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, FL | Buy from Sundog Books
The rancho and surrounding landscape are so alive that I can easily tell Cañas lived this in a thousand and one nights of storytelling at her abuela and tias’ feet. While I was reading, I wondered why Cañas chose vampires as the monster rather than something like El Cuco. Especially since the MC Nena uses the legend of El Cuco to quickly explain the danger of the situation to her family. Cañas’ author’s note explains this and her choice to keep the vampire/El Cuco separate made the Yanquis approach all the more monstrous and creepy. The romance between Nena and Nestor was fabulous. Loved the ending, and especially the way Nena “dealt” with the vampires in the end.
― Candice Conner from The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL | Buy from The Haunted Book Shop
Isabel knows the realm of gothic romance like the back of her hand- Like she’s an apprentice to Del Toro himself. Vampires of El Norte is haunting, both in the depictions of vampires, and the history it follows, of continued colonization that’s violent, horrifying, and seemingly never ending. Yet amongst all of it, there is the reminder that above all, love, all kinds of it, is how we fight back against those who terrorize. Love is the strongest force possible to back the fight. Familial, platonic, and romantic. And salt. Lots of salt.
― Caitlyn Vanorder from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

About Isabel Cañas

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.

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Spotlight on: Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

Action & Adventure, Adult Fiction, Coming of Age, Epic, Fantasy

Cassandra Clare, photo credit Cassandra Clare

Usually for me, the first thing that comes in a story is the characters, and then the story weaves itself around them. With Sword Catcher, for the first time the people and the place came at the same time, in a sort of burst of images and color…from the beginning of my working on it, Sword Catcher has been a story about adults rather than about teenagers, so it was always going to be an adult fantasy.

The big difference to me is that in YA, your characters are working on problems of identity: What kind of person am I? What are my values? What does it mean to love someone new? But the characters in Sword Catcher are in their early twenties, and they’re facing a different question: What does it mean to take on the responsibilities of adulthood?
― Cassandra Clare, Interview, Paste Magazine

What booksellers are saying about Sword Catcher

Get ready to be pulled headfirst into a beautiful, rich world full of life, magic, and history. In Sword Catcher, concepts of identity and loyalty take on new life with characters who are viciously human. (Not to mention, there’s a very healthy dose of spice.) You’ll fall in love with Cassandra Clare all over again.
― Tori Finklea, Union Ave Books in Knoxville, TN | Buy from Union Ave Books
I thoroughly enjoyed Clare’s foray into the adult book world. Sword Catcher is a fantasy of rich city-states, magic inspired by Jewish mysticism, and characters who find themselves in tangled webs of secrets and loyalty. I was absolutely TICKLED by Lin and Conor’s banter, and appreciated how much character depth Clare gave to Kel. The ending about did me in so I cannot wait for The Ragpicker King.
― Candice Conner from The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL | Buy from The Haunted Book Shop
I’m utterly obsessed with this book, but, who is surprised! I grew up reading Cassandra Clare, and now here I am as an adult, getting to read her adult debut, a masterwork of world building and beautiful respect for her own history woven through the pages. The queernormativity makes it even more beautiful, setting the stage for every reader to feel comfortable and at home as they dive into a world that promises adventure, love, and lore that begs you to get lost in it. Sword Catcher is brilliant- the next unstoppable force of nature in the world of adult fantasy.
― Caitlyn Vanorder from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

About Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is the author of the #1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestselling Shadowhunter Chronicles. She is also the coauthor of the bestselling fantasy series Magisterium with Holly Black. The Shadowhunter Chronicles have been adapted as both a major motion picture and a television series. Her books have more than fifty million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and three fearsome cats.

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Spotlight on: There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds

Children, Imagination & Play, Juvenile Fiction

Jason Reynolds, photo credit Adedayo 'Dayo' Kosoko

By that time (middle school), I had already discovered poetry, but [was also] reading rap lyrics at home and making the connection. I’m figuring out very young that these things are very much the same, and they’re being talked about differently and they’re being contextualized differently and they’re being sensationalized in different ways. But as far as I’m concerned, in my 10-year-old brain, these things are exactly the same. Tupac’s “Dear Mama” and Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” could very well be a response to the other.

You start digging through Langston Hughes’s work, and you realize, man, this is the best way to begin a life in letters. To write something that feels simple, one must be extraordinarily talented. On the totem of my ancestors, I choose for him to be there.
― Jason Reynolds, Interview, People Magazine

What booksellers are saying about There Was a Party for Langston

This is a stunning picture book — Jason Reynolds has a way with words that maybe no one has had SINCE Langston Hughes. Poetic yet approachable; his style is unique. The illustrations by Pumphrey make Reynolds’ words dance, jump, and soar on the pages as you go through a story that is in part bio, part resistance, part celebration of a man whose contributions to literature are still reverberating all these years later.
― Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks
The text and illustrations sing in harmony in the beautiful picture book.
― Rae Ann Parker from Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN | Buy from Parnassus Books
There was a hoopla in Harlem. A whizbanger for the wordmakers. A chance for those he loved to celebrate Langston and now, young readers can celebrate that the joy of Langston Hughes through the verse of Jason Reynolds and the vision of Jerome and Jarret Pumphrey in this must have new picture book.
― Angie Tally from The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC | Buy from The Country Bookshop

About Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

Jerome Pumphrey is a designer, illustrator, and writer. His work includes It’s a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor—all of which he created with his brother Jarrett. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’s There Was a Party for Langston. Jerome works as a graphic designer at The Walt Disney Company. He lives in Texas.

Jarrett Pumphrey is an award-winning author-illustrator who makes books for kids with his brother, Jerome. Their books include It’s a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’s There Was a Party for Langston. Jarrett lives near Austin, Texas.

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Spotlight on: Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Adult Fiction, Literary

Jesmyn Ward, photo Credit Beowulf Sheehan

In each book since my second novel, there has been a wild animal presence: a dog, a snake, and a great black vulture…I like to think they are reflections of the natural world, but I also believe they are something more, that they are the manifestations of that which does not operate by human logic. They exist in a liminal space, fierce and free and mysterious. They are both ordinary and divine, and they bear proof that there is more to this world than we know.
― Jesmyn Ward, Interview, LitHub

What booksellers are saying about Let Us Descend

This book is no mere pick of the month. This is the kind of book that comes along once in a generation. The kind of book that makes us want to open bookstores. The kind of book that will be required reading for our children and grandchildren as they go through school. The kind of book that will be filmed page by page and line by line because there is not one thing about it that needs to be changed. I can only hope that we are ready to let this book change us.This is a story that needed to be told, but couldn’t be told without a great deal of pain. For Jesmyn Ward to explore this territory and tell this story amid her own personal grief is an act of bravery. It is an act of service to American society to tell this story no matter how hard it got, and to withhold shortcuts and saviors and swooping gestures, to force us to look at the honest truth of the human toll of our history. And it is an act of love to each and every individual who we will never know but whose story this could be.
― Emily Liner, Friendly City Books in Columbus, MS | Buy from Friendly City Books
One year after her sire sold and marched her mother south, he does the same to enslaved teen Annis. In the depths of Louisiana bound in rope and destitution, Annis must use the extensive knowledge of combat and foraging imparted to her by her mother, and by her warrior grandmother before her, to transcend her squalor and claim her humanity. Let Us Descend is an often-painful story with an excellent lead character whose story is explicitly her own to wrangle. Largely, it is about one family’s generational fight so that each descendant may have a better life than the last.
― Sam Edge from Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, NC | Buy from Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews
Let Us Descend is a novel of American slavery loosely based on Dante’s Inferno. Through many circles of hell you are led on a heart-wrenchingly powerful journey. Annis struggles through the soul-searching harrowing hellish march from the Carolinas to Lousiana, in shackles. She speaks to her mother and her african warrior grandmother, and mystical spirits of good and bad. These memories and spirits comfort and strengthen her on this journey. She finds love and loses love, and this love becomes her measure of love. All very strong women at every turn. This a powerfully magnificent novel with an absolute break-neck breath-taking end.
― Amy Loewy from Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, LA | Buy from Garden District Bookshop
A visceral and haunting gut-punch of a novel. Annis’s journey through the hell of the American South’s antebellum era is harrowing but her spirit and tenacity will keep you turning the page with bated breath. The gorgeous writing, and magical realism of Let Us Descend will stay with you long after you finish.
― Chelsea Bauer from Union Ave Books in Knoxville, TN | Buy from Union Ave Books

About Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011). She is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and the Media for a Just Society Award. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in Mississippi.

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Spotlight on: North Woods by Daniel Mason

Adult Fiction, Historical, Literary, Nature & Environment

“You know, even though I’ve – I love writing about nature, I had previously really mostly written about nature as a kind of setting. And this time around, I thought, I want to write about it as a kind of protagonist. What would it be like to treat it like I treat my human characters? And, of course, all the good stuff that makes up the stories that we want to hear about human characters – all the drama, the sex, the violence, the treason – are ones that we can find in the natural world, as well.”
― Daniel Mason, Interview, NPR

What booksellers are saying about North Woods

Daniel Mason’s North Woods is a masterful literary art form exploring the four-hundred-year history of the woods surrounding a particular house in western Massachusetts. Mason uses songs, journals, letters, medical notes, and other techniques to share the lives of those who live, love, suffer, create, and die there. The manner in which this book reveals the life cycles of flora and fauna is lyrical, respectful, and full of wonder and awe. Throughout North Woods humanity shapes and changes the environment, but the natural world very much reveals itself to be omnipotent.
― Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia | Buy from Avid Bookshop
In times like these, art’s what gets us through. In North Woods, Mason meets us head-on: our fear of change, our place in nature, what it is we owe to the ancestors. It’ll be compared to The Overstory but its similarity to Lincoln in the Bardo ― the stories of those who came before us ― is what it recalls. That said: Mason’s his own man and his own master and doesn’t really need to be compared to anyone at all. He sits, at the top of the mountain, with the those to whom we give our eternal thanks for books we love.
― Erica Eisdorfer, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | Buy from Flyleaf Books
Majestic and sprawling and a grand ol’ adventure through time of one singular, special place starring as the ultimate main character with deep ties that bind these stories into one. Incredible.
― Jill Naylor from Novel in Memphis, TN | Buy from Novel.
I read Daniel Mason’s book, North Woods, on a trip across the country. In the car, when I finished the last page, I turned to my husband and said, “Oh my gosh—I’ve got to start reading this again immediately!” Spanning around 400 years of inhabitants of a house in Massachusetts, this novel is haunting and haunted. Mason makes use of many literary forms, including the loveliest poetry and epistolary writing, to tell the story of the intertwined lives of the people who lived in the yellow house with the orchard of Wonder apples.
― Mamie Potter from Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC | Buy from Quail Ridge Books

About Daniel Mason

Daniel Mason is the author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, and A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages, adapted for opera and the stage, and awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His short stories and essays have been awarded two Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. He is an assistant professor in the Stanford University department of psychiatry.

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Spotlight on: Lo que el río sabe por Isabel Ibáñez

Etiquetas: Adulto joven, Fantasía, Fantasy, Histórico, Historical, Young Adult

“Amo, amo, historias que cuentan del amor. Creo que más que nada, es la emoción detrás de cada palabra, cada personaje, cómo puede inspirar a alguien a sentir amor y dolor, y alegría y reír a carcajadas o llorar. Hay algo tan hermoso en escribir una historia con la que muchas personas pueden relacionarse o apreciar. Quiero ser escritor porque quiero vivir en mi imaginación, y no en ningún tipo de estructura. Escribir me permite acceder al pozo de mi creatividad y a menudo me sorprende.”

― Isabel Ibañez, Entrevista, American Writers Museum

Lo que dicen los libreros de What the River Knows

Una carta de amor a la historia, más específicamente a la historia egipcia. Una hermosa ficción histórica con una pizca de magia y la romalidad más deliciosa que jamás hayas leído, y por la que estarás un poco traumatizado. Isabel sabe lo que está haciendo, y todo lo que usted como lector necesita hacer es confiar en ella.
― Caitlyn Vanorder from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Compra de Bookmarks
Inez Olivera tiene un toque de magia y un espíritu aventurero, pero va a necesitar más para sobrevivir a los peligros y engaños que rodean a sus padres perdidos. El ritmo rápido, muchos giros y personajes poco confiables, y un final de suspenso hacen de este un buen comienzo para una nueva serie.
― Jan Blodgett from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC | Compra de Main Street Books
“Primero, este libro fue una montaña rusa emocional que parecía que no podía dejar. La forma en que el autor escribió el personaje de Inez hizo que me gustara al instante. Cada personaje de la historia fue escrito con una personalidad tan única que las interacciones que tuvieron entre sí me hicieron querer más. En general, las mejores partes de esta historia fueron la forma en que las ambiciones, interacciones y deseos de los personajes fluyeron a través de la trama, haciendo que cada uno de ellos sea adorable (o extremadamente odiable). ¡No puedo esperar a la próxima!
― Suzanne Lucey from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC | Compra de Page 158 Books

Sobre Isabel Ibañez

Isabel Ibañez es autora de Together We Burn (Wednesday Books) y Woven in Moonlight (Page Street), finalista del Premio William C. Morris, y figura entre los 100 mejores libros de fantasía de todos los tiempos de la revista Time. Ella es la orgullosa hija de inmigrantes bolivianos y tiene un profundo aprecio por la historia y los viajes. Actualmente vive en Asheville, Carolina del Norte, con su esposo, su adorable perro y una colección seria de libros. Manda tú saludo en las redes sociales en @IsabelWriter09.

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Spotlight on: What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult

“I love love love telling stories. I think more than anything, it’s the emotion behind every word, every character, how it can inspire someone to feel love and hurt, and joy and to laugh out loud or cry. There is something so beautiful about writing a story that many people can relate to or cherish. I want to be a writer because I want to live in my imagination, and not in any kind of structure. Writing allows me to access the well of my creativity and it often surprises me.”
― Isabel Ibañez, Interview, American Writers Museum

What booksellers are saying about What the River Knows

A love letter to history, most specifically Egyptian history. A beautiful historical fiction with a sprinkling of magic and the most delicious rivalmance you’ll ever read, and be slightly traumatized by. Isabel knows what she’s doing, and all you as the reader need to do is trust her.
― Caitlyn Vanorder from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks
Inez Olivera has a touch of magic and an adventurous spirit but she’s going to need more to survive the dangers and deceits surrounding her lost parents. Fast pacing, plenty of twists and unreliable characters, and a cliffhanger ending make this a good start to a new series.
― Jan Blodgett from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC | Buy from Main Street Books
First, this book was an emotional roller coaster that I couldn’t seem to put down. The way the author wrote Inez’s character made me like her instantly. Every character in the story was written with such a unique personality that the interactions they had with each other had me wanting more. Overall, the best parts of this story were the way the characters’ ambitions, interactions, and desires flowed through the plot, making each one of them lovable (or extremely hateable). Can’t wait for the next one!
― Suzanne Lucey from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC | Buy from Page 158 Books

About Isabel Ibañez

Isabel Ibañez is the author of Together We Burn (Wednesday Books), and Woven in Moonlight (Page Street), a finalist for the William C. Morris Award, and listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time. She is the proud daughter of Bolivian immigrants and has a profound appreciation for history and traveling. She currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, their adorable dog, and a serious collection of books. Say hi on social media at @IsabelWriter09.

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Spotlight on: A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult

“I am always very interested in the deconstruction of fairy tales, the relationship between folklore and nationalism, and the role of stories in shaping identity on both the personal and political level. If The Wolf and the Woodsman is about the pain of being excluded from the narrative, and Juniper & Thorn is about the pain of being forced into a narrative against your will, then A Study in Drowning is about crafting an intricate, epic narrative of your own, in order to protect yourself from the pain of life’s daily, banal cruelties.” ― Ava Reid, Interview, Books Forward

What booksellers are saying about A Study in Drowning

What’s more dangerous—a sinking mansion full of secrets, a vicious and enthralling Fairy King, or the forces that have historically silenced and subjugated young women in academia? Fans of Mexican Gothic and The Hazel Wood, this Welsh folklore-infused dark academia fantasy will sweep you under and leave you drowning in all its lush and eerie, mysterious and romantic, utterly immersive, gothic splendor.
― Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia | Buy from Underground Books
Ava Reid’s YA debut will surely be one of my favorite reads of 2023. Reid’s work is steeped in literary and folkloric reference, worth countless re-reads and further dissection. Their prose is unmatched; dark, delicious, and dreamy all at once. Reid is a remarkable talent—I will read anything they write.
― Reviewed by Isabel Agajanian, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida | Buy from Oxford Exchange
A haunting story full of magic and heart. I was hooked from the very beginning. I loved falling so completely into the world Ava Reid created.
― Rayna Nielsen, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana | Buy from Blue Cypress Books

About Ava Reid

Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.

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Spotlight on: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

Action & Adventure, Adult Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+

“I remember being a furious child. Small and blonde, bookish and talkative, I hated how often I was “baby,” how often I was “cute.” I wanted to be loud, strong, and powerful. I wanted to fight my brothers and my cousins, strength to strength, arm to arm, bloody noses and bruises.

Worse was when they started getting bigger, taller, stronger. Worse is that being as loud as the lads was ‘annoying’ (them), ‘boisterous and unladylike’ (adults), ‘disruptive’ (teachers). I’m sure I was all of those things, but it was early that I understood that there was one expectation for ‘girls’, one for ‘boys’, and you were expected to fit neatly into one or the other.” ― Hannah Kaner, Interview, Fantasy Book Cafe

What booksellers are saying about Godkiller

Godkiller is an excellently written fantasy novel. We follow a host of characters as they reluctantly join together to solve their individual quests: saving the heart of a king, finding a shrine to call home, parting with a god of white lies, and god killing revenge. The characters are well developed and the world building is immersive with a digestible pace of folklore and history placed throughout. Godkiller also includes fantastic disability representation that fits seamlessly into the story. The final pages packed a punch and I’m already looking forward to the next book in the series.
― Madeline Newstead, Novel. in Memphis, Tennessee | Buy from Novel
Godkiller is a cinematic masterpiece. Kaner’s world building is exquisite, and her characters vibrant and intriguing. The story concept had me hooked right from the beginning (I have a soft spot for plots built around complex religious systems) and Kissen’s narration pulled me right along. I really enjoyed the descriptive flow of the prose and Kaner’s ability to be flawlessly inclusive was a refreshing change as well. Absolutely devoured this book.
― Morgan Holub from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georga | Buy from E. Shaver, bookseller
Godkiller is like The Witcher and The Last of Us but for wlw. For the sapphics. For those of us craving a grumpy older sister instead of a grumpy father figure. Godkiller is a queer, dramatic, lush affair full of some of the most beautiful, unique world building ever seen on page. It’s sure to absolutely rock your world.
― Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | Buy from Bookmarks
This is my #1 read of the year and I didn’t even see it coming. This book has the best vibes I have read in a long time, it transports you to a world that feels like the setting of The Witcher while having all the action and travel timeline of American Gods. It feels Nordic and Enchanting in all the best way like if a Viking and a Fairy had a child. Hands down a 5 star read for me, and one of the only times I have actually enjoyed multiple POVs. The writing is captivating and the characters are both abrasive and loveable while the setting makes you feel like an adventurer.This book alone has added Hannah Kaner to my instant author purchase list!
― Reviewed by Charlotte Beck, Main Street Reads in Summerville, South Carolina | Buy from Main Street Reads

About Hannah Kaner

Hannah Kaner is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Godkiller. A Northumbian writer living in Scotland, she is inspired by world mythologies, angry women, speculative fiction, and the stories we tell ourselves about being human.

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