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The Free Verse Society by Delali Adjoa

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The Free Verse Society by Delali Adjoa
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The Free Verse Society gave me everything I want in a YA book and a romance. Flawed characters trying to figure out who they are, real stakes, and a slow-burning, sweet romance. Jae moves in with her uncle and starts attending a new school to make a fresh start after giving up her baby for adoption. Derek is still struggling with his family’s fall from wealth after his father’s death. The way these two characters struggle, make mistakes, write poetry, and find each other is beautiful and heart-rending.

The Free Verse Society by Delali Adjoa, (List Price: $19.99, Peachtree Teen, 9781682638408, March 2026)

Reviewed by Fisher, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions by Ahmad Saber

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Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions by Ahmad Saber
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Ramin is a Pakistani-Canadian boy who just wants to get through his senior year at his Muslim high school without anyone finding out that he’s gay. Is it possible for him to love Allah and also boys? When he has to join the soccer team to make up for a missing gym credit, he makes an unexpected friend and starts to question his assumptions about faith, family, and queerness. Ramin’s sincerity, questions, and earnest attempts to find a path that honored all parts of himself captured my heart.

Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions by Ahmad Saber, (List Price: $21.99, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 9781665960694, March 2026)

Reviewed by Fisher, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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The Amberglow Candy Store by Hiyoko Kurisu

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The Amberglow Candy Store by Hiyoko Kurisu
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This delightful little book serves up some sweet life lessons through the use of magical candy. Each customer finds themselves at the Amberglow Candy Store at a critical point in their lives. Kogetsu, the mysterious proprietor is there to sell sweets that produce unexpected in the customers’ lives. A nice cozy read tied together with a final chapter that, like wagashi of the book, offers a surprising change in perspective.

The Amberglow Candy Store by Hiyoko Kurisu, (List Price: $28, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 9780593854921, November 2025)

Reviewed by Alex Schulz, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Anzuelo by Emma Rios

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Anzuelo by Emma Rios
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>Anzuelo plunges readers into a dreamy world of risen oceans and mythic creatures as a trio of young people try to understand the epic metamorphosis that engulfs them. Emma Rios’ beautiful graphic novel turns the apocalypse inside out, finding poetry in nature’s awesome power, and humankind’s ability to survive.

Anzuelo by Emma Rios, (List Price: $19.99, Image Comics, 9781534330160, December 2025)

Reviewed by Jonathan Hawpe, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks

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How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
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A fascinating treatise on the art of communication, deeply researched but easy to read with its emphasis on the stories of real people. If you’ve ever wondered how to connect with others on a deeper level, or really understand your spouse or your friends, read this book!

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks, (List Price: $20, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 9780593230077, October 2025)

Reviewed by Fisher Nash, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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All These Ghosts by Silas House

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All These Ghosts by Silas House
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So glad that the former Kentucky Poet Laureate has a poetry collection at last! As with his fiction, House’s work resonates most deeply the closer he stays to his Appalachian roots. With poems like “Double Creek Girl” and “Lunchlady” he transports the reader to a hardscrabble start that was tough but also suffused with the joy of family ties and the beauty of nature. Poems about queerness, protest, timesickness and soup beans all exist side by side in this collection, as in life.

All These Ghosts by Silas House, (List Price: $22.95, Blair, 9781958888698, September 2025)

Reviewed by Sam Miller, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Buff Soul by Moa Romanova

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Buff Soul by Moa Romanova
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A super fun sisters-in-arms rock tour misadventure, as three pals from Europe rock their way from California to Austin, with guest stars, sex, drugs, and friend conflict galore as the past, tensions, and secrets fester. With eye-popping and completely original art, this makes for a wild, enjoyable, and surprisingly touching graphic novel.

Buff Soul by Moa Romanova, (List Price: $29.99, Fantagraphics, 9798875000683, August 2025)

Reviewed by Seth Tucker, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker

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The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker
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Brubaker and Phillips, the best crime/noir team in comics, return with another stellar graphic novel in their acclaimed Criminal series. Do you need to read the previous 11 (all great) books in this series first? No! Interweaving tales of crime, regret, and failure collide, pulp fiction-style, in gritty, personal, and shocking tales unfold, the most interesting of which parallels a bit of the Hollywood runaround Brubaker himself experienced as a creator pushing against the system. As always, The Best!

The Knives: A Criminal Book by Ed Brubaker, (List Price: $29.99, Image Comics, 9781534355590, September 2025)

Reviewed by Seth Tucker, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Startlement by Ada Limón

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Startlement by Ada Limón
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Pulled from her previous six collections and spanning her 20-year career as a poet, Startlement will do just that with its precise beauty, lush and generous language, its wisdom about what it is to be living in this world. If you only buy one book of poetry this year, you’ll be glad it’s this!

Startlement by Ada Limón, (List Price: $28, Milkweed Editions, 9781639550517, September 2025)

Reviewed by Johanna Hynes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Murderland by Caroline Fraser

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Murderland by Caroline Fraser
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In this freewheeling braided memoir/true crime/environmental expose Pulitzer Prize winner Fraser builds a damning case, harsh detail by harsh detail, that the 70’s & 80’s serial killer zenith (think Ted Bundy, Green River Killer, Night Stalker) was, in part, caused by environmental pollution which poisoned millions but warped some young men into infamy. Not for the faint of heart, this book scares and infuriates in equal measure.

Murderland by Caroline Fraser, (List Price: $32, Penguin Press, 9780593657225, June 2025)

Reviewed by Sam Miller, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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The Bible Says So by Dan McClellan

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The Bible Says So by Dan McClellan
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Immensely informative with a touch of wry humor sprinkled in his examinations, McClellan offers up an in-depth exploration of biblical text and how it’s (mis)interpreted in today’s society. Stripped away are faith-based arguments as we’re led through the etymology and historical context of many prevalent passages. A wondrous read for the faithful and the skeptical without vitriol towards those of differing opinions.

The Bible Says So by Dan McClellan, (List Price: $30, St. Martin’s Essentials, 9781250347466, April 2025)

Reviewed by Nath Mayes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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The Unicorn Woman by Gayle Jones

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The Unicorn Woman by Gayle Jones
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An intimate, grounded story with hope to claim the unobtainable thrumming at its center, this is a novel teeming with tangible characters & intimate, captivating prose. I was blissfully lost in its pages until they ceased, but not without an impression left behind.

The Unicorn Woman by Gayle Jones, (List Price: $17.95, Beacon, 9780807019627, May 2025)

Reviewed by Nath Mayes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan

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The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan
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Simultaneously experimental and universal, these poems focus on heritage, fertility, displacement, and so much more. At turns fierce, at others tender, this collection is one I’ll want to devour again and again.

The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan, (List Price: $17.99, Ecco, 9780063317475, March 2024)

Reviewed by Nath Mayes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Ginseng Roots: A Memoir by Craig Thompson

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Ginseng Roots: A Memoir by Craig Thompson
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Craig Thompson bursts back onto the Comix scene with this exquisitely crafted hybrid memoir/socio-cultural essay that explores his youthful experience working Wisconsin’s Ginseng farms and the fascinating history of this prized root as a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures. A book as rich in information as it is beautifully adorned.

Ginseng Roots: A Memoir by Craig Thompson, (List Price: $35, Pantheon, 9780593700778, April 2025)

Reviewed by Jonathan Hawpe, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Precious Rubbish by Kayla E.

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Precious Rubbish by Kayla E.
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Kayla E. is a ferociously inventive and blisteringly effective comix maker with an incredibly focused, original vision. Something of Chris Ware’s laser-honed visual sense and brutally tragicomic writing is in her artistic DNA, but melded with a rawer, bodily expression not unlike Lynda Barry or Phoebe Gloeckner’s. Precious Rubbish almost violently morphs and subverts the bubblegum slapstick of Nancy, Little Lulu, et al, and subverts the candy shine surfaces of 20th C. commercial illustrations, to make a universe of pain, sorrow, and black humor go down like a Coke and a smile mixed with acid and lye. Utterly brilliant.

Precious Rubbish by Kayla E., (List Price: $29.99, Fantagraphics, 9781683969280, April 2025)

Reviewed by Jonathan Hawpe, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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