Hub City Books

The Nightingales by Emil Wilson

,
The Nightingales by Emil Wilson
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

A beautifully rendered coming-of-age story told through a high schooler’s sketchbook after her dad takes in a coworker with AIDs in the ’80s. This book is full of care and empathy; family strife but also understanding as Lou reflects on her parents’ backgrounds; and pops of humor, primarily from the dancing Pomeranian duo. The Nightingales will break your heart but heal it too.

The Nightingales by Emil Wilson, (List Price: $38, Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, 9781668217771, August 2026)

Reviewed by Julie, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, SC

The Nightingales by Emil Wilson Read More »

A Door Is to Open by Kyo Maclear

, , ,
A Door Is to Open by Kyo Maclear
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

This delightful book is also a door–to story, imagination, possibility, inspiration, and a bit of magic in the everyday! This one is perfect for adventurous readers to visit classrooms, warm homes, whales underwater, and more, but readers will also feel rewarded knowing they were curious enough to have opened this book in the first place.

A Door Is to Open by Kyo Maclear, (List Price: $18.99, Tundra Books, 9781774887448, April 2026)

Reviewed by Julie, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, SC

A Door Is to Open by Kyo Maclear Read More »

Opting Out by Maia Kobabe

, , ,
Opting Out by Maia Kobabe
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

Opting Out portrays the usual middle school woes of puberty, friendship drama, crushes, (mutual) bullies, but through the alienated perspective and feelings of 7th grader Saachi, who is agender and aromantic/asexual and doesn’t want to take part in any of those aspects typically associated with growing up and doesn’t want anything to change. Told with deep understanding and groundedness, Opting Out shows positive family relationships during tumultuous times, and how writing and new friendships can offer places to make sense of the world and yourself.

Opting Out by Maia Kobabe, (List Price: $14.99, Graphix, 9781339012247, May 2026 )

Reviewed by Julie, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, SC

Opting Out by Maia Kobabe Read More »

Broken by X. Fang

, , ,
Broken by X. Fang
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

Broken is a gentle story of a little girl with big feelings rendered in soft layered colored pencil. This story is simple, but soothing, and a reminder that what’s broken can always be fixed (and to perhaps not trust cats, who are always up to something).

Broken by X. Fang, (List Price: $18.99, Tundra Books, 9781774882009, October 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Broken by X. Fang Read More »

Cannon by Lee Lai

,
Cannon by Lee Lai
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

Cannon by Lee Lai is a blow to the nervous system with cathartic aftershocks. Through gorgeous linework, paneling, and speech bubble placement, Cannon portrays a pressure cooker of circumstances for “stoic” protagonist Cannon/Lucy, in her relationships (platonic, romantic, and familial), stressful restaurant job, and attempts to keep everything under control (even as she’s seeing birds) in the form of going on runs while listening to breathing meditation podcasts. I sweated. I felt too seen. I devoured it.

Cannon by Lee Lai, (List Price: $29.95, Drawn and Quarterly, 9781770468023, September 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Cannon by Lee Lai Read More »

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki

, ,
This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

What a pair! Thrilled to see Mariko Tamaki and Nicole Goux team up for This Place Kills Me, bringing together their signature skills in creating wonderful misfit weird girls to this beautifully drawn, dark, theatrical mystery. Set at an all-girls boarding school in the ’80s/’90s, I couldn’t put this book down as the secrets of the Wilberton Theatrical Society spilled out in devastating and compelling ways.

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki, (List Price: $26.99, Abrams Fanfare, 9781419768460, August 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki Read More »

Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon

, , ,
Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

This book is a treat (just look at that art!), especially for fans of Frog & Toad who are ready for a bigger adventure. Luis (the guitar playing bear) & Pablo (the grumpy mole) are an odd pair of buddies that must brave their way to The Big City to in an attempt to experience *culture* and fine dining (versus the usual catch your own meal way of the woods) and not get mugged by rough and tough city squirrels with spoons in this hilarious, pitch perfect, highbrow-lowbrow tale that will leave you singing a song and giggling all the way through.

Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon, (List Price: $15.99, HarperAlley, 9780063246119, July 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Into the Bewilderness by Gus Gordon Read More »

Spent by Alison Bechdel

,
Spent by Alison Bechdel
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

Don’t know if it’s the dire days of 2025 or what, but I had to laugh (so as not to cry?) while reading Spent, which felt bleakly, hysterically absurdist, a parody/satire but not without care and all too true in the way it represents the daily buzzing oversaturated mania of the hypercurrent time we live in. Poking fun at cliches of those aligned on far and opposite ends of the political spectrum, Bechdel, with humor, tugs at the impossible and insane moral quandaries of trying to make meaning, make art, make anything–focus! while everyone is drowning in “content” and grabbing at shredded attention spans and money while the world burns/floods/landslides (terrifyingly apocalyptic to realize that we’re in this dystopia NOW) and ethical consumption (and maybe ethical anything) is impossible. And yet…I enjoyed reading Spent, couldn’t look away from the train wreck we’re in. It doesn’t land hopelessly either, but instead lets go of grandiosity and the large scale, landing on the fact that we are still here and we’ve got to take care of each other in the day-to-day.

Spent by Alison Bechdel, (List Price: $32, Mariner Books, 9780063278929, May 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Spent by Alison Bechdel Read More »

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod

, ,
Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

As a fan of Craig Mod’s email newsletters of his long (and I mean long) walks through Japan, I was eager to read Things Become Other Things. Accompanied by beautiful black-and-white photos, Craig’s reflections on place, walking, scarcity, grief, and boyhood are filled with love and care. His musings as he grapples with the American town he grew up in, a rough place with limited opportunities or role models, in contrast to similar remote Japanese towns that have much more support and consideration for their citizens, are incredibly relevant.

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod, (List Price: $31, Random House, 9780593732540, May 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod Read More »

Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light by Yuki Ainoya

, ,
Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light by Yuki Ainoya
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.

The Sato the Rabbit books are pure dreamy playful magic. Through gorgeous vivid spreads, this book makes me want to wake up early, live in a lighthouse, drink sparkles, and let my imagination dance.

Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light by Yuki Ainoya, (List Price: $17.95, Enchanted Lion, 9781592704392, May 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light by Yuki Ainoya Read More »

Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou

, , , , ,
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
buy this book

Buy from your local indie.
Get the audiobook

Told via a fairytale pitch-perfect unreliable narrator (who continues to shift the story in acquiescence to the ghost chorus), Sour Cherry brings the reader along to witness the hauntings and the haunted, complicit women trapped in violent cycles, and the rot and decay that are apparent when the stories are stripped away. If Angela Carter and Carmen Maria Machado were trapped in House of Leaves, you’d be holding this book in your hands.

Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou, (List Price: $17.95, Tin House Books, 9781963108194, April 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou Read More »

Scroll to Top