North Carolina Bookstores

Nobody Gets Out Alive : Stories by Leigh Newman

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Nobody Gets Out Alive : Stories by Leigh Newman
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This collection of occasionally-interlinking stories simmers with personalities hardened by the harsh wilderness, by the survival of the everyday and the illusion of escape. Some of the stories connect to follow a character from childhood through adulthood while others follow young women into motherhood, one frenetic event building into the next and illuminating a range of once-peripheral characters alongside them. The effect is absorbing, an abstract portrait of a community shaped by their landscape, remote and reckless, fissured and cruel and coping.

Nobody Gets Out Alive : Stories by Leigh Newman, (List Price: $26.99, Scribner, 9781982180300, April 2022)

Reviewed by Miranda Sanchez, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones

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Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
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Alive at the End of the World might not save my life, but it’s perfect company here between the rock and the hard place. Saeed Jones’ poems mold my daily depressive spiral into a crystalline mobius strip, looping endlessly back around to how we are harmed and do harm as this planet slouches towards Bethlehem. By turns grievous and grieving, this collection is a much-needed snapshot of coping mid-apocalypse.

Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones, (List Price: $16.95, Coffee House Press, 9781566896511, October 2022)

Reviewed by Terrance Hudson, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja by Ana Siqueira

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If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja by Ana Siqueira
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Super cute story that balances English and Spanish! Perfect for Halloween but really you can read this one year-round — witches are cool! And I’m always a fan of any picture book that requires you to rotate the book to see the words.

If Your Babysitter Is a Bruja by Ana Siqueira, (List Price: $18.99, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Reader, 9781534488748, August 2022)

Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega

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Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega
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I needed this book so bad when I was younger! From middle school to high school, I hated my curly, frizzy, thick hair. I didn’t know what to do with it other than straightening it to make it look ‘pretty’ and I didn’t have anyone in my life with hair like mine, so my hair always felt like a problem. I loved that Marlene wanted to embrace her curly hair and started that journey for herself without permission. She unapologetically wanted to be her self and it completely warmed my heart. Thank you Claribel A. Ortega for this story! I cannot wait for other kids to read this and learn to love their hair!

Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega, (List Price: $12.99, First Second, 9781250259639, October 2022)

Reviewed by Juliana Reyes, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Maybe An Artist, A Graphic Memoir by Liz Montague

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Maybe An Artist, A Graphic Memoir by Liz Montague
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This graphic memoir should be put into every middle and high school library in the country! As kids we are often told to do what we love, but there’s so much pressure on kids to succeed before they get a chance to figure out what success may look like for them. In this book Liz Montague documents the stress of trying to become something she wasn’t and how she eventually acknowledged and achieved her dreams of becoming an artist. I loved her illustration style — it is so simple and so effective!

Maybe An Artist, A Graphic Memoir by Liz Montague, (List Price: $17.99, Random House Studio, 9780593307823, October 2022)

Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Artemis Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer

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Artemis Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer
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A September 2022 Read This Next! Title

Trista Mateer punched me directly in the chest with this poetry collection. Carved my heart out and served it back to me with a sprig of parsley on top. Every page of this book is chock full of beautiful, enchanting words that dig in deep and tear up the soil to reveal things you might not have thought about in years. Even if a poem doesn’t directly connect with you, it will in fact, ruin you.

Artemis Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer, (List Price: $16.99, Central Avenuel Publishing, 9781771682725, September 2022)

Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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When You Take a Step by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

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When You Take a Step by Bethanie Deeney Murguia
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A September 2022 Read This Next! Title

Follow a trail of color through this book as you see where taking a step will lead. Each page follows a child as they explore the world. And even though everyone’s journey will be different, they can all make a difference. This book has a similar feel to Jacqueline Woodson’s The Day You Begin.

When You Take a Step by Bethanie Deeney Murguia, (List Price: $18.99, Beach Lane Books, 9781534473676, September 2022)

Reviewed by Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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The Problem with the Other Side by Kwame Ivery

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The Problem with the Other Side by Kwame Ivery
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Uly and Sallie don’t let their differing races (or anything, for that matter) get in the way of their relationship. That is, until the school election rolls around and they find themselves working against each other to benefit their siblings’ opposing campaigns, one of which is built of a bigotry capable of tearing Uly and Sallie–and the entire school–apart. Ivery has managed to craft the perfect mix of funny humor and serious social justice in this engaging read. His entertaining writing style brings Uly and Sallie to life in their dual perspectives. If you’re looking for a lighthearted contemporary read which doesn’t fail to highlight the racial and social injustices that continue to plague our nation, look no further than The Problem With the Other Side.

The Problem with the Other Side by Kwame Ivery, (List Price: $10.99, Soho Teen, 9781641293549, August 2022)

Reviewed by Ethan, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld

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Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld
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From the very first chapter in Acceptance you feel Neitfeld’s urgency to change her future and outrun the circumstances of her childhood. A memoir of mental health, foster care and homelessness, abuse, and this book is also the story of the struggle for education, for a way out, and to find one’s true path. Not since Educated have I felt as compelled by a memoir as I did by Acceptance; highly recommended for all readers.

Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld, (List Price: $17.95, Penguin Press, 9780593489475, August 2022)

Reviewed by Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Welcome to Our Table by Laura Mucha

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Welcome to Our Table by Laura Mucha
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Now I’m hungry! A Gastro Obscura for kids — and not so much on the obscurity but more on the shared experiences and comparing differences around the globe. And much like every time I handle the adult book, I get hungry. Kids are so willing to try things if they’re presented by people with a love of sharing neat stuff.

Welcome to Our Table by Laura Mucha, (List Price: 21.99, Nosy Crow, 9798887770185, August 2023)

Reviewed by Lisa Yee Swope, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Courage Like Kate by Anna Crowley Redding

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Courage Like Kate by Anna Crowley Redding
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I really enjoy biographical picture books, especially when I get to learn about individuals in history I never knew about. Courage Like Kate is the tale of Kate Moore, who was raised on Fayerweather Island, by her father, who was the lighthouse keeper. Calling herself his assistant, she learned under his guidance, not only how to maintain the island and the lighthouse, but also how to rescue people from the choppy seas. Kate spent the majority of her life on the island, officially became the lighthouse keeper after her father’s death; her ambition, courage, and dedication are excellent examples for children!

Courage Like Kate by Anna Crowley Redding, (List Price: $17.99, Random House Studio, 9780593373408, August 2022)

Reviewed by Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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This Little Voter by Carol Herring (Illus.), Ann Bonnie

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This Little Voter by Carol Herring (Illus.), Ann Bonnie
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With the same structure and rhyming pattern as This Little Piggy, This Little Voter celebrates all the things voters can do to participate in the electoral process – register to vote, campaign, vote, and more. This is the perfect addition for the youngest of readers to an Election Day storytime!

This Little Voter by Carol Herring (Illus.), Ann Bonnie, (List Price: $6.99, little bee books, 9781499813241, August 2022)

Reviewed by Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Everything in Its Place by Pauline David-Sax

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Everything in Its Place by Pauline David-Sax
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This is a quiet and sweet story that’s perfect for readers of all ages; it truly feels like a picture book for any reader. It perfectly captures the way books can cure loneliness. I loved the combination of collage and colored-pencil illustrations.

Everything in Its Place by Pauline David-Sax, (List Price: $17.99, Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 9780593378823, July 2022)

Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

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Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
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Here’s how you take a great sin–maybe The great sin–and particularize it so that our minds can grasp it. The Germans and the British and the Portuguese and the Dutch (and now, of course, the US and China and ad nauseam)–all of these governments have, at one time or another, wanted to get their hands on Africa–really get in there–all the way in–and do what they want to it. Gurnah and his magical Nobel Prize-winning pen tells us the story of a family battered by the complexities of colonialism and their risings and fallings and re-risings. Deep, satisfying, horrifying, wonderful.

Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, (List Price: $28, Riverhead Books, 9780593541883, August 2022)

Reviewed by Erica Eisdorfer, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall

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A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall
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One determined witch, several unflappable frogs, and a jar of emergency pickles – who knew this was the recipe for pure picture book brilliance?

A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall, (List Price: $17.99, Greenwillow Books, 9780062890290, July 2022)

Reviewed by Elese Stutts, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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