Past Read this Next!

Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda

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Such a Quiet Place
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You can’t always believe what you see. Megan Miranda brings the reader to an idyllic neighborhood, but it’s what all the porch cameras don’t show that makes this story the heart pounding thriller it is. Ruby returns to the neighborhood that helped convict her of the murder of a neighborhood couple, and she’s there to expose Hollow’s Edge darkest secrets. When another murder occurs, it seems no one is safe.

Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda, (List Price: 26.99, Simon & Schuster, 9781982147280, July 2021)

Reviewed by Kate Towery, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

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The Forest of Vanishing Stars
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The Forest of Vanishing Stars is about a young girl kidnapped from her wealthy German parents and raised in the forests of Eastern Europe. From her earliest years, she is taught to survive in the woods. When her captor dies, she is alone until she comes upon a group of Jewish people fleeing from the Nazis. She decides to do whatever she can to protect them until a family secret threatens everything. Atmospheric with hints of fairy tale, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a stand out in WWII Historical Fiction 

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel, (List Price: 28, Gallery Books, 9781982158934, July 2021)

Reviewed by Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, NC

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The Way She Feels by Courtney Cook

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The Way She Feels
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When I picked up Courtney Cook’s book, I immediately read from start to finish. Cook’s personality is bright and poppy, friendly and relatable, and somehow this book maintains a level of kindness and vulnerability even when talking about the scary parts of living with Borderline personality disorder, from self-harm to crippling anxiety and depression, obsessive behavior, and more. Although there are 4 million people in the US that are diagnosed, Borderline personality disorder is still so stigmatized, even as people are starting to recognize and normalize mental illness at large. The Way She Feels is the representation of BPD–from confusing and distressing, to joyful and funny–that is needed right now.

The Way She Feels by Courtney Cook, (List Price: 18.95, Tin House Books, 9781951142599, 2021-06-29)

Reviewed by Cat Chapman, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida

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Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

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Hell of a Book
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Mott’s latest is no joke. Charlie Kauffman-esque in its surrealism that devolves into almost fever dream with the most unreliable narrator I’ve ever read. Fantastic writing, and meaning, and it should be read by the masses. ‘Memory and death are countries that know no geography.’

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott, (List Price: 27, Dutton, 9780593330968, July 2021)

Reviewed by Amber Brown from Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC

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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

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The Love Hypothesis
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A Summer Read This Next! Selection!

If, like me, your catnip is the taciturn, brainy, hot hero who is secretly a big squishy marshmallow at heart, you can look nor further than this awesome debut! It’s also sexy, witty, and features a well-rounded cast of characters in a STEM environment.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, (List Price: 16, Berkley, 9780593336823, September 2021)

Reviewed by Angela Trigg, The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, Alabama

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This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

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This Poison Heart
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A queer, Black book inspired by The Secret Garden and Little Shop of Horrors with a flower-powerful, badass girl at the center trying to unravel a family mystery. I simply can’t love it more. It’s amazing and you need it in your life.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron, (List Price: 18.99, Bloomsbury YA, 9781547603909, July 2021)

Reviewed by Rayna Nielsen, Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, Louisiana

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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

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The Final Girl Support Group
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It turns out all those hours I spent watching 1980s (and beyond) horror films weren’t wasted. From the detritus of popular culture and our own obsession with nostalgia comes up a blistering horror novel that savages society with the same precision and bloodletting as the killers savage their victims. Hendrix’s fans will be ecstatic, and we all will enjoy puzzling out who these final girls are! (Julia and Dani were the easiest, and I’m still puzzling out some references)

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, (List Price: 26, Berkley, 9780593201237, July 2021)

Reviewed by Tracie Harris, The Book House in Mableton, Georgia

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Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal

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Lycanthropy and other Chronic Ilnesses
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal
Quirk, April

Oof, ouch, this debut YA yanked me in and I could NOT put it down. Poignant and hilarious, it delves into the mental landscape of chronic illnesses, and brings werewolfism (this should be a word, fyi) into the storyline. I LOVE Brigid’s sense of humor and her and Priya’s friendship is one we ALL need in our lives. Great recommendation for readers who are looking for a solid friendship-themed book. There is a fun hint of romance but it doesn’t shift the story’s focus.

– Candice Corner, The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL

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House of Sticks by Ly Tran

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House of Sticks
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

House of Sticks by Ly Tran
Scribner, June

With a delicate simplicity to her poetic prose, Ly Tran has crafted a spellbinding memoir perfect for fans of Tara Westover, Celeste Ng, and Jeanette Walls. Ly Tran’s story reached into the depths of my heart and soul, and filled me with overwhelming hope. I can’t wait for readers to be introduced to the singular beauty of her vivid voice. 

– Gennifer Eccles from Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC

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Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin

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Morningside Heights
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin
Pantheon, June

Joshua Henkin has issued an invitation to view the timeline of an American marriage. Columbia University professor, Spence Robin, was a young hotshot Shakespearean expert, capable of filling lecture halls with enraptured students. Pru Steiner was one of them. The attraction and love was immediate, the marriage secure and long-lasting. However, while only in his fifties, Spence receives the horrifying diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Their daughter is grown and gone and his son from a previous marriage has always been sporadically estranged; leaving Pru alone as Spence declines and she navigates the changes and loss of a great man. Morningside Heights is poignant, honest, thoughtfully observant, and skillfully wrought.

–Damita Nocton from The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC

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The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

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The Killing Hills
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt
Grove, June

This was a blast! Hill country Kentucky noir with characters that both repulse and endear. A tough combo that works well with the plot of familial vengeance that piles up the bodies without understanding the cause that makes the blood boil so hot. Superb.

–Pete Mock from McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC

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One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

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One Last Stop
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Griffin, June

August has grown up believing that being alone is best. Then she moves to New York and gets caught up with her new wacky roommates, who drag her out of her comfort zone. And she meets Jane, a girl on the subway she has an instant connection with. The only problem is…Jane is literally stuck on the train, displaced somehow from her life in the 1970s. So August makes it her mission to solve the mystery of Jane and fix it so she can be where and when she belongs, even though August wants Jane to belong with her more than anything. If The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue were a rom-com, this would be it. McQuiston has written a big-hearted, laugh-out-loud funny, and tender novel that will speak to readers about love and connection and friendship and family.

– Melissa Oates from Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC

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Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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Malibu Rising
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ballantine, June

How good was this? So good I read it in one night. Reid Jenkins carefully crafts a multi-generational saga drenched in the sun of 20th century Malibu that made me love, empathize with, and occasionally want to shake all of the characters. This book almost serves to form a trilogy with Reid Jenkins’ previous novels-Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones. I certainly started rereading both after finishing Malibu.

– Tracie Harris from The Book House in Mableton, GA

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Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

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Crying in H Mart
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Knopf, May

Being Korean American and already a fan of Michelle Zauner’s music under the Japanese Breakfast moniker, I was predisposed to love this book. Having read the title essay in the New Yorker I was predisposed to love this book. Even so, I was struck by just how much I loved it. I’m so grateful for this book — for how it walks through grief not as a way to leave it behind, but as a way to remember its exact shape. I’m grateful for its funny, self-deprecating and wise observations, and for its difficult beauty.

– Steve Haruch from Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN

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Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter

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Better Than the Movies
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A Spring 2021 Read This Next! Title

Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May

Better Than the Movies is such a joy of a book! You’ve got enemies to lovers with a main character who has the energy of Jack Black’s character in The Holiday–goofy and sweet, full of love and loss, and of course, a deep, nerdy love for movie soundtracks. Better than the Movies will have you squealing and swooning.

– Brittany Bunzey from Read With Me, A Children’s Book & Art Shop in Raleigh, NC

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