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The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah

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The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
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One of the most substantial and honest collections of essays about sex and pleasure I’ve ever read. Each author bares it all in order to give the reader permission to tell the truth about their relationship with sex. By centering voices and experiences that typically get left out of anthologies like this, we get to witness a multidimensional sexuality meditation through the lens of discovery, exploration, and joy. What a gift!

The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, (List Price: $28, Astra House, 9781662650819,  March 2022)

Reviewed by Eden Hakimzadeh, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida

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In Love by Amy Bloom

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Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
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When Amy Bloom’s husband of 15 years is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he decides to end his life on his own terms – “to die on his feet, not live on his knees”. In Love is an account of how the couple made that happen, as well as a celebration of their love. It’s by turns honest, raw, unsentimental, funny, captivating, powerful and utterly devastating. I devoured it in less than a day – an experience that left me emotionally wrung out, but also very glad to have done so.


In Love by Amy Bloom, (List Price: $27.00, Random House, 9780593243947,  March 2022)

Reviewed by Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi

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One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

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One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
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Imagine the tragic cancer death of your mother when she is your best friend—the real love of your life…and then imagine you find her alive again and she is happy and healthy and only thirty years old. This happens when Katy travels to Italy on a trip she and her mother Carol planned. How could this be? Katy is utterly devastated when her mom dies and she doesn’t know how she can go on with life without her. Rebecca Serle’s description of the beauty of Postano’s cliffs and ocean views makes the reader join Katy and taste the amazing food at every Italian meal. The sudden appearance of her mother Carol as a young vibrant woman is shocking. Is it really her mother in her youth? Is Katy so heartbroken that she just imagines it? This unforgettable love story will leave the reader thinking about family bonds and wondering how one would react to such an event. It is a story that will stay with you long after the last page.

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle, (List Price: $27.00, Atria Books, 9781982166793,  March 2022)

Reviewed by Nancy Pierce, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia

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Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

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Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
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This #ownvoices novel rips the reader out of their world into the Yoruba-Nigerian world of Sloane. A recently drafted child soldier of the Lucis, who destroyed and still destroy people like her, ones that have powers from the gods, a Scion. Sloane is put through brutal test after brutal test all while trying to find out what happened to her mother who disappeared two years before and survive the bloodbath that is basic training. While this novel isn’t for the weak of heart, it’s perfect for anyone who loved A Song of Wraiths and Shadows and Children of Blood and Bone. The debut novel is nonstop action and punch after punch, perfect for readers who don’t like any slow parts in their reads.

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye, (List Price: $18.99, HarperTeen, 9780062954046,  March 2022)

Reviewed by Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia

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The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill

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The Moth Keeper by K. O'Neill
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I’ve always been a fan of O’Neill’s beautiful art style ever since I first saw the Tea Dragon Society, so I knew when I received this arc in the mail, it was the top of my list. The Moth Keeper absolutely blew me away in terms of subject and beauty. I went in expecting a sweet fantasy story, but once I started I couldn’t stop. Even as an adult, I connected deeply to Anya, the fledgling Moth Keeper’s struggle, the longing to be important, the vastness of our thoughts and how they can make us sink into the darkness at times. This graphic novel is a balm to any tired and weary soul of any age. Anyone who’s ever felt guilty of being exhausted by something they love or have a passion for will fall in love with The Moth Keeper. Anya and her village along with the sun village she visits has the sweetness and gentleness of a Ghibli movie with just as much impact as one. I would recommend this to anyone who has ever needed a soft and gentle caress of a book that just understands. Because truly, The Moth Keeper does and its here to help you lift your chin up once more.

The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill, (List Price: $13.99, Random House Graphic, 9780593182260, March 2023)

Reviewed by Katlin Kerrison, Story On the Square in McDonough, Georgia

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Gallant by V. E. Schwab

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Gallant by V. E. Schwab
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Olivia Prior has grown up in an orphanage, unable to speak, the only one able to see the ghouls around her. Her mother’s journal is her only link to her unknown past, until she gets a letter from an uncle she didn’t know she had, summoning her to her family home, Gallant — a place her mother had warned her against in her journal, even as her words spiraled into madness. But Olivia longs for a place to belong, and so she goes. It turns out, though, that Gallant is more than just a house. When Olivia crosses the crumbling garden wall, she finds herself in a shadow Gallant, ruled by death, and she has to decide which world she really belongs in. Schwab has a way of telling stories that really gets to the root of the story — yes, this is a story about family and loss, life and death, a doorway between them, and a girl who can live in both worlds, but Schwab makes it so much more, breathing life and meaning into everything Olivia is and does and wants to be. A beautiful book for fans of Holly Black and Neil Gaiman..

Gallant by V. E. Schwab, (List Price: $18.99, Greenwillow Books, 9780062835772,  March 2022)

Reviewed by Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina

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Groundskeeping by Lee Cole

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Groundskeeping by Lee Cole
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Every character in this book felt so much like someone I’ve known. I have lived most of my life in southern college towns, where professors and liberal arts types live in tense bubbles amidst a sea of religious conservatism and working class anti-intellectualism. This familiar setting forms the backdrop of Lee Cole’s debut novel Groundskeeping, which is at its heart a love story between Owen and Alma, from two very different backgrounds. But more than a simple love story it is also a pitch perfect exploration of the nuanced ways race and class form the boundaries of relationships in these communities. I laughed, I cheered, I cringed with recognition, I shared the characters’ pains and sorrows, and I absolutely could not put this book down.

Groundskeeping by Lee Cole, (List Price: $28, Knopf, 9780593320501,  March 2022)

Reviewed by  Josh Niesse from Underground Books in Carrollton, GA

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Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi

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Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi
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Reading might not seem the most obvious of radical acts – but in Read Dangerously, Iranian-American writer Azar Nafisi shows that it can be. Drawing on her experiences of living in the Islamic Republic of Iran and in today’s America, and citing authors as diverse as Plato, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood and Elliot Ackerman, the bestselling writer of Reading Lolita in Tehran illustrates how literature can counter oppression. An erudite, accessible and inspiring book.

Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi, (List Price: $26.99, Dey Street Books, 9780062947369,  March 2022)

Reviewed by  Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi

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Catalina Incognito by Jennifer Torres

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Catalina Incognito by Jennifer Torres, Gladys Jose (illus.)
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Catalina Incognito is the first book in what’s sure to be a charming new chapter book series. Gifted with a magic sewing kit on her eighth birthday, shy and reserved Catalina learns about taking chances and trying again — and also solves the mystery of her aunt’s missing ruby. I loved the way Spanish phrases are mixed in throughout the book..

Catalina Incognito by Jennifer Torres, Gladys Jose (illus.), (List Price: $5.99, Aladdin, 9781534482784,  March 2022)

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

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Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

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Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
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Booth is about more than resurrecting a villain from the history books, though it does shine a spotlight on John Wilkes Booth from birth to his infamous assassination of President Lincoln. This is a tale of the entire Booth family, who might be remembered for their theatrical celebrity — from father Junius Booth to his three thespian sons, Edwin, John, and June — but for the crime that brought shame to the clan forevermore. The story takes its time, meandering through births, deaths, and sibling conflicts, and focusing much of its attention on the sisters who had to live in their brothers’ shadow. In the background throughout is Abraham Lincoln, who was gradually making his way to the White House, while the issue of slavery increasingly divided the country. We know about the big battles, from Gettysburg to Antietam, but here we also see the smaller riots and uprisings that inflamed someone like Booth to take matters in his own hands.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, (List Price: $28.00, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 9780593331439,  March 2022)

Reviewed by Lady Smith, The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

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The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

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The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart
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A crazy time-travel novel that is also a meditation on loss. The main character is mourning the loss of her lover as she tries to hold on to her job as “time cop” that is also frying her brain. I really loved this story with its many and varied villains and exploration of what regular time travel would do to the human brain. The protagonist keeps up her work to catch glimpses of the woman she loves in the form of kind of time-ghosts in the hotel where she works for wealthy people who go back in time and try to mess it up for sport and profit. Sometimes our biggest villains are ourselves as she learns while pushing away the people remaining in her life who wish to help.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, (List Price: $20, Ballantine Books, 9781984820648, February 2022)

Reviewed by Kelly Justice, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia



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Listening Still by Anne Griffin

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Listening Still by Anne Griffin
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Simply beautiful! This is the story of Jeanie Masterson, who can hear the newly dead, and it is not cheesy or cliché or gimmicky; it is beautiful in its entirety. I had the pleasure of listening to an advanced copy of this, narrated by Nicola Coughlan, which only elevated my experience with this book. Kudos to Coughlan who incorporated small pauses and breaths and the sound of tears in one’s eyes, during dialogue, creating realistic-sounding conversation. The production studio’s attention to detail was on point as well, as characters who were on the other end of a phone call sounded tinny and small. Really well done!

Listening Still by Anne Griffin, (List Price: 27.99, St. Martin’s Press, 9781250200617, March 2022)

Reviewed by Jill Naylor, Novel. in Memphis, Tennessee

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Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. Mandel

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Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. Mandel
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Good grief I loved this book. The Glass Hotel makes more sense now, but I already loved it anyway. Nobody does time “travel” like Emily St. John Mandel. She manages not to lose us in the weaving of the timelines and characters. Despite being set in both the past and the future, the themes are so timely. A pandemic, wealth inequity, the idea of home, the role of art in society, family dynamics–it’s all there, plus there are colonies on the moon and maybe we’re all living in a simulation. It might seem like a stretch, but I think her only peer in speculative fiction is Margaret Atwood herself..

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. Mandel, (List Price: $25.00, Knopf, 9780593321447,  April 2022)

Reviewed by Angela Schroeder, Sunrise Books in High Point, North Carolina

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Chickadee: Criminal Mastermind by Monica Silvie

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Chickadee: Criminal Mastermind by Monica Silvie
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Calling all bird lovers — you need this picture book! I adored the little chickadee who narrates this story. I could easily imagine my own little backyard chickadees thinking of themselves as criminal masterminds as they steal my blueberries! This picture book will offer plenty of fun for readers of all ages.

Chickadee: Criminal Mastermind by Monica Silvie, (List Price: $18.99, Kids Can Press, 9781525303388, June 2022)

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

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An Immense World by Ed Yong

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An Immense World by Ed Yong
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Like many readers, I was introduced to Ed Yong’s clear and measured writing during the Covid-19 pandemic, and I was instantly drawn to his deep-thinking approach. An Immense World is (thankfully) not about Covid-19, but it does hold true to Yong’s journalistic method: big questions, acknowledgements of what we don’t know, and a sense of wonder at the complexity of life. This is such a beautiful exploration of the world as experienced by other animals—here you will learn that there are so many more senses on Earth (and in humans!) than just the Aristotelian basic five (Nociception! Magnetoreception! Proprioception! And so many more!), and Yong’s conversational, wide-eyed tone wriggles readers free of their human Umwelt, even if just for a moment. This is a transformative book, essential for anyone looking open windows in their mind to a wider, more empathic world.

An Immense World by Ed Yong, (List Price: $30.00, Random House, 9780593133231, June 2022)

Reviewed by Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

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