Fun, campy romance with big feelings! I loved everything about this! Reading helped me escape to a fantasy world of found family and hopeful self discovery. I loved the joint storylines, and both romances were so swoon worthy.
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher, (List Price: $20, Wednesday Books, 9781250847218, November 2023)
Reviewed by Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
Mary Beard is a legend among historians, and a queen to history lovers. As both, I need everyone to know that this book is the perfect way to explore the psychology of what it meant to be THE Emperor of Rome. What it meant to the historical figures around them. Everything. It’s such a fascinating look at such complex figures that we realistically only know a limited amount about due to how long ago Rome was, and how often their successors attempted to erase them from history, even casually so after their deaths. If you’re looking for further exploration into the archetype of the Roman Emperor, you’ll delight in this book.
Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard, (List Price: $39.99, Liveright, 9780871404220, October 2023)
Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder , Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
MacMillan has crafted a twisting, well-plotted, multiview point mystery that sweeps between timelines without ever disorienting the reader as to where they are in the story. It’s an utterly readable tale of greed, avarice, and revenge. It reminded me in all the best ways of And Then There None, and MacMillan is fearless in revealing who each of her characters really are. Also? The ongoing subplot of the unreliability of smart home technology feels so current, relatable, and also informs the plot in surprising ways. Loved this book, can’t wait to sell it.
The Manor House by Gilly Macmillan, (List Price: $30, William Morrow, 9780063074385, November 2023)
Reviewed by Tracie Harris, The Book House in Smyrna, Georgia
The Berry Pickers is the debut novel from indigenous author Amanda Peters. When four-year-old Ruthie goes missing, the youngest of five in a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia, her older brother Joe is despondent and the loss of Ruthie haunts the family for fifty years. Meanwhile, a white family in Maine is raising a child named Norma with overbearing and almost suffocating familial love. Norma’s faint memories and dreams of her missing life are confusing until they almost vanish. The Berry Pickers considers lost lives, second chances, and the power of forgiveness.
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, (List Price: $27.99, Catapult, 9781646221950, October 2023)
Reviewed by Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
Jointly, The Farmer’s Wife and The Shepherd’s Life (written by Helen’s husband James), provide a unique look at both the travails of small farm life and married life. On its own, The Farmer’s Wife reminded me of Laurie Colwin with deep insights into daily life and the joys of cooking good food. Thoughtful, challenging with delicious recipes and beautifully illustrated, this will be a go-to gift book for me.
The Farmer’s Wife by Helen Rebanks, (List Price: $29.99, Harper Horizon, 9780785290483, September 2023)
Reviewed by Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
This is a true enemies-to-lovers read. Both faced with pressures unknown to the other, these art school students battle it out for a life-altering scholarship, while their online personalities collaborate on a webcomic (unknowingly duh). What made this book feel so raw for me, was that both characters had valid reasons for hating the other, reasons that cannot be easily resolved.
I Kissed Alice by Anna Birch, (List Price: $9.99, Square Fish, 9781250792068, May 2021)
Reviewed by Jamie Kovacs, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
So Late in the Day is brilliantly written with Keegan’s beautiful prose. The underlying theme in the stories is the fractured relationships between a man and woman, told with a nuanced tension that grips the reader from beginning until end. A quietly delightful, tense, and gripping read.
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan, (List Price: $20, Grove Press, 9780802160850, November 2023)
Reviewed by Kelley Barnes, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
After reading Sleepless in Dubai, you will be itching for a trip to both Dubai and Abu Dhabi! Nikki and Yash have been best friends since birth. But this last summer, their friendship blew up and they’ve been avoiding each other since. Now their families have a trip planned together to Dubai for Diwali and they’re going to have to find some way to get along.
Sleepless in Dubai by Sajni Patel, (List Price: $30, Amulet Books, 9781419766961, October 2023)
Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia
There’s so much I could say about this epistolary novel set in 1963 Saigon and confessing to the lives of two American wives in Ho Chí Minh’s Vietnam, but for now, I’ll say: Alice McDermott is (maybe) my favorite living novelist, and Absolution is (maybe) her best novel yet.
Absolution by Alice McDermott, (List Price: $28, Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 9780374610487, 2023-10-31)
Reviewed by Laura Cotten, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama
This beautifully retold fable is a celebration of endurance and compassion and a reminder that gentleness and love (and patience) are more powerful than cruelty and hate (and haste). Stead’s innovative style of illustration evokes a classic with bold lines and quiet colors, and his thoughtful tale-telling is unparalleled. A story both timeless and perfect for these times.
The North Wind and the Sun by Philip C. Stead, (List Price: $18.99, Neal Porter Books, 9780823455836, October 2023)
Reviewed by Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
I loved Cinderella is Dead! I love that Kalynn took a fairy tale we all know and turned it on its head, for the better. The whole time I am reading it I’m thinking this is a feminist fairy tale. I’m thinking this is the LGBTQ fairy tale I wish I could have read when growing up and I am so happy young people today will be able to read this story. We need more stories like this.
Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron, (List Price: 10.99, Bloomsbury YA, 9781547606641, June 2021)
Reviewed by Rayna Nielsen, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana
Mark and Louise hate each other, but when their parents flee their home in the middle of the night and die in a car crash the siblings are forced to re-unite. What happens when you walk into your family home and see the attic door bolted up? Or your mom’s massive puppet collection whose eyes seem to follow you wherever you go? Well, I’m afraid you may have some trouble selling the house. Filled with family secrets, twists, and an uneasy tone that had me on the edge of my seat, this book was WILD and FUN. It had me second guessing everything around me. Did I turn on the TV? Okay, that milk was not there 5 minutes ago.Is someone messing with me?I loved this. It was creepy. It was weird. It was emotional. It was absolutely bonkers in the best way possible!
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix, (List Price: 28, Berkley, 9780593201268, January 2023)
Reviewed by Janisie Rodriguez, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida
n immersive trip through Southern Gothic Early America. The narrative follows a lone girl down the Potomac River, from Jamestown and into the unknown. Nameless or many-named like a barn-cat drifter, Girl wields caution, imagination and a blade to survive the crystalline forests of Virginia and Maryland. She drafts off a peloton of memories–as the British orphan, the mistress’s servant, Bess’s friend, the glassblower’s lover—that pull her forward to eat dirt and vibe with a bear in the present. It’s all about the stories that keep us alive. Groff’s easy and percussive writing, along with her use of time, space and inner dialogue, create an immediacy that had me trying to locate Girl’s coordinates on a map so I wouldn’t lose her. Captivating. Awesome. Great.
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff, (List Price: $28, Riverhead Books, 9780593418390, September 2023)
Reviewed by Jackie Carlson, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida
As someone who has always been a little too soft for the world, nothing delights me more than living vicariously through fierce and hard as nail protagonists like Opal. Opal is fighting every day to make sure her brother doesn’t go without in the town of Eden. Despite barely having time to think, Opal begins to dream of Starling House, the Secret that no one talks about, and even though she knows better, she finds herself at the front door. Arthur is going to be the last warden of the Starling House, taking its legacy of monsters and magic down with him. He’s determined to be so until Opal breaks down the walls around his heart with her knock at Starling House’s door. This is a story of two people who are less than beautiful that smile with crooked teeth and black eyes, and I didn’t want it to end.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow, (List Price: $28.99, Tor Books, 9781250799050, October 2023)
Reviewed by Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia
Clint Smith’s latest collection of poems is so good. I love how he intersperses poems about his first child with poems about the state of America as a whole. His voice is soft and sharp at the same time, and works so well in both settings.
Above Ground by Clint Smith, (List Price: 27, Little, Brown and Company, 9780316543033, March 2023)
Reviewed by Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas
