The Southern Bookseller Review 12/15/25
The week of December 15, 2025
Make a bookseller’s day – vote now.
Voting is still ongoing for the 2026 Southern Book Prize, where readers decide the all-important question of “what is the best Southern book of the year.”
One of the perks of voting is that you can enter a raffle to win a selection of Southern Book Prize finalists. Another is that the finalists make a great list of last-minute gift ideas for the readers on your holiday list. (See the nonfiction finalists list below.)
And perhaps the best perk of all is that you get to show your local bookstore how much you appreciate them. One of the questions on the ballot is simply a space that says, “Say something nice about your local bookstore.”
SBR passes along to bookshops the comments people made about the store when they voted—a welcome moment of cheer during a busy holiday season. Hearing how much you value your local bookstore is one of the best presents you can give them.
Make a bookseller’s day, vote now.
SBP Nonfiction Finalists
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir
Neko Case (Grand Central Publishing)
“I have long admired Neko Case as a powerful singer and incredible songwriter, so I was desperate to get my hands on this book — but you don’t have to already be a fan to be moved by her story. The rawness and vulnerability that Case shares in her life’s story give me a new appreciation for her album.” –Emily Liner, Friendly City Books in Columbus, Mississippi
Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations
Alton Brown (Gallery Books)
“You don’t have to be familiar with any food programs to have great fun reading these essays. Funny, quirky, and honest, they are as much about life as food, or even food as life.” –Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
Imani Perry (Ecco)
“A stunning, kaleidoscopic work of intense research and imagination, spanning centuries, disciplines, and profoundly moving possibilities, from one of our most innovative thinkers. Perry’s writing deserves its own rich shade of blue.” –Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama
The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things
Nikki Giovanni (William Morrow)
“Reading Nikki Giovanni’s final collection of poetry is a bittersweet experience. The New Book is full of reflection and encourages readers to think critically about recent events in our nation’s history. It feels like a final love letter, urging us to be kind to ourselves and to one another.” –Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging
Tara Roberts (National Geographic)
“A memoir, a message, and a deeply felt paean to history. Roberts weaves her personal narrative into the depths of the history she shares all the while highlighting the reasons these sites go underresearched and stories untold. Moving, inspiring, and essential reading!” –Michelle Cavalier, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana
Silas House (Blair)
“So glad that the former Kentucky Poet Laureate has a poetry collection at last! As with his fiction, House’s work resonates most deeply the closer he stays to his Appalachian roots. Poems about queerness, protest, timesickness and soup beans all exist side by side in this collection, as in life.” –Sam Miller, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
Featuring reviews of:
- The Book of Luke by Lovell Holder, reviewed by Thomas Wallace, Reading Rock Books in Dickson, Tennessee
- The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell, reviewed by Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia
- Paper Girl by Beth Macy, reviewed by Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
- Final Cut by Olivia Worley, reviewed by Sarah Dimaria, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana
- Dragonborn by Struan Murray, reviewed by Stacey Sanford, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi
- The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson, reviewed by Andrea Richardson, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
- Dog Show: Poems by Billy Collins, reviewed by Sheri Bancroft, novel. in Memphis, Tennessee
- Bookseller Buzz: Family of Spies by Christine Keuhn, Horton’s Books & Gifts in Carrollton , Georgia; Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser, Inc. Marietta, Georgia; Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia; Suzanne Lucey, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
The Southern Bookseller Review 12/15/25 Read More »
New December books loved by Southern indie booksellers.
There are books whose urgency barely needs to be articulated because it’s so evident within the work itself, and Hunchback seemed to me like one of those: it burns itself right into the mind of the reader. It’s a cinematic work, that conjures up a dense and vivid world with very little, so the language needed a lot of honing, to make sure that it was hitting all of those imagistic notes in the way that they needed to. I’d say the principal narrative voice came to me quite quickly and intuitively, but there are lots of shifts of register within the span of the book, which took quite a lot of time and attention to capture. ”
What I really enjoy about writing love stories is the little moments that feel just as important as the big love declarations. I think it’s the acts of service, the little thoughtful things that each character will do for the other. In each of my books, there’s a moment that I can narrow down to, of consideration and thoughtfulness in a physical, tangible way. The way that Bo [Out on a Limb] goes about splitting their expenses. It’s not a grand declaration of love, but it’s respect, and it’s an understanding and communication, and it’s showing somebody who is really capable of having awkward conversations when wanting to take care of somebody. And wanting to look after someone with respect in mind. Or like Caleb in Out of the Woods, when Sarah is upset because they’re going camping and they don’t have any electricity. She doesn’t bring her Kindle, but he brings it, and he buys her a solar charger. It’s this little way of like letting someone know that they’re seen and their past influences matter
I’ve always been a writer who puts character first, and when I embarked on writing this novel, I was prepared for some deep character dives. But Buckeye is larger in scope and size than anything I’d ever attempted, and I had no idea of the depths that awaited me… What I learned–what I keep learning, as a writer–is that when you bring a lot of characters together, a story emerges, and it’s not always the story you thought you were going to write.
