The Southern Bookseller Review 7/22/25
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The week of July 22, 2025 Meet Treat Yo Shelf Books! 
“I absolutely adore seeing faces light up because of something they see in my store. It makes everything worth it.”― Ashley Watroba, Treat Yo Shelf Books in Mountain Home, Arkansas Treat Yo Shelf Books in Mountain Home, AR opened in January 2023 inside a charming building from the 1930s. The store prioritizes being a welcoming sanctuary for all, more than just a place to buy books. Owner Ashley Watroba said the best part of being a booksellers is, “The people. I absolutely adore seeing faces light up because of something they see in my store. It makes everything worth it.” One of Watroba’s favorite store events is “Tales & Tails,” where anyone can come to read to adoptable animals, and the adoption fee is lowered with the purchase of a book. The store has gotten at least one animal adopted with each event, and Watroba doesn’t plan to stop until every fur baby has a home. Treat Yo Shelf also partners with a local coffeehouse and brewery to do a monthly Boozy Book Fair with a different theme each time. They also partner with the Baxter County Literacy Foundation. Watroba loves to handsell The House of Ash and Bone by Joel A. Sutherland. Watroba said, “It was such an amazing and terrifying book to read, and I have to tell everyone about it. Read this book!” You can follow Treat Yo Shelf at @treatyoshelfbooksllc and visit their website at www.treatyoshelfbooks.com.
Read This Now | Read This Next | Book Buzz | The Bookseller Directory |
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Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies… |
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Boustany by Sami Tamimi Adult Nonfiction, Cooking, Middle Eastern, Regional & Cultural Boustany has been on my radar for a while now, and I am happy to report it is everything you could want and more! Filled with luscious recipes that are rich in tradition yet infused with new ideas that bring something fresh, the pantry section alone had me feeling like I had ascended into spice and pickled heaven. The history and culture that’s embedded in each dish add something so special and meaningful that it brings this book to a new level, truly something for everyone! Reviewed by Grace Sullivan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia |
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Daikon by Samuel Hawley Adult Fiction, Fiction, General, Historical, World War II & Holocaust Daikon is thrilling! It kept me riveted to the very end. The fictional premise is “What if Japan got its hands on one U.S.-made atomic bomb and had to decide whether to use it or not against America?” Set against the backdrop of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese players struggle with moral, ethical, and very personal choices about the bomb and the crushing pressure of a ticking deadline. Military leaders with questionable agendas, a Korean soldier, the civilian physicist educated in the U.S. and his wife round out the robust cast of characters. Daikon, the code name for the radish-shaped bomb, is a deadly character all its own. A superb debut novel that took the South Korean author 27 years to complete. Reviewed by Patience Allan-Glick, Hills & Hamlets Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia |
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Angel Down by Daniel Kraus Adult Fiction, Fiction, Supernatural, Thrillers Daniel. Dan. My guy – what’re you DOING to me?? Up til 2:00 a.m. again, breathless and weeping, because I could. not. stop. reading!! How do I even talk about this book coherently? *deep breath* Okay. Angel Down. Immediately, page one, you’re plunged into a fever dream of WW1 front line trenches – bullets whizzing too close, the unearthly whistle and crash of artillery fire, bodies and mud and death. Then comes the shriek – an unending howl driving the soldiers mad. Five are ordered to find the cause, and they do – but it’s nothing they could have ever predicted. An angel is down. What follows is a gut-spilling, reality-warping, soul-searing clash with divinity that will bring you to your knees. It’s gonna take me days, probably weeks, to process this incredible book. Angel Down is set during WW1, but the questions it asks are exactly what we’re asking today: how do we break the systems of war that prop up the world? Do individual lives still have meaning when destruction and violence seem unstoppable? What do we do when confronted with the true, untameable, terrifying divine? Make time to read this book in one sitting, and don’t forget the tissues. And if, at the end, you find yourself devastated and elated beyond words….me too, friend. Me too. Reviewed by Rachel Derise, Friendly City Books in Columbus, Mississippi |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Flashlight by Susan Choi
― Susan Choi, Interview, Lithub Flashlight by Susan Choi 
Susan Choi is the author of Trust Exercise, which received the National Book Award for fiction, as well as the novels The Foreign Student, American Woman, A Person of Interest, and My Education. She is a recipient of the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, the PEN/W. G. Sebald Award, a Lambda Literary award, the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Brooklyn, New York |
The premise, of a family in Japan, draws on my experience directly, because I spent time in Japan with my family when I was a child. But what prompted the novel are less specific memories themselves than the hazy, fragmentary quality of my memories from that time, the extent to which they’re partial and distorted. My memories from that time feel like dreams, and their atmosphere is sometimes quite ominous. Eventually a storyline that departs pretty dramatically from any event of my life came along to suit that weird, ominous tone.
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Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez Adult Fiction, Gothic What’s scarier: a haunted house in the Everglades or a toxic female friendship? Por que no los dos? Lush, eerie, and intense, Mayra is Shirley Jackson by way of I-95. I loved Gonzalez’s writing, which manages to be funny and wry while also pressing on the tender bruises of adolescence and insecurity. More Florida horror by women, please! Reviewed by Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida |
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Lawless by Leah Litman Adult Nonfiction, Commentary & Opinion, Courts, Judicial Power, Law, Political Science Leah Littman of Crooked Media takes the post-Warren Supreme Court and explains just exactly how they run on "conservative grievance, fringe theories, and bad vibes." Using pop culture analogies at times, Littman compares the court to Mean Girls, Game of Thrones, and Arrested Development. If you’re looking for a book that clearly states exactly how we got to where we are today, this is absolutely the book for you. Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia |
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The Great Misfortune of Stella Sedgwick by S. Isabelle Historical, Romance, Young Adult Fiction Stella Sedgwick is a young black woman in late 19th-century England. She wants to be a writer and an independent woman. When a surprise inheritance brings her into London society, she resurrects her mother’s newspaper advice column anonymously in this fun YA historical romance. Reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee |
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Witchycakes #1: Sweet Magic by Kara LaReau, Ariane Moreira (Illus.) Chapter Books, Children, Fantasy, Juvenile Fiction, LGBTQ+ Grab your beach cruiser and join Blue as they make the daily bakery deliveries around the community. Along the way they’ll create a little havoc with their untamed magic abilities, but is always there to help clean up the remnants of the spells. Perfect for young witches-to-be who like cooking, helping their community, and want to start their own coven. Reviewed by Jenny Gilroy, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia |
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Raging Clouds by Yudori Comics & Graphic Novels, Feminist, Historical Fiction, Literary A BRILLIANT DEBUT set in 16th-century Netherlands that will stick with you. Honestly, this one really made me rage. It’s a reminder of the injustice women have encountered in time (and to this day). What resonated the most is how the author captures the way in which women are pitted against one another. But, when we come together — like this unlikely pair — we soar. We experience a kind of freedom. Heartbreaking and hopeful. Reviewed by Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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Decide for Yourself Books that appear on PEN America’s list of challenged books. |
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Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff Adult Fiction, Banned Books, Family Life, Literary, Women My skin feels like it’s buzzing and purring after having finished this book. Groff’s writing is very often quite breathtaking at the sentence level, so much so that I was occasionally forgetting to notice how masterfully she was setting up an intricate and many-layered plot. Lotto, Mathilde, and the other characters jump off the page so vividly, it’s hard for me to imagine they aren’t really out there, living their fierce and complicated lives. Five stars. Reviewed by Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
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Funny Story by Emily Henry Adult Fiction, Bestsellers, Fiction, Romance, Romantic Comedy Emily Henry just GETS IT. She has the perfect recipe for a book that has just the right amount of humor, romance, and the kind of real-life hurdles that hit close to home. What sets this book apart are the characters, who are grappling with life’s ups and downs in a way that feels incredibly real. It’s the "just one more chapter" book that you’ll actually stay awake until 1 AM to finish. And hey, maybe I’m speaking from personal experience. Reviewed by Janisie Rodriguez, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida |
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Parting Thought “You’re never going to kill storytelling because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.” |
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Publisher:
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance /
siba@sibaweb.com |
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
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The Southern Bookseller Review 7/22/25 Read More »
If you talk about witches nowadays and you ask somebody to picture a witch, they’d probably say a pointy hat, a broom, a black cat. They are no longer considered malevolent.
I don’t know it there’s an inspiration per se other than “I like dragons, and I like lady knights, I want to write a book about those things.” And so I did. “Brighter Than Scale” tells the story of Yeva, a dragon hunter with special abilities who was absorbed into empire against her will as a child and, as an adult, is sent as an ambassador to a nation that worships dragons as part of her emperor’s territorial aggressions. There she meets the girl-king Sookhee, the charismatic leader of the nation. But their growing relationship is threatened when Yeva uncovers secrets that will challenge the way she sees the world, and herself. The book may appear to be a queer love story, and it is indeed a queer love story, but at its core I think it’s about identity, it’s about finding your place and finding yourself in a world which constantly wants to erase you.
Rhys is a former environmental reporter for a local newspaper. I was a newspaper reporter for about seven years, and still think of myself in many ways, almost as a spot-news novelist. So, I’m still drawn to write stories as they’re happening.
There’s a part in the novel when [the protagonist] Corby says he thinks that women are just stronger than men because it’s women who come and visit the prisoners. Whether they are grandmothers who are taking care of the kids and wearing their convalescent home pinafores, girlfriends, or so forth—it’s women who show up. That was my experience when I would go to visit our son. Often, I’d be one of the few men who went into the visiting room; usually, it was another father. And sometimes I would be the only guy in the visiting room. I don’t think it’s because men are necessarily cold. They don’t necessarily detach from loved ones who are male. I think so many of men’s problems come down to fear. It’s not that women don’t live with fear, but that they can more easily voice that fear.
What’s in your book bag?
I wanted to write a controlled, intense, strange, sensual, truthful novel set firmly in a genre I’m increasingly thinking of as wonder. You can watch a romcom where someone is covered with bees and they’re terrified, and you’re laughing, so their experience is not the same as your experience. Likewise, you can be watching a horror film, and they think they’re having a normal Monday, and you know better. That’s where the horror happens.
I like my stories to be immersive. I am a visual person when writing and reading. So to me, it’s all part of the characterization: the way that they wear clothes, what the clothes look like, what they look like. I also want it to be a lived-in world. So let’s talk about getting dirty. Let’s talk about taking baths. Let’s think about chapped lips. When I watch particularly fantasy content, I almost look for these things because it is a layer of grittiness that I like, a texture in a story, that I feel is real. The Knight and the Moth was really fun, like gossamer versus armor. You can look into themes of these things too and apply them to the story, or you can decide to read them very literally.
I guess a lot of the fantasy I read as a kid was very much in the shadow of Tolkien, and in Lord of the Rings there is an objective right and wrong. You either give in to Sauron or you fight him, and the text leaves no doubt which is good and which evil. Not that I ever lost interest in Gandalf and Aragorn but as the years went on I started to find Saruman and Boromir more interesting. People who fall from grace, or rise to it. Characters in flux, in turmoil, weighing greater good against personal good, with mixed motives, with uncertain outcomes. People who surprise the reader. In our world, everyone thinks they’re in the right. Battles aren’t of good against evil, but one man’s good against another’s.
I could spend years in a cookbook shop and never get bored. Where do I begin? I love the weirdness of cookbooks; how they capture the larger culture of a specific time-period and tell the tale through the prism of food. Take, for example, one of my cookbook treasures: The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Cookbook by Robin Leach. It’s a time capsule of the eighties — glass block, Dynasty-style hairdos, Brooke Shields — and the food is as awful as the fashion. Or another favorite: A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent and Mary Price, a collection of all the menus that the famous horror maestro and his wife collected over their world travels in the ‘40s and ‘50s and the meals that they hosted for their friends in their exquisite Hollywood home. If I could jump into the pages of a cookbook, it might be that one.
Food has always been an obsession of mine, but I had never written it really into my fiction, aside from, occasionally describing what somebody was eating, describing a flavor somebody remembered. But this was the first time where, I think years of reading cookbooks, of watching cooking shows, of watching my parents cook, of cooking myself, and experiencing different flavors and different cuisines, and being really tuned into that…I think this was when all of that sort of manifested. This was my first try at writing something that felt like eating. And there were even moments where I would try to eat the foods that I was describing to get the mouth feel right…I completely invented recipes for for several of the dishes in Aftertaste that wind up being these sort of spiritual connections that can bring a spirit back. And in some cases, I would attempt to make the flavors, but in most cases, I just knew in my head what it would taste like from from just experiencing cooking and experiencing flavors. I would use that sort of intuition, also paired with what that character needed at the time. So I think one of the things in Aftertaste that happens is that the food is never just the food. The food is really evocative of a particular flavor of memory. So is it they’re sweet? Is it? Is it something that really disturbs the spirit that’s trying to come back? Is it something warm? Is it something that they’re excited to taste again? Is it a recollection that buoys them, or is it something that crushes them?
