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Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein

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Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein
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In this wickedly funny yet touching novel, the reader follows Jean as she recalls a turbulent summer spent studying French churches and persecuted saints, watching the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal unfold on television, and sparking an unseemly relationship with her much older teacher. Featuring an all-knowing heavenly Monica Lewinsky, breathtaking moments of irony and beauty, and an array of saintly women, this novel—evocative and timely—enchanted me beyond words. Praise Saint Monica—tortured unjustly not for her actions, but for his.

Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein, (List Price: $30, Doubleday, 9780385551502, April 2026)

Reviewed by Joshua, The Underground Bookshop in Carrollton, GA

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The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer

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The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
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Can a book be cozy, loving, encouraging, compassionate, AND a threat to the brutal and cutthroat consumer capitalism of our era? I present to you Robin Wall Kimmerer’s first book since her surprise mega-bestselling sleeper hit Braiding Sweetgrass. The serviceberry is a bushy, underappreciated fruit tree native to Eastern North America that Kimmerer uses as inspiration to muse broadly on “abundance and reciprocity in the natural world.” The tree embodies the values of gratitude, interconnectedness, and mutual aid. Strikingly, the serviceberry’s broad and generous distribution of its wealth ensures its own flourishing! Let’s all read this small, beautiful, and powerful little book and talk about how we can reimagine modern economic life to be a little more sane and humane!

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, (List Price: $20, Scribner, 9781668072240, November 2024)

Reviewed by Josh, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

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Traversal by Maria Popova

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Traversal by Maria Popova
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Maria Popova once again illuminates how science and poetry have reckoned with “the bewilderment of being alive” while reconnoitering truths of the body, soul, spirit, and space, all through the intertwining loves, lives, and labors of visionaries like Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Ruth Benedict, and others. Popova writes brilliant, fluid, lively nonfiction—like floating down a river of science, poetry, history, and stars.

Traversal by Maria Popova, (List Price: $36, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374616410, February 2026)

Reviewed by Megan, The Underground Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia

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I’ll Make a Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker

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I'll Make a Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker
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With its ominous wood setting and perfect lingering dread, this debut gothic horror comes just in time for dark autumn nights. The drama and plot are excellent. There were many surprises, and the ending shocked me. The protagonist, Zora, is among my favorite heroines of the year!

I’ll Make a Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker, (List Price: $19.99, Run For It, 9780316575249, November 2025)

Reviewed by Sandra Pinkney, The Underground Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia

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Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck

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Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck
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Daddy Issues is an Ali-Hazelwood grade (said with unabashed reverence) age-gap romance that has it all—a real, messy protagonist, a hot, dedicated single dad next door, riveting professional stakes, unexpected info about a niche subject (comics), and meaningful, believable resolution and character growth through the book—a romcom that also has steaming hot “driving lessons” in a Chili’s parking lot! What more do you want? The girls who get it NEED TO GET THIS.

Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck, (List Price: $18, Dial Press Trade Paperback, 9780593730812, November 2025)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, The Underground Bookshop LLC in Carrollton, Georgia

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Venetian Vespers by John Banville

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Venetian Vespers by John Banville
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Venetian Vespers reads like a suspenseful old Gothic novel by Daphne du Maurier. Highly atmospheric with a slow, taut build, deep character studies, and moody descriptions of 1899 Venice. Chilling at times, I just had to keep reading and could not put it down until I was finished!

Venetian Vespers by John Banville, (List Price: $32, Random House Large Print, 9798217170166, October 2025)

Reviewed by Josh Niesse, The Underground Bookshop LLC in Carrollton, Georgia

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Hazelthorn by CG Drews

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Hazelthorn by CG Drews
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Perfect! Five stars! Hazelthorn is my all-time favorite YA and horror book, and I highly recommend it! The romance is fantastic, and the world-building and eerie gothic atmosphere are amazing! The protagonist, Evander, who tragically loses his parents and is adopted by a reclusive billionaire who imprisons him in his room like a prisoner, instantly won my heart. Following the suspicious death of the billionaire, estranged families bring in a new attorney to carry out the will, and Evander is compelled to form an alliance with Laurie, his sworn enemy. The two learn secret information about the forbidden garden, the sinister red door, and the enigmatic mansion. Evander discovers he is drawn to Laurie in unexpected ways. The conclusion will never be forgotten! By the way, I can never look at plants the same way again.

Hazelthorn by CG Drews, (List Price: $19.99, Feiwel & Friends, 9781250376299, October 2025)

Reviewed by Sandra Pinkney, The Underground Bookshop LLC in Carrollton, Georgia

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We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad

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We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad
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Awad, in this perfect follow-up to a masterful weird-girl gory cult favorite, has once again crafted the perfect campy bloody celebration of striking prose, gorgeous characters, and sardonic horror. Not only is this sequel the perfect addition to its sibling, but it, frankly, outshines it by cracking open the minds of our beloved quartet of intriguingly odd female villains and introducing the oh-so-f*cking lovable point of view of their very first creation. This book had me fully geeked out over a perfectly silly bunny-human hybrid and an inanimate toy horse. Like, seriously, I was in utter raptures while reading about the fate of a sensitive bunny man and his toy pony and his trusty axe. Like, work. Mona Awad, you are The Diva.

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad, (List Price: $30, S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, 9781668059869, September 2025)

Reviewed by Joshua Lambie, The Underground Bookshop LLC in Carrollton, Georgia

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Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik

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Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik
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“Art, my God, Joan, I’m embarrassed to mention it in front of you, you know, but you mentioned burning babies in locked cars, so I can mention Art.” Eve Babitz to Joan Didion, 1972. In this blazing memoir, one feels like they’re out for drinks discussing ’70s Hollywood sleaze, female chauvinist pigs, and Charles Manson with your wildly messy and entertaining friend. Anolik’s powerful storytelling and adept reporting remind one of Eve Babitz, the “secret genius of L.A.” Oscillating between moments of unbelievable grief, Didion-esque cold distance, and the hot it-girl urge to push it all away, this memoir is a testament to artists, their craft, and the lovers’ spat between two of the greatest Californian writers of our time.

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik, (List Price: $20, Scribner, 9781668065495, November 2024)

Reviewed by Joshua Lambie, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

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Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

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Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
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The cozy small business success story of Legends & Lattes meets the progressive sci-fi of Becky Chambers, with a flavor entirely its own, in this fresh, heartwarming tale about a motley crew of robots launching a restaurant amid PTSD, prejudice, and review bombing in a future post-war San Francisco. I ATE this book UP and already miss the team at Automatic Noodle and all the friendship, pride, and love found at the bottom of a bowl of their famous biang biang noodles!

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, (List Price: $24.99, Tordotcom, 9781250357465, August 2025)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

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A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid

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A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid
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Dive deeper into the world of A Study in Drowning, into the dreams of Preston Héloury and the lore of the Sleepers, as Ava S. Reid’s Welsh folklore-infused dark academia fantasy continues! With the lush literary romance of Divine Rivals and the incisive magical dark academia of Babel, this series is a must-read, and A Theory of Dreaming only swept me further off my feet and out to (a palace beneath the) sea.

A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid, (List Price: $19.99, HarperCollins, 9780063421677, July 2025)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

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Daikon by Samuel Hawley

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Daikon by Samuel Hawley
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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.

Daikon by Samuel Hawley, (List Price: $29.99, Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, 9781668083055, 2025-07-08)

Reviewed by Patience Allan-Glick, Hills & Hamlets Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia

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Freakslaw by Jane Flett

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Freakslaw by Jane Flett
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A roiling and intense debut featuring an untamable traveling freak show and the small, narrow-minded Scottish town it invades. What follows are unpredictable celebrations of freakishness, intoxicating forays into carnivals unknown, and the flickering flames of brutality. A furious mob is looming. Which side will you be on?

Freakslaw by Jane Flett, (List Price: $28, Zando, 9781638932666, April 2025)

Reviewed by Joshua Lambie, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia

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The Director by Daniel Kehlmann

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The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
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This dramatic, thought-provoking novel challenges us to consider the moral and creative problems faced by acclaimed Jewish film director G.W. Pabst as Hitler comes to power. After Pabst travels back to Europe from Hollywood, the Nazis force him to remain and film in Austria for the duration of the war where he struggles with family loyalty, love for his country, and his own driving ambition. Vivid descriptions of 1940s film techniques and scenes with greats like Greta Garbo, the film propagandist Leni Riefenstahl, and writer Alfred Karrasch. Dramatic and thought-provoking.

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, (List Price: $28.99, S&S/Summit Books, 9781668087794, May 2025)

Reviewed by Patience Allan-Glick, Hills & Hamlets Bookshop in Carrollton, Georgia

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