A seasonal list of the favorite books of Southern indie booksellers, for your reading pleasure!
[PREVIOUS READ THIS NEXT! TITLES]
The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl
An October Read This Next! Book!
In Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl has given us a remarkable gift. With keen observations of nature in her backyard, she helps us become better observers in our world. With wise commentary, she gently challenges us to become more caring of the wildlife around us. With beautiful writing, she engages us in an important conversation about conservation. And with stunning illustrations, the book becomes the perfect gift for nature lovers and environmentalists in our lives. It will be one of our top handbells for the holiday season and I can’t wait to put this book in the hands of our customers as a gift for themselves or for the people they love.
The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, (List Price: 32, Spiegel & Grau, 9781954118461, October 2023)
Reviewed by Lia Lent, Wordsworth Books in Little Rock,, Arkansas
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
An October Read This Next! Book
History, family, community, and the all encompassing power of life in the face of brutality are abundant in Ward’s work, no less here in Let Us Descend. I was floored by the story of Annis, a young woman enslaved and sold down to a Louisiana plantation. Through her connections (both physical and spiritual), Annis builds a life and a future beyond loss. With a slight twist of magical realism and always brilliant prose, Jesmyn Ward has delivered another amazing novel and gift to readers.
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, (List Price: 28, Scribner, 9781982104498, October 2023)
Reviewed by Michelle Cavalier, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds
An October Read This Next! Book
This is a stunning picture book — Jason Reynolds has a way with words that maybe no one has had SINCE Langston Hughes. Poetic yet approachable; his style is unique. The illustrations by Pumphrey make Reynolds’ words dance, jump, and soar on the pages as you go through a story that is in part bio, part resistance, part celebration of a man whose contributions to literature are still reverberating all these years later.
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, (List Price: 18.99, Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 9781534439443, October 2023)
Reviewed by Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Family Meal by Bryan Washington
An October Read This Next! Book
There are two things I expect from a Bryan Washington narrative: food rendered so exquisitely I could lick the page and an emotional excavation so expansive it swallows the book and me with it. Family Meal delivered on these expectations and more. It’s propulsive and harrowing, the brittle edges of its characters encapsulating a world and giving way to its perfectly tender center.
Family Meal by Bryan Washington, (List Price: 28, Riverhead Books, 9780593421093, October 2023)
Reviewed by Miranda Sanchez, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters
An October Read This Next! Book
Erica Waters never disappoints with her dark and queer tales. I loved every bit of this dark academia story. I was on the edge of my seat and couldn’t stop reading. Don’t let this one pass you by!
All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters, (List Price: $19.99, HarperTeen, 9780063115965, October 2023)
Reviewed by Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia