The Southern Bookseller Review 1/12/26

The week of January 12, 2026

Celebrate the magic of reading!

Did you know? January 31st is the first annual Friends of Fantasy Day. Created by a bookseller from Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, and take up by indie booksellers and fantasy readers nation-wide, its mission is to connect readers, authors, and bookstores through their mutual love of the fantastical and fantasy-adjacent. Fantasy lovers are encouraged to visit participating bookstores "…for author signings, fantasy displays, book blind-dates, and general fun and whimsy."

"Fantasy" is one of the most popular genres among the booksellers who write reviews for The Southern Bookseller Review, which has to date published almost 300 reviews in the fantasy category, which span all age levels and contain universes and worlds of variation. Fantasy have never truly been simply about dragons and elves and magic wands. Like any literature, it asks us important questions about ourselves, our communities, and our own real world.

Southern bookstores celebrating Friends of Fantasy Day (to date):

• The Snail on the Wall (Huntsville, AL)
• Portkey Books (Safety Harbor, FL)
• Bookends: Literature & Libations (Tampa, FL)
• Citrus and Sage Bookshop (Brooksville, FL)
• The Book Tavern (Augusta, GA)
• Gottwals Books (Macon, GA)
• Morally Gray Bookstore (Newnan, GA)
• Horton’s Books (Carrollton, GA)
• Read It Again Bookstore (Suwanee, GA)
• Fables Forest (Georgetown, KY)
• Plaid Elephant Books (Danville, KY)
• Cavalier House Books (Denham Springs & Lafayette, LA)
• The Roasted Bookery (Wilmington, NC)
• The Preppy Peacock (Hertford, NC)
• The Storybook Shoppe (Bluffton, SC)
• The Book and Cover, LLC (Chattanooga, TN)
• Crying Cat Books and Records (Murfreesboro, TN)
• Harper’s Books (Lebanon, TN)
• Bound Booksellers (Franklin, TN)
• Novelette (Nashville, TN)
• The StoryBook Cottage (Greenbriar, TN)
• Parnassus Books (Nashville, TN)
• Eleanor’s Norfolk (Norfolk, VA)

---

Featuring reviews of:

• Dandelion is Dead by Rosie Storey, reviewed by Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
• The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin, Aneesa Abbas Higgins (trans.), reviewed by Lera Shawver, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• When Trees Testisfy by Beronda L. Montgomery, reviewed by Chloe Strong, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  
  
• Self Portrait by Ludwig Volbeda, Lucy Scott (trans.), reviewed Aidan Walker, The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama
• The Wildest Thing by Emily Winfield Martin, reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
• Lunar Boy by Jes and Cin Wibowo, reviewed by Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
  
  
• If We Were All Dogs by Sophie Blackall, reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
• Bookseller Buzz: Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven, reviewed by Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia; Serena Wyckoff, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida; Jim Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida; Thomas Wallace, Reading Rock Books in Dickson, Tennessee

Read the newsletter