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The week of October 29, 2024 Southern Book Prize Season Starts Friday 
November. It is a month of falling temperatures and falling leaves. Of holiday decorations going up and college football touchdowns. Of lines in supermarkets at Black Friday sales and at polling places. One ballot readers will enjoy casting is the vote for which books deserve to be considered "the best Southern books of the year." The 2025 Southern Book Prize (SPB) ballot opens Friday, November 1st. Each year, Southern indie booksellers select six books as finalists for each of the fiction, nonfiction, and young reader categories. Either set in the South, or by a Southern author, the finalist list is a collection of some of the favorite "hand sell" books of the year. Books that indie booksellers have supported, championed, and perhaps even schemed to get their customers to try. The SBP finalists are announced on November 1, and readers are invited to vote for their favorites in each category. Voting also includes a chance to enter a raffle for a collection of the books on the ballot, and a $100 gift card to their local indie bookstore. For the next couple months the SBR newsletter will include features and bookseller reviews of the finalists. Winners will be announced on February 14th. Visit The Southern Book Prize Ballot on Friday and cast your vote for your favorite Southern books.
You can help! 
Independent bookstores in the South are still struggling in the wake of Hurricane Helene, and now Hurricane Milton. You can help: Donate to Binc; a relief organization for booksellers and comic book sellers. Visit the SIBA Hurricane Relief Resources page to donate directly to store fundraisers. And shop online at a store that has been impacted. 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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Hard Copy by Fien Veldman Adult Fiction, Literary Wholly original, perfect for fans of Convenience Store Woman. A lonely young woman who has isolated herself from her family, friends, and colleagues turns to the one (semi)reliable relationship left in her life: her office printer. She dusts it lovingly, protects it from leaks, troubleshoots its needs. Is she delusional? Is it a fairy tale? Does that even matter? I came for the love story and stayed to see if she gets her HEA…and I’m not saying anything else because you should obviously read it if you’ve stayed with me this far. No spoilers. Reviewed by Maggie Robe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
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The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave Adult Fiction, Women The Night We Lost Him is such a good read! I didn’t want to put it down, but felt none of the anxiety or nail-biting tension that can often come with thrillers. It’s atmospheric, insightful, and reflective – all while giving us an emotional mystery. While the book does focus on a kind of maybe murder mystery, it’s also very much about who we are versus who we want to be, both publicly and privately. It’s about the choices we make again and again and how we can change those choices and our path in life. It’s a love story but also a story about grief. Laura Dave’s writing is lovely; the characters are wonderfully three-dimensional, and I loved the architectural bits as well. Highly recommend! Reviewed by Emily Lessig, The Violet Fox Bookshop in Virginia Beach, Virginia |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Graveyard Shift: A Novella by M. L. Rio 
It was an idea I’d been kicking around for a long time. I wanted to write a story that took place in just one night, but it didn’t feel like a whole novel. When my publisher asked if I had anything in the story drawer that might work for a novella, I thought of it immediately. The story grew from there, drawing on a lot of things in my academic past—including the graveyard behind my dorm where I hung out as an undergrad and my own experience of chronic insomnia and the desperation that it causes. Because I also work in the medical humanities, I was eager to try putting a sci-fi spin on something. With the length in mind, I wanted something fast-paced and fun, so I did kind of take Scooby Doo as a model. I’d like to think it’s a grown-up version of that—same wacky energy but with a little more intellectual substance. What booksellers are saying about Graveyard Shift 
M. L. Rio is the author of international bestseller If We Were Villains, which has been published in twenty countries and eighteen languages. She holds an MA in Shakespeare studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Graveyard Shift is her first novella. |
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The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins Adult Fiction, Literary 
An October Read This Next! Title The Blue Hour is a book about art – it is about the reclusive artist, the sculptures and paintings, the curator obsessed with her work and the people who have come to be in possession of pieces of her art. The description of the art and its inception is fascinating. No wonder her work has been fought over. The Blue Hour is also a psychological drama about self-worth, loneliness, loss, and love. You will probably not like most of the characters. You will probably be surprised by the slow revelations that have led to the present circumstances. But you will definitely not soon forget this dark and chilling story of obsessive love. Reviewed by Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina |
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The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux Adult Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Memoirs To throuple with two icons–no, that’s too simple. But this work, like all of Ernaux’s work, feels profoundly generous, an invitation into the most intimate enclave formed at the intersection of passion, memory, love, and death. Conceptually fascinating and artistically surprising, moving, hopeful, and brilliant. Reviewed by Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama |
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The Bitter End by Alexa Donne Thrillers & Suspense, Young Adult Fiction Who doesn’t feel a little murdery from time to time? In Donne’s The Bitter End, eight teens are stranded on top of a mountain, cut off by the snow and the lack of phones for their digital detox retreat. When one student turns up dead, it’s mostly chalked up to an accident. But when another is found, they aren’t quite so sure. Soon, it’s a race to figure out the culprit and escape the mountain with their lives. You can never go wrong with an Alexa Donne book, and I’m happy to report that this one is no exception! Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia |
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Mr. Lepron’s Mystery Soup by Giovanna Zoboli Children, Cooking & Food, Juvenile Fiction Stunning illustrations. Mr. Lepron is a handsome hare who makes extraordinary soup from farmers’ vegetables. He opens a factory but mass production makes people declare his soup has changed and is not extraordinary. So what’s a hare to do? Reviewed by Ashby Rushing, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee |
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Turning Twelve by Kathryn Ormsbee Comics & Graphic Novels, Juvenile Fiction LITERALLY SO CUTE!!! This book is perfect for any pre-teen to read. And also just for anyone else. You follow the main character in her time before turning twelve, experiencing all the problems pre-teen girls go through- first periods, graduating from training bra to normal bra, shaving, feeling out of place, and discovering your sexuality. This book also includes segments where she deals with a toxic religious youth group. Telling her that women were made by god to complement men. How women should dress modestly to keep boys’ thoughts at bay. And how being gay makes god cry. Beautiful, happy ending. Wonderful read. Reviewed by Stephanie St. John, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia |
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Decide for Yourself Books that appear on PEN America’s list of challenged books. |
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Dreamers by Yuyi Morales Banned Books, Biography & Autobiography, Books & Libraries, Childrens, Cultural & Regional, Emigration & Immigration, Juvenile Nonfiction Gorgeous, timely, and moving; each and every page of Dreamers is a masterpiece. The story is my favorite part because it is familiar, and yet, I’ve never seen it so dazzlingly portrayed. It’s a subtle and sweetly told vignette in the life of an immigrant that I think will spur important conversations for little readers. Reviewed by Cristina Russell, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
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Parting Thought “Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real.” |
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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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