|
|
|
|
The week of November 29, 2022 The National Book Awards: What Southern Booksellers Think 
The week before Thanksgiving the National Book Foundation announced the winners of the 2022 National Book Awards. When the finalists were first announced in September, SBR noted how many of the books had been recommended by Southern booksellers. This week’s Book Buzz below features the winner in the Translated Literature Category, Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Riverhead Books). Here, in more detail, are what booksellers have to say about the books which won in other categories: 
Fiction Winner: The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (Knopf) The Rabbit Hutch is about 18 year old Blandine Watkins, who has recently aged out of the foster care system and hopes soon to escape her earthly body like the female mystics who obsess her. It’s also about a dying Midwestern town, formerly home to an automobile manufacturer with a cultishly devoted customer base whose bankruptcy left the town in financial ruin and poisoned by toxic chemicals. And The Rabbit Hutch is also about The Rabbit Hutch, a low-income housing experiment full of residents living lives of varying degrees of quiet desperation, all of whom are brought sharply to life by Tess Gunty’s intricate, precise, dishy prose. It’s dark, but funny. It’s tragic, but affirming. And I didn’t want to skim over a single sentence, the writing is just that good. I will read anything Gunty publishes in the future. –Kat Leache from Novel in Memphis, TN | Buy from Novel 
Young People’s Literature Winner: All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill) I am of the opinion that Sabaa Tahir is one of the most important voices in contemporary YA fiction. This book boldly confronts the truths of being immigrants, the children of immigrants, overt and subtle racism and the deafening silence of victimhood. This book is beautifully written, carefully constructed and written with such tenderness. –Annie Childress from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, GA | Buy from E. Shaver, bookseller |
|
|
|
Southern Book Prize Finalist! What’s the best Southern book of the year? |
|
|
Beatrice Likes the Dark by April Genevieve Tucholke Children, Emotions & Feelings, Halloween, Holidays & Celebrations, Juvenile Fiction, Siblings, Social Themes, Southern Book Prize Finalist 
Far and away one of my favorite picture books of the year! Beatrice Likes the Dark is a beautifully illustrated, sweet story of sisterhood. Each page is full of heart and whimsical detail. Your inner baby goth or any year-round Halloween lovers in your life will need to own this one! VOTE FOR THE SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE Reviewed by Cristina Russell, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida |
|
Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies… |
|
|
The Cloisters by Katy Hays Adult Fiction, Psychological, Thrillers The Cloisters by Katy Hays is what I imagine Mary Shelley might write if she lived in the 21st century. There are elements of horror, a little romance, an eerie setting, characters that will keep you guessing, and an ending you won’t see coming. But more than that, The Cloisters seems to play with a lot of the same themes that Mary Shelley did – ambition and fallibility, romanticism in nature, dangerous knowledge, secrecy, and isolation. But where Shelley writes about what makes us human (or not), Hays writes about what agency we have as humans. Do we have free will? Is anything predestined? Or is everything just fate? Come tiptoe through the hushed hallways of The Cloisters, teeming with dark academia that whispers ancient secrets from the shadows. Mysteries smolder at the edges. What begins as a slow burn will have you holding your breath as you race to the end. The Cloisters is chock full of art history, architectural delights, and occult vibes. This was one of those books that took over my world while I was reading it – casting a thin veil of darkness and tension over everything until I was so immersed in the characters and story that I was thinking about them and what would happen next throughout the day. Even almost a week later, I’m still pondering… the secrets we all hold, the dreams we have for ourselves and how far we’re willing to go to reach them. And whether any of that is our choice… or just fate. Reviewed by Emily Lessig, The Violet Fox Bookshop in Virginia Beach, Virginia |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bookseller Buzz |
 |
|
Spotlight on: Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin
“I started this book in Argentina many years ago, knowing I would move to Europe soon, and finished it during my first couple of years living in Berlin. So for me it works as a bridge between two very different worlds and lives. I couldn’t see that during the writing process, but these stories are full of moving boxes, abandoned clothes, lost objects, people feeling nostalgic and lost or out of place, even when the plots have little to do with that. How tricky fiction can be…I thought I had hidden my private life behind these stories, but it doesn’t matter what I am writing about, I’m always working with material taken from my own life and experience.” ―Samanta Schweblin, Interview, Words Without Borders, National Book Awards What booksellers are saying about Seven Empty Houses 
About Samanta Schweblin Samanta Schweblin is the author of the novel Fever Dream, a finalist for the International Booker Prize, and the novel Little Eyes and story collection A Mouthful of Birds, longlisted for the same prize. Chosen by Granta as one of the twenty-two best writers in Spanish under the age of thirty-five, she has won numerous prestigious awards around the world. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages, and her work has appeared in English in The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine. Originally from Buenos Aires, Schweblin lives in Berlin. Megan McDowell has translated books by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors; her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Words Without Borders, and Vice, among other publications. |
 |
|
|
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy Adult Fiction, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological, Sagas I have never really felt like the target reader for Cormac McCarthy, but this one really spoke to me. Alternating perspectives between two siblings in the past and present, The Passenger is the story of Bobby Western, a deep sea diver overcome with grief by the death of his sister whom he carried romantic feelings for. Many chapters flesh out in a very dialogue-heavy interview style with an eccentric cast of characters, some more likable than others. Experts in quantum mechanics such as Dirac, Einstein, and Oppenheimer (who worked alongside Western’s father) take on roles as symbols, legacies, and even characters unto themselves. All the while, Western gets wrapped up in a conspiracy he doesn’t know the questions to let alone the answers. McCarthy writes beautifully of the alchemic fires of devotion and the beyond, and I suspect this is a novel I will be returning to throughout my life. Reviewed by Amanda Depperschmidt, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Waxing On by Ralph Macchio Adult Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts Whether you are a fan of the original 1984 Karate Kid or the 2018 Cobra Kai on Netflix, you will be well versed in this pop culture classic. Ralph Macchio takes you behind the scenes of both the original film and the new series in this new book. You will discover the magic of filmography, and dedication of the actors and directors that created some of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history. But the phenomena that is Karate Kid did not stop with the film, Ralph goes on the describe how his experience of the film and the fans that he interacts with have shaped and changed his life over the years, and helped create Cobra Kai. Waxing On is a nostalgic journey into a pop culture phenomenon that is so relevant to the human condition that it has thrived and adapted to the test of time in ways that makes it as relevant today as it did in 1984. Reviewed by Gretchen Shuler, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina |
|
|
A Consuming Fire by Laura E. Weymouth Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult Fiction I will automatically consume anything Laura Weymouth writes after this book, because WOW. Romance, adventure, intrigue, suspense, and a very cute dog: all that and more are found in A Consuming Fire, which showcases Weymouth’s ability to leave you hanging on the edge of your seat for 400 pages. Reviewed by Hallie Smith, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina |
|
|
Ice! Poems About Polar Life by Douglas Florian Children, Juvenile Nonfiction, People & Places, Poetry, Polar Regions Brrrrfect poetry for the winter months. The poems contained in Ice! will warm the hearts of young readers with funny frozen antics of penguins, caribou, narwhals and more cold climate critters. Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
|
|
Hooky Volume 2 by Míriam Bonastre Tur Children, Comics & Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Juvenile Fiction Love love love this series! I still can’t wait to own all the volumes for my collection. Volume two expands the world even further and keeps up with its solid character development in such an engaging way! Reviewed by Lana Repic, E. Shaver bookseller in Savannah, Georgia |
|
Read This Next! Books on the horizon: Forthcoming favorites from Southern indies… |
|
|
We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds Mysteries & Detective Stories, Young Adult An November 2022 Read This Next! Title Poignant, moving, and utterly captivating from the first page to the last, We Deserve Monuments is in a league of its own. Both a riveting exploration of the South’s intrinsic and rampant racism and a love story that revels in the beauty of queer Black girls, Jas Hammonds’ debut should be required reading. A beautifully rendered love story both to the family we’re born into and the family we choose, I know I will be neither the first nor the last to say that this book, and all those who see themselves reflected in its pages, deserves monuments. Reviewed by Mary Louise Callaghan, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
|
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
[ See the full list ] |
|
Parting Thought “I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” |
|
Publisher:
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance /
siba@sibaweb.com |
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
You have received this email because you are currently subscribed to receive The Southern Bookseller Review.
Please click @@unsubscribe_url@@ if you no longer wish to receive these communications.