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![]() December 7, 2021 SBP: The Children’s Finalists ![]() Voting is ongoing for the 2022 Southern Book Prize. Have you cast your ballot for the best Southern books of the year? VOTE HERE Here are what some booksellers have to say about the finalists in the Children’s category: Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas Ground Zero by Alan Gratz Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli Keep Your Head Up by Aliya King Neal The Key to You and Me by Jaye Robin Brown Read This Now | Read This Next | The Bookseller Directory |
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Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies… |
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The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones Adult Nonfiction, African American & Black, History, United States The 1619 Project from Nikole Hannah-Jones asserts that to truly understand America today – politically, socially, culturally- and to begin to make repairs, you must move the timeline back to 1619, when the first enslaved people from Africa arrived in Jamestown. In this book – which is 50% more material than the original New York Times project – we hear from all the people who should have been included when initially taught American history and social studies. Herein lies a star-studded collection of thinkers, writers, poets and artists and an attempt to fully understand America’s origin story. Required reading for all who care to create a more just America. Reviewed by Jamie Fiocco, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Spotlight on: People from My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami
![]() "I have been asked why I rendered the ‘kono atari” in the title as “neighborhood.” I think it’s because, for many of us at least, there is something familiar about its cast of characters. There was a lot of crazy stuff going on, but at the same time it felt like a real neighborhood, I guess, so that’s the word I chose." — Ted Goossen, translator of People from My Neighborhood
The 36 interconnected micro-stories contained in People from My Neighborhood create a world that Kawakami has been constructing, piece by piece, story by story, for over ten years. It is a world, as one reviewer puts it, " filled with equal parts fable and the everyday." Absurd, funny, strange, scary, and beautifully heartfelt, Kawakami deftly threads the wonderful and the mundane into a whole cloth of bright threads. ![]() What booksellers are saying about People from My Neighborhood
About Hiromi Kawakami Hiromi Kawakami was born in Tokyo in 1958. Her first novel, Kamisama (God), was published in 1994. In 1996, she was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for Hebi o Fumu (Tread on a Snake) and in 2001 she won the Tanizaki Prize for her novel Sensei no Kaban (Strange Weather in Tokyo), which became an international bestseller. Strange Weather in Tokyo was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 2014 International Foreign Fiction Prize. Kawakami has contributed to editions of Granta in both the UK and Japan and is one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists. |
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I Walk With Monsters by Paul Cornell Adult Fiction, Comics & Graphic Novels, Horror Beautifully horrific visuals and genuinely compelling characters, it was a thrilling story that, for better or worse, doesn’t spoon-feed you any extra information and keeps you as in the dark as possible. While this aides the overall foreboding aura the story emits, it also almost tantalizingly keeps it’s secrets just out of our reach. I truly hope to see more in the future, because this collection went by in a flash. Reviewed by Deion Cooper, Foggy Pine Books in Boone, North Carolina |
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The Me Tree by Ashley Belote Chapter Books, Children, Readers This charming and fun book emphasizes the value of friendship, even when we’d rather be alone! Bear just wants some space and is frustrated that his brand new house is filled with animal friends. But when he asks them to leave, he realizes he is lonely. Young readers can learn that sharing brings joy to the sharer, too! Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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Sway with Me by Syed M. Masood, Humorous, Romance, Young Adult Arsalan is an old soul…which he gets from living with his great-grandfather Nana, who is over 100 and imparts all of his wisdom and eccentricities to Arsalan. When Arsalan starts contemplating how alone he will be when his Nana dies and all he’s left with is an abusive father he hasn’t seen in years, he decides to approach Beenish, the stepdaughter of a prominent desi matchmaker, for help to arrange a marriage. Beenish’s condition is that Arsalan partner with her for a dance designed to scandalize at her sister’s upcoming wedding. Even though everything about Arsalan and Beenish is at odds, Arsalan finds himself drawn in to Beenish’s world, finding friends and relationships he didn’t know he needed — including with Beenish. Fans of Masood’s first book, More Than Just a Pretty Face, will like this one just as much. Reviewed by Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina |
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Five Decembers by James Kestrel Adult Fiction, Crime What a great cinematic story, starting with a double murder in Honolulu just before Thanksgiving 1941 which eventually took the investigating Detective to Hong Kong where he arrived on December 8th, December 7th in Hawaii, before ending Five Decembers later. Utterly enthralling. Reviewed by Pete Mock, McIntyre’s Fine Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina |
Read This Next! Books on the horizon: Forthcoming favorites from Southern indies… |
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All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
Adult Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths A Fall 2021 Read This Next! Title Ellice Littlejohn is a Black corporate attorney who is promoted after her white boss and lover dies violently, by his own hand or someone else’s? She has secrets, but so do her coworkers. This fast-paced legal thriller hooked me from page one. I so enjoyed having a kick-ass protagonist in a legal thriller which also touches on the challenges of Black women in the male dominated corporate law firm environment. Definitely a book for fans of Stacey Abrams and Laura Lippman. Reviewed by Lia Lent, Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, Arkansas |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
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Parting Thought “I’ve always thought that a good book should be either the entry point inward, to learn about yourself, or a door outward, to open you up to new worlds.” |
Publisher:
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance /
siba@sibaweb.com |
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
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