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The week of February 25, 2025 Reading far and wide.  Readers sometimes think that SBR is a newsletter about Southern literature. In fact, it is a newsletter about Southern readers and all of the different kinds of books they love. It is called The Southern Bookseller Review, not "The Southern Book Review," for a reason. Booksellers are not just avid readers themselves, they are avidly interested in what other people are reading, and avidly interested in sharing the books they love. SBR is a celebration of the South’s reading and book-loving culture, wherever and by whomever those books were written. Nothing illustrated this better that the 2025 International Booker Prize long list, which was just announced this week. It celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The IBP notes that this year’s list includes 13 authors who have never been on the list before, three debut authors with their first book, and eight with their first English language translation. The booksellers of SBR have already read and written about many of them. Here is what they have to say about some of the books on the list: Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, Asa Yoneda (trans.) Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, Daniel Bowles (trans.) Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, Polly Barton (trans.) Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, Sophie Hughes (trans.) On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle, Barbara J. Haveland (trans.) Read This Now | Read This Next | Book Buzz | The Bookseller Directory |
Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies… |
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Our South: Black Food Through My Lens by Ashleigh Shanti Adult Nonfiction, African American & Black, American, Biography & Autobiography, Cooking, Regional & Cultural, Southern States A delicious and beautiful cookbook! I love the variety of ingredients that are rooted in the area, especially ones I never even thought about using. If you’re ever bored of the same old same old biscuits and gravy in your average Southern cookbooks, give this a shot! The flavor combinations are to die for. Reviewed by Lana Repic, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia |
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Rosarita by Anita Desai Adult Fiction, Literary Setting out on a journey, one often sees the path forward as clear and straight, but when that journey intersects with the past, ghosts, sideways pathways, and surprising intersections may appear. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink, and dive straight into fiction master Desai’s brief and powerful journey into the pathways both forward and back into a world of family, country, art, and possibility. Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
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The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica Adult Fiction, Literary Dread-inducing. Bazterrica knows how to craft a story that keeps you on edge. Her narrators are always so untrustworthy, leaving the reader unsure what information is being withheld and what information is only half-true. This horror novel, featuring cultish nuns in the midst of a post-climate apocalypse, leaves a lot to reflect on. Reviewed by Sarai Rivera, Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Soft Core by Brittany Newell 
I think of San Francisco as a main character in the book, exactly like you say. The book is about all the different sorts of intimacies that fill up Ruth’s life, from easily recognizable relationships like her romance with Dino to her intensely emotional and sometimes libidinal friendships with Mazzy and Ophelia. Also, the intimacies that are harder to name but just as impactful, i.e. her intimacies with different johns. All this is to say, a hugely intimate relationship in her life is the relationship she has with San Francisco, especially as she wanders around in her unraveling fugue state and revisits all the different places where special things have happened to her…Grace Cathedral, China Beach, the bus where she met Dino…She traces the city like you might trace a lover’s sleeping face. ― Brittany Newell, Interview, Chicago Review of Books What booksellers are saying about Soft Core by Brittany Newell 
Brittany Newell is a writer and performer whose work has been published in Granta, n+1, The New York Times, Joyland, Dazed, and Playgirl. She published her debut novel, Oola, at the age of twenty-one. She lives in San Francisco, where she works as a professional dominatrix. |
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Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks Adult Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Literary Figures, Memoirs, Women
A February Read This Next! Title Geraldine Brooks’s memoir of her life with writer Tony Horwitz and the aftermath of his sudden death in 2019 is an intimate, gut-wrenching, funny, and inspiring tribute to their life together and to his writing. It will take its place alongside other powerful memoirs of love and loss, like Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking (about which the two of them strikingly disagreed). With her well-honed journalistic skills, Brooks describes the brutally bureaucratic way America handles sudden death alongside her own journey through grief’s landscape while capturing Horwitz’s exuberant personality and adventurous spirit. Having read and loved most of her work, I now can’t wait to read his. Reviewed by Sarah Goddin, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina |
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What to Do When You Get Dumped by Suzy Hopkins Adult Nonfiction, Dating, Family & Relationships Written from hard experience but filled with compassion and humor, this guide to unbreaking your heart is like having a relationship doula. Both the words and the illustrations evoke real feelings and genuine permission to grieve, grow, hide, play, and move forward at whatever speed works. Don’t wait for a breakup to read this – it speaks to more than lost love. Reviewed by Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina |
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Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid Apocalyptic Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Young Adult Fiction This book was great. I loved the Hunger Games-inspired plot it took me back to reading dystopian YA from when I was a teenager. I loved the characters Reid created and how real they felt. I could not put this book down as I followed Inesa and Mel during the gauntlet. The commentary on climate change and big corporations was equal parts intriguing and terrifying. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a fast-paced story with great characters. Reviewed by Ruth Heckendorf, Pretty Good Books in LaGrange, Georgia |
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To See an Owl by Matthew Cordell Animals, Art, Birds, Children, Juvenile Fiction, New Experience I love a story about a young girl’s perseverance. Young Janie is singularly minded and deeply passionate about owls, all she wants is to see one, to witness "magic" that is real and here and accessible. Reviewed by Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia |
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Knucklehead: Poems by Tony Keith Jr. Poetry, Young Adult Fiction A powerful and empowering collection of poetry. You can feel a sense of urgency as Tony Keith Jr beseeches the next generation to find their voice and speak up. Reviewed by Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina |
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Decide for Yourself Books that appear on PEN America’s list of challenged books. |
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In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner Banned Books, Boarding School & Prep School, Coming of Age, Contemporary, Romance, School Education, Young Adult Fiction This book is classic Zentner. With lovely prose, it make you laugh, cry, and appreciate the family you have—both by birth and by choice. Reviewed by Amanda Gawthorpe, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
[ See the full list ] |
Parting Thought “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” |
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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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