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The week of July 29, 2025 What to read in August! 
The books Southern booksellers have picked for the Read This Next! August list take readers in unexpected, difficult, and ultimately rewarding directions. To a beleaguered English village, a heartwarming noodle shop run by robots, and to hell. A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén, Alice Menzies (trans.) The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz Katabasis by R. F. Kuang Current Read This Next! books and what SIBA booksellers have to say about them can always be found at The Southern Bookseller Review.
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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Gateaux by Mori Yoshida Adult Nonfiction, Cooking, French, Regional & Cultural There are different types of cookbooks. Some focus on the science…others on weeknight meals…but this one focuses on beauty, gorgeous pictures make this cookbook an adult picture book that you want to look at over and over. The recipes are not simple but works of art that will take your time and reward you with all things beautiful, beautiful to look at and pop in your mouth. Reviewed by Ashby Rushing, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee |
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The Summer House by Masashi Matsuie Adult Fiction, Japan, World Literature Personally, after venturing down a winding reading road lined with exits exclusively featuring deviant deeds and disastrous outcomes, I like to treat myself to the occasional Summer House. Here in particular, is a coming-of-age respite occupied by a young architect-in-training apprenticing under the tutelage of his hero, whose firm avoids the Tokyo summer heat by retreating to the titular volcano-side cottage. The well-known awkwardness of being thrown into the hip kids’ arena is instantly squelched by a cast of welcoming coworkers, each with their own scenic, hikable memory lanes. Not to say this is a completely drama-free chillax tract, but look: it inspired a “chillax” from this curmudgeon, frankly, a Lloyd Wrightean feat. Reviewed by Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia |
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Never the Roses by Jennifer K. Lambert Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Romance Jennifer K. Lambert’s world is beautiful! The imagery, world-building, and character development are wonderful. I loved this world! It has everything: magic, madness, love, war, and enemies to lovers—AHH! Oneira is so relatable in her desire to be alone, yet people keep showing up! She and Stearanos are on opposite sides of a war. When the great sorcerer Oneria decides to retire, she also chooses to steal a book from her old enemy, Stearanos, whom she has never met. This act sets off a chain of events where Stearanos and her begin to mess with each other. The little taunts, the great chemistry, and the fact that he fell first and harder make this a fantastic romance! Reviewed by sarah dimaria, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
There was something I found to be universal about that. The best stories are ones that are highly specific and, in this case, very extreme, but that have some universal resonance. We all know what it is to hit crunch points or to have [to] face crises with a partner, or with a friend, or a significant other, and what that does to a relationship, what that does to you as an individual, what it reveals to you about yourself, but also about that other person. ― Sophie Elmhirst, Interview, Indies Introduce, American Booksellers Association A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst 
Sophie Elmhirst is an award-winning journalist who writes regularly for The Guardian Long Read and The Economist; her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other places. She’s the winner of the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year and a Foreign Press Award. She lives in London and A Marriage at Sea is her first book. |
They were such extraordinarily different people in the way they related to the world and other people. He was this awkward and lonely man before he met her, living quite a dislocated life, and she was this livewire and such a compelling, energetic, positive presence. [There’s] something about how a marriage like that works, then putting that marriage in this extreme scenario, to the ultimate test.
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Katabasis (Standard Edition) by R. F. Kuang Adult Nonfiction, Cooking, French, Regional & Cultural
An August Read This Next! Title Katabasis is the latest iteration of a long literary tradition of descents to Hell, taking its place along Dante’s Inferno, Orpheus and Eurydice, the Aeneid, and countless others. The list, although not exhaustive, lends itself a reverence to the act of descending. Kuang honors the classic motif while giving it a fresh spin, crafting a delightful addition to a proud legacy. Her expertly articulated worldbuilding melds with a command of language and logic that carefully treads the barrier between traditional fantasy and the academic novel. The novel’s protagonists, Alice and Peter, are PhD candidates at Cambridge studying analytical magic. When their advisor suddenly dies with no replacement forthcoming, there’s only one logical option: going into Hell to retrieve his immortal soul. As they traverse the depths, the core question of the novel slowly emerges, how much are you willing to sacrifice to fulfill your darkest ambitions? Fervent readers of Kuang’s work will not be disappointed by her latest tour de force, and first-timers will be delighted by the care put in every word of the novel.Reviewed by Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
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The Club by Jennifer Dasal Adult Nonfiction, Architects, Artists, Biography & Autobiography, Photographers Between 1870 and 1914, hundreds of young American women sought artistic training in Paris, and many found a special residence that fostered their training. The building became known as the American Girl’s Club. Dasal provides a breezy account of the club by way of individual women who left accounts of their time. An intriguing addition to the history of women artists in Europe and America. Reviewed by Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina |
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A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult Fiction Dive deeper into the world of A Study in Drowning, into the dreams of Preston Héloury and the lore of the Sleepers, as Ava S. Reid’s Welsh folklore-infused dark academia fantasy continues! With the lush literary romance of Divine Rivals and the incisive magical dark academia of Babel, this series is a must-read, and A Theory of Dreaming only swept me further off my feet and out to (a palace beneath the) sea. Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia |
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I Got You by Derrick Barnes African American & Black, Children, Juvenile Fiction Derrick Barnes captures the magical relationship between brothers in a celebration of both big brothers and little brothers. From learning everything you know from your big brother to realizing that as he gets older you might not spend all your time together, I Got You is the perfect book to read with siblings — or children expecting a new addition to the family, too. A thoughtful, beautiful story. Reviewed by Beth Seufer Buss, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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Talking to My Father’s Ghost by Alex Krokus Biography & Memoir, Comics & Graphic Novels, Nonfiction This creative graphic memoir tells the story of two brothers and their mother navigating the grief process after losing their dad (and husband) to cancer. Grief isn’t linear, and the characters (and extended family) all process the death differently. The titular ghost is only visible to Alex, and their relationship is beautiful, showing that death doesn’t have to be the end. Reviewed by Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas |
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Decide for Yourself Books that appear on PEN America’s list of challenged books. |
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Identical by Ellen Hopkins Banned Books, Family, Young Adult Fiction Brilliant work by the author. This one is dark and hard to read, but the shock at the end… It’s a doozy! Reviewed by Courtney Niederer, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
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Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane Adult Nonfiction, Bestsellers, Ecosystems & Habitats, Nature Nature writer par excellence Robert Macfarlane’s latest work is a treat for all the senses. In it, he visits three rivers – one in Ecuador, one in India, one in Canada; one protected, one dying, and one under threat – in search of answers to his own question: is a river alive? The result is this beautifully written work that explores the rights of nature movement and the idea that rivers are more than mere matter for human use. Drawing upon both indigenous and Western knowledge, Is a River Alive? is erudite and eloquent, intelligent and passionate, and much needed. Reviewed by Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi |
[ See the full list ] |
Parting Thought “Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.” |
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Publisher:
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