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The week of July 30, 2024 What to read in August  A sneak peak at the books Southern indie booksellers are really excited about! The theme of Read This Next! August might be called "pushing boundaries." Booksellers talk about being surprised and irresistibly drawn in to these wide-ranging stories and narratives. These stories are the ones that challenge our expectations. The Wedding People by Alison Espach The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak Bluff: Poems by Danez Smith 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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Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida Adult Fiction, Japan, World Literature A lithe novel of interlocking stories set over a series of very late nights in Tokyo. The characters either work through or leave their work in the AM part of the night; their stories overlap (or nearly overlap) via taxis, diners, and bars. Slice of life, relatively low stakes, and enjoyable. Reviewed by Ginger Kautz, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina |
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All This and More by Peng Shepherd Adult Fiction, Literary If you’re looking for a unique book then All This and More by Peng Shepherd is just the one for you! Marsh is looking to get a redo in life and the reader gets to control the storyline by making choices for her. It was great fun to play a part in creating her new destiny. Will you be able to lead her to an ending that will make her happier than she was originally? Don’t miss the opportunity to find out! Reviewed by Barb Rascon, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Spotlight on: Smothermoss by Alisa Alering  It’s too easy to equate character strength with physical power. So what is strength? What does it mean to be truly tough? Is suffering what makes you strong? Is continuing to persist, to exist on your terms in the face of overwhelming opposition or little hope of change—is that strength? (Recently, reading K.X. Song’s novel An Echo In the City about the 2019 Hong Kong protests I was impressed with the characters’ repeated acknowledgment that they knew they couldn’t win and yet that was no reason to stop fighting). Is strength merely preserving some core kernel of your true self deep down when all the world tells you that what you are, what you believe, what you feel is not right, not okay, not even real? Does that internal personal act of truth and private rebellion equate with strength? Is real strength the ability to ask for what you want and keep asking? Is it the ability to make hard choices in the face of disappointment or compromise? ― Alisa Alering, Interview, We Are Grimoire What booksellers are saying about Smothermoss 
Alisa Alering grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and now lives in Arizona. After attending Clarion West, their short fiction has been published in Fireside, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Podcastle, and Cast of Wonders, among others, and been recognized by the Calvino Prize. A former librarian and science/technology reporter, they teach fiction workshops at the Highlights Foundation. |
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The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves Action & Adventure, Adult Fiction The Book of Elsewhere is pulp sci-fi wrapped in literary fiction. Or literary fiction masquerading as pulp sci-fi. Or both. Or neither. It is a duality. It is gorgeous, arcane, and prosaic. It is eggs and pigs and blood and frenzy. It is the loss of the self, and the return. The prose is sulfurous, oceanic, tight, expectant. It compels you to read it. It drags you under and drowns you in mystery and cruelty and absence, then leaves you gasping for air in moments of introspection and reflection. It is at turns explosive and sedate, complex and streamlined, isolating and hypnotizing. In short, The Book of Elsewhere rips. It puts your brain in a fugue state, stomps on it, caresses it, confuses it, and spits you out with a headache and blood in your mouth and a sense of completion. Reviewed by Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia |
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A Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings Adult Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Women A Well-Trained Wife is as horrifying portrait of a woman trapped in a marriage and religious system of abuse and misogyny. Perfect for fans of Educated and The Sound Of Gravel. Reviewed by Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina |
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The Girl in Question by Tess Sharpe LGBTQ+, Romance, Young Adult Fiction Tess Sharpe has absolutely knocked it out of the park with this follow-up to her 2021 hit The Girls I’ve Been. Readers follow Nora as she is hunting and being hunted by her stepfather with Wes and Iris in tow. Sharpe’s writing is impossible to put down, and the tension at the end left me in tears from the sheer overwhelming nature of it. Reviewed by Emma Presnell, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky |
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Intro the Goblin Market by Vikki VanSickle Adaptations, Childrens, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Family, Fantasy & Magic, Juvenile Fiction, Siblings A cute cautionary tale with beautiful art. I love how the wolf follows Millie around in the illustrations, and how Millie was able to outsmart the traps. The narration was easy to understand and fun. A great read for children. Reviewed by Kamilah Wong, E. Shaver bookseller in Savannah, Georgia |
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We Are Big Time by Hena Khan Childrens, Comics & Graphic Novels, Juvenile Fiction I love this new middle-grade graphic novel about a girls’ basketball team. The story could easily be that it is a team from an all-Muslim school, but there’s more to it than that. I love how the author has based this on a true story and helped guide the reader through the prejudice and media hype that would surround this story still. It’s nuanced and delicately handled, and I think will resonate with every reader. Reviewed by Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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Decide for Yourself Books that appear on PEN America’s list of challenged books. |
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Blue Window by Adina Rishe Gerwirtz Action & Adventure, Banned Books, Family, Science Fiction, Siblings, Time Travel, Young Adult Fiction I Am a Candlewick Frequent Blurber! On the shortest day of the year, Max, Susan, Nell, Jean, and Kate tumbled through Mrs Grady’s cobalt blue window. On the other side, things were the same (there were animals, people and chicken for dinner) but at the same time very very very different. In this mesmerizing new portal fantasy from the author of Zebra Forest, five children learn who they are, discern how they fit into an ancient prophecy, and learn just what they can do when they set their minds to it. Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
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Parting Thought “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.” |
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Publisher:
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance /
siba@sibaweb.com |
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