The Southern Bookseller Review: Celebrating Women’s Voices

The Southern Bookseller Review Newsletter for March, 2023

View Online | Unsubscribe | SBR Archive | SUBSCRIBE TO SBR

The Southern Bookseller Review: A Book for Every Reader

facebook  twitter  instagram 

March 2023

Celebrating Women’s Voices

Women

In honor of Women’s History Month, this special edition of The Southern Bookseller Review celebrates the lives and words of women.

“In a world that wants women to whisper, I choose to yell.” -Luvvie Ajayi

Read This Now | Read This Next | The Bookseller Directory



Read This Now!

Recommended by Southern indies…

Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada

BUY THE BOOK

Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada
Europa / March 2023


More Reviews from Epilogue Books

If there’s one thing you should know about me – it’s that I adore a book about an unhappy housewife, not because I like seeing women unhappy, but because I love to support women fighting wrongs. Seeing how a woman reclaims her space, life, and situation – even if she goes about it in questionable ways, is a ride I want to be on. Kashimada’s novel is a prime example of all these elements, with the perfect blend of sparse, deeply impactful prose that explore themes of religion, tragedy, identity, and isolation.

Reviewed by Elizabeth Findley, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina


Bookseller Buzz

ad

Spotlight on: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

 

Rebecca Makkai, photo credit Brett Simison

"This is a book where if you read it, by the end, you’ll know what happened. But not everything is tied up in a neat bow. My job is not to give answers. My job is to ask questions. My job is to, in fact, take the questions that I already have and to complicate those even for myself. I should be confusing myself greatly as I write. I should be banging my head on the wall. I shouldn’t be coming in already knowing what I want to say." ―Rebecca Makkai, Interview, NPR

What booksellers are saying about I Have Some Questions for You

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
  • Another brilliant book from Rebecca Makkai. I love the way she emotionally manipulates me as a reader — in the best possible way! She makes me feel so much by creating rich characters and drawing you in to their lives. This is so timely and the brilliance of the narration is complex and daring. You cannot read this book without stopping and reflecting on the moral dilemmas Bodie faces and asking yourself what you would have done. It’s a brilliant look at the stories we tell, how those change as we grow, and how we see the world from different perspective as society progresses. I will be thinking about this book for a long time!
      ―Jamie Southern from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

  • I should’ve known that Rebecca Makkai taking on a true-crime mystery would knock me off my feet, but I was not prepared for I Have Some Questions For You to hold me captive for days straight while I devoured every chapter. To put it mildly, I am obsessed with this book—it’s gripping, character-driven, and just ridiculously well-written.
      ―Lindsay Lynch from Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN | Buy from Parnassus

  • Man, do I have some questions after finishing this absorbing story. So. Many. Questions. If a high school friend was murdered long ago on the campus of your boarding school, how many years would you continue thinking about it? Would you get involved decades later if you believed the wrong person was convicted? What if it brought pain to the victim’s family and disrupted the lives of other former students? If you believed you knew who the real murderer was, would you expose him? And what if, in your quest for justice, you realize that your own perspective may be biased and your logic may be faulty? Get ready, because this novel asks you to reflect on so many questions, about power and privilege, media and the me too movement, sexual relationships and friendships. It’s the must-read of the season.
      ―Lady Smith from The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, AL | Buy from Snail on the Wall
  • An immaculate feat of story-telling, I Have Some Questions for You takes on complicated contemporary issues and tropes with propulsive verve and moral clarity that gets buried in our Twitter-fied, new-as-infotainment world.
      ―Matt Nixon from A Cappella Books in Atlanta, GA | Buy from A Cappella Books

About Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai is the author of the novels I Have Some Questions for YouThe Great BelieversThe Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower, and the story collection Music for Wartime. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, The Great Believers received an American Library Association Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among other honors, and was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2018 by The New York Times. A 202 Guggenheim fellow, Makkai is on the MFA faculties of the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe and Northwestern University, and is the artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago. She lives on the campus of the midwestern boarding school where her husband teaches, and in Vermont.

ad

The New Guys by Meredith Bagby

BUY THE BOOKBUY THE AUDIOBOOK

The New Guys by Meredith Bagby
William Morrow / February 2023


More Reviews from Bookmarks

An incredible book that includes exclusive interviews with former astronauts and new pictures from NASA’s archive! More importantly, Meredith Bagby tells the story of the first class of space shuttle astronauts incredibly compellingly; this book is accessible and distills an amazing amount of historical and scientific information into a highly readable narrative. It includes in-depth coverage of the Challenger disaster, which makes for difficult but worthwhile reading. 

Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

BUY THE BOOKBUY THE AUDIOBOOK

Lone Women by Victor LaValle
One World / March 2023


More Reviews from Garden District Book Shop

Lavalle’s surprising and singular horror/western will appeal to lit fic and genre readers alike with its peculiar and anachronistic, but captivating voice, and its unique wasteland of a setting. It delivers both blood and monsters (human and inhuman) and an affecting exploration of trauma and guilt. This is one that’ll stick with you.

Reviewed by Carroll Gelderman, Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, Louisiana

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

BUY THE BOOK BUY THE AUDIOBOOK

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns
 Doubleday / February 2023


More Reviews from E. Shaver, Booksellers

This book is a masterpiece!!!!! Where to begin?! From the very first page, the narrator captivates the reader’s attention and affections. She is incredibly passionate and strong, while perfecting a gritty, humorous commentary that was absolutely intoxicating. The story itself shared a vital perspective- specifically that of a queer, Sri Lankan woman. Her story highlighted the perilous, and at times, violent nature of performative activism without the presence of active, internalized antiracism practices. It was truly an enthralling novel. Priya Guns is an incredibly talented author and I cannot wait to read their other novel(s) and rave about them!

Reviewed by Finn Fletcher, E. Shaver, Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson by Carole Boston Weatherford

BUY THE BOOKBUY THE AUDIOBOOK

All Rise: The Story of Ketanji Brown Jackson by Carole Boston Weatherford
Crown Books for Young Readers / February 2023


More Reviews from Bookmarks

A beautiful new picture book from the perennial bestseller, Carole Boston Weatherford. An important and necessary addition to libraries and history books everywhere about the nation’s first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Reviewed by Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina


Parting Thought

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”
– Maya Angelou

Publisher: The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance / siba@sibaweb.com
Editor: Nicki Leone / nicki@sibaweb.com
Advertising: Linda-Marie Barrett / lindamarie@sibaweb.com
The Southern Bookseller Review is a project of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, in support of independent bookstores in the South | SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805

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.

Scroll to Top