The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Adult Fiction

Spotlight on: Weyward by Emilia Hart

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Emilia Hart, photo credit Emilia Hart

“I began writing Weyward during the early days of the pandemic, fuelled by anger about the increase of domestic violence during lockdown. At the same time, I was also reading about the 1612 Pendle Witch Trials. The two seemed horribly linked. I wondered: how far have we really come in the fight against misogyny? How can we keep going?

For me, the answer is by connecting with the women around us, and those who came before us. And story is connection. At the heart of the novel is a manuscript written by Altha Weyward, on trial for witchcraft in 1619. Her descendants, Violet in 1942 and Kate in 2019, both find and read Altha’s story. For Violet and Kate, the act of reading – of connecting with a woman who lived centuries before – is life changing.” ―Emilia Hart, Harper Reach

Weyward by Emilia Hart

What booksellers are saying about Weyward

  • In this utterly captivating debut, Hart manages to weave an intricate, beautifully written novel about three women and their inextricable connection to nature. This intergenerational tale snared me from the first page and wouldn’t let go. If you enjoy complex conversations about legacy, gender and control, nature and witchy-ness, and female power, this should be next on your list.
      ―Hannah Kerbs, Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN | Buy from Parnassus

  • Eerily scandalous are the Wayward women! They are different and misunderstood but discover their strength when they need it! Mesmerizing tale! Couldn’t put it down!
      ―Stephanie Crowe from Page & Palette in Fairhope, AL | Buy from Parnassus

  • Weyward weaves a spellbinding tale empowering women through their supernatural connection to the natural world. Told in three different timelines across five centuries we get engrossed the lives of Altha, Violet and Kate as they discover the power and strength they never knew they had.
      ―Sharon Davis from Book Bound Bookstore in Blairsville, GA | Buy from Book Bound Bookstore
  • First-born women born into the Weyward family have a supernatural affinity with nature. This gift comes with a curse making them too attractive to abusive men. Hart’s novel interweaves the stories of 4 generations of Weyward women as they find their power and their way in a hostile world. Their stories hold just enough suspense to keep the pages turning and just enough hope to make the read satisfying. A worthwhile addition to witch shelves.
      ― Jan Blodgett from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC | Buy from Main Street Books

About Emilia Hart

Emilia Hart grew up in Australia and studied English Literature at university before training as a lawyer. Weyward is her debut and was Highly Commended by the Caledonia First Novel Prize. Emilia lives in London.

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The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles

Gareth Inglis, unwanted child turned dismissed law clerk, unexpectedly inherits his absent father’s title and country estate. Tench House is situated in Romney Marsh, a remote wetland not-so-secretly controlled by smuggling gangs. Much to Gareth’s surprise, his local area is under the control of the Doomsday clan, led by none other than his one-time lover.Joss Doomsday is confident, charming, and eminently reasonable – and on the Marsh, his word is as good as law. But he is eager to avoid Gareth, who once spurned him in a fit of melancholy. At least until Gareth unwittingly puts his sister’s freedom at stake. As the dust of this treacherous first encounter settles and the two form an unlikely partnership, peril encroaches on them from all sides. The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is an adventurous Regency romance populated by swashbuckling smugglers as well as prickly high society. It is also somewhat of a naturalist’s book; Gareth’s explorations out on the Marsh taught me a surprising amount about the great diving beetle. There are stolen fortunes, dangerous missions under cover of night, a lady scandalously wearing trousers, and murders to boot. But the real heart of the book lies in healing trauma and finding love (in partners as well as family). Gareth and Joss are shaped by their experiences, by their relationship to one another, and the end of the book finds them better situated for happiness than they’ve ever been before.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles, (List Price: 16.99, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 9781728255859, March 2023)

Reviewed by Kaley Lowman, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina

Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas

This gorgeous coming-of-age book swept me away to southern Australia. Not a single word is wasted in Madelaine Lucas’s debut novel; she writes with such precision and beauty. It took me days to read it not because I wasn’t enthralled but because I wanted to savor every perfect word. Lucas captures the thrills and tiny devastations of a first love affair so perfectly, remembered through the eyes of an older and wiser narrator.

Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas, (List Price: 16.95, Tin House Books, 9781953534651, March 2023)

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

Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee

Pomegranate is a raw, beautiful story of reintegration and a mother trying to do and be better for her kids. Oscillating between present-day Ranita and her past self, this story paints a real, painful picture of a woman caught in a cycle of drug use and eventual prison time, and her daily fight for sobriety and wellness when she returns to her family

Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee, (List Price: 27.99, Atria Books, 9781982171896, April 2023)

Reviewed by Sarah Catherine, The Snail On the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

Spotlight on: Decent People by De’Shawn Charles Winslow

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De'Shawn Charles Winslow, photo credit Julie R. Keresztes

“So many of the characters in Decent People are on a quest for respectability–– their own and/or that of their children. I wanted to show what lengths people would go to just to conceal truths: a child’s queerness, an addiction, hypocrisy. I don’t know that I was going for nuance, exactly. I think I was just portraying people the way I’ve often encountered them. ” ―De’Shawn Charles Winslow, interview, PEN America

Decent People by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

What booksellers are saying about Decent People

  • A complex, engaging story of a small Southern town grappling with racial justice, human rights, religion and murder in the mid 1970’s. Family ties and long-buried secrets are tested as a woman fights to clear the name of her beloved. An absolute page-turner filled with colorful characters in a rich setting.
      ―Jamie Fiocco from Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

  • Decent People is a compelling mystery that also deftly contends with racism, homophobia, classism and corruption. Charles De’Shawn Winslow’s fluid writing and pacing combine with wonderfully drawn characters–including the glorious busybody Josephine Wright–to make a truly marvelous novel.
      ―Stephanie Jones-Byrne from Malaprop’s in Asheville, NC | Buy from Malaprops

  • The shooting deaths of two sisters and their brother, prominent members of the African-American community, set tongues wagging in West Mills, NC. Except for those holding their voice over secrets. Told from alternating perspectives, the mystery unfolds amid lives threatened by the racism and homophobia of the 1960s and 1970s. This is a great read on so many levels, can’t wait to hand sell this one.
      ―Jessica Nock from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC | Buy from Main Street Books

About De’Shawn Charles Winslow

De’Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of In West Mills, a Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Lambda Literary Award, and Publishing Triangle Awards finalist. He was born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and now lives in New York.

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Sundial by Catriona Ward

An interesting read with many twist and turns. Characters and setting were very unique, and I could never guess what would happen next.(Spoilers inbound) This was a weird book, but not in a bad way. The writing was spiritic, with odd inclusions and details, but it all felt intentional. Rob was flawed and different individual, and the writing portrayed that perfectly. Cassie’s chapters felt like reading the mind of a child who sees thing she shouldn’t. All of this felt very intentional, it felt like the book was trying to pack a lot within as few pages as possible, and yet some of the twists and events of the book felt forgotten too easily. Yet, the last couple chapters of the climax had me enraptured and glued to the page. And the book as a whole had a unique premise and storyline, even if there was whole lot in it. A definite need to read for sure.

Sundial by Catriona Ward, (List Price: $19.99, Tor Nightfire, 9781250812704, March 2023)

Reviewed by Mandolin Moore, WordsWorth Books in Little Rock, Arkansas

The Angel Maker by Alex North

I am not a reader of thrillers, but I could not put this down. Following the two octogenarian sons of a future-seeing serial killer, this story weaves between past and present, between investigators and the investigated, and intertwines a horrific legacy with a more recent brutal attack and the siblings that survived. Alex North kept me guessing, and though I had to draw a character map to track all the Englishmen the story follows, I was deeply invested by the end and questioning for myself the roles of family, both blood and chosen.

The Angel Maker by Alex North, (List Price: $28.99, Celadon Books, 9781250757869, February 2023)

Reviewed by Sarah Catherine, The Snail On the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama

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

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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

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

What booksellers are saying about I Have Some Questions for You

  • 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.

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Spotlight on: Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

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Jenny Jackson, photo credit Sarah Shatz

“In March 2020, when COVID-19 shut down New York City, my husband and I packed up our apartment on Pineapple Street, buckled our kids into their car seats, and drove to northwest Connecticut, where my in-laws live deep in the woods. We stayed with them for six months—six months that were scary, strange, and, at times, very, very funny.

Living in someone else’s house turns you into a bit of an amateur anthropologist, deriving meaning from the closets full of ski jackets, tennis rackets, and twenty years’ worth of Sky & Telescope magazines. I found a letter, sent home from summer camp, that read “Camp is good. They made me write you so I could get ice cream.”” ―Jenny Jackson, Letter to booksellers

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

What booksellers are saying about Pineapple Street

  • Pineapple Street is family drama at its finest – and its most decadent. Told through the eyes of three women in an elite Brooklyn family, the novel is witty and insightful and a thoughtful commentary on class, wealth, and society. These characters equally shocked me and endeared themselves to me; you can’t help but root for happy endings all around. This story will be a best of 2023 for me; I can’t wait to see what Jenny Jackson writes next!
      ―Beth Seufer Buss from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

  • I loved this juicy, complicated family drama! Pineapple Street tells the story of the Stockton family, part of the uber-rich one percenters living in New York City, through the perspectives of two of their daughters and one daughter-law. You won’t be able to help falling in love with each of these characters in spite of their first world problems. Touching and zany, Pineapple Street is perfect for fans of Amy Poeppel and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney.
      ―Jessica Nock from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC | Buy from Main Street Books

  • I couldn’t put down this novel that explores loyalty, class, family and love. It was zippy and readable while also not shying away from important conversations on privilege.
      ―Lillian Kay from Novel in Memphis, TN | Buy from Novel.
  • Welcome to Pineapple Street, where the Stockton family reigns with old money and even older traditions. The three Stockton siblings, Darley, Cord and Georgiana, all face their monied background with varying degrees of guilt. Sasha, Cord’s wife, is the bohemian artist to the wealthy clan and always finds herself on the outside looking in. Jenny Jackson has created a funny and sharp behind the scenes look at New York’s elite. These characters remind us that what we see on the outside is never quite the same as what is happening on the inside.
      ―Mary Jane Michels from Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC | Buy from Fiction Addiction

About Jenny Jackson

Jenny Jackson is a vice president and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. A graduate of Williams College and the Columbia Publishing Course, she lives in Brooklyn Heights with her family. Pineapple Street is her first novel.

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Weyward by Emilia Hart

In this utterly captivating debut, Hart manages to weave an intricate, beautifully written novel about three women and their inextricable connection to nature. This intergenerational tale snared me from the first page and wouldn’t let go. If you enjoy complex conversations about legacy, gender and control, nature and witchy-ness, and female power, this should be next on your list.

Weyward by Emilia Hart, (List Price: $27.99, St. Martin’s Press, 9781250280800, March 2023)

Reviewed by Hannah Kerbs, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee

Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada

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.

Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada, (List Price: $17, Europa, 9781609458195, March 2023)

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

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns

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!

Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns, (List Price: $26, Doubleday, 9780385549301, February 2023)

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

Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal

Jessica Moore perfectly encapsulates the thrilling genius of Maylis de Kerangal in this translation. The beauty of Eastbound‘s prose directly contradicts the dire circumstances of Aloicha, a young Russian soldier who quickly deserts, hiding on the very same train as his pursuers. Kerangal’s masterful control of his work and Moore’s faithful translation of the original French novel will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal, (List Price: $18, Archipelago, 9781953861504, February 2023)

Reviewed by Lena Malpeli, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

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.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle, (List Price: $27, One World, 9780525512080, March 2023)

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

Spotlight on: Decent People by De’Shawn Charles Winslow

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De'Shawn Charles Winslow, photo credit Julie R. Keresztes

“So many of the characters in Decent People are on a quest for respectability–– their own and/or that of their children. I wanted to show what lengths people would go to just to conceal truths: a child’s queerness, an addiction, hypocrisy. I don’t know that I was going for nuance, exactly. I think I was just portraying people the way I’ve often encountered them. ” ―De’Shawn Charles Winslow, interview, PEN America

Decent People by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

What booksellers are saying about Decent People

  • A complex, engaging story of a small Southern town grappling with racial justice, human rights, religion and murder in the mid 1970’s. Family ties and long-buried secrets are tested as a woman fights to clear the name of her beloved. An absolute page-turner filled with colorful characters in a rich setting.
      ―Jamie Fiocco from Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC | Buy from Bookmarks

  • Decent People is a compelling mystery that also deftly contends with racism, homophobia, classism and corruption. Charles De’Shawn Winslow’s fluid writing and pacing combine with wonderfully drawn characters–including the glorious busybody Josephine Wright–to make a truly marvelous novel.
      ―Stephanie Jones-Byrne from Malaprop’s in Asheville, NC | Buy from Malaprops

  • The shooting deaths of two sisters and their brother, prominent members of the African-American community, set tongues wagging in West Mills, NC. Except for those holding their voice over secrets. Told from alternating perspectives, the mystery unfolds amid lives threatened by the racism and homophobia of the 1960s and 1970s. This is a great read on so many levels, can’t wait to hand sell this one.
      ―Jessica Nock from Main Street Books in Davidson, NC | Buy from Main Street Books

About De’Shawn Charles Winslow

De’Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of In West Mills, a Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Lambda Literary Award, and Publishing Triangle Awards finalist. He was born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and now lives in New York.

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