The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Adult Fiction

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

An October Read This Next! Book

There are two things I expect from a Bryan Washington narrative: food rendered so exquisitely I could lick the page and an emotional excavation so expansive it swallows the book and me with it. Family Meal delivered on these expectations and more. It’s propulsive and harrowing, the brittle edges of its characters encapsulating a world and giving way to its perfectly tender center.

Family Meal by Bryan Washington, (List Price: 28, Riverhead Books, 9780593421093, October 2023)

Reviewed by Miranda Sanchez, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

An October Read This Next! Book

History, family, community, and the all encompassing power of life in the face of brutality are abundant in Ward’s work, no less here in Let Us Descend. I was floored by the story of Annis, a young woman enslaved and sold down to a Louisiana plantation. Through her connections (both physical and spiritual), Annis builds a life and a future beyond loss. With a slight twist of magical realism and always brilliant prose, Jesmyn Ward has delivered another amazing novel and gift to readers.

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, (List Price: 28, Scribner, 9781982104498, October 2023)

Reviewed by Michelle Cavalier, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana

Spotlight on: North Woods by Daniel Mason

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Daniel Mason, photo credit the author

“You know, even though I’ve – I love writing about nature, I had previously really mostly written about nature as a kind of setting. And this time around, I thought, I want to write about it as a kind of protagonist. What would it be like to treat it like I treat my human characters? And, of course, all the good stuff that makes up the stories that we want to hear about human characters – all the drama, the sex, the violence, the treason – are ones that we can find in the natural world, as well.”
― Daniel Mason, Interview, NPR

North Woods by Daniel Mason

What booksellers are saying about North Woods

  • Daniel Mason’s North Woods is a masterful literary art form exploring the four-hundred-year history of the woods surrounding a particular house in western Massachusetts. Mason uses songs, journals, letters, medical notes, and other techniques to share the lives of those who live, love, suffer, create, and die there. The manner in which this book reveals the life cycles of flora and fauna is lyrical, respectful, and full of wonder and awe. Throughout North Woods humanity shapes and changes the environment, but the natural world very much reveals itself to be omnipotent.
      ― Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia | Buy from Avid Bookshop

  • In times like these, art’s what gets us through. In North Woods, Mason meets us head-on: our fear of change, our place in nature, what it is we owe to the ancestors. It’ll be compared to The Overstory but its similarity to Lincoln in the Bardo ― the stories of those who came before us ― is what it recalls. That said: Mason’s his own man and his own master and doesn’t really need to be compared to anyone at all. He sits, at the top of the mountain, with the those to whom we give our eternal thanks for books we love.
      ― Erica Eisdorfer, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | Buy from Flyleaf Books

  • Majestic and sprawling and a grand ol’ adventure through time of one singular, special place starring as the ultimate main character with deep ties that bind these stories into one. Incredible.
      ― Jill Naylor from Novel in Memphis, TN | Buy from Novel.

  • I read Daniel Mason’s book, North Woods, on a trip across the country. In the car, when I finished the last page, I turned to my husband and said, “Oh my gosh—I’ve got to start reading this again immediately!” Spanning around 400 years of inhabitants of a house in Massachusetts, this novel is haunting and haunted. Mason makes use of many literary forms, including the loveliest poetry and epistolary writing, to tell the story of the intertwined lives of the people who lived in the yellow house with the orchard of Wonder apples.
      ― Mamie Potter from Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC | Buy from Quail Ridge Books

About Daniel Mason

Daniel Mason is the author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, The Winter Soldier, and A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has been translated into twenty-eight languages, adapted for opera and the stage, and awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His short stories and essays have been awarded two Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. He is an assistant professor in the Stanford University department of psychiatry.

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Family Lore \ Sabiduría familiar por Elizabeth Acevedo

La primera novela para adultos de Acevedo es un homenaje al intermedio, ocupando los espacios entre los sueños y la realidad, la vida y la muerte, y la República Dominicana y los Estados Unidos. Contadas desde las perspectivas de las mujeres Marte, cuatro hermanas y sus dos hijas, toda la familia contempla las historias y las mujeres que las formaron, mientras se preparan para que su hermana mayor les diga que alguien está a punto de morir. Escrito en la tradición de Sandra Cisneros y otras autoras latinas, Acevedo teje una historia que te abraza con la fuerza de las limas de Yadi, negándose a soltarla mucho después de voltear la última página.

Sabiduría familiar por Elizabeth Acevedo, ($18.99, Ecco, 9780063207318, November 2023)

Reseña escrita por, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews en Chapel Hill, North Carolina

My Name Is Iris by Brando Skyhorse

Iris Prince, a second-generation Mexican American, has spent her life being the model minority, but when a law is passed requiring everyone to wear ‘The Band’ – a piece of wearable tech – she quickly becomes a second-class citizen: she can’t get one as her parents weren’t born in the US. My Name is Iris is a frighteningly real work of dystopian fiction that explores issues of identity, immigration and belonging, as well as showing how quickly fear can escalate and life can unravel.

My Name Is Iris by Brando Skyhorse, (List Price: $28, Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, 9781982177850, September 2023)

Reviewed by Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Acevedo’s first adult novel is a homage to the in-between, occupying the spaces between dreams and reality, life and death, and the Dominican Republic and the United States. Told from the perspectives of the Marte women, four sisters, and their two daughters, the whole family contemplates the stories and women who shaped them, as they prepare for their eldest sister to tell them someone is about to die. Written in the tradition of Sandra Cisneros and other Latina authors, Acevedo weaves a story that embraces you with the strength of Yadi’s limes, refusing to let go long after the last page is turned.

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, (List Price: $30, Ecco, 9780063207264, September 2023)

Reviewed by Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer

While We Were Dreaming sits well on the shelf ‘midst Trainspotting, Stand By Me (er, The Body) and Requiem for a Dream, those disturbing yet nostalgic tales of the rise and fall of childhood chums slumming down life’s yellower brick roads, but what makes this kaleidoscopic coming-of-age collection really stand (by me) out is the punch-in-the-gut pivotal point of turning 13 in East Berlin, 1989. The pre/post Wall stories run out of chronological order, so the cast of characters are at times 8-year-old Pioneer Scout cutups, any-agers getting out of prison for the Nth time, preteens caught on the wrong team’s side of a football riot or stealing their first (of many) case of beer, yet constantly bailing each other out of any messed up situation their messed up situations situate them in. The emotion varietals are all over the map, multifaceted and always well-played.

While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, (List Price: 20, Fitzcarraldo Editions, 9781804270288, September 2023)

Reviewed by Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara

This collection feels so alive. It’s not just the memorable characters set spinning toward questionable ventures, it’s the sense of play and fun that pervades each story, each line. In never taking any moment too seriously, Vara accomplishes the serious work of truth-telling that actually feels true.

This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara, (List Price: $26.95, W. W. Norton & Company, 9780393541731, September 2023)

Reviewed by Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama

Spotlight on: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

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Hannah Kaner, photo credit Hannah Kaner

“I remember being a furious child. Small and blonde, bookish and talkative, I hated how often I was “baby,” how often I was “cute.” I wanted to be loud, strong, and powerful. I wanted to fight my brothers and my cousins, strength to strength, arm to arm, bloody noses and bruises.

Worse was when they started getting bigger, taller, stronger. Worse is that being as loud as the lads was ‘annoying’ (them), ‘boisterous and unladylike’ (adults), ‘disruptive’ (teachers). I’m sure I was all of those things, but it was early that I understood that there was one expectation for ‘girls’, one for ‘boys’, and you were expected to fit neatly into one or the other.” ― Hannah Kaner, Interview, Fantasy Book Cafe

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

What booksellers are saying about Godkiller

  • Godkiller is an excellently written fantasy novel. We follow a host of characters as they reluctantly join together to solve their individual quests: saving the heart of a king, finding a shrine to call home, parting with a god of white lies, and god killing revenge. The characters are well developed and the world building is immersive with a digestible pace of folklore and history placed throughout. Godkiller also includes fantastic disability representation that fits seamlessly into the story. The final pages packed a punch and I’m already looking forward to the next book in the series.
      ― Madeline Newstead, Novel. in Memphis, Tennessee | Buy from Novel

  • Godkiller is a cinematic masterpiece. Kaner’s world building is exquisite, and her characters vibrant and intriguing. The story concept had me hooked right from the beginning (I have a soft spot for plots built around complex religious systems) and Kissen’s narration pulled me right along. I really enjoyed the descriptive flow of the prose and Kaner’s ability to be flawlessly inclusive was a refreshing change as well. Absolutely devoured this book.
      ― Morgan Holub from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georga | Buy from E. Shaver, bookseller

  • Godkiller is like The Witcher and The Last of Us but for wlw. For the sapphics. For those of us craving a grumpy older sister instead of a grumpy father figure. Godkiller is a queer, dramatic, lush affair full of some of the most beautiful, unique world building ever seen on page. It’s sure to absolutely rock your world.
      ― Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | Buy from Bookmarks

  • This is my #1 read of the year and I didn’t even see it coming. This book has the best vibes I have read in a long time, it transports you to a world that feels like the setting of The Witcher while having all the action and travel timeline of American Gods. It feels Nordic and Enchanting in all the best way like if a Viking and a Fairy had a child. Hands down a 5 star read for me, and one of the only times I have actually enjoyed multiple POVs. The writing is captivating and the characters are both abrasive and loveable while the setting makes you feel like an adventurer.This book alone has added Hannah Kaner to my instant author purchase list!
      ― Reviewed by Charlotte Beck, Main Street Reads in Summerville, South Carolina | Buy from Main Street Reads

About Hannah Kaner

Hannah Kaner is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Godkiller. A Northumbian writer living in Scotland, she is inspired by world mythologies, angry women, speculative fiction, and the stories we tell ourselves about being human.

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Wellness by Nathan Hill

Nathan Hill has done it again! Wellness is so good, I think my heart both broke and grew at the same time, while reading it. Hill’s ability to capture both the beauty and horror of life are astounding. There is so much more I could say about this book, but I don’t want to spoil the magic of it for other readers! "Behind curtains, this, he thinks, is what lovers do-they are alchemists and architects; they invent the world around them." Indeed, this is what lovers do. Thank you for this wonderful book!

Wellness by Nathan Hill, (List Price: 30, Knopf, 9780593536117, September 2023)

Reviewed by Jessica Osborne, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

Paulette Jiles has written another amazing book on post civil war Texas. John Chenneville comes home to Missouri after a devastating head injury that left him hospitalized for over a year. Upon returning home he finds that his beloved sister, her husband and new baby have been murdered. Chenneville sets out on a journey to bring the killer to justice. Along the way he encounters all types of people trying to make their way in the world after the devastation of civil war. The author does an outstanding job of bringing these characters to life, the same as she did in News of the World.

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles, (List Price: $30, William Morrow, 9780063252684, September 2023)

Reviewed by Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by KJ Charles

A September 2023 Read This Next Book!

This review is just me screaming to anyone who will listen what an absolute joy it is to read KJ Charles. The newest Doomsday book has us returning once again to Romney Marsh and cheering like crazy for Luke and Rufus to get their well deserved HEA. Hijinks, hilarity and heart stopping charm, Charles is a must read for historical romance lovers.

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by KJ Charles, (List Price: 16.99, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 9781728255880, September 2023)

Reviewed by Katie Garaby, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

A September 2023 Read This Next Book!

Full confession, I adore Lauren Groff, her writing and subject matter are exactly my cup of tea, so it is unlikely that I would not like this book. That said, I was a little skeptical, I kept turning the pages wondering when she was going to be rescued, live happily ever after with her Native husband? This is not that story. What this is, is an amazing meditation on what it means to be alive, to want to stay alive, and the big question, why do we live at all. What if everything you have learned about life in your time on earth is stripped away and you are left with a more beautiful and brutal understanding of God and the world? (I also love that she wrote a draft in iambic pentameter just for fun and to get into the rhythm of the language of the time, it makes my nerdy heart go pitter pat!). Thank you Lauren Groff for writing books for book lovers like me.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff, (List Price: 28, Riverhead Books, 9780593418390, September 2023)

Reviewed by Jessica Osborne from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, GA

Rouge by Mona Awad

A September 2023 Read This Next Book!

Reading this book felt a lot like moving through a dream. The surreal horror and red-soaked imagery stuck with me long after finishing the book. Mona Awad does an excellent job making commentary on beauty standards and the beauty industry in a very unique way. Plus, Tom Cruise!

Rouge by Mona Awad, (List Price: 28, S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, 9781982169695, September 2023)

Reviewed by Hallee Israel, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Spotlight on: Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy

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David Joy, photo credit Ashley T. Evans

“I think there’s a great deal of that blend of horror in the tradition where my work is rooted. I think about a writer like William Gay and a story like “The Paperhanger,” O’Connor and a character like the misfit or McCarthy’s Lester Ballard. That’s to say that is the tradition. With this book specifically, though, it was very much a treatise on violence. I wanted there to be moments the reader put the book down because they couldn’t face what was happening on the page. I wanted there to be moments that very same reader cheered the violence on with a fiery sense of vengeance and justice. I wanted the reader to recognize those moments and reactions and question the difference. Those were lofty goals that may very well have been unreached, but that was the intent. The difference in those two reactions speaks a great deal to our humanity.” ― David Joy, Interview, Daily Yonder

Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy

What booksellers are saying about Those We Thought We Knew

  • As another white North Carolinian tired of the nodding heads and silent, complicit racism dominating each environment I’ve ever lived in, I am so proud to know works like this can come from here. David Joy has reached a new level of expertise with this stunningly crafted work of art. He creates so many fully-fleshed voices and turns out a story that can only come from this place and this time. By the last line, I was ready to nominate him for a Pulitzer.
      ― Alissa Redmond from South Main Book Co in Salisbury, NC | Buy from South Main Book Company

  • David Joy understands the human condition and, in particular, the complexities, pain, love, and loyalty that live in so many rural areas of our country. His latest novel is a brilliant exploration of the things we cherish and the things for which we fight, the way we hold memories close, and the lies we tell ourselves to ensure the past remains pure.
      ― Leslie Logemann from Highland Books in Brevard, NC | Buy from Highland Books

  • I love David Joy’s books. They are raw and gritty and always give me a different perspective. His books can be quite full of violence (always fits well into the story), and this one at first did not appear as violent. However, I did reflect on what transpired in this new novel and realized it was actually full of racism and violence; it reminds the reader that whether you are in a big city or a small town, the same things are happening. His attention to detail, his ability to capture the talk of western NC locals, and his use of historical events all made me thoroughly enjoy and appreciate Joy’s newest novel.
      ― Suzanne Lucey from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC | Buy from Page 158 Books

About David Joy

David Joy is the author of When These Mountains Burn (winner of the 2020 Dashiell Hammett Award), The Line That Held Us (winner of the 2018 SIBA Book Prize), The Weight of This World, and Where All Light Tends to Go (Edgar finalist for Best First Novel). Joy lives in Tuckasegee, North Carolina.

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