The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Adult Fiction

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

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The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
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Having grown up in a Mississippi Southern Baptist church, it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I saw the secret double lives of some of us. Rebelling against the submit-to-authority messages on Saturday night, but sitting pious and submissive come Sunday morning services was de rigueur. Deesha Philyaw’s book The Secret Lives of Church Ladies gives voice to secret lives that I know for sure are lived and true. The need for acceptance, for absolution, for grace is ever-present in familiar relationships as well as those in the church. These short stories are divine.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (List Price: $18.99, West Virginia University Press, 9781949199734, 9/1/2020)

Reviewed by Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

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How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada

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How to Order the Universe
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This book haunts me. I can’t stop thinking about it! “M” is a seven year old girl in Chile growing up with a father “D” who is a traveling salesman who sells hardware. Her mother is chronically depressed and, while loving, incapable of looking after her daughter much of the time. Told from M’s perspective, we go with her and D from place to place when he takes her out of school to go on his sales trips without her mother’s knowledge. She’s sort of his “buddy” and “junior salesman” traveling companion and it’s disturbing to see this child smoke and drink coffee in companionship with the other salesmen in the book. Ghosts of Pinochet’s Desaparecidos appear and disappear between the pages. It’s a book that will stay with you long after you close the cover.

How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada, Elizabeth Bryer (Trans.) (List Price: $19.95, Tin House Books, 9781951142308, 2/16/2021)

Reviewed by Kelly Justice, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken

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The Souvenir Museum
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Each of these twelve stories felt like a gift. Elizabeth McCracken has such insight into our ugliest, most deep-seated emotions that she dresses up with just a touch of delightful weirdness. Highlights include a story of a distraught mother finding comfort in challah bread that reminds her of her dead children; interconnected stories about a young couple working through various family baggage; and a story about two men confronting their fears of commitment and fatherhood during a day trip to Schlitterbahn (the iconic Texan German-themed waterpark, for those who don’t know). I tried to savor every story, but I couldn’t resist reading more than one every time I picked up this book!

The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken (List Price: $26.99, Ecco, 9780062971289, 4/13/2021)

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

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The Gun by Fuminori Nakamura, Allison Markin Powell (trans.)

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the gun
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Imagine Edgar Allen Poe and Will Christopher Baer teaming up across space and time to rewrite Catcher in the Rye, but in Japan. What you’d get is The Gun. This one-sitting read is darkly engrossing, lyrically captivating, and a stunning debut from a now well-established author. Wow.

The Gun by Fuminori Nakamura, Allison Markin Powell (trans.) (List Price: $14.95, Soho Crime, 9781616957681, 1/24/2017)

Reviewed by Lizy Coale, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida

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The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

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The Bookshop of Second Chances
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Thea is having a terrible Valentine’s day. She and her husband are splitting up because he’s been cheating on her…with one of her friends. And she’s just been let go from her job. So when an uncle she doesn’t remember dies and leaves her his estate in Scotland, she decides to head up there and sort it all out, with a plan to sell. But once she gets there, she decides that she’ll stay awhile. She gets a job with the grumpy bookstore owner while she takes her time in sorting out the estate.

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser (List Price: $17, Ballantine Books, 9780593355657, 5/4/2021)

Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser, Inc. in Marietta, Georgia

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Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

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In this story that spans five generations of women in Cuba, Texas and Florida, you come away with a rather complex picture of immigration plights and political and social pressures. The recurring theme is a book—an aptly named book— that unites the women in a beautifully written, heart-wrenching story. It reminds us that every woman is created with multiple layers whether she knows it or not.

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia (List Price: $26.99, Flatiron Books, 9781250776686, March 2021)

Reviewed by Easty Lambert-Brown, Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

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The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

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With modern and 18th century London as the setting for this book, a conflicted woman who finds a mysterious bottle becomes obsessed with discovering its origins, leading her to a 1700s female apothecary who helps other women of the dark time “dispense” of bad men. Incredibly atmospheric, I didn’t want to climb out of this one. A dark yet hopeful portrait of female fears and female empowerment both then and now.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (List Price: $27.99, Park Row, 9780778311010, March 2021)

Reviewed by Shari Stauch, Main Street Reads, in Summerville, South Carolina

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Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff

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An absolute pleasure to read! Fish and Bread are so lovable. The way they feel like the very embodiment of childhood makes you want to be them; the grief and sorrow they experience makes you want to hug them. The writing brings you right into this small town of Claypot, Wisconsin and you instantly fall in love with these troubled characters. Lose yourself in the isolated woods with these boys and run away with them on this adventure. This book is like a cool, stormy night spent curled up in a warm bed.

Find You First by Linwood Barclay (List Price: $27.99, William Morrow, 9780063031906, April 2021)

Reviewed by Hannah Rose Summers, Main Street Reads, in Summerville, South Carolina

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Find You First by Linwood Barclay

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Barclay takes what happens when someone with more money than he knows what to do with doesn’t need it anymore, and turns it into a twisty thriller with a new shock at every page turn. I couldn’t put it down.

Find You First by Linwood Barclay (List Price: $27.99, William Morrow, 9780062678317, April 2021)

Reviewed by Ashley Bohinc, Main Street Reads, in Summerville, South Carolina

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Heaven by Mieko Kawakami

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How are two Japanese 14-year-olds to deal with continuous bullying by their classmates and still have the presence of mind to genuinely care about others and question their place in their community? This is more than a story about bullying—it delves into the raw and moral relationships that most people don’t experience until they are adults. Beautiful to read, thoughtful in intent, and worthy of remembering.

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, Sam Bett (Trans.) (List Price: $23.00, Europa Editions, 9781609456214, May 2021)

Reviewed by Easty Lambert-Brown, Ernest & Hadley Booksellers in Savannah, Georgia

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People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry

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People We Meet On Vacation
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It’s hard to follow up a book that was as good as Beach Read, yet Emily Henry has done it again! She really knows how to suck you in with her characters and get emotionally involved. If you enjoy the opposites attract, friends-to-lovers and slow burn romance, you will definitely enjoy this!

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry (List Price: $16, Berkley, 9781984806758, 5/11/2021)

Reviewed by Deanna Bailey, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia

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A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein

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A Tip for the Hangman
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The 16th century meets the 21st in Allison Epstein’s thrilling debut novel, A Tip for the Hangman. It’s 1585, and aspiring playwright Christopher Marlowe is recruited as a spy while still an impoverished Cambridge scholar. His task: to help foil an alleged Catholic plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. Blending fact and fiction, and period detail with modern sensibilities, Epstein deftly creates a heady mix of intrigue, drama and romance in this captivating page-turner.

A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein (List Price: $26.95, Doubleday, 9780385546713, 2/9/2021)

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

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The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott

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The Rain Heron
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Arnott’s writing evokes the deep anxiety that can only be touched by the power and quiet, terrifying fury of nature. The Rain Heron is a contemporary mythos and environmental dystopian, with talons.

The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott (List Price: $16, FSG Originals, 9780374539306, 2/9/2021)

Reviewed by Cat Chapman, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida

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The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

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The Paris Library
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We have always known that librarians are heroes, and this book is based on the true story of the amazing women working at the American Library in Paris, as they join the Resistance after World War II breaks out. On a different timeline, a teenage girl interviews her older neighbor, who is one of the French librarians, and discovers her bravery… but also her complicated past.

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles (List Price: $28, Atria Books, 9781982134198, 2/9/2021)

Reviewed by Anne Peck, Righton Books in St. Simons Island, South Carolina

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The Baddest Girl on the Planet by Heather Frese

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the Baddest Girl on the Planet
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Whenever my family vacationed in the Outer Banks, I always wondered what living at the beach was like for the locals. I imagined a nice small town with endless trips to the beach. As a kid, though, I never imagined how suffocating it could be. Growing up on Hatteras Island, Evie Austin has the world’s greatest imagination. Though she makes the most of her childhood, she falls into the small town traps of adulthood, yet without a real desire to leave the island. Her life becomes as tumultuous as the waves, relatable to any young adult, and readers get a front row seat to her misadventures as she finds ways to repair herself. Vivid, funny, and heartwarming, Heather Frese has written the baddest coming-of-age story on the planet!

The Baddest Girl on the Planet by Heather Frese (List Price: $25.95, Blair, 9781949467161, 3/2/2021)

Reviewed by Karyn Cumming, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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