Weaves together Butler’s own words with a well-researched, illuminating background to produce an excellent biography of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and all in under 300 pages. Masterful.
Positive Obsession by Susana M. Morris, (List Price: $29.99, Amistad, 9780063212077, August 2025)
Reviewed by Doron Klemer, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana
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A quiet and compelling book about a shepherd in Vermont. That’s the simple premise but Whybrow brings the reader so much more. It’s also about living close with the land, with animals, with the seasons. It’s about grief and change. I absolutely loved it.
The Salt Stones by Helen Whybrow, (List Price: $26, Milkweed Editions, 9781571311627, June 2025)
Reviewed by Holly Wunsch, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
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Zadie Smith’s latest book, Deand and Alive: Essays, is illuminating, engrossing, and thought-provoking. Smith engages in a conversation with the reader — because that is what each essay is, a conversation between author and reader — by sharing her thoughts on art, politics, identity (with an emphasis on racial and gender), the algorithm, socioeconomic status, what it means to be an American versus an immigrant, and the relationship between writer and reader. The unifying theme throughout the entire collection is the author’s viewpoints on the individual and the collective, about who I am versus the Other. Many readers are aware of Ms. Smith’s fiction, but, in my humble opinion, not enough are familiar with her essays. I suspect that I am an atypical fan. The first books I read were Changing My Mind and Feel Free, two previous collections of non-fiction. The majesty of her essays, the radiance of her prose — she conveys so much in a single sentence, handpicking each word — was so intoxicating that I rushed to the nearest library to pick up whatever was available of her fiction. “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction,” “Shibboleth,” “The Realm of the Unspoken,” and “Conscience and Consciousness: A Craft Talk for the People and the Person” — each of which is included in Deand and Alive: Essays — should be required reading. In “Conscience and Consciousness,” Smith writes, “Art is one of the ways we reveal the peculiarities of consciousness.” In this latest collection, it is the author’s consciousness that is on display. Because of this aspect, I feel I understand her a little better, and I suspect many readers will appreciate this all too rare quality of the book. I learned a great deal while reading, and I found myself re-considering my own notions about a great many topics simply due to having access to the author’s vantage point. This collection requires careful reading and deliberation. Please, savor each individual work.
Deand and Alive: Essays by Zadie Smith, (List Price: $30, Penguin Press, 9780593834688, October 2025)
Reviewed by Michael Yetter, Joseph-Beth Booksellers Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky
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Kamala Harris’s memoir, highlighting her experience through the shortest presidential campaign in history, left me with just about every emotion. Each chapter being a daily countdown to the election, made this a very fast-paced read and will keep your attention. It is also a very conversational memoir, which I found rather helpful when diving into heavier topics.
107 Days by Kamala Harris, (List Price: $30, Simon and Schuster, 9781668211656, September 2025)
Reviewed by Kenzie Karoly, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia
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In Girl Warrior, Joy Harjo shares advice, wisdom from her life experiences, and a belief in our spiritual connection to our ancestors, to our world, and to one another. Her words uplift and encourage, offer empathy and understanding, provide perspective and healing. This is a book you keep close. Read these words when you need a friendly reminder that you can move forward, that you can take step after step into the future you desire, that you can always ask for help, that you deserve and can find happiness. Give this book to those you love and treasure.
Girl Warrior by Joy Harjo, (List Price: $21.99, W. W. Norton & Company, 9781324094173, October 2025)
Reviewed by Lera Shawver, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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As a fan of his own music, I was intrigued what a book on Ronson’s early days learning how to DJ in 1990s New York would be like. I cracked the (digital) spine and was finished in less than two days, whisked along by the storytelling, name-dropping, nineties nostalgia. Like Questlove’s recent books on hip-hop and music generally, I found myself regularly pausing my reading to listen to songs I either didn’t know or hadn’t heard for years, a soundtrack that added even more to the reading experience. Ronson floats through NYC and the names fly, from Trumps and Diddys to Lennons and Jay-Z’s as he charts his part-fortuitous, part-hard-working rise through the small club DJ scene (some of whose names inadvertently seem like rejected Stefan scenes from SNL: “At the same time, highly exclusive lounges like Wax, Moomba, and Veruka were redefining nightlife…”). His writing style is simple, fun and friendly, making you feel like one of the crew tagging along as he tells of “burning the candle at both ends with a blowtorch,” or of a teacher being “the kind of person who’d make you want to graduate and open a sociology store, or whatever it was that sociologists did..”Ending with some poignant self-reflection and a look at the changes in contemporary music (and life generally: “Part of what made our era so special was the absence of surveillance. People were completely in the moment.”), I’m already looking forward to the follow-up and Ronson’s shift from record spinner to record maker – it can’t come soon enough for this fellow UK transplant to the US.
Night People by Mark Ronson, (List Price: $29, Grand Central Publishing, 9781538741115, September 2025)
Reviewed by Doron Klemer, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana
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An examination of an author’s life like no other, Jazmina Barrera reveals the impossibility of truly understanding the motivations and choices of another. Researching documents on Elena Garro’s life and reading her writing for over two years, Barrera succeeds in bringing Garro’s complexity to light, illustrating her creativity, brilliance, impulsiveness and instability. Barrera also portrays Elena’s humor and imagination as she fights against a society that limits women’s opportunities. Using a completely original form, Barrera has honored Garro’s life and work while still acknowledging the answers she never found. After reading this book, I added titles by Elena Garro to my to-be-read list.
The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera, (List Price: $24, Two Lines Press, 9781949641875, November 2025)
Reviewed by Lera Shawver, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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Strangely enough, I just watched this on Netflix, and it was definitely telling of the time we are going through now. A very talented painter is captured by the OSS and sent to an insane asylum, given meds to make him compliant, and eventually gets force-fed. Eventually, he is released and tries to marry as a way of getting out of his country. He finds his way through his traumatic enslavement and manages to regain some of his humanity. Fabulous story.
I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This by Eugene Yelchin, (List Price: $22.99, Candlewick, 9781536215533, September 2025)
Reviewed by Judith Lafitte, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana
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All the Way to the River is a love letter to those struggling and trying to be better. Gilbert’s openness about her addiction and pathway to healing sheds light on a type of addiction many women are ashamed to admit for themselves, even with its commonality. She tells the story of the highs and lows of falling in love with another addict, Rayya, and how her death was an awakening to finding peace in her life. Addiction isn’t beautiful, but there is always beauty to be found in those that love you, even in their worst moments.
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert, (List Price: $35, Riverhead Books, 9780593540985, September 2025)
Reviewed by Gabriela Warner, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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When I moved to the US, I brought only two boxes of books with me, forcing me to choose only the most essential from the many that lined my shelves: my well-thumbed copy Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things was one of the precious few that made the cut. So it’s fair to say that I was predisposed to love Mother Mary Comes to Me. This extraordinary memoir is a portrait not only of Arundhati Roy’s life – from childhood in Kerala, to architecture school in Delhi, and from there to becoming an award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction – but also of her formidable mother, who defied convention but whose cruelty shaped her daughter’s life. Vivid, intimate and revelatory, Mother Mary Comes to Me is an absolute masterpiece, one that will stay on my shelves for years to come.
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, (List Price: $30, Scribner, 9781668094716, September 2025)
Reviewed by Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi
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“Art, my God, Joan, I’m embarrassed to mention it in front of you, you know, but you mentioned burning babies in locked cars, so I can mention Art.” Eve Babitz to Joan Didion, 1972. In this blazing memoir, one feels like they’re out for drinks discussing ’70s Hollywood sleaze, female chauvinist pigs, and Charles Manson with your wildly messy and entertaining friend. Anolik’s powerful storytelling and adept reporting remind one of Eve Babitz, the “secret genius of L.A.” Oscillating between moments of unbelievable grief, Didion-esque cold distance, and the hot it-girl urge to push it all away, this memoir is a testament to artists, their craft, and the lovers’ spat between two of the greatest Californian writers of our time.
Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik, (List Price: $20, Scribner, 9781668065495, November 2024)
Reviewed by Joshua Lambie, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia
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Toews is an author unlike any other; the personal nature of her writing is global in its appeal. This autobiographical work uses a pastiche — a literary conceit that requires Toews to answer the question “Why do I write?” — to send Toews toward herself and the request her late sister asked of her. If my sister is gone, what does it mean to write to her still? asks the author. At its core — and this book is all core — this book entreats a reader to feel the most difficult emotions. It reminds us not to leave each other alone. Being together may not save us — it did not save Toews’s sister — but Miriam Toews argues that feeling together is still worth doing.
A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews, (List Price: $26.99, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781639734740, August 2025)
Reviewed by Julia Paganelli Marin, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas
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They were such extraordinarily different people in the way they related to the world and other people. He was this awkward and lonely man before he met her, living quite a dislocated life, and she was this livewire and such a compelling, energetic, positive presence. [There’s] something about how a marriage like that works, then putting that marriage in this extreme scenario, to the ultimate test.
There was something I found to be universal about that. The best stories are ones that are highly specific and, in this case, very extreme, but that have some universal resonance. We all know what it is to hit crunch points or to have [to] face crises with a partner, or with a friend, or a significant other, and what that does to a relationship, what that does to you as an individual, what it reveals to you about yourself, but also about that other person.
― Sophie Elmhirst, Interview, Indies Introduce, American Booksellers Association
What booksellers are saying about Marriage at Sea
About Sophie Elmhirst
Sophie Elmhirst is an award-winning journalist who writes regularly for The Guardian Long Read and The Economist; her work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other places. She’s the winner of the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year and a Foreign Press Award. She lives in London and A Marriage at Sea is her first book.
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Price is getting comparisons to Jeannette Walls and Tara Westover, and they are so deserved! Her therapy journey is featured in the bestselling book, The Body Keeps the Score, and is an unflinching tale of overcoming repressed childhood trauma and breaking cycles of abuse. It has some tough parts, but Price is honest and open. Her story of growth will inspire you.
This Happened to Me by Kate Price, (List Price: $29.99, Gallery Books, 9781668036228, August 2025)
Reviewed by Andrea Richardson, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
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Between 1870 and 1914, hundreds of young American women sought artistic training in Paris, and many found a special residence that fostered their training. The building became known as the American Girl’s Club. Dasal provides a breezy account of the club by way of individual women who left accounts of their time. An intriguing addition to the history of women artists in Europe and America.
The Club by Jennifer Dasal, (List Price: $29.99, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781639731305, July 2025)
Reviewed by Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
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