The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Fiction

Vague Predictions & Prophecies by Daisuke Shen

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Vague Predictions & Prophecies by Daisuke Shen
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A dazzling, surreal debut short story collection, Vague Predictions & Prophecies reads like an indrawn breath. Each story is sprawling and languid, crumbling the barriers between the real and the imagined. An angel falls in love with a cosmic other and is banished from heaven. Long-distance partners shack up with cyborg copies of each other, then start to lose their memories. Teenage bullies find a field full of hypnotized women, tip them like cows, and are eaten alive. Shen’s writing is a narrative compulsion, drawing you ever deeper into worlds you didn’t know you wanted to inhabit. Hypnotic, disturbing, breathtaking. I’ve never read anything like it.

Vague Predictions & Prophecies by Daisuke Shen, (List Price: $18.95, CLASH Books, 9781960988133, August 2024)

Reviewed by Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida

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Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida
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A lithe novel of interlocking stories set over a series of very late nights in Tokyo. The characters either work through or leave their work in the AM part of the night; their stories overlap (or nearly overlap) via taxis, diners, and bars. Slice of life, relatively low stakes, and enjoyable.

Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida, (List Price: $18, Europa Editions, 9798889660279, July 2024)

Reviewed by Ginger Kautz, Quail Ridge Books in , North Carolina

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The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves

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The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves
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The Book of Elsewhere is pulp sci-fi wrapped in literary fiction. Or literary fiction masquerading as pulp sci-fi. Or both. Or neither. It is a duality. It is gorgeous, arcane, and prosaic. It is eggs and pigs and blood and frenzy. It is the loss of the self, and the return. The prose is sulfurous, oceanic, tight, and expectant. It compels you to read it. It drags you under and drowns you in mystery and cruelty and absence, then leaves you gasping for air in moments of introspection and reflection. It is at turns explosive and sedate, complex and streamlined, isolating and hypnotizing. In short, The Book of Elsewhere rips. It puts your brain in a fugue state, stomps on it, caresses it, confuses it, and spits you out with a headache and blood in your mouth and a sense of completion.

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves, (List Price: $30, Del Rey, 9780593446591, July 2024)

Reviewed by Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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All This and More by Peng Shepherd

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All This and More by Peng Shepherd
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If you’re looking for a unique book then All This and More by Peng Shepherd is just the one for you! Marsh is looking to get a redo in life and the reader gets to control the storyline by making choices for her. It was great fun to play a part in creating her new destiny. Will you be able to lead her to an ending that will make her happier than she was originally? Don’t miss the opportunity to find out!

All This and More by Peng Shepherd, (List Price: $30, William Morrow, 9780063278974, July 2024)

Reviewed by Barb Rascon, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina

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Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
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Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House is all about what it means to be the outcast in the particularly cut-throat world of the Ivy League, but does so through magic, ghosts, and monsters. Alex “Galaxy” Stern has had a rough few years, but that all changes when she gets admitted to Yale unexpectedly (right???). This is full of secret societies, New England ghosts, and the occult with a tinge of horror. Alex is a tenacious and gripping character thrust into a world in which she doesn’t feel at home by circumstance rather than by choice. Once I started this, I couldn’t put it down!

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, (List Price: $10.99, Flatiron Books, 9781250798008, June 2021)

Reviewed by Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

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Dark Restraint by Katee Robert

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Dark Restraint by Katee Robert
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It’s a given you’re going to get grade-A smut when you read a Katee Robert novel. Ariadne and Asterion are candy for anyone who loves the forbidden romance trope. Seeing how he is soft for only her made me melt. I loved seeing them find a way to leave behind what was holding them captive and bound, and trust each other. I’ve loved every story in this series, but there’s something about Dark Restraint that I feel brings the plot to bring down Olympus into super clear focus. I feel like I can see the end, but knowing Robert I’m expecting some serious twists. Case and point, Hera really surprised in this installment of Dark Olympus.

Dark Restraint by Katee Robert, (List Price: $16.99, Sourcebooks Casablanca, 9781728262826, August 2024)

Reviewed by Preet Singh, Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Georgia

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However Far Away by Rajinderpal S. Pal

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However Far Away by Rajinderpal S. Pal
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Pal’s novel around a large Sikh wedding in Canada is full of secrets, family, and promises. It’s the day of Devinder’s nephew’s big wedding and he hopes the two halves of his life will continue to stay apart. Dev’s wife and two children will obviously be there. However, Emily, his first love with whom he’s been having an affair, will also be there as she’s the nephew’s art teacher. But there’s a plan in place and Dev is determined to stick to it. But can he?

However Far Away by Rajinderpal S. Pal, (List Price: $19.99, House of Anansi Press, 9781487012540, August 2024)

Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia

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Ne’er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti

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Ne'er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti
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If Alexandra Vasti writes it, I am going to read it, and I am going to love it. If Alex has a million fans (she will soon), I am one. If Alex has one fan, it is me. If Alex has no fans, I have perished, probably in a bathtub somewhere. If you’re looking for historical romance that is kind, charming, and hot with top-tier banter – Alexandra is your girl. And also if you aren’t. Y’all read this book.

Ne’er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti, (List Price: $18, St. Martin’s Griffin, 9781250910943, July 2024)

Reviewed by Jodi Laidlaw, Blue Cypress Books in New Orleans, Louisiana

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Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi

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Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi
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This swoony romance about friendship and love on a backdrop of online content creators hits just the right note. Jo is a doctor, but has decided to only share her skills on a social media platform. She’s also been crushing on her best friend for ten years. But when she meets up-and-coming author Mal at a party at her best friend’s house, her head is turned. But it turns out they know each other: they’ve been talking online for two years. But is Jo willing to give up the crush on her best friend for the unknown with Mal?

Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi, (List Price: $30, Avon, 9780063307308, July 2024)

Reviewed by Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia

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The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song

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The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song
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Give me a warrior woman any day of the week. I had a lot of fun reading this book and loved the consistency of Meilin’s motivations. At times it was almost a strange sort of exploration of the internal struggle that manifests when one is trying to break from the norms they grew up with, even though those norms are actively oppressive….the self-loathing and the hopelessness…But then, we get a scene with Lei or Sky and we’re like “oooh, shiny!” and all our deep, dark thoughts subside for a moment. Did I want to tear up my copy and throw it across the room when I read the ending? Yes. However, I’m okay with that.

The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song, (List Price: $30, Ace, 9780593815724, July 2024)

Reviewed by Caroline Johnson, Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, Louisiana

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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
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I am mesmerized at how beautiful this book is. It surpasses its mystery/thriller genre into a monumental narrative told with such beauty one is left speechless by the end! Chris Whitaker’s ability to bring his characters to life and have them become family, to laugh with them and cry for them, is definitely showcased in this novel, just as it was in We Begin at the End. When young Patch and Saint became friends, neither knew what their lives had in store. When Patch saves Misty from a killer and ends up the kidnapper/serial killer’s prisoner for months, Saint saves his life after spending countless hours searching for her best friend. The story does not end there, as it spans for two decades of twists and turns, and love and loyalty. This is a story that will not soon be forgotten.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker, (List Price: $30, Crown, 9780593798874, June 2024)

Reviewed by Sharon Davis, Book Bound Bookstore in Blairsville, Georgia

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A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

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A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
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This was genuinely one of the best books I have read so far this year. It felt all at once familiar and brand-new, and I found myself lost in the subtle magic of the story. I laughed out loud, I cried, I grieved, and celebrated. I enjoyed falling through every page the way Elsy fell a little bit more in love with the world around her each day. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who has enjoyed Poston’s other books, anyone who ever wished they could live in a literal Hallmark small town, anyone learning how to do life after loss, and generally anyone who likes a well-earned and well-deserved happily ever after. 10/10!

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston, (List Price: $19, Berkley, 9780593640975, June 2024)

Reviewed by Jonlyn Scrogham, A Novel Romance LLC in Louisville, Kentucky

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The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard

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The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard
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Clare Pollard has done it again! I loved this book. I was enthralled by the cast of characters and the vivid descriptions of the Sun King’s court. What really stuck out to me was the historical context of the origins of “fairy tales” and the weight that context (the drama and machinations of Louis XIV’s France) gives them. It will dazzle you then send you down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Highly recommended!

The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard, (List Price: $28, Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, 9781668049419, July 2024)

Reviewed by Chelsea Bauer, Union Avenue Books in Knoxville, Tennessee

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All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky

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All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky
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One of my favorites from the Tombolo Books Book Club this year! Ruth Madievsky’s debut is a buzzing bar sign of a book, telling the story of a young woman and her toxic relationship with her older sister Debbie in Los Angeles. After Debbie goes missing, our narrator has to decide whether to let her go and become her own person – or to stay mired in their fraught dynamic and the substances that kept them bound together. This book just felt like (cruel) summer to me – a hot, hazy fog of a book that I still think about.

All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky, (List Price: $17.95, Catapult, 9781646222254, July 2024)

Reviewed by Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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The Coin by Yasmin Zaher

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The Coin by Yasmin Zaher
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Yasmin Zaher’s stellar debut never lets the reader get quite comfortable in its prose, and it is in that discomfort The Coin finds its brilliance. New York feels, at times, surreal through the eyes of the narrator, who slips further and further into what I can only describe as a justifiable madness. As the narrator stumbles through a life forced upon her in America, she becomes increasingly more untethered to her life. Her homeland, Palestine, is out of reach, and in flashbacks to her childhood, we can glimpse the parts of herself she left there. Zaher ruminates on statelessness, nature, opulence, and beauty in the narrator’s slow spiral. The Coin is an incredible debut!

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher, (List Price: $27, Catapult, 9781646222100, July 2024)

Reviewed by Kelsey Jagneaux, Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, Florida

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