The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Memoirs

Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen

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Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen
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“Did we win?” “We did. But it cost us everything.” “Was it worth it?” “Yes. Every second of it.” This gutted me. Nguyen’s fight for justice has changed laws and lives, but this book reminds you of the little girl, the teenager, and the young woman who had to fight for herself first. Our system protects some and fails others. Rights that should be guaranteed are instead something people are forced to fight for. Yet Nguyen’s story is proof that even within a broken system, one person’s determination can create change, and hope is always worth holding onto.

Saving Five by Amanda Nguyen, (List Price: $27, AUWA, 9780374615918, March 2025)

Reviewed by Janisie Rodriguez, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida

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Knife by Salman Rushdie

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Knife by Salman Rushdie
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This tight memoir tells the incredible story of Rushdie’s survival and recovery from an attempted murder by stabbing at a reading in 2022. Told with the beautiful prose for which he is known, Rushdie’s reflection on life and making art is a worthy read for any fan of the power of literature.

Knife by Salman Rushdie, (List Price: $18, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 9780593730256, April 20258)

Reviewed by Nicole Tortoriello, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia

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One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Akkad Omar El

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One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Akkad Omar El
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Brutal, incisive, a battering ram of a book calling for clarity on the Middle East situation which was tough to read, but essential to hear.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Akkad Omar El, (List Price: $28, Knopf, 9780593804148, February 2025)

Reviewed by Doron Klemer, Octavia Books in New Orleans, Louisiana

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Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod

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Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod
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As a fan of Craig Mod’s email newsletters of his long (and I mean long) walks through Japan, I was eager to read Things Become Other Things. Accompanied by beautiful black-and-white photos, Craig’s reflections on place, walking, scarcity, grief, and boyhood are filled with love and care. His musings as he grapples with the American town he grew up in, a rough place with limited opportunities or role models, in contrast to similar remote Japanese towns that have much more support and consideration for their citizens, are incredibly relevant.

Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod, (List Price: $31, Random House, 9780593732540, May 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

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Ginseng Roots: A Memoir by Craig Thompson

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Ginseng Roots: A Memoir by Craig Thompson
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Craig Thompson bursts back onto the Comix scene with this exquisitely crafted hybrid memoir/socio-cultural essay that explores his youthful experience working Wisconsin’s Ginseng farms and the fascinating history of this prized root as a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures. A book as rich in information as it is beautifully adorned.

Ginseng Roots: A Memoir by Craig Thompson, (List Price: $35, Pantheon, 9780593700778, April 2025)

Reviewed by Jonathan Hawpe, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Book Buzz: Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

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Annie B. Jones, photo courtesy the authorIt’s easy to root for people who make the same choices you do. I think the metaphor I use in the book is it’s harder to be the person standing on the shore when you thought you were going to be the person on the boat or on the plane. I thought I was going to be the leaver, and instead I had to be the one who threw the goodbye parties. And I’m grateful for that. It taught me some really important lessons about being happy for people, even when the choices they make are different from your own. And you really have to be content in your contentedness in order to root for and support the people who leave. And I do think it’s important that you do that, because the conclusion I have reached in my almost 40 years is we all will do both. We are not all going to stay all the time and we’re not all going to leave all the time. It’s both. And so, I currently sit in a seat of staying, but I also have left beloved institutions. I have left relationships. And so, that’s the other side is, I hope I’m learning lessons from my friends who have left. They have something to teach me too.

― Annie B. Jones, Interview, Emily Freeman | The Next Right Thing Podcast

Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

What booksellers are saying about Ordinary Time

  • Fans of Annie Jones’ podcast and The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA will love getting a little peek behind the scenes, but even for those unfamiliar with Annie’s story, this collection of essays is deeply relatable. Perfect for those who stayed in their hometowns, for those who decided to lead a quieter life, and especially for those who have struggled with their faith. This is a book I will be gifting to so many people in my life..
      ― Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia | BUY

  • I had the unique experience of reading Annie Jones’s Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put while moving, an experience made even more unique because I was moving to the small town where Annie lives, Thomasville, GA, a special town made better by its special bookshop and its special bookshop-owner. Annie is many things. She’s a reader, a podcaster, a bookseller, a concerned citizen, an early aughts romantic comedy aficionado , and ― as evidenced by her essays ― a wise writer. She’s both learned and learning, and how generous is it of her to share that with us?
      ― TLaura Cotten, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama | BUY

  • This is the book anyone who knows Annie B. Jones, whether in real life, in her bookstore, or through her podcast From the Front Porch, has been waiting for for years! Annie’s wisdom, humor, faith, and love for her friends, family, and hometown are all so deeply relatable. This book of essays is perfect for fans of CJ Hauser, Mary Laura Philpott, and Ann Patchett; it’s the kind of book you buy multiple copies of at once, one for yourself and the rest for the people you love.
      ― Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY

  • Annie Jones’ Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned by Staying Put is the perfect cozy read for anyone who’s drawn to simplicity and quiet and relishes a strong sense of place and comfort. This collection of essays reflects on the many ways to define a home, on finding and creating community, and on finding joy in the familiar and making lemonade from the unexpected.
      ― Anna Taleysnik-Mehta, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia | BUY

About Annie B. Jones

Annie B. Jones is a writer, podcaster, and the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. Jones hosts From the Front Porch, a weekly podcast about books, small business, and life in the South, and her work has been featured in Southern Living magazine. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, she lives in Thomasville with her husband, Jordan, and their dog, Sam Malone.

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Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

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Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones
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Fans of Annie Jones’ podcast and The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia, will love getting a little peek behind the scenes, but even for those unfamiliar with Annie’s story, this collection of essays is deeply relatable. Perfect for those who stayed in their hometowns, for those who decided to lead a quieter life, and especially for those who have struggled with their faith. This is a book I will be gifting to so many people in my life.

Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones, (List Price: $26.99, HarperOne, 9780063411272, April 2025)

Reviewed by Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia

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Book Buzz: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

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Omar El Akkad, photo courtesy Penguin Random House

Last year I started writing about what it feels like to live in this part of the world and essentially watch my tax dollars pay to finance wholesale slaughter. And for basically the next year it was all I could write about, it was the only thing I was able to put down on paper, and the result is this book. I think of it as sort of part memoir, part of it is about my life my experiences from a very early age and why I sound like this, why I speak this language, the sense that I’ve been attuned to the west from a very early age as this place where there are theseunderlying foundational principles of fairness and equal justice and so on. And to be in this moment, this culmination of so many previous moments, where I’m questioning all of that. The other part of the book is essentially an accounting of the last year of waking up every morning and seeing evidence of the worst things that human beings can do to one another, and trying to exist in that framework. It’s the kind of book that’s going to barge in through the door pretending to be an argument. In truth I’m not trying to argue with anyone, I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind. Ishiguro once said that ‘all literature essentially boils down to someone saying this is what it feels like for me, can you hear me? Does it also feel that  way for you?’ And I think that’s essentially what this book is.

― Omar El Akkad, Interview, The Lighthouse Bookshop

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

What booksellers are saying about One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

  • If you are living and breathing in the 21st century, you must read this book. Many who should still be on this earth are not, and reading this book is one small thing you can do to unlearn many harmful narratives that have caused unthinkable atrocities..
      ― Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY

  • This breakup letter to the West is sorely needed. Omar El Akkad puts words to feelings I didn’t know how to articulate before reading this. He not only directly confronts America’s complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, but also forces the reader to recognize that the failure of American liberalism is not limited to this issue. This will be a book I return to over and over again.
      ― Becca Naylor, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY

  • A brilliant, beautiful, absolutely essential read.
      ― Gaël LeLamer, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida | BUY

  • “Essential reading” has become a hollow phrase, but if any book could restore its meaning, it would be this one. This is a book about Palestine, but it is equally a book about the large-scale brand of dehumanization that gets normalized under the auspices of power. As a Middle Eastern person, I’m in awe of El Akkad’s ability to give language to the experience of a particular kind of otherness in the context of a country–ours–that has been so hellbent on destroying my family’s part of the world for decades. But it’s not my heritage, or even El Akkad’s, that makes this book so important, and so urgent. It’s the clarity with which he is able to cut through all of the levels of noise, bias, and hypocrisy that most of us have grown inured to, that all of us need to reckon with. I believe the sad promise of this book’s perfect, gut-punch title–how clear our vision gets when it’s too late to do anything at all–and I believe in its ability to open eyes and dramatically rewire awareness and understanding.
      ― Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama | BUY

About Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager, and now lives in the United States. He is a two-time winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Oregon Book Award for fiction. His books have been translated into thirteen languages. His debut novel, American War, was named by the BBC as one of one hundred novels that shaped our world.

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Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays by Edgar Gomez

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Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays by Edgar Gomez
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Edgar Gomez’s memoir in essays is spectacular. He writes with clarity and ease when discussing his life as a queer Latinx person trying to navigate the difficulties inherent in those identities growing up in Florida. I’ll always remember his recounting of the Pulse shooting and the impact that had on him.

Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays by Edgar Gomez, (List Price: $28, Crown, 9780593728543, February 2025)

Reviewed by Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas

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Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

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Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
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Geraldine Brooks’s memoir of her life with writer Tony Horwitz and the aftermath of his sudden death in 2019 is an intimate, gut-wrenching, funny, and inspiring tribute to their life together and to his writing. It will take its place alongside other powerful memoirs of love and loss, like Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking (about which the two of them strikingly disagreed). With her well-honed journalistic skills, Brooks describes the brutally bureaucratic way America handles sudden death alongside her own journey through grief’s landscape while capturing Horwitz’s exuberant personality and adventurous spirit. Having read and loved most of her work, I now can’t wait to read his.

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks, (List Price: $28, Viking, 9780593653982, February 2025)

Reviewed by Sarah Goddin, McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina

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The Flitting by Ben Masters

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The Flitting by Ben Masters
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The Flitting is a work of pure magic. After his father receives a terminal cancer diagnosis during the early days of the pandemic, Masters spends the summer chasing butterflies as a way to connect with his ailing parent while he still can. Blending memoir and literary commentary with stories of Masters’ own encounters with butterflies, The Flitting is a beautifully written reminder of the importance of accepting others as they are, and of the wonders of nature. You may never look at a butterfly the same way after reading this.

The Flitting by Ben Masters, (List Price: $18.95, Tin House Books, 9781959030812, October 2024)

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

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The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case

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The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case
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As far as music memoirs go, the supremely talented Neko Case brings a new and often mind-blowing perspective to an often paint-by-numbers genre. Mostly centered around her harrowing childhood and teen years and her fraught relationships with her parents, there’s loads to unpack, with shocks and trauma you will not believe. And the music! Her influences, how she got her start, and the joy and sorrow of the life on the road. Highly recommended!

The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case, (List Price: $30, Grand Central Publishing, 9781538710500, January 2025)

Reviewed by Seth Tucker, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky

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Ingrained by Callum Robinson

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Ingrained by Callum Robinson
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A beautiful memoir about the importance of making things with your hands and how a point of crisis can bring what is important back into focus.

Ingrained by Callum Robinson, (List Price: $30, Ecco, 9780063350830, December 2024)

Reviewed by Holly Wunsch, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

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The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case

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The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case
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Electric, angry, joyful, scrappy, and full of life – I could not get enough of Neko Case’s memoir. The Harder I Fight the More I Love You is a powerful work that is moving and inspiring even if you are not familiar with Neko or her music. A celebration of the power of art and the power that comes from being our true selves in the world – an unforgettable read!

The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case, (List Price: $30, Grand Central Publishing, 9781538710500, January 2025)

Reviewed by Caleb Masters, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung

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A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung
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I loved Nichol Chung’s debut memoir, All You Can Ever Know, Know, so I couldn’t wait to read her latest, A Living Remedy. Continuing to explore themes of identity and race, A Living Remedy also delves into themes of grief, class, and our fractured healthcare system up through the days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to spare the reader spoilers because I was riveted by Nicole’s experience of growing up, moving across the country from her adoptive parents, and raising a family of her own. Her exquisite writing and tender vulnerability make this a stand-out memoir for me. Highly recommend!

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung, (List Price: $19.99, Ecco, 9780063031623, April 2024)

Reviewed by Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina

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