The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Native American

Horses by Jake Skeets

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Horses by Jake Skeets
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Opening with the death of almost 200 horses, this collection doesn’t pull any punches. Skeets explores the beauty of living in the Navajo Nation without ignoring the grief. The tragedy is even made an active participant in the pleasures that are still found. He finds a way to reflect these things in the layout of the text and use of punctuation as well, demonstrating an impressive understanding of poetry both as a visual and oral tradition. Everything is purposeful and heartfelt. An important read for everyone, these poems are a striking meditation on the end of the world as we know it and the creation of a new one in the process.

Horses by Jake Skeets, (List Price: $18, Milkweed Editions, 9781639551521, March 2026)

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

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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
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An amazing, well-rounded debut with a number of different identities represented. Elatsoe had an impressive combination of Indigenous practices and folklore, paranormal elements, and a classic murder-mystery with necessary discussions of injustice and colonization. PLUS lovable characters!

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger, (List Price: $12.99, Levine Querido, 9781646142767, October 2023)

Reviewed by Mallory Sutton, Bards Alley in Vienna, Virginia

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Washing My Mother’s Body by Joy Harjo

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Washing My Mother's Body by Joy Harjo
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A beautifully illustrated edition of one of Joy Harjo’s greatest poems – this book is a celebration of a mother’s life and a wrestling with the grief that comes after loss. Dana Tiger’s watercolors perfectly complement the emotions of the poem, elevating the text to something truly special. Full of emotion and memory, this book is a wonderful ode to a life – now gone but never forgotten.

Washing My Mother’s Body by Joy Harjo, (List Price: $17.99, Ten Speed Press, 9781984861368, April 2025)

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

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Halfway There by Christine Mari

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Halfway There by Christine Mari
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This had me SOBBING. For someone who is not mixed race, this was really eye-opening about the struggles that mixed-race children and adults face in their daily lives. I’m assuming this book would be very comforting for someone who also understands what the MC goes through. This really highlights the microaggressions that are often spoken. Really eye-opening and a very emotional ride. Beautiful story 10/10

Halfway There by Christine Mari, (List Price: $17.99, Little, Brown Ink, 9780316416726, October 2024)

Reviewed by Stephanie St. John, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
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Simultaneously heartbreaking and humorous. A fictionalized tale of the author’s life as a young teen, chronicling his battle with being loyal to his home and breaking away to meet who he was destined to be.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, (List Price: $20.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316504041, September 2017)

Reviewed by Mallory Sutton, Bards Alley in Vienna, Virginia

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The Storyteller by Brandon Hobson

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The Storyteller by Brandon Hobson
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A May 2023 Read This Next! Title

Ziggy is just a regular kid. Well, a regular kid who encounters talking coyotes, singing frogs, prophesying snakes, truth-telling horses, a very interesting Grandma, and Nunnehi- spirits who protect those of Cherokee descent. Funny, sad, wise, and jam-packed with adventure, Ziggy’s story, The Storyteller, may be the very best book you’ll read in 2023.

The Storyteller by Brandon Hobson, (List Price: 17.99, Scholastic Press, 9781338797268, May 2023)

Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina

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Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie

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Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie
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Beautiful and poignant, this stunning ode to Cree life sings with love for the relations that sustain it—between people, with the land, and the communal practices that have endured through generations. Flett’s warm, evocative artwork is, as always, a treasure, imbuing Sainte-Marie’s lyrics with tender resonance.

Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie, (List Price: $18.95, Greystone Kids, 9781771648073, September 2022)

Reviewed by Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

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The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson

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The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson
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One of the best things about reading is when you discover a book that brings back wonderful memories of childhood favorites. The Star That Always Stays made me remember two of my favorite books: Heidi and The Girl of the Limberlost. Norvia, the young heroine of The Star That Always Stays, and the young girls from these older stories long for love, acceptance and a true home. They face adversity and feel despair at times at a lack of control over their lives. Yet their strong faith, persistence in pursuing an education, and kind words from others around them sustain them and help them overcome the hardships in their lives. Norvia’s Ojibwe family and the pre-WWI setting provide a great background to this young woman growing up in 1914 Michigan. This is a new classic in the making and I hope we will have more stories about Norvia and her extended family.

The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson, (List Price: $17.99, Holiday House, 9780823450404, July 2022)

Reviewed by Mary Patterson, The Little Bookshop in Midlothian, Virginia

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