Ask a Bookseller

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Part of the joy of reading historical fiction is discovering moments or voices in our past that resonate today. For Sophia Terry of Bank Street Books in Mystic, Conn., the novel that had her turning pages — and then diving into internet research to learn more — was "The Lilac People" by Milo Todd. It comes out in paperback this week. The novel weaves between two starkly different timelines in the life of Bertie, a trans man living in Germany. In the early 1930s, Bertie works with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute for Sexual Science, where his work uplifts a thriving queer community in Berlin. Ten years later, Bertie and his girlfriend are in hiding, living on a farm under assumed names. A young trans man winds up on their property, still dressed in the prison clothes from the camp in which he escaped, and the couple takes him in. The fall of the Nazis and the arrival of the Allies, though, does not signal the end of danger for Bertie and other queer people. Terry recommends this novel for lovers of Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See” and others who enjoy WWII or queer history. “It was such a powerful debut novel. It’s a chapter of history and voice that you so rarely get to hear from, but it's as much about hope and resilience as [about] these darker chapters of history.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day, a national event celebrating reading and the booksellers at small businesses who put those books into readers’ hands. Across Minnesota, more than 70 independent bookstores are participating. Many are offering readings, special offers and opportunities to win prizes. In the greater Twin Cities metro, book lovers can pick up a free independent bookstore passport and get it stamped at any of the 38 participating businesses. Stamped pages serve as coupons for future visits, with bonus coupons and prize drawings for those with 10 or more stamps.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Seeing a new work on the shelf written by an author you love can feel like winning the lottery. Shirley Fergenson of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Md., remembers being absolutely captivated by Daniyal Mueenuddin’s 2009 short story collection “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. This year — 17 years later — he’s published a new work of fiction, entitled “This Is Where the Serpent Lives.” Fergenson says when she saw it, she “practically jumped up and down. I took it home, I read it, and I fell in love with it. It's the same voice. I loved it then, and I love it still.” “This Is Where the Serpent Lives” is a sprawling work set in Pakistan over several decades, starting in the 1950s. It’s being marketed as a novel, but Fergenson says it’s actually three short stories and a novella with interlinking characters. “It sort of feels like ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ with a little bit of ‘The Godfather’ thrown in,” she says. “There are rich landowners, there are servants, forbidden Love, ambition, corruption. There is moral compromise and fluid loyalty. It is a class-and-cast panorama of amazingly rich characters. Each one could have a whole story written about them. They're so full of life.” “The main reason to read this book is the exquisite writing, but if you need a story that is one story arc that takes you from the beginning to the end, this is not your story. There are linkages, but they're literary, and they are so beautifully told that even in the bleakest, darkest setting, every detail feels like a photograph through an artist's filter. And the final novella is so powerful that it feels like its own full novel.” Listen to an NPR interview with the author: Daniyal Mueenuddin discusses his debut novel, 'This Is Where the Serpent Lives' : NPR

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Lauren Groff’s novels and short stories have been finalists three times for the National Book Award, and now she’s out with a new collection of short stories entitled “Brawler.” Maire Wilson of Huxley & Hiro Booksellers in Wilmington, Del., says this work is just as strong as her others. Unlike Groff's earlier short story collection, “Florida,” the nine stories in “Brawler” vary their locations as well as time periods and life circumstances. In “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?,” the longest piece in the book, a young man struggling with alcoholism retreats to his family’s estate to grapple with the ways his life has fallen short of his expectations. “The Wind” is the story of fleeing domestic abuse, passed from mother to daughter. In each story, Wilson says, “everything is so elegantly simple that it's almost like maintaining a conversation with the person across from you, or just kind of listening into this life story. I feel like I'm in the room.” Wilson loves Groff’s “attention to the liveliness of the surroundings” in each story, adding that she comes out of Groff’s novels and short stories "just kind of feeling full” and satisfied.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Charlotte Glover of Parnassus Books and Gifts in Ketchikan, Alaska, recommends a novel that will immerse you deeply in the Pacific Northwest. She appreciates the lovely characters, focus on nature, and beautiful writing of Eileen Garvin’s novel “Crow Talk.” Garvin gained national attention for her novel “The Music of Bees,” and her new novel “Bumblebee Season” comes out April 21. For Glover, it was the mention of crows in the title that first drew her to “Crow Talk”: crows and ravens are of huge importance across the Pacific Northwest, from her bookstore’s location in the Alaskan panhandle to the novel’s setting in the Hood River area of Oregon. The story follows Frankie, an ornithologist who has retreated to a small family cabin by a lake to mourn the loss of her father and figure out a path to finish her dissertation on spotted owls. It’s autumn, and the only other residents are a family, Anne and Tim and their five-year-old autistic son, who isn't speaking. As Glover explains, these lonely, wayward characters find each other and converge over caring for a baby crow. Frankie and Anne forge a friendship as they care for both the bird and the boy. “Nature is a huge character in this book,” says Glover, “It’s a book that you can touch, smell, feel, taste, and hear. That's always what I'm looking for in a book is an immersive experience.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.A book can be a vehicle of empathy, inviting us to walk around in someone else’s world for a while. Elizabeth Mattson of Henry's Books in Spearfish, South Dakota, says her top pick for novels in this category is "Theo of Golden" by Allen Levi. Here’s the scenario: In the southern U.S. city of Golden, there’s a bustling coffee shop called The Chalice with 92 pencil-drawn portraits of townspeople, created by a local artist. When Theo, an elderly man from Portugal, arrives in Golden and decides to settle there, the portraits speak to him. He begins purchasing them one by one and gifting them to the individuals depicted in the portraits. These acts of conversation, connection, and generosity ripple outward through the community. Running through the story is a question: Who is Theo, and why is he there? For readers who prefer to listen to their books, Mattson also says the narrator in the audiobook is excellent.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Do you love a good villain story? Sarah DiMaria of Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana, does, and she’s raving about Rachel Hochhauser’s debut “Lady Tremaine.” This retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of the stepmother is being marketed as “Bridgerton” meets “Circe.”  Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley finds herself in charge of two daughters and a step-daughter in a dilapidated house. As her frustrations and worries mount, she supports her family by hunting with her peregrine falcon. DiMaria particularly appreciated the way the bond between the protagonist and her fierce, predatory partner is written. Lady Tremaine is determined to see her daughters married well so that her family can have financial security. But at what cost? Especially when she discovers the prince’s family is not as charming as it seems on the surface... What unfolds, DiMaria says, is a story rooted in female relationships and forging your own path in the world. 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Coco Casey of Buxton Books in Charleston, S.C., recommends a favorite author local to her store: horror master Grady Hendrix. His novel, “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls,” is out in paperback. The novel follows a group of pregnant teenage girls in a maternity home who discover a spell book that pulls them into the world of witchcraft and the supernatural. The horror in this book, however, lies in the girls’ real-life situation, which is historically based. The book is set in what’s called the Baby Scoop Era, from the 1940s to 1973, before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal and Title IX protected pregnant students from discrimination. The girls were brought to his home to hide their pregnancies; they were given false names and strictly monitored, with the expectation that their babies would be given up for adoption. "In a world where they have very little control over their own bodies and their own fates, they are given this tool to have control in other realms that they didn't know was possible before,” Casey says. She says this novel, set in 1970, is “on the lower end of fear factor” for Hendrix’s books, though there is body horror, and the birth scenes are not for the faint-of-heart. She calls the books’ antagonists well-written and “very scary,” mostly because such situations exist.Casey recommends reading the afterward as well. "The afterword and the notes are fascinating. He did a lot of research into covens and their lineages, into the medical side of these stories, and into the legal side of these stories. And it's very hard to find accurate historical research for a lot of this, because the point of these homes was that there was no documentation and that it was all buried.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Sometimes, you just want to escape into a book. For those who enjoy a cozy romance, Marissa Mills of Luminary Books in Gardnerville, Nevada, says her recent favorite is the novel "If it Makes You Happy" by Julie Olivia.  Think “Gilmore Girls” meets “When Harry Met Sally.” Set in a small town (of course!) in Vermont in 1997, this friends-to-lovers novel is a sweet story with a bit of spice. Michelle is taking over her mother’s bed and breakfast. Cliff, the single dad next door, is a baker who starts teaching Michelle how to bake so she can handle the breakfast part of her new venture. Mills says the book has grumpy/sunshine, black cat/golden retriever energy. She appreciates that Cliff’s daughters are key characters in the book, as is Michelle’s dog, Rocket. It’s not a coincidence that the cover, with its couple strolling near a town-square gazebo, evokes “Gilmore Girls." Julia Olivia has many romance titles to her name, but “If It Makes You Happy,” published by  Penguin Random House, is her first break into major bookstores. Bookseller Mills says that after their store book club read it, “they fell in love with the author and her writing, and they went back and started reading all of her other works.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.More than 10 weeks after the federal immigration enforcement surge began in Minnesota, Border Czar Tom Homan announced this week that federal agents would be drawing down and Operation Metro Surge was coming to an end, though he stressed that immigration enforcement would continue. In that environment, Minnesota’s indie bookstores remain a source of books for those seeking both to understand what’s happening in this country and to escape from it. For those who are leaning in, Makkah Abdur Salaam of Black Garnet Books in St. Paul recommends a collection of down-to-earth letters designed to meet you where you are. It’s called “Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis,” edited by Kelly Hayes. The letters come from contemporary activists and writers from all walks of life whose work focuses on a variety of issues. The letters are titled to help you find what you need in the moment. There are titles like “Read this if someone you loved has killed themselves or wants to, and maybe you want to, but you also want to survive.” Or, "Read this if you've been assaulted. I believe you.” Or, “Read this if you are panicking about collapse.” Overall, Abdur Salaam says, the letters offer advice for those who are in it for the long haul. “It talks a lot about sustainable activism and how that requires mutual aid, collective work with your community, and mutual care. And it also talks about how hope is a practice: it's something that you have to contribute to each day and figure out how that looks for you. [The collection talks about] how conflict is inevitable in any movement, and how to basically navigate that, and how it takes very thoughtful and purposeful action to work through that. That’s how movements survive and stay sustainable.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.With the surge of ICE operations in Minnesota now in its third month, indie bookstore owners in the Twin Cities and beyond say that customers are coming in looking for three things: community, books to help them understand what's happening and books to help them escape.  Rima Parikh, owner of the science-first bookstore The Thinking Spot in Wayzata, with some of her recommendations for leaning in. For a fiction read, Parikh says the classic novel “1984” by George Orwell has been popular. Set in a dystopian future where Big Brother is always watching, the novel describes a world where language is censored, history is changed, and the party in power tells people to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears. For a historical perspective, Parikh recommends the nonfiction book “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America” by historian Heather Cox Richardson. “There are many books that try to explain the moment, but she goes way back. She goes back to the founding of America and goes through every twist and turn of our meandering history,” Parikh says. “[She] has a coherent narrative through the whole thing explaining how we got here. And essentially, her theme is that a small group of wealthy individuals have weaponized language and promoted false history, which has led us into the state of authoritarianism.”  For a book to spark conversations among children and adults alike, Parikh recommends a pair of books, “An Illustrated Guide to Bad Arguments” and “An Illustrated Guide to Loaded Language” by Ali Almossawi. These short, illustrated books introduce logical fallacies and other ways language is used to mislead others.  She offers this example in the book of a false equivalence: “It says, yesterday's violence left 12 rabbits with lost limbs and one badger with slight shoulder pain. And the response: ‘We urge both sides to show restraint.’  “Taken as itself,” Parikh says, “urging both sides to show restraint, yes, [that’s] perfectly valid. However, in this particular context, both sides are not equivalent.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Minnesota is in the national spotlight as the massive federal ICE operation continues. It can be a challenge to know how to talk to children about this issue, and books can be conversation starters for families, as well as sources of comfort. Timothy Otte of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis says his bookstore, which focuses on books for children, is getting requests for books about community and social justice. And while there is no one perfect book to speak to this moment, he finds himself regularly thinking about a picture book by Oliver Jeffers entitled “Begin Again: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go — Our Human Story. So Far.” Jeffers grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the politically turbulent 1970s and 80’s, and his picture books often focus, in gentle ways, on how we treat each other and live together on one planet. "Begin Again” is a book that Otte says feels appropriate for children and adults alike. Here’s how Otte describes the book: “It is about what we can do and what we can build together. “In the book, Jeffers has a little essay describing the inspiration for the book, and in it, he says that he no longer asks people what kind of world they want, because what people say is in the negative. “They say, ‘This is the kind of world I don't want.’ So now he asks, ‘How do you want to feel?’ And I think that's such a brilliant question, because we can build a world in which we all feel safe, we feel in community, we feel held. We want to have a place to live and food to eat and a group to be in, whether that's a family or a larger community. “This book is a great place to find inspiration for how to make that world a reality, and the kinds of questions that we need to ask both ourselves and the people around us if we want to build that world.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Need something kind and cozy to sink into this weekend?Allie Cesmat of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., recommends hopping aboard “The Elsewhere Express.” It’s the new cozy fantasy by Samantha Sotto Yambao, who drew national attention for her novel “Water Moon,” about a pawn shop where people go to sell regrets. Cesmat compares Yambao’s writing to the playful worlds of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli.Cesmat says she's never read another book like it. She describes the premise:“You are adrift in life. You're sitting there, kind of feeling like you have no purpose, nothing's going on, and all of a sudden a train pulls up and lets you on to this world that is set apart from ours. The train [contains] revolving rooms and magical dimensions. You are trying to find your purpose, and your purpose is the train compartment that you're walking towards.”“We follow two characters on this train as they figure out their purpose is, what they're what they're missing. The train is a closed-door mystery: you don't really know what's happening next. You don't know what the tension is. It's a cozy fantasy, for sure, but it is lyrical. It is magnetic.“And as you're reading it, you start wondering, well, what's my compartment? Where am I adrift in this world? And it brings hope and comfort that you wouldn't otherwise have.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Angel Horne of Two Friends Bookstore in Bentonville, Arkansas, recommends the novel “To the Moon and Back” by Eliana Ramage. It’s a debut novel about a young woman’s quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut.From a young age, Steph Harper is driven to get to space. She throws herself into education and training, determined to get out of Oklahoma. The novel focuses on Steph and the important women in her life — her mother, her artist/influencer sister, her college girlfriend — as their relationships stretch and change through decades and across distances.Horne appreciated the representation in this book, with a queer Cherokee woman in a STEM field at the center, and she also resonated with the setting Like the protagonist, Steph was born in the early 80s, and she appreciated watching her live through the introduction of cell phones and social media.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Shannon Guinn-Collins of Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico says she's still thinking about the novel "Lightbreakers" by Aja Gabel. Guinn-Collins recommends this novel for fans of literary time travel, as well as for readers of Jennifer Egan and Emily St. John Mandel.  “Lightbreakers” centers on a married couple: Noah, who is a quantum physicist, and Maya, who is an artist. Shadowing Noah’s life is the loss of his young daughter with his first wife. So, when Noah is approached by an experimental group that is exploring a form of time travel using memory, he takes the opportunity. As he steps further and further back into his own memories, Maya must grapple with the widening gulf with her husband in the present — and what that means for their future.  Guinn-Collins offers this review: "The book really centers on themes of loss and longing, love and regret — all of these major human themes. It deals with really fraught, difficult topics, but it does so in a way that's really graceful. “Aja has a really light touch, and her writing is just gorgeous. The language she uses is really beautiful. It carries you forward in a really natural way. But I still found myself pausing and rereading passages just to enjoy what she was doing. Definitely one of my favorites from last year!” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Becky Schlosser of Cherry Street Books in Alexandria recommends the novel "The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett. Schlosser calls it “darkly funny and heartwarming” — a “perfect” story about imperfect people. This story involves a road trip like no other. 63-year-old PJ Halliday — survivor of three heart attacks, million-dollar lottery winner who’s nearly spent through his money — reads in the obituaries that the husband of his high school flame has passed away. She was the one that got away, in his mind, and now that she’s single. PJ decides to road-trip from Massachusetts to her retirement community in Arizona to win her back. Along for the ride are two tween orphans, Luna and Ollie, for whom PJ has recently become guardian; his disgruntled adult daughter; and a seemingly clairvoyant orange cat. Also, he technically doesn’t have a license, given some past DUIs, and he’s had to borrow his ex-wife's car. What could go wrong? Schlosser says this novel, with its sharp wit, is quirky and lovable, but it deals with some pretty heavy, tender topics.” She recommends this story of found family and second chances to readers who like Fredrik Backman’s novels.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Alena Bruzas of Francie & Finch Bookshop in Lincoln, Neb., has a recommendation sure to appeal to weather heads and fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” series alike. It’s called “Wilder Weather: What Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaches Us About the Weather, Climate, and Protecting What We Cherish.” Author Barbara Boustead is a meteorologist, climatologist and Wilder scholar. She brings her passions together for this nonfiction work, published by South Dakota Historical Society Press. Readers who love Wilder’s tales of growing up in the Big Woods — and on the shores of Plum Creek, etc. — know how dramatically the weather affected her daily life. Droughts, tornadoes, locust plagues and bitterly cold winters determined whether her family would have enough to eat throughout the year. Those stories offer exciting drama, but Boustead was able to verify that most of Wilder’s weather accounting was true. “She goes into great detail about her methodology, about the science behind gathering this data, how people have gathered data about weather since the 1800s.” Bookseller Bruzas, who says she is generally more drawn to historical fiction than meteorology, still found the book fascinating. “The way that she describes the Ingalls family dealing with this weather — some of it was unprecedented. It makes me realize that now we're dealing with a lot of unprecedented weather events, and it feels relevant, almost eerily relevant. She really brings it to the present."

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.It’s that time of year when readers start to catalogue their favorite books of 2025, and for bookseller Kelly Evert, that book is “Mona’s Eyes” by Thomas Schlesser. Evert works at Village Books and Paper Dreams, with locations in Bellingham and Lynden, Washington. When a young girl named Mona, living in Paris, learns she’s going to go blind, her grandfather determines to show her as much visual art as he can while she can still see. Once a week, over the course of a year, he takes her to the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and other French galleries, where they focus on a piece of art each time. Evert appreciated both the art discussions and the relationship between Mona and her grandfather. “It’s just very beautiful and loving,” says Evert, who added that the dust jacket of the hardcover book includes images of all the featured artwork. Art lovers will immediately recognize that the famed eyes on the cover belong to Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” not the Mona Lisa, though Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece is one of the 52 works of art featured in the book.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Mary Williams of Skylight Books in Los Angeles, Calif., recommends a nonfiction book that will appeal to readers who find joy in the natural world, including the plants growing on their window sills. It’s called “Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings” by Myriam Gurba. It’s a book that’s deeply rooted in the author’s California home and landscape. “It's a perfect example of how a great writer can make even a subject you wouldn't naturally gravitate towards be fascinating," said Williams. She said the book was beautifully written, with an inventive format: "[Gurba’s] combining memoir, botany, little bits of history from California and Mexico, family history, photos, and little bits of newspaper articles, and putting together all these puzzle pieces. She’s basically telling a story about our relationship to nature — and how we cultivate plants and land — can, in turn, heal us. “The author talks about how she's been healing from some past traumatic experiences and some previous violent relationships. She doesn't get in too much into those stories — they've been covered in prior books — but [she’s] talking about how creating the sort of jungle of plants, including literally growing corn in her apartment, allowed her to reconnect with nature and kind of reconnect with her soul.” Williams says she found herself surprised and delighted, as well as entertained, by the comparisons the author drew with her observations of the world.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.What would the contents of your purse or backpack say about you? Bev Newton of Innisfree Bookshop in Meredith, N.H., recommends a novel about a Parisian bookseller who is so taken by the contents of an abandoned purse, he sets off on a quest to find its owner. Newton calls it “the biggest little book you’ll read this year — a delightful little book." Laurent Letellier discovers the purse, stripped by a mugger of all its valuable or identifying objects. Inside, he discovers a red notebook along with a key chain, a hieroglyph and perfume. Newton says the notebook is full of fragmented “memories and wishes and fears,” adding that readers who wish they kept journals will take comfort in how much can be conveyed in dashed-off remarks. Laurent, with help from his daughter, sets off on a quest to return the purse. But how to find a faceless, nameless woman in all of Paris?  The novel has been available in Europe for years, but it was recently translated and made available to the American market. 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Feeling too busy lately to finish a book? Kimberly Daniels of The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina, would like to make an argument for reading short story collections. Specifically, Katrina Denza’s new collection "Burner: And Other Stories.” Daniels raves about these tightly crafted contemporary short stories, in which she says a single paragraph conveys the weight of a chapter, and a short story contains a fully realized fictional world. “The economy of being completely transformed and having your mind blown for such little time — [the time it takes to read a short story] — and to be so affected and to return to your life changed — [that’s] a pretty good value for your time.” These are stories that explore aging, technology and the gap between what people do outwardly and what they express inwardly. In one story, a woman gets an AI hologram so she can continue to speak with her husband, who took his life due to depression. “This is a beautiful, hopeful story. I just love how brilliant it is, because it takes what might be the obvious thing, which is fantasy-versus-reality and technology-versus-humanity, and then flips the switch. “It's like, no, is the fantasy that you can love someone out of a depression? And I'm not giving anything away, because the joy of reading the story is so rich. Every story is like that: just taking it up a notch.”

Christina Tabereaux of The Snail on the Wall, a bookstore in Huntsville, Ala., recommends the novel “I See You’ve Called in Dead” by John Kenney. The book's dark humor evokes Richard Russo’s “Straight Man” or Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove,” and Tabereaux says the story, with its well-developed characters, drew her to both laughter and tears. Bud writes obituaries for a living. With his own life down-in-the-dumps, personally and professionally, he drinks too much one night and writes — and publishes — his own obituary. It’s a rather dramatic description of his imagined feats, and its publication earns him a suspension from his job.  In that moment, Tabereaux says, Bud faces the ultimate question: “He has to decide, is he going to continue numbly walking through life, or is he going to truly embrace and live life? “Bud's friend Tim, who is just a wonderful, wonderful character, starts taking Bud to wakes and funerals of complete strangers. And so, he starts evaluating: what's the legacy these people have left? Bud really starts thinking about what his own legacy is going to be. “It's my favorite kind of book, because it includes just fantastically developed characters who are facing the obstacles of life but doing so in a way that is realistic. “It's not tied up super neatly in a bow. There's still grief, and there's still loss, and there's heartache; but Bud ultimately realizes that life is better because he embraces the community of people around him." Listen to Kenney’s interview with NPR’s Scott Simon here: John Kenney on his new novel, 'I See You've Called In Dead' : NPR 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Sarah Gregg of Lemuria Book Store in Jackson, Miss., recommends a novel that delves deep into a family drama in a small Mississippi Delta town.The debut novel “Dominion” by Addie E. Citchens takes on themes of power, patriarchy and sexual repression. Gregg calls it a character-driven novel, and it was the connection between the two main female characters — including what they don’t manage to say — that kept her reading. We focus on the family Sabre Winfrey, Jr. As a pastor of a large Black Baptist church and owner of several other companies, he wields tremendous power and respect in the town. His son Manny, nicknamed Wonderboy, is equally beloved, until he’s caught in an act of violence he can’t hide. The story centers on two women who love them: Winfrey’s wife, Pricilla, and Manny’s girlfriend, Diamond.  Gregg says that the inciting act forces the two women to talk with each other about “how they can protect themselves, protect Manny's reputation, and protect other people in the town. "It's a fantastic read. I think some reviewers might want it to be a little longer or have a little more discussion between the characters, but I think it's such a perfect capsule of real life that you don't have the conversations that you need to be having.” Trigger warning: This novel involves sexual assault. 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Liz Bernoskie of Poor Richard’s Books in Frankfort, Ky., recommends a fantasy novella set in an animal world whose actions offer hope for its human readers. “Auditions for the Fox” is the debut novella from sci-fi/fantasy short story writer Martin Cahill. The tale appealed to Bernoskie because of its focus on the power of individual acts of kindness.Here’s the scenario: Nesi, a little girl with godly blood, has chosen to audition for the Fox of Tricks. He wasn’t her first choice as divine patron, but she’s running out of options. While she expected to be challenged to clever games and perhaps a staring contest, Nesi lands an audition that feels very high-stakes indeed. She finds herself sent back in time 300 years into a land occupied by a cruel ruling set of wolves. Impressing the Fox will mean leading a revolution.Bernoskie says the writing in this book is “delightful,” with interesting characters.“The wolves are mean and cruel. The fox is exceedingly clever. And Nesi fights a revolution not with violence, but with kindness. And this just appealed to me so much, [the idea] that things can change by one person being kind to another person.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Daniel Wells of Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio, recommends the memoir “Coming Up Short” by Robert B. Reich. Wells called it “a beautiful contextualization of the last 70 or so years in American history.”An economist and educator, Reich served as Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and economic advisor to President Barack Obama. Reich intersperses the narrative of his life with statistics and facts that ground the story in its political era. Wells, age 25, said he was reminded of being in his high school government class — which he found positive.He was particularly struck by the generational focus of the memoir. Reich was born in 1946, the same year as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and George W Bush. The memoir explores what his generation inherited following World War II: Where they gained ground, and, as the title suggests, where they came up short.Wells found his conclusion hopeful. He appreciated the sentiments that “we can do this. It's not impossible. It's all about coming together as a community and understanding that there is no ‘us’ versus ‘them.’ We are all together trying to work towards a better society, and the only way we will squander that is if we buy into the idea that we are different somehow.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Are you a letter writer? Are you looking for a book about second chances that feels life-affirming? Cathy Fiebach of Main Point Books in Wayne, Pa., suggests you read the novel “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans. Our protagonist, Sybil Van Antwerp, is a letter writer. She emails when necessary, but mostly she puts pen to paper to connect with family and strangers alike.She lets famous writers know what she thinks about their books, and she lets the local public utilities know when they could be doing better. In this epistolary novel, the world unfolds both through Sybil’s writing and through the responses she receives. As with life, sometimes these notes lead in surprising directions. For example, Fiebach says, Sybil’s notes of complaint to a customer service person turn into friendship and a chance for Sybil to be of help. Fiebach says, "It's a story of loss and love and friendship, second chances. It's about an older woman, and her life sort of opening up instead of closing down. “So as she's writing her letters, she's discovering things about herself, and she's sort of discovering more possibilities and more people. [She’s discovering] some of the things that she could do differently, she's apologizing to people, and they're welcoming her back into their lives. I just found it a very warm and life-affirming book.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Calvin isn’t the only six-year-old comic strip character with deep thoughts about how the world should work. Meet Mafalda, star of the classic comic strip created by Argentine artist Quino. Timothy Otte of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis says the first book of collected Mafalda comics is now available in English, as translated by Frank Wynne. Here’s how Otte introduces Mafalda: “Mafalda is a six-year-old genius. Imagine Lucy from the Peanuts gang if she were written by a Latin American Bill Waterson. Mafalda is smart and obsessed with democracy. She hates soup, and she and her friends discuss politics day in and day out. She's wonderful. I think she's so funny.” The comic strip, written in Spanish, ran from 1964 to 1973 and was distributed around the world. Its illustration style is similar to Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts.” Otte says its comments and humor still feel relevant today. “It's such an open-hearted kind of politics. It has the kind of humor that is very much geared toward young readers, but that adults will also find a lot of really unique and wonderful jokes in as well."

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.All this month, Ask a Bookseller is featuring books for kids and teens as we mark the start of school. This week’s recommendation comes from Bunnie Hilliard, owner of Brave + Kind Bookshop, a children’s bookstore in Decatur, Georgia. She’s been enjoying “Why On Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology,” edited by Rosiee Thor and Vania Stoyanova. It’s a collection of YA short stories centered on a teen alien rescue mission-gone wrong. Hilliard calls the stories “surprising and diverse” and recommends them for anyone looking for a break from reality. Captain Iona leads our alien crew as they attempt to recuse her brother, who is under cover in California as a human celebrity. From that accidental invasion beginning, the stories vary widely from sci-fi to romcom to adventure, written by both best-selling authors and new voices.  “Some of the overarching themes are belonging, found family, empathy, and the idea of ‘other’ — both people who are aliens who feel different from humans and people who are humans who feel alienated and different from their peers,” Hilliard said.Correction (Sept. 20, 2025): An earlier version of this story misspelled the author’s name. The story has been updated.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.All September, Ask a Bookseller is marking the start of school by focusing on books for kids. This week’s recommendation comes from Ashley Robin Franklin of First Light Books in Austin, Texas. Ashley adores the picture book/early reader title “Little Shrew” by Akiko Miyakoshi. It's a quiet collection of three stories about Little Shrew’s daily life, secret joys and friends — perfect for thoughtful kids and bedtime reading. “The pictures are honestly incredible. When this book first came in, I think I gasped when I took it out of the box. Akiko Miyakoshi is just an incredible illustrator. It is, I think, all graphite and watercolor, and so it has this very gentle quality to it that I love.“I think that's just really sweet and really special. It’s a great starting point for questions about other people's lives and also for conversations about the quiet beauty of everyday life. It's not something you see in a kid's book that often.” Correction (Sept. 19, 2025): A previous version of this story misspelled the author’s name in a reference. The above story has been updated.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.With school back in session this month, Ask a Bookseller is focusing on books for kids. Author and bookseller Rosanne Parry of Annie Blooms Books in Portland, Oregon, starts us off with a middle-grade mystery series, perfect for fans of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. There are five books in Michael Hutchinson’s Mighty Muskrat series, with a new book forthcoming next year.The series features four mystery-solving cousins living on the fictional Windy Lake reservation in Canada. Hutchinson is a member of the Misipawistik Cree Nation.  Parry says the mysteries are active and well-paced, fun for kids and nostalgic for parents and grandparents. She also appreciates that they address contemporary concerns: “The mysteries are typical of the kid mystery genre — missing people, lost or stolen items and rigged sports events. Hutchinson weaves in information about his Cree heritage and issues relevant to First Nations without ever being heavy-handed, and he livens it all with humor. In the first one, “The Case of Windy Lake,” for example, they're looking for a missing archaeologist. Is archaeology on an Indian reservation fraught? It is. “He gets into that a little bit without it, it being heavy-handed. The series presents First Nations communities in the present day and actively engaged in the wider world in ways I seldom see in children’s literature.” The titles are:  The Case of Windy Lake The Case of the Missing Auntie The Case of the Burgled Bundle The Case of the Rigged Race The Case of the Pilfered Pin The Case of the Movie Mayhem (spring 2026) (Emily’s note: Rosanne Parry is an excellent author in her own right; she writes the Voice in the Wilderness Middle Grade series. Each book is written from the point of view of a wild animal, including wolves, horses, and orcas. Her most recent book, published this year, is “A Wolf Called Fire.”) 

September has begun, and with it, the anticipation of autumn weather, school, and great fall reads. Emily Bright of MPR News spoke with three booksellers about current trends and favorite reads during a live conversation at the Minnesota State Fair. Sarah Brown, manager of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, which sells both new and used titles; Makkah Abdur Salaam, Lead Bookseller at Black Garnet Books in St. Paul, which is an abolitionist bookstore that sells BIPOC authors; and Lisa Deyo, owner of Sweet Reads Books in Austin, which specializes in Minnesota authors.The conversation celebrated Minnesota authors across the state and highlighted the huge variety of books drawing readers to the shelves. From history to dystopian science fiction to cozy romantasy, there was a little something for every reader. Click the audio player above to listen to their full discussion and check out the book recommendations below. Makkah Abdur Salaam, Black Garnet Books“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States” by Daniel Immerwahr “It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)” by Dr. Karen Tang “Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope” by Catherine Coleman Flowers “The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic” by Lindsey Stewart “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson “The Dallergut Dream Department Store” by Miye Lee “The Stars and the Blackness Between Them” (YA) and “Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” (picture book) by Junauda Petris “Black Disability Politics” by Sami SchalkSarah Brown, Zenith Bookstore“Snowshoe Kate and the Hospital Built for Pennies,” written by Margi Preus of Duluth, illustrated by Jamie Zollars (publication date: Oct. 28) “Nicked” by M.T. Anderson“Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980)” by Eleanor Johnson (publication date: Sept. 30) “A Fever in the Heartland: The Klu Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them” by Timothy Egan “Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves” by Sophie Gilbert “Gichigami Hearts” by Linda LeGarde Grover of Duluth Lisa Deyo, Sweet Reads Books“Castle Danger” by Chris Norbury of Owatonna, Minn. “Raven Creek” by Therese Pautz of Austin, Minn. “In the Shade of Olive Trees” by Kate Laak of Rochester, Minn.Middle grade novels by Peg Kehret, who grew up in Austin.“Breathing in Minneapolis,” a poetry collection by Patrick Cabello Hansel “Lone Dog Road” by Kent Nerburn “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren Ask a Bookseller airs Saturdays right after the weather chats at 7:35 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. For the latest book and literary news, sign up for the Thread, our weekly newsletter by Kerri Miller. 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.If you were to find an old copy of the 1944 novel “Absent in the Spring,” it would say the author was Mary Westmacott.That’s the pen name famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie used when she wanted to write literary fiction, and bookseller Charlotte Lehigh of WordPlay in Wardensville, West Virginia, says the six Westmacotts were, until recently, hard to find. “They were the unicorn or the Holy Grail for collectors, and so all of the Agatha Christie fans are very, very excited to be able to have these little nuggets finally back in circulation,” Lehigh says. Newly re-published in July, “Absent in the Spring” is a “compulsive” read, says Lehigh. Christie wrote the book in just three days. Our protagonist, busy wife and mother Joan, is waylaid during her travels and finds herself alone with her thoughts. As she re-examines her life and her relationships, she grows increasingly anxious about what she finds. Lehigh says the 81-year-old book still feels relevant: “Joan could be any woman at any stage in history, in any place and time. Joan could be stuck in any situation, and the feelings and the human element would still be the same.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Mary Ellen Phillips of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, Colo., says her favorite book of the summer is the debut, much-hailed historical fiction novel “The Hounding” by Xenobe  Purvis. Set in Oxfordshire, England, in 1700, this story about a rumor gone wild has Salem witch trial vibes. The five sisters at the center of the novel don’t fit in. Raised by their widowed grandfather, they don’t act the way ladies are expected to. They’re loud, they make jokes, and they stick to themselves. The ferryman begins telling the townsfolk that the sisters are turning into dogs at night, and that people have seen these dogs running about town. Many of the townspeople are quick to accept this rumor as truth, and events escalate from there. The treatment of women and women’s health is central to this story, which is packed with real historical details.  Read an interview with Xenobe Purvis here:    Xenobe Purvis discusses her debut novel 'The Hounding,' about female persecution : NPR 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Poet and performance artist Andrea Gibson gained social media fame in recent years with their fierce and vulnerable spoken word videos. Kara Balcerzak, owner of Bonfire Bookstore & Yarnery in Woodstock, Virginia, first encountered Gibson’s poetry when they were the opening act at an indie music concert and held a large audience spellbound with their words. Gibson died in July at age 49 of ovarian cancer. Balcerzak recommends watching Gibson’s videos and reading their poetry collections, which she says also stand alone on the page. She particularly recommends Gibson’s most recent book, “You Better Be Lightning,” published in 2021, which she calls an “ode to beauty.” Balcerzak, who lived in the Twin Cities for 13 years and earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato, before opening her Virginia bookstore, describes the collection: “The book does tackle some really tough themes, like depression, abuse, chronic illness, the struggles of LGBTQ people and suicide. But I feel like saying that gives a wrong impression for the book, because it is actually filled with so much love and wonder and awe and joy. Poet Andrea Gibson, candid explorer of life, death and identity, dies at 49“The speaker in this book goes on this journey from being depressed to falling in love with life, from being closed off to people and to the beauty around them, to being vulnerable, and they invite readers to go along on that journey with them. And there are also surprising moments of humor that literally made me laugh out loud. “I would recommend this book to anyone who's ever struggled with depression. But beyond that, I think this is a book that I would give to anyone who could use a little infusion of beauty and love and optimism in their life. And I would argue that that's all of us.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.PJ Moon of The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kan., recommends a summer read with elements that will appeal to both adults and children. “Bat Kid” is a recently republished classic manga by Inoue Kazuo, translated by Ryan Holmberg. This is a two-parter: the full 1940’s Japanese manga about a kid who wants to play baseball, followed by an essay by Holmberg that delves into the history of baseball in Japan, and more. Moon calls “Bat Kid” a classic baseball manga, about a boy who’s new to the sport, whose parents would rather have him home studying. Its drawing style will remind American audiences of older comic strips, like Dennis the Menace. “What’s really cool about this book in particular is the cartoonist Inoue Kazuo — he would pencil a lot of puzzles, and some of those are in here as well, like crosswords, riddles and brain teasers,” said Moon.The essay, meanwhile, goes into depth about baseball in Japan during and immediately after WWII, as well as a history of children’s manga at that time. “It’s such a vibrant package. If you’re at all interested in the history of baseball, especially in Japan, even if you’re not into manga, I think that you would get a lot out of the essay.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.If you’re looking for an outdoor adventure novel about friendship and wonder and — why not? a cryptid — Ellyn Grimm of Dog-Eared Books in Ames, Iowa, has the book for you. She recommends Giano Cromley's novel “American Mythology,” out this week.Here’s Grimm’s synopsis of a book she calls “heartwarming and a bit creepy:”“’American Mythology’ is about two friends, Jute and Vergil, from a town in Basic, Mont., and together, they form the Basic Bigfoot Society. Every year, the two of them go on a Bigfoot expedition, hoping to find Bigfoot or find evidence. And this is rooted in a childhood encounter that Jute had, supposedly with Bigfoot. And after that, his father was never the same and and not in a good way.“This year, it’s going to be a little bit different for them, because Vergil is holding onto a secret that he needs to share. They’re also being joined by Vergil’s college-aged daughter, a professor with somewhat dubious motivations and a documentarian.“I’m always down for some good Bigfoot content, but this offers so much more, because it’s really a story about friendship; Jude and Virgil have carried each other through some really tough times in their lives. It‘s about the worthiness of pursuing wonder in the world, and the importance of preserving the spaces where wonder can thrive.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.If you’re going to read a book about a dark character or a difficult subject, do it on a sunny summer day, not when you’re home in the cold and dark of winter. That’s the suggestion of Angel Dobrow of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, who recommends “Fox: A Novel” by Joyce Carol Oates. We start off the novel from the point of view of Francis Fox, a charismatic middle school English teacher at an elite private school. When he’s found dead, the town sheriff suspects it’s not an accident, and he begins to peel back the layers. Fox — not his real name — is a predator. A pedophile.  The bulk of the story, though, is from the perspectives of the people connected to Fox or to the school: the plodding, intelligent sheriff; the political headmistress out to protect the reputation of her school; several of Fox’s students and their families. What struck Dobrow over and over, she said, was the quality of the writing: “It’s interesting; it’s suspenseful. You don’t really know, and until the very end, and even then, you’re not 100 percent sure. It’s not a who-dunnit. It’s just a really good survey of power and human diversity and capacity. It’s a really well-told story.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.“There are books that you can't put down. And then there are books that, even when you put them down, they just stay with you," says Katherine Nazzaro of Porter Square Books, with stores in Boston and Cambridge, Mass. The book in the latter category — which she’s still talking about months after reading — is “Sour Cherry” by Natalia Theodoridou.Nazzaro calls it an unorthodox retelling of Bluebeard. The story of Bluebeard involves a young bride who is told by her husband (Bluebeard) never to enter one room in their home. When she inevitably does enter, she finds the room is filled with the bodies of his previous dead wives. This novel takes a different tack: the novel starts with a woman, Agnes, who raises Bluebeard after the death of her child.“It sort of asks the question, who was Bluebeard before the fairy tale? You have all of these dead wives that he's collected, but somebody had to be the first dead wife. And what was life like for her before he was this fairy tale monster?”Trigger warning: domestic violence is a main theme in this novel, whose events also include the death of a child.Nazarro doesn’t classify this novel as horror. “In my opinion, as a big horror reader, it doesn't get scary enough. It never really delves into horror. But it's a sort of lyrical literary gothic fiction. I really did feel like it was like a physical presence with me while I was reading it.”

David Burton of novel, a bookstore in Memphis, Tenn., recommends his favorite book of the year so far: “The Pretender” by Jo Harkin, which he calls “historical fiction at its very best.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.Anne Holman of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, recommends the novel “Old School Indian” by Aaron John Curtis.Holman calls it a powerful coming-of-age story, when you come of age later in your life in an important way.The novel follows Abe, who, like the author, is an enrolled member of the Mohawk tribe. We first meet Abe at age 43 when he is very ill, returning to his family after having lived away for his entire adulthood. The story flashes back to Abe as a college student, falling in love with a young woman named Alex and reinventing himself to appeal to her. Holman continues, “When he gets sick and goes home, he re-discovers the power of family, and especially his Uncle Budge, who is a healer and lives really, really off the grid and and helps Abe figure out a few important things about himself.” Holman appreciates the dark humor of the book, the narrator who pops into the story to add his perspective, and the poetry interspersed within the chapters, which she calls “some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever read.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.School is out (or soon-to-be-out) across Minnesota, and that means it’s time for summer reads! But just because you bring a book to the lake, that doesn’t mean it can’t be smart as well as a fun escape. To that end, Julia Green of Front Street Books in Alpine, Texas recommends the lighthearted whodunit, “No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding” by Catherine Mack. Readers might recognize this title as the second in Mack’s Vacation Mysteries series, the first being the USA Today bestseller “Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies,” but Green says you don’t need to have read the first to dive right into the second. Mystery writer Eleanor Dash is on set to see her best friend Emma star in the movie adaptation of Dash’s first novel, after which the entire cast and crew head to a nearby island to celebrate Emma’s wedding. There is a storm on its way, and soon they are trapped on the island with a dead body. Of course, the writer of mysteries feels the need to step in to solve the case, as does the method actor who played a policeman on film. As Green tells it, “There are lots of shenanigans. It’s very funny. It’s silly, but it’s not superficial, and it’s not trivial. It’s a wonderful homage, if a little light-hearted, to Agatha Christie.”“[The book] has smart characters who don’t make idiotic mistakes. It’s not stressful. And when you pick up this book, you know that you’ve got a few peaceful, really entertaining hours ahead of you. You’re going to sit there and you're going to get sunburned because you're not going to want to get off the beach because you don't want to stop reading!”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. Sarah Jackson of The Book and Cover in Chattanooga, Tenn., says she was immediately hooked and fully delighted by Amal El-Mohtar's fantasy novella, “The River Has Roots.” Readers may recognize El-Mohtar as the sci-fi and fantasy columnist for the New York Times and as co-author of the award-winning novel “This is How You Lose the Time War.” This book is her solo debut. “I love a story that is about sisters, and I love a story that asks questions about belonging, both in terms of physical place--where do we belong? — but also to whom do we belong? Who belongs to us?” says Jackson. The two sisters, Esther and Ysabelle, sing to the trees, which filter the magic out of the river. Esther has a relationship with a Fae folk from the kingdom of Faerie, while Ysabelle falls for a mortal who distrusts the wild, untamed Faerie realm. There are darker elements to the story that reminded Jackson of Grimm tales. It’s a lyrical narrative filled with song and poetry, with a magic system built upon the transformative power of words. For another fantasy novel in which language quite literally has power: Ask a Bookseller: ‘Babel’ | MPR News 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. Lori Virelli of Harvey's Tales of Geneva, Ill., has eagerly been awaiting the release this week of Fredrik Backman’s new novel “My Friends.” The Swedish author of “A Man Called Ove,” the “Beartown” hockey series, “Anxious People” and others offers a new novel about friendship and found family. Eighteen-year-old Louisa, an aspiring painter without a lot of support in her life, is obsessed with a painting. It’s a famous seascape, but what draws her are three figures sitting on a pier in the distance. Louisa sets out on a journey to find the artist and the people in that painting. As Louisa crosses paths with people along the way, we learn their backstories. In typical Backman fashion, characters aren’t heroes or villains but complex characters who always have an opportunity to show they can do better next time. “It’s all about storytelling. Found family. People having a connection through art and through stories,” Virelli says. “And ‘your people’ don’t always look like the people you live next to or work next to. It’s just a lovely, redemptive story of how people find each other.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.  Has Ryan Coogler’s recently released horror film “Sinners” got you in the mood for more vampire books? Ben Mayne of Tattered Cover Book Store in Littleton, Colo., recommends “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter” by Stephen Graham Jones. Mayne says the book gives “Interview with a Vampire” vibes. The vampire is a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, and the tale he confesses to a pastor in 1912 is one of revenge. The story shifts between the pastor’s journal entries and a modern reader discovering them."Throughout the story, you kind of side with him a little bit, and then you hate him again, and then you kind of realize that he might not be the bad guy in this conversation that they're having,” Mayne says. “It's super emotional, terrifying.“Steven — he teaches here in Boulder— ties a lot of his Native roots into his storytelling. So he mixes a lot of lore into it and makes his own very creepy, disturbing creature.” This is one of the rare cases where works by the same author have been recommended on Ask a Bookseller over our nine-year history. Check out this recommendation from 2021 for more: Ask a Bookseller: A love letter to horror films | MPR News

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. Participating indie bookstores across Minnesota and the country will offer special events or deals. We celebrate with particular gusto in the Twin Cities metro, where this year, 37 bookstores are participating in the Independent Bookstore Passport created by Rain Taxi.Pick up your passport and get it stamped at any participating bookstore through Sunday. Each stamp is a future coupon at that store, and with 10 or more stamps, you can unlock additional discounts and chances to win prizes. Not sure what to read with all those discounts? Check out the Ask a Bookseller podcast for inspiration. This week, Victoria Ford of Comma, a bookshop in Minneapolis, recommends a historical fiction novel with a dose of magical realism. It’s Karen Russell’s “The Antidote.” The novel follows five characters living in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Our title character is a prairie witch who calls herself “The Antidote.” Her service? Taking away the painful memories that people wish to forget and storing them for later retrieval, allowing people to go about their lives unburdened by past hurts. The responsibility of memory — and what we lose when we forget — are key themes in the book. We also follow a government photographer who comes to take pictures of the Dust Bowl and discovers that her camera can capture images from the past as well as potential futures of the land. Meanwhile, a farmer who came to the U.S. after being driven from his land in Poland struggles with the realization that he is a part of that same crime happening to Native Americans in this country. The other characters are the farmer’s niece and ... A scarecrow.  Curious? Me, too. Happy Indie Bookstore Day. Note: MPR News host Kerri Miller interviewed author Karen Russell for “Big Books & Bold Ideas”; the episode will air May 23.

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. We finish up our Books of Hope series with a sweeping novel that interconnects lives across time through a single drop of water. The book is “There Are Rivers in the Sky” by award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.  Meghan Hayden of River Bend Bookshop in Glastonbury and West Hartford, Conn., says she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it: “It just captivates you from the very start as a raindrop falls on the head of an ancient king of Mesopotamia, and he’s contemplating his vast library. And there’s a particular poem that he has on a blue tablet that is the prize possession in his gigantic library. And we follow this poem, which is lost to time. We follow this raindrop through other characters, as we move from Victorian England to modern-day Syria and Iran, back to modern-day London. It’s vast and sweeping, but also incredibly intimate. The themes of this book are really around the politics of water, water scarcity, how water is both a life giver and an incredibly destructive force, and how we are all intimately connected by water. You’ll learn a ton about how rivers and oceans work, how water circles the globe, but all in very personal stories of people’s lives who are revolving around two mighty rivers, the River Thames and the River Tigris. It really leaves you on a very hopeful note for our own future, as we are reminded that we are all so deeply connected. At this moment, we have an opportunity to look back at our shared history and avoid living some of the same difficult stories over and over. I felt really inspired by the end of this book.”— Meghan Hayden 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. When asked for a recommendation for our ongoing Books of Hope series, China Reevers of Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Mont., turned to a book on her shelf that she’s gifted many times: Cole Arthur Riley’s “Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human.” “I think it is just a beautiful text that is so rich.” Reevers, who was raised Catholic but now describes herself as spiritual, describes this genre-blended collection as one that you can read in any order, choosing the selections that speak to and nourish you. The book includes snippets of poetry from well-known writers as well as Bible selections paired with Riley’s poetry, meditations, and breathing exercises, with room for reflection for readers. The first half of the book has chapters with universal themes, including love, fear, doubt and hope, while the second half reflects on specific holidays, including Juneteenth and the Christian season of Lent.  Reevers says Riley writes from their Black queer experience in an open-hearted way that encourages connection. Reevers' favorite chapter right now is about wonder: “It starts with snippets of words from Octavia Butler and then Elizabeth Alexander, followed by a letter that the author is writing about what they’re experiencing in their day and finding wonder in the mundane, just watching a grandfather and a child try to find fly a kite.“And then after that, there is a bit of poetry, and then these different prayers. I think these are all very open to interpretation. There’s prayer for finding beauty in the mundane, a prayer for marveling at your own face, a prayer for stargazing... “I think often when reading things, you get to pick and choose. You get to read something that you may not think is completely for you, but you find that it is for you in the bits and pieces that you get to connect with and you get to find grounding in.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. This week, as our series on books of hope and connection continues, Laynee Wessel with Bliss Books & Bindery in Stillwater, Okla., recommended a memoir about our ties to the natural world. The book is “We Will be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People” by Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson. Nemonte Nenquimo is a climate activist who lives in the Amazon region in Equador. A leader of the Waorani people, she made the list of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2020. Her memoir describes her growth as an activist and centers on an international movement by Indigenous nations in the Amazon that succeeded in protecting over half a million acres of rainforest from oil and logging companies. Nenquimo’s co-author is her husband, Mitch Anderson; the two co-founded the nonprofit Amazon Frontlines. Wessel recommends the book for fans of “I, Rigoberta Menchú.” She says this memoir, with its poetic translation by Anderson, is narrative in style and rooted in Indigenous oral tradition.

Ask a Bookseller is focusing this season on books of hope and connection. Asked to recommend a book of hope, Beth Rusk of Magers & Quinn Booksellers went straight to the novels of TJ Klune.  “Under the Whispering Door” is one of her favorites. It’s a cozy fantasy set in a tea shop, which also happens to be a waystation for the dead. When Wallace, a successful lawyer, dies of a heart attack, he tries unsuccessfully to negotiate his way out of what he views as an unpleasant turn of events. He finds himself at Charon’s Crossing, where its owner Hugo, is tasked with anchoring Wallace to this world until he is ready to go through the Whispering Door to what lies beyond. Wallace, it turns out, has a lot to learn about how to live, even if he doesn’t get a start until after he’s already died. What follows is a charming, funny, gentle romance complete with a memorable cast of characters, including Wallace’s punk rock Reaper Mei, who is working her first case; and Hugo’s grandfather and dog — both ghosts, but very full of life. “He is one of the best queer science fiction/fantasy writers I've ever read,” said Rusk, who also adds science fiction writer Becky Chambers to that list.  Klune rose to national attention during the pandemic with his bestselling fantasy novel “House in the Cerulean Sea,” about a health inspector who finds color in his gray, bureaucratic life when he’s assigned to assess an orphanage of particularly powerful magical children. That novel and its recent sequel “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” also fall under the banner of books that make readers feel hopeful about the world. 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. As we continue our focus on books of hope and connection, Lori Virelli of Harvey’s Tales in Geneva, Ill., wanted to recommend Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel “Dream Count.”It’s Adichie’s first novel in over 10 years. Virelli called it “a beautifully written book about lovely, flawed characters.”The novel moves among the points of view of four female protagonists, most of whom have a connection to Nigeria. It’s largely set around Washington, D.C., during the pandemic, at a time that invites the characters to take stock of their lives. Key in the story is the power of female friendships.Adichie is not one to shy away from hard-hitting events in her novels, which include “Americanah” and “Half of a Yellow Sun.” In “Dream Count,” one of the women experiences an assault. And without giving any more way, Virelli said the events set the table for conversations about privilege and “who is owed justice in the world and who is not.”“There’s also some lovely themes about just sort of hitting those middle aged years and appreciating the love that you’ve seen in your life.”As for what qualifies it as a book of hope, Virelli said, “Hopeful for me is not always wrapped up in a pretty little bow. Hopeful for me is seeing depth in relationship and knowing that you have people to count on in your life, and, you know, looking at your own insecurities and how you face the world knowing what you're going into.”