In this week’s Ask a Bookseller, Beth Leonard of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Maine recommends the short story collection “Night of the Living Rez” by Morgan Talty, an author from Maine and a Penobscot Nation citizen.The book is set in a Native community in Maine and follows characters through 12 interconnected short stories, which Leonard said reads more like a novel. “The book really deals with issues of poverty, racism and, is quite moving and surprisingly funny,” Leonard said. She says it’s Talty’s mix of serious topics and gallows humor that has her recommending the book to her customers. “I tell them not to expect, you know, something, lighthearted and frivolous. That it has very dark and serious moments, but it also has, what I think they describe on the back of the book as searing humor,” Leonard said. “It's very moving and worth reading.”

Shane Grebel of Watermark Books & Café in Wichita, Kan., says his favorite book of the year is the novel “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride. With the successes of his previous books, including National Book Award winner “The Good Lord Bird,” “The Color of Water,” and “Deacon King Kong,” it's no surprise that McBride's newest novel debuted in August as an instant New York Times Bestseller. McBride says the book is worth the hype. The novel opens in 1972 with a body discovered at the bottom of a well. Who is it, and how did it get there? The answers to these well-kept town secrets take us back to the 1920s. There in the outskirts of Pottstown, Penn., in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill, African American and recent Jewish immigrant communities live and work together. Everyone in the neighborhood goes to the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, whose owner, Chona, has a soft spot for children. In particular, she's determined to protect a deaf boy named Dodo. The state wants to see Dodo in an institution. Dodo's Black and Jewish neighbors must work together to try to rescue him from the sanitorium. Meanwhile, the questions raised by the body in the well remain.“At the end of the day,” says Grebel, the author's “underlying belief in the good of humanity and his incredible way that he has of humanizing these difficult issues of race and class and gender and disability and religion come just shining through this lyrical prose that James is just a master of delivering.”

Part of the fun of talking with indie booksellers from across the country is hearing about long-standing local favorites. That was the case with this recommendation from Tori Weaver of Rainy Retreat Books in Juneau, AK. Tori recommends the memoir "The Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship and Discovery in the Alaskan Wild," by Lynn Schooler.“It's a local favorite,” Weaver said. “He is a southeast Alaska writer and he is a very, very kind man, he does lots of events in town whenever he's in town. He does tour guiding in the bush country for photographers to take pictures and he does all kinds of tours for people.”Schooler’s memoir is about his friendship with Japanese photographer Michio Hoshino, and their shared passion for finding the elusive glacier bear, a rarely seen animal. But Hoshino dies in a bear attack before they are able to find the bear. “It's just a really, really sweet tribute to really awesome man who died doing what he loved,” Weaver said.

We wrap up our month-long focus on books for kids and teens with a Young Adult (YA) novel set in Minnesota, recommended by a Minnesota bookstore. Mary Taris of Strive Publishing and Bookstore in Minneapolis loved the intimate look at family dynamics in Ari Tison's novel “Saints of the Household.”Written in poetry and vignettes, the narrative moves back and forth between the points of view of two brothers. Max and Jay are close: eleven months apart, they are both seniors in high school. There's abuse at home that's gone on for years, ever since their father lost his job. The brothers don't speak of this, even among themselves, but its toll on their lives become clear when they get into a fight at school. They are defending their cousin, but they end up seriously injuring another student. As they face the consequences of their actions and search for a way forward, their grandfather and their indigenous Costa Rican roots play an important role in this coming-of-age novel.

All this month on Ask a Bookseller, we're featured books for kids and teens — and the grown — ups who love to read with them. This week's book is a “phenomenal read-aloud,” according to Jessica Palacios of Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose, Calif. It's the picture book “Bathe the Cat,” written by Minneapolis-born author Alice B. McGinty and illustrated by David Roberts.Palacios says the book's bright illustrations, word play, and silly antics make it a go-to book. (Once Upon a Time has a bookstore cat, and, yes, she did read this book aloud at its annual birthday party.)In this story, a family is rushing to clean the house before Grandma arrives for a visit. The chores are all listed with magnetic tiles on the fridge, but the cat, who most definitely does not want to take a bath, keeps scrambling the words, leading to such fun lines as, “Sarah, scrub the lawn! Dad, you feed the mat! Bobby, sweep the baby! I'll vacuum the cat!”David Roberts, known for illustrating the series with “Ada Twist, Scientist” and “Rosie Revere, Engineer,” illustrates the story with bold, bright colors. One of the children, Sarah, wears a yellow dinosaur outfit throughout her chores. (Because why not?)

All this month, we're featuring books for kids and teens here on “Ask a Bookseller.” This week's recommendation from Anna Hersh of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis falls right in the middle of the kid-lit span. It's a middle grade novel aimed at kids aged 8 to 12. Anna says Robin Gow's novel-in-verse “Dear Mothman” has taken her staff by storm.The story follows Noah Romano, an autistic, transgender sixth grader grappling with the death of his best friend. As he grieves, Noah begins writing letters to Mothman, the local urban legend in their Pennsylvania coal mining town. ‘Noah doesn't believe the cryptid Mothman exists, but his best friend did, and that's enough reason for Noah to making finding proof of Mothman's existence the subject of his science project. Hersh says the fun, imaginary-or-not monster strikes a nice balancing note in this beautiful novel about grief and coming-of-age.Over the course of writing these letters, Noah finds a new group of friends who support him on his journey of embracing himself as trans. We also see Noah's family circle and teachers come to accept him as well.“It's just the most beautiful book,” says Hersh, “and one of those things that we kind of put into everybody's hands.”

This month on Ask a Bookseller, we'll be celebrating the start of school by featuring books for kids and teens. Melissa DeMotte of the Well-Read Moose in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, says a brand-new picture book she loves on her bookstore's “Back to School” table is the “The Wild Guide to Starting School,” by Laura and Philip Bunting.This silly picture book outlines all the steps a wild animal might need to prepare for and thrive on the first day of school, from packing school supplies to meeting teacher and making friends. DeMotte says this book is great for young kids who might be nervous about the big first day. They can laugh along with the cute, colorful illustrations of kangaroos, anteaters and more who get things wrong as often as right as they set out for a great first day of school.

Julian Karhumaa of Farley’s Bookshop in New Hope, Pa., said he’s still thinking about Catherine Raven’s memoir “Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship.”Having newly finished her PhD in biology, Catherine Raven finds herself living in the woods of Montana, generally removed from other people and uncertain about her next step. As she observes the natural world around her, she notices that a fox comes around at precisely the same time each afternoon.“How do you befriend a fox?” she wonders. She takes to sitting outside, as near to the fox as she dares, and reading to it from “The Little Prince,” which includes the story of a fox who asks the little prince to tame him. Raven comes to consider her fox a friend.Karhumaa said “Fox and I” is a beautifully written meditation on our human relationship with nature, and their relationship with us, life and death.“It was one of those books that sort of stays with you and makes you think,” said Karhumaa.

Alden Graves of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt., says he generally avoids books about animals, but he's glad he made an exception for Geraldine Brooks’ novel ‘Horse.’The latest work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is a sweeping novel about horse racing — and racism — spanning from the 1850s to today. The novel is based on a real horse, Livingston, who is considered to be America's greatest racing horse, but the book’s human characters and their complex grappling with race are equally memorable.’"Until the ‘Horse,’ I’d always pick a ‘Year of Wonders’ as my favorite Geraldine Brooks book,” says Graves, “but this this one has taken this place.”The novel begins in 2019, when a Nigerian-American art history student who is struggling with his thesis topic picks up a dirt-stained picture of a horse from a pile of junk on the street. As he seeks to learn more about the painting, he comes in contact with an Australian scientist at the Smithsonian, who uncovers Lexington's mounted skeleton gathering dust in an attic. They seek to piece together the history of the horse and the people around him who weren't included in the history books.Meanwhile, in the 1850s, an enslaved boy named Jarrett is charged with raising a special foal in Kentucky. His father, a freed Black man, is a skilled horse trainer and former jockey who teaches his son all he knows while he saves up in hopes of buying Jarrett's freedom. Jarrett's bond and skill with Lexington are undeniable, yet Jarrett faces a world that would deny him ownership over his own life.Weaving through time, with an additional stop at the 1950s New York arts scene, “Horse” is a “thrilling historical novel” that Graves highly recommends.

Matt Nixon of A Capella Books in Atlanta, Ga., has been eagerly awaiting publication of Colin Walsh's debut novel “Kala,” which he says is both an intricate character study and rip-roaring thriller.Set in a seaside Irish tourist town, the novel follows a group of friends at two moments in their life. In 2003, during their teenage years, one of the friends —Kala — disappears. Fifteen years later, the remaining group reluctantly reunites again, back in the same town. Moving among the points of view of three main characters, the novel explores how each of them has changed and been formed by Kala's mysterious disappearance, and by the secrets they still carry.“They're just such incredibly well drawn compelling characters that you really come to come to love and care about,” says Nixon. “And then the thing that really elevates this book is that you also there's just such emotional smarts and acuity into how the author had portrays these relationships and how their personal traumas and the shared experience sort of plays off one another.”As new information comes to light, the pace of the novel builds to a climax that Nixon says makes the book hard to put down.

Melodie Edwards of Night Heron Books & Coffeehouse of Laramie Wyo., recommends “Less” by Andrew Sean Gree, where the protagonist flees a broken heart — and travels the world — by accepting every conference and literary event invitation he can pull together.

This week, I spoke with Kathy Burnette of Brain Lair Books, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary in South Bend, Ind. Kathy recommended the novel “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which she described as being a bit like "Hunger Games," but with adult prisoners instead of teenagers. In a dystopian future America, prisoners on a chain gang compete in a circuit of gladiatorial fights-to-the-death, with the hopes of winning their freedom. They serve at CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment), a profit-driven, privatized prison system that draws protesters as well as crowds of fans to its matches. Loretta and her partner, Staxx, are fan favorites, and Loretta is only a few matches away from winning her freedom--provided that the rules don't change. After all, what incentive does CAPE have to release its profitable players?“It's thrilling, it's fast paced, and the ending is like, you just want to throw your hands up and throw the book across the room because you can't believe what happened,” says Burnette.The novel weaves in the voices of three main competing teams, as well as the game host and the behind-the-scenes designers of the prison games. As we follow the action and root for favorite characters, we learn how each person came to be incarcerated.  Adjei-Brenyah deftly incorporates facts about prison, inviting readers to take a closer, empathetic look at America's prison system.Burnette, a former educator and librarian, just celebrated the fifth anniversary of Brain Lair (an anagram of librarian). Her store specializes in BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabilities, with a heavy focus on books for kids. "Chain-Gang All-Stars," though, is written for adults.

Claire Bone is one half of the sister pair who own Wild Sisters Book Company in Sacramento, Calif. She recommends the novel “For Her Consideration” by Amy Spalding.“If the Golden Girls were 30-something lesbians living in Los Angeles, this is that book,” said Bone.The main character is Nina, an aspiring screenwriter in LA who has experienced a devastating breakup. She decides to leave LA and moves out to the suburbs with her wonderful, eccentric aunt. She spends the next three years hiding from her old life in LA. “Enter Ari. She's a heartthrob, superstar actress up and coming, amazing. She's supposed to be like this difficult starlet to work for,” Bone said. The book is Nina’s journey to rediscovering love.“I laughed, I cried. I really loved this book,” Bone said. “It is a love story. But like what really, really got me about this book is it's a friendship story.”

Aden Evosirch of the Winchester Book Gallery in Winchester, Va., recommends “On the Savage Side,” by Tiffany McDaniel. It is based on a true unsolved murder case in rural Ohio where six women, known as the Chillicothe Six, disappeared from the area in 2014 and 2015. Four were later found dead. McDaniel's novel creates twin sisters, sex workers named Arcade and Daffodil, who see their friends go missing and find their bodies washed up by the river.Evosirch says the book has elements of a thriller, but at its heart, it's a literary novel, where both the river and the town of Chillicothe feel like characters.The novel “hones in on the interaction between these two twins and what it would be like to feel like you might go missing at any moment and no one would care,” says Evosirch.Still, this is a story deals with violence and other heavy subjects, as the name indicates. We follow the twins from a childhood of abuse and poverty, raised by a mother who is a sex worker and heroine addict. It's a story about generational trauma and quiet acts of resistance, about the value and humanity of women who don't fit the kind of victim profile that triggers community-wide searches when they disappear.

Andrea King of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, Mo., recommends the nonfiction read “The Racism of People Who Love You: Essays on Mixed Race Belonging” by Samira K. Mehta. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, with a dash of theory, these essays draw on Mehta's experience growing up with one white and one South Asian parent.“I really loved this book,” said King. “It kind of put into words a lot of experiences, thoughts and feelings that I've had being a biracial person, [that I] didn't really know how to articulate or didn't really know if they were like, valid. So it made me feel really seen and then also kind of, like, analyze my close relationships with people.”King says that Mehta's essays are a valuable conversation starter that thread a difficult line: they examine complicated issues with understanding and generosity, aimed at growing continued relationships with loved ones.“I'm not going to say that it's an easy read," added King. "I will say that it's a read that's really thought provoking. And I think [it's] really important, if people seek to either feel seen by this book or want to have more insight [in]to what it feels like for their family and friends to make up a biracial identity.”

It's one thing to enjoy a book; it's another to sell it to others. The book that Matt Nixon of A Cappella Books in Atlanta, Ga., has loved selling to his customers for the past few months has been Meg Howrey's novel “They're Going to Love You.”“It's just the most emotionally honest and well-observed [book], and when I was done with it, I wanted to hug it,” Nixon declares.The book follows Carlisle through two timelines, some 20 years apart. As a child, Carlisle lives with her mother, a former ballet dancer in the Balanchine Company, but she loves the few weeks a year she gets to spend with her father and his partner, James, in New York City.Carlisle dreams of being a ballerina, and she sees New York as a magical place of art and dance. The book vividly paints the 1980s arts scene just as the devastating AIDS crisis begins to take hold.Flash forward to the book's present, when Carlisle receives a call from James that her father is dying. The two have not spoken in nearly 20 years. The beating heart of the novel, Nixon says, is the betrayal that caused the father-daughter rift.“You really start to wonder: What is this betrayal? How could this possibly be that this wonderful relationship [could reach a point where] they no longer talk?” narrates Nixon. “It's one of those remarkable books where, you know, you're reading [and] you're reading, and then you realize what the betrayal is. And I literally gasped.”

Part of the fun of talking with independent bookstores is hearing about great books from smaller, independent presses. Today's recommendation combines both. Tom Nissley of Phinney Books in Seattle recommends the novella “The English Understand Wool” by Helen DeWitt. It's part of a series put out by New Directions publishing called Storybook ND. These slim, hardcover books for adults are reminiscent of the classic children's series, Golden Books.“The English Understand Wool” is a “deliciously designed story that doesn't go where you expect it to in a short period of time,” says Nissley.The title is the first and last line of the novella, which follows a 17-year-old girl whose mother has raised her to very exacting standards of culture. The English understand wool, the girl is told; the French understand wine and cheese, etc. Phinney says that when the rug is pulled out from under her during annual Ramadan travels, she turns out to be very capable of using that high standard of behavior to her own benefit.Part publishing satire, part amorality play, Nissley says “The English Understand Wool” was one of the rare books that everyone at the store read: “We all loved it. My wife loved it and made our kids read it. It's the kind of book we love putting in people's hands.”

This week's recommendation comes from Emi Lim Morison of Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Mo. Morison says one of her favorite novels of the year is “Wandering Souls” by Cecille Pin. It's a work of literary fiction that follows a girl and her two younger brothers who flee Vietnam after the war and eventually resettle in the UK. The perspective shifts beyond the confines of the three siblings, stretching to include the American military as well as a third brother who does not survive the journey. It’s a story that explores what we owe our family and what they owe us. Stitching it all together is an unnamed narrator whose voice makes the story come alive, says Morison, and also makes the reader think about who is constructing the narrative."It's a short read, but it's quite impactful," says Morison. "I actually read it in a day, then picked it up and started reading it over again because it was still running through my mind."Many of the reviewers emphasize the ghost element of the novel or label is "genre-defying," but in our conversation, Morison pushed back against such labels. "I am a woman of color and I read mostly BIPOC authors," says Morison, "and I find that that language is often attributed to stories of people from non-Western backgrounds. When other cultures' truth systems don't perfectly align with that western standard of knowing, it's [labeled as] genre-defying: it's magic, it's a little fantastical; but I like to think of it as a reality, an epistemology that's just as strong and valid."

Amy Erickson of Bluebird Bookshop in Detroit Lakes, Minn., recommended a novel that she called “very much an up-north book.” She loved J. Ryan Stradal's “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.” She says it's a story about relationships and how people measure success, set against a backdrop of relish trays, steak, and grasshoppers for dessert.Author J. Ryan Stradal spoke with All Things considered host Tom Crann on Wednesday for "Appetites."

Shelby Devitt of BookPeople in Austin, Texas recommends a contemporary fantasy YA novel, “Blood Debts” by Terry J. Benton-Walker. “It’s a doorstopper of a YA,” says Devitt of the debut. She loves the way the author weaves familial and political intrigue together in this engaging tale. It’s a wide-ranging story that navigates layers of tensions — racial, religious and magical vs. non-magical. Add to that a system of generational magic and a dash of romance, and Devitt was hooked.Sixteen-year-old twins Clement and Cristina Trudeau come from a powerful magical family in New Orleans. But with that power come a complicated history: 30 years ago, their grandparents were lynched for a crime they may or may not have committed. Now other members of their family are the targets of powerful magical hexes. Someone, it seems, is trying to finish their family off. The twins must work together to investigate decades-olds secrets before far more deaths occur that will affect not only their lives, but the city of New Orleans.

Josh Hames opened his bookstore Other Skies Weird Fiction in West St. Paul in 2022 just in time for Halloween. The store sells high-quality editions of horror, science fiction, and weird fiction. He's since discovered a wonderful community of readers and writers, including his recommendation for Ask a Bookseller this week. Hames recommends local writer Jacqueline Holland, new novel, "The God of Endings." It's an unconventional vampire story, Hames says, that's a "genuinely felt human tale as much as it is inhuman."The story of the vampire protagonist, Anna, spans more than 100 years from 1883 to 1984. Hames was drawn to the way Anna navigates the moral and ethical nature of her strange existence. For an ageless being with a parasitizing existence, every interaction is transitory: mortals will always fade away faster than she does. Jump ahead to 1984, and we find Anna teaching preschoolers at an elite French language school in upstate New York. Teaching allows Anna the close human connection she craves while having a natural ending built in: the students move on to the next grade. (No preschoolers are harmed in this story!)That said, this novel is "definitely horror," says Hames, and Anna is more than capable of flexing her inhuman, vampire side. "She's such a well realized character in that way, where you totally believe that she would be right up there with you know, someone in like a movie like "Lost Boys" or "Near Dark," where they're capable of that kind level of carnage,” he said. Other Skies Weird Fiction will host a conversation with Jacqueline Holland, along with author Tylor James, this Sunday, April 23 at 5 pm. 

We couldn't get through National Poetry Month without featuring the works of at least one poet on Ask a Bookseller, and this week Evelyn Bauer of Papercuts Bookshop in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Mass., supplied the recommendation. Bauer recommends “The Poetics of Wrongness” by poet Rachel Zucker. The book is a series of lectures adapted and expanded for the page. Don't be turned off by the word “lecture,” Bauer says, think of it as essays written to be spoken aloud to engage an audience.Zucker engages with the idea of wrongness in a number of ways, from the practical — the ways her teenage children correct her — to the societal. She explores the work of other poets who are pushing the bounds with their work, despite the risk of being told they're doing it wrong. She delves into the work of Sharon Olds,  Bernadette Mayer, Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde and others. In the process, she challenges outdated paradigms of motherhood, feminism and poetics.Bauer says the book reads like a Kate Zambreno novel, and it's shaped some of the ways she reads and thinks about poetry.

Alicia Michielli of Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo, New York recommends the novel “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver. The novel is a fairly direct retelling of “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens, set in the 1980s in Appalachia — familiar territory for rural Kentucky-born Kingsolver. “In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story,” the summary of the book reads on the HarperCollins website. “‘Demon Copperhead’ speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.”The story follows red-headed Damon, nicknamed Demon Copperhead. Raised at first by a loving, addict mother and abusive stepfather, he soon finds himself journeying through the foster system.If you haven't read the Dicken classic, don't let that stop you. Michielli says this tale of a boy's fortunes and misfortunes translate beautifully under Kingsolver's pen.“She's able to write sentences that are short and they're concise, but they break your heart,” raves Michielli. “There's never over-description. She just manages to get to the heart of the way things feel. Just like an arrow.”

Kate Schlademan of the Learned Owl Bookshop in Hudson, Ohio, says the novel she recently couldn't put down was Michael Bennett's “Better the Blood.” It's a fast-paced thriller that delves into longstanding injustices against the Māori people in New Zealand.Bennett is of Māori descent, as is his protagonist, Auckland detective Hana Westerman. Hana follows the trail to a disturbing murder: a ritualist hanging whose motivation point toward the past. When a second, seemingly unrelated, murder crosses her path, Hana pieces together that the murders are utu, the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. Soon she is delving into history and racing against time, trying to trace the bloodlines of those who committed the original crime to figure out who the next victim could be. Westerman balances her work with life as a single mom, raising a daughter who, herself, is trying to figure out her place in the world and her connection with her heritage. Schlademan enjoyed learning about New Zealand history and Indigenous land rights within the sweep of the page-turning mystery.

Ashley Valentine is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Rooted MKE, her BIPOC children's bookstore and academic support center in Milwaukee, Wis., and she's done it while caring for her two children under age 5. She singled out the picture book "You Be Mommy" as one where she sees her own journey reflected.Written by Karla Clark, "You Be Mommy" shows a busy mother of three who comes home from her tech job and taps into mom-mode: driving to soccer practice, making dinner to her three kids' taste specifications, washing the dog, etc. In this story, she offers one of her daughters the chance to be mommy for the night. The daughter is delighted to take on this role and to read her mom a bedtime story. But, come bedtime, the daughter is worn out, so her mommy gets out of bed and tucks her in so she can fall asleep.“My four-year-old can articulate, “Oh, this mommy's doing a lot. This mommy looks really tired,’” Valentine says. “I hope that is planting a little seed for him so that he, too, can see that Mommy's doing a lot. So if there's opportunities for you to help out, that's really amazing and really helpful. And then when you get tired, I can take over and be mommy again.”Valentine enjoys Zoe Persico's calming pictures in a cozy home filled with plants, adding, “It was really refreshing to me to see brown characters in the book as well. Seeing a family that looks similar to my own family made it even that much more relatable for me.” 

The novel that Emily Bennett has been recommending to her customers at Sundance Books and Music in Reno, Nevada is "Here Goes Nothing" by Steve Toltz. As Bennett describes it, the story has whispers of the 1990 film "Ghost" and the NBC comedy "The Good Place," rolled up in an original and humorous tale.The novel's protagonist, Angus, has led a crooked path. He seems to be getting his life back together — he's married with a child on the way — when he is murdered by a man who has been living in their house. Angus heads to the afterlife, which he finds sorely disappointing. Those who have been in the afterlife longest have better privileges, Angus is expected to work, and a pandemic on earth is leading to crowding in the here-after. (The pandemic, Bennett says, is not COVID-19, and its presence in the book did not feel burdensome to her as a COVID-weary reader.)Meanwhile, Angus's wife is falling in love — unknowingly — with his murderer, prompting Angus to look for a way to reconnect and seek revenge. The novel takes places in the points of view of both Angus and his wife, and each has information the other can't access.“I know this all sounds very bleak and depressing. But it's actually one of the funniest books I've read,” says Bennett. “It's philosophical and funny. It's romantic, and it's repulsive. I've been recommending it to everyone.”

In the week that included International Women's Day, it felt right to focus on a book that centers on a mother-daughter relationship. The recommendation comes from Shannon Daniels of Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich., who says Jessica Au's novel "Cold Enough for Snow" was her top staff pick this year. The novel is partly a travel story, as we follow a mother and daughter who decide to visit Japan as a way of strengthening their relationship. The daughter is grown; her mother, she realizes, has become older than she remembered. Their story, Daniels said, forms the frame for what is essentially a novel of ideas about art, beauty, and relationships.One of the big questions the book asks, Daniels said, is "how it might be possible to get the great feeling that really good art gives us — outside of an artistic experience. Like, can it be found in a relationship or a place, or some other kind of transcendent experience?" Au's novel was selected from a pool of 1,500 entries worldwide as the inaugural winner of New Direction's Novel Prize in 2020, and the novel was published in 2022. Daniels said reading the novel gave her the same kind of feeling that she gets from looking at her favorite works of art, both painted and written."It's nice to read something that recalls that strangely rare feeling of transcendence."

What’s the most un-put-down-able book you’ve read recently? For Susan Kehoe of Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Del., the answer was Nikki Erlick’s debut novel “The Measure.” The premise for the story is simple: on the same day everywhere in the world, everyone over age 21 finds a box on their doorstep with a string inside. That string, as scientists soon determine, is the precise measure of how many days they have left to live. The questions and decisions those strings ignite are, understandably, complex. Some people choose not to look. A political movement forms against short-stringers, who are considered to have less to lose. Shuffling briskly among viewpoints, the novel follows eight people in the aftermath of the strings’ arrival, and Kehoe says she found herself hooked. “I literally read it in 24 hours because I had to know,” Kehoe said. She says the novel is sure to spark conversation at book groups.

An ordinary man, accidentally doused with a mysterious new substance, finds himself gaining new powers. That may sound like a superhero from Marvel or DC Comics, but it’s actually a character from Blake Crouch's Sci-Fi thriller “Upgrade.” Colby Faulkner of Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi highly recommends checking it out.Set shortly in the future, society is being ravaged by genetic crimes. Our protagonist Logan Ramsey is part of a government agency working to police these crimes when he comes in contact with this genome-editing tech. Slowly, he realizes that his newfound abilities are part of a larger plan to inflict changes on all humans — at a terrifying cost. Faulkner says his store has "Upgrade" shelved in the Science Fiction section, but with its fast-paced plot, it could easily belong with the Thrillers.“I like it because it's futuristic, but not overly futuristic,” he said. “It's not set 1,000 years from now, it's set like in an unspecified time, that seems like it could be five years from now.”

Riley Rennhack of Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, Texas is a self-proclaimed “book nerd—not an econ person,” so she was surprised by how much she enjoyed Martin Riker’s new novel “The Guest Lecture.” Its premise is simple: A feminist economist is up the night before she’s meant to give a lecture of John Maynard Keynes, and she doesn’t feel ready. She’s been recently denied tenure, and Keynes’ famous optimism feels far out of reach. As her husband and child sleep nearby; she lies awake, speaking to her own fictional version of the famed economist, arguing against his ideas and practicing for the next day’s big event.“It's just really well written and entertaining,” says Rennhack. “I found it educational, and I was laughing, which is my favorite kind of book. I weirdly couldn't put it down, and I've never said that about an economics lecture before.”

We’re solidly into January, which means many of us have had time to follow up on — or perhaps abandon — New Year’s Resolutions. At a time of year when many people resolve to do more and better, bookseller Whit Robinson of Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia recommends one of her top reads: the nonfiction book “Laziness Does Not Exist” by Dr. Devon Price. Robinson says this the book came at a perfect time in her life. As a neurodivergent person who finds social norms a challenge to navigate, she often struggled with feelings of shame and laziness in a society that expects and rewards productivity. While struggling with burnout from a past job, Robinson found the language to address these feelings by reading “Laziness Does Not Exist.” The author is a social psychologist and professor at Loyola College in Chicago, who draws from his experience as a person with autism who has experienced burnout. Robinson says the writing style of this book is accessible for all readers. 

An April 2022 book recommendation traveled full circle from Washington state bookstore back to a Minnesota author. Shannon Brown of Wishing Tree Books in Spokane recommends Nina Hamza's debut novel, "Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year." It's a middle grade title, which Brown says will appeal to readers in 5th through 8th grade.The school year for 12-year-old Ahmed Aziz has the potential to be epically awful. He is starting a new school, having moved from Hawaii to Minnesota so that his father can seek medical care for his serious, rare disease. Ahmed lands himself a bully on the first day, but he hesitates to add to his parents' worries by turning to them. His little sister seems to be getting along fine. Why can't he?"I love that the story doesn't talk down to children about the hard times they are going through," said Brown.She also appreciates that the situation starts to shift thanks to Ahmed's excellent English teacher, who assigns him three classic books: "Holes" by Louis Sachar, "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson, and "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E. L. Konigsburg. Reading isn't Ahmed's favorite thing, but he finds he connects with these books, and, what's more, the stories prove helpful on his journey through the year. Ahmed realizes that this year has the potential to be epically awesome, given the right perspective.

It only takes a few transformative poems to make an entire collection glow. For Nathan McDowell of Two Dollar Radio Headquarters — an indie bookstore and press in Columbus, Ohio — it only took until page nine for Taylor Johnson’s poetry book “Inheritance” to snag his attention and turn him into an enthusiastic supporter. The poem that McDowell loves is called “Consider the Deer,” which begins with a focus on two deer found dead on the side of the road, plays with the word “deer” (both singular and plural), and deftly builds into the plurality the poet contains within himself. If that particular example sounds macabre, McDowell begs to differ. “The strongest tension, to me, with the book,” says McDowell, “is this amazing ability that Taylor can weave in very esoteric, metaphysical, sort of spiritual concerns but also deliver them to you in very rooted language. All of these poems in the collection feel very much ‘of the body.’ There’s a lot of dancing, a lot of joy in just the physicality of life.” Many of the poems focus on trans identity and on recognizing more within oneself than first glance might reveal. Taylor McDowell is the 2022 Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum.

You don’t have to live in a small town or even like baseball to enjoy Tommy Murray’s novel, “Fathers, Sons, and the Holy Ghosts of Baseball,” says Lisa Deyo of Sweet Reads. Set in small-town Iowa in 1974, the novel focuses on three elderly baseball coaches determined to see the Holy Trinity High School team win the state baseball championship for the first time, despite the odds. The book reminded Deyo of the film “Grumpy Old Men.”  “It turned out to be one of my favorite books this year,” says Deyo. It's a town where baseball is religion. One of the coaches, a Catholic priest, makes the team prayer the rosary before practice. The characters were highly relatable, says Deyo; learning the coaches’ backstories and seeing these men in their 80s relate to their high school team kept her smiling throughout. Ask a Bookseller features bookstores all over the country, so it’s worth pointing out that this week is a Minnesota triple play of bookstore, author and publisher. The bookstore, Sweet Reads, is located Austin, Minn.—"across from the Spam Museum,” Deyo is quick to add, and it’s self-published by Shoreview author Tommy Murray through Beaver’s Pond Press in St. Paul.  

Part of the fun of connecting with independent bookstores all over the country is that we get to hear about books that are local and special to those locations. That’s the case with this week’s recommendation from Alissa Brown of “The Inner Geek” in Huntington, West Virginia. She recommends the memoir “Another Appalachia: Coming up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place” by Neema Avashia, who grew up just down the highway from The Inner Geek. “It's very nice to have something from a queer author of color come out of here so that people know Appalachia isn't just a swath of straight white rednecks,” says Brown, laughing. Further broadening the image she knows many people carry of Appalachia, it was not coal that brought Avashia’s father to move to West Virginia, but a chemical plant. The memoir is beautifully written, says Brown, in a voice that is smart and readable, and it provides a thoughtful, complex view of one part of rural America.

Natalie Sanford of Bound Booksellers and Gifts in Franklin, Tenn. recommends a WWII thriller that’s written for—but not limited to—Young Adult readers. The novel is “The Silent Unseen” by Amanda McCrina. McCrina’s historical fiction novels, which explore the relationships between Poland, Ukraine, and Russia take on a sudden timeliness during on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The Silent Unseen,” is set in Poland in 1944. A 16-year-old girl, returning from forced labor in Nazi Germany, discovers that fighting between Polish Resistance and Ukrainian nationals have left her village destroyed. Her parents have been killed, and her older brother is a member of the Polish resistance—until his disappears. Determined to find her brother, she must partner with a Ukrainian prisoner, whom she hesitates to trust. Sanford calls McCrina an “intelligent author who knows her history and has created stories for young adults to really fall in love with the characters.”

Danni Green of Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY loves to read and lift up books by small presses. She’s a big fan of the printed novella “Found Audio,” which sounds very fitting for our radio-based book series. N. J. Campbell is the book’s author, and it was published by Two Dollar Radio, a small press in Ohio. The story opens with Amrapali Anna Singh, a historian and audiologist, who receives a mysterious visitor to her Alaskan office. The man hands her three cassette tapes and asks her to determine all she can from the audio over the next 24 hours, without making copies of the tapes. But Singh does make a copy of the tapes and her analysis, which she sends to a friend in case something should happen to her. She is never seen again. The interior chapters of the novella — this book weighs in around 170 pages — contain the transcript of these curious tapes. In each, an adventurous journalist describes his search for the sublime as he visits three sites that by all accounts don’t exist. “I think it’s really great for people who like things like “House of Leaves,”” says Green. “It’s kind of a novel-within-a-novel… that’s telling you about this bizarre thing. Did it happen? Did it not happen?”Green recommends this book for people who want a creepy, but not terrifying, read. 

This week’s bookseller recommendation comes from Aubrey Roemmich of Ferguson Books & More in Grand Forks, N.D. The book she couldn’t put down was the novel, “Maps of our Spectacular Bodies” by Maddie Mortimer. It’s the story of Lia, a mother facing breast cancer, and the way it inhabits her body and affects the lives of her husband and daughter. Among the recognitions Mortimer’s novel has garnered so far this year, it was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.Part of the appeal for Roemmich came from the writing style, which alternates between prose and poetry, voiced in part by the cancer itself.“So it’s really interesting jumping between the two, because the prose and the verse, they complement each other very, very well, but it’s different styles of writing,” she says. “It’s truly marvelous.”

Gwen Danfelt of Drury Lane Books in Grand Marais, Minn. recommends reading “The Cultural Toolbox: Traditional Ojibwe Living in the Modern World” by Anton Treuer. The book was selected as a community read in Cook County in November. Treuer is a Professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, as well as a prolific author and speaker. This, his latest book, is partly a memoir, filled with stories and photos of Treuer’s journey to connect with his Ojibwe culture; and partly, as the title suggests, it’s a cultural toolbox. The book is organized by the four seasons, beginning with the new life of spring and progressing through to winter and elderhood. Its foremost audience is Ojibwe people hungering to connect with their history, language, and heritage. Danfelt calls it “an enjoyable read…full of fascinating information.” As a non-native who grew up on the North Shore, Danfelt says she picked up the book because she wanted to get to know her Ojibwe neighbors better. "I think it is just something that anyone could pick up and appreciate," she says. She looks forward to the conversations that arise as a community read next month.

Mallory Melton of BookPeople in Austin, Texas recommends a memoir about friendship and grief by New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, titled “Stay True.” 18-year-old Hsu, son of Taiwanese immigrants, loves ‘zines and record shops and declaring his own style. In college, he’s put off at first by Ken, a Japanese-American frat member whose tastes in music and fashion Hsu finds to be decidedly mainstream. Yet they form a friendship that feels both unique and universal. Ken is killed in a carjacking while in college, and Melton admires the honest, raw way the author confronts his grief and stays true to his friend’s memory. She listened to the audio book, narrated by Hsu, which had her bawling in her living room—then rushing to recommend it to others.NPR’s Scott Simon recently interviewed Hua Hsu about the memoir and the nature of grief.

This week, Riley Rennhack of Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, Texas recommends Ann Carson’s classic nonfiction work “Eros, the Bittersweet,” which was republished this summer by Dalkey Archive Press. The book explores the idea that love is bittersweet and that desire is not about having, but wanting. This, Carson says, is the source of poetry. Reworked from Carson’s 1981 PhD thesis, “Eros, the Bittersweet” is a thought-provoking look at eros and desire stemming back to the ancient Greeks that still feels relevant today.“If you’re heartbroken, or have ever been heartbroken, and you want new language for it, that’s what this book feels like to me,” says Rennhack. 

All September, Ask a Bookseller has featured recommendations for kids, and we wrap up this series with a picture book to get you ready for October.“A Spoonful of Frogs” was written by Casey Lyall and illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Vera Brosgol. Angela Whited says she’s already read this book at story time at Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, and the book was a hit with listeners of all ages. The story is about a witch who is hosting a cooking show called “Bewitching Kitchen,” and today, she’s teaching everyone to make every witch’s favorite recipe: frog soup. Unfortunately, one of the key ingredients simply will not cooperate when she tries to put it in the pot. Whited calls the book “comedy gold” that is fun to read any time of year. The witch’s big emotions and the vivid, high-contrast illustrations make this a great read-aloud book.  

Jennifer Murvin of Pagination Bookshop in Springfield, Missouri loves the YA graphic novel "American Born Chinese" by prolific cartoonist Gene Luen Yang. It was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award back in 2006, and just this week Disney released a first look at an 8-episode series based on the novel, starring Michelle Yeoh, among other big-name actors. The series will be available on Disney+ in 2023.The novel has three plotlines that interconnect in creative ways. One is about a boy named Jin Wang, the son of Chinese immigrants, trying to navigate a largely white school in the suburbs of San Franscisco. The second is about a boy named Danny whose life seems perfect, except for the presence of his obnoxious Chinese cousin who continues to insert himself into Danny's life; and the third is about the mythical Monkey King. Murvin loves the magical realism of this book and says that every time she rereads it, she spots something new.

Think about it: how often do you find a book that has both magical creatures and modern technology? Hannah Amrollahi of The Bookworm in Omaha, Nebraska, has a theory that for kids who've grown up around cell phones and laptops, the presence of technology in a story makes the world seem familiar, even if that world happens to include mermaids, yetis and weredragons. That's part of what she loves about the middle grade novel "Amari and the Night Brothers" and its newly-released sequel, "Amari and the Great Game," by B. B. Alston.In the interest of avoiding spoilers, let's focus on the first book. 13 year-old Amari's big brother has gone missing from his prestigious boarding school, and she wants nothing more than to find him. What she finds, though, is a ticking briefcase in her brother's closet, and a special nomination from him to try out for the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Here, students train to encounter magical and alien species. Amari turns out to have a real talent for magic. Can she use it to find her brother?What follows is a story that's "Men in Black" meets "Artemis Fowl" in a magical boarding school setting. Amrollahi says that readers who love the "Wings of Fire" and Harry Potter series will want to dive into this one

All this month, to celebrate the start of school, Ask a Bookseller will focus on great reads for kids and teens.Sara Groves of Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, recommends "The Civil War of Amos Abernathy," a middle grades novel by debut author Michael Leali.Here's the story: 13-year-old Amos is a volunteer at a living history museum, but lately he's noticed that he and his friends aren't reflected in the 19th century life their sharing with others. Amos is gay, his friend Chloe is Black, and his crush, Ben, is questioning his identity. Amos and his friends go looking for the stories of queer folks, Black people, and women who've been left out. He encounters the story of Albert D.J. Cashier of Illinois, who was born a woman, lived as a man, and fought in the Civil War. Amos begins writing letters to Albert as he tries to imagine himself in America's history, and he hatches a plan to share that story.Not everyone in the community is supportive of this plan, and Groves says the culminating scene was inspiring and heartwarming in a way that "just sent fireworks" through her."The book does a fantastic job of encouraging kids to ask questions about the world and giving them language to think about who writes our histories and why," says Groves.A note to parents: novels labeled as "middle grade" are generally written for readers ages 8-12. If you're unsure whether a novel is middle grade or young adult (YA), check the age of the protagonist. If she or he is 8 to 12 years old, even 13, then it's middle grade. There is no upper-age limit on who can read these great titles!

This feature was originally published on June 3, 2022.Ginger Kautz of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina recommends Joseph Han’s debut novel “Nuclear Family,” which comes out Tuesday, June 7. Kautz calls the stylistically innovative novel “part family drama, part ghost story, part coming-of-age and critique of American imperialism in the Pacific.”  The story is set in 2018, during the time leading up to the false missile alert on Hawaii. The Cho family is horrified when their older son, who is teaching English in South Korea, is caught on viral video trying to cross the demilitarized zone. What his family in Hawaii doesn’t know is that he has been possessed by the ghost of his grandfather, who is trying to reach lost family members.  The sudden infinite infamy threatens the Cho family business, which relies on the local South Korean community. It drives their daughter Grace’s recreational week use into a serious habit. Kautz was struck by the innovative structure of this novel, which includes not only multiple viewpoints but also multiple formats. The words in some places form towers and walls. Words are left off the page as Grace tries to avoid certain thoughts.  “Even though some of the topics and scenes are heavy overall, Kautz says, “it is really a very optimistic book. It's got a lot of humor in it. The love the family has for one another as much bigger than their inability to communicate effectively with each other.” 

Sarah Brown of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth recommends that fans of literary fiction, mystery, and noir search out the work of Dorothy Hughes, whose crime novels were mostly published in the 1940s and early 50s. After falling out of print, her work has seen a resurgence in recent years.Hughes published 14 crime and detective novels, and she also worked as a professional crime-fiction reviewer, so she knew her genre well. Her work teems with unreliable narrators, settings that feel like characters, and surprising plot twists--key elements of modern mysteries now. Three of Hughes' novels were made into films: "In a Lonely Place" starring Humphrey Bogart, "The Fallen Sparrow," and "Ride the Pink Horse.""I always kind of joke that there would be no "Gone Girl" or "Girl on the Train," or any of these without Dorothy Hughes first writing her books," say Brown. She says it feels like finding a lost treasure seeing Hughes’ work re-emerge.

Angie Tally of The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, N.C., has been on the lookout for interesting books that aren’t teen coming-of-age stories nor end-of-life remembrances but have protagonists who are in the middle of life. One of her favorite examples comes from an often genre-defying North Carolina author: T. Kingfisher. Tally describes her novel “Nettle and Bone” as “a deeply satisfying and darkly funny feminist fairy tale.”Marra, age 30, is the youngest of three princesses, shyly stowed away in a convent, minding her own business. Or she would be — if she didn’t have to rescue her sister. Her eldest sister was married to a prince, but she has died in a way that suggests her princely husband might have been involved. Marra’s second sister has been married off to the same prince, and Marra fears for her life. Her journey to save her sister is spun from fairy-tale cloth but entirely Kingfisher’s own. There are tasks to be completed, such as assembling a dog from bones (a delightful character, Tally adds, with all the traits of a puppy — though when he scratches his ears, sometimes bones go flying.) There is a rag-tag band to be assembled: a gravewitch, Marra’s fairy godmother (whose gifts tend to go wonky), an accursed chick, and a knight who has failed so terribly at his career he has been sold to the goblin market.Note from Emily Bright: T. Kingfisher is the pen-name of Ursula Vernon; under that name, she’s published numerous excellent and funny books for ages 8-12, including the Hamster Princess series (twisted fairy tales in their own right), the Dragonbreath series. I love “Castle Hangnail,” which features a cast of oddly loveable minions and a 12-year-old wicked witch who comes to take ownership of the castle (though her parents think she’s away at summer camp.)