Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Rayna Nielsen from Garden District Book Shop in New OrleansRayna Nielsen recommends "Letters to the Lost" for a huge age range.It's a young adult novel, she says, but "I loved it. I really enjoyed it." Since then, she's sold it to everyone — from other adults to teenagers to even middle-grade readers."The thing I like about it from a bookseller point of view is that it's not really a boy book or a girl book. When you're talking about middle-grade and YA, that's a question people ask all the time: Is it for boys? Is it for girls? This is truly for both. Brigid [Kemmerer] does an amazing job getting inside the head of the girl main character and the boy main character."The story begins in a cemetery, where Juliet is grieving her mother's recent death. She writes a letter and leaves it on her mother's graves.There, Declan finds it. He's been sentenced to community service, and his assignment is mowing lawns in the cemetery."When he's mowing the lawn, he finds this letter," Nielsen explained. "He decides he's going to answer the letter."Soon, Juliet and Declan are writing to each other."They go back and forth like that for quite a while, not knowing who the other one is, but writing letters, learning about who they are through these letters. That's really over half the book ... Then, eventually, they do find out things about each other and meet."The book switches perspective every chapter, from Juliet to Declan, so you "get the same story, from both points of view," Nielsen said."I will say that if you do read this and you love it, there is a second book, called 'More Than We Can Tell.' If you like this, which I'm sure you will, continue on with that book."Letters to the LostLetters to the Lost

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jen Murvin from Pagination in Springfield, Mo.Carmen Maria Machado's short story collection, "Her Body and Other Parties," was a finalist for the National Book Award — and remains a favorite of Jen Murvin's."It is just one of my favorite story collections I have ever read," she said. "I am a big fan of magical realism and these stories are so contemporary. ... Typically with magical realism, the writer is working with a particular kind of myth or folklore and colliding it with our real world. And in this collection, [Machado] is regularly utilizing real world medical things that we do to women's bodies, and colliding them with mythology and folktale to create this really wonderful metaphor. The stories are really inventive, they're often horrifying, beautifully lyrical, just different than anything I've read in a really long time.""It's really hard to pick a favorite story out of this collection. I think the story that brought me to the collection is 'The Husband Stitch,' which is based on a real procedure that often happens to women when they give birth," Murvin said. Machado mixes that medical procedure with a dose of urban legend, weaving it together with the story of the girl with the ribbon around the neck — which may be familiar, terrifying territory for some."I'm also a professor at Missouri State University and I love to teach this particularly story, 'The Husband Stitch,' in combination with 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' [by Charlotte Perkins Gilman]. To me they have a lot in common about the ways in which sometimes we are betrayed by maybe our doctors or the people closest to us."The whole collection is "just very stunning. It's a little disturbing, often horrifying, but just so effective you can't look away once you start reading the first line."Her Body and Other PartiesHer Body and Other Parties

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with David Enyeart from Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul.Looking for a thriller that cuts through the genre? Pick up "The Plotters" by Un-su Kim.Bookseller David Enyeart recommends the novel "for the adventurous reader who is looking for something a little off the beaten path." "It's set in a near-future Seoul, and what's happening in the country is that assassination has become institutionalized. It's basically what private investigators are now. It's open, you hire people, you send them out, and they do their business. And it's controlled by these people called the Plotters.""The particular story is one guy, an assassin, and he's coming to realize that he's not going to last long in this business," Enyeart said. "He's looking for a way out."You can ready the novel on the one hand as a simple noir sort of novel, one man against the system trying to make his way out — and it's great on that level. It's a little violent in a Tarantino-esque way, so it might not be for everyone, but if you're along for the ride, it's really thrilling."And if you read it with an eye toward contemporary society, he has a lot to say about corruption, about power and how it corrupts and how systems come together to really bring out the worst in us, as we go on."The PlottersThe Plotters

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Matt Keliher from Subtext Books in St. Paul.Come in, sit down and just read the first 10 pages.That's how Matt Keliher sets the pitch for Valeria Luiselli's novel "Lost Children Archive.""There's a scene in the first 10 pages of this book that is probably my favorite scene in fiction this year," Keliher said. "It's a beautiful portrait of a small family in a really intimate moment, and it sets the stage for the rest of this book in a really interesting way.Luiselli's novel tells the story of a family on a road trip from New York City to Arizona."And the whole way on this road trip, you get an interesting portrait of the border histories of these states, and also the migrant experience of coming north into America. It is just a brilliant piece of storytelling," said Keliher."It's a phenomenal book — one of my favorites of the year for sure." Lost Children ArchiveLost Children Archive

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Carol Price from BookPeople in Moscow, Idaho.Stella Fortuna has escaped death not one, not two, not three — but seven or eight times.That's where the title of Juliet Grames' novel comes from: "The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna."The book draws on Grames' own family history; Stella is based on the author's grandmother.Bookseller Carol Price recommends the book, which follows Stella's life from birth to death (the last one, anyway), and spans most of the 20th century.It begins in Italy, where Stella is born, and follows her on a boat when she emigrates to New York City during the middle of World War II.The book is divided up by her near-death experiences. "It's like Death One, Death Two, Death Three, Death Four..." Price explained. "The different ways that she almost dies are very interesting. There's burns, evisceration, bludgeoning, drowning, rape, exsanguination, choking and cerebral hemorrhage. It's a really interesting and fun book to read — not always easy, though. The society in which Stella grows up is a very oppressive patriarchy, and women have no agency. Basically, they have to be married and be under the subjection of a husband to be considered people."Stella is unusual because she is not like that. She's very independent, and she's beautiful, and she resists her whole life what is expected of her."When the book opens, we meet Stella as an old woman. She is no longer speaking to her sister, with whom she was incredibly close for their entire lives — until something happened. "In their old age, Stella has not been able to be in the same room as her sister," Price said. "It starts there, and then it goes back to the beginning to try and explain what happened, how they got to that point in their life, what could possibly explain that rupture between the sisters." The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Susan Smelser from The Book Worm in Powder Springs, Ga."Dear Evan Hansen" is a smash Broadway musical — and now it's a novel, too.Bookseller Susan Smelser recommends the adaptation of "Dear Evan Hansen," which takes on the very difficult topic of teen suicide.Evan Hansen is a high schooler who feels totally alone and isolated. When another so-called "outcast" teen dies by suicide, Evan finds himself pretending to have been his best friend.One lie gives way to another, and Evan's whole life is upturned. Suddenly "everything that Evan Hansen did was so that he could keep this lie going," Smelser said.Despite taking on a heavy subject, the book brings a fresh look, Smelser said. "It's light-hearted, but there's just so many lessons to be learned." Dear Evan HansenDear Evan Hansen

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Abbey Paxton from BookBar in Denver, Colo.Bookseller Abbey Paxton thinks you should write this name down: Kali Fajardo-Anstine.Fajardo-Anstine is the author of "Sabrina & Corina," a new short story collection."It's a debut, and she's coming out of the gate so strong. I think we're all going to know about her by the end of 2019. I'm not going to stop talking about her, for sure," Paxton said.The collection features stories of indigenous Latina women living in Colorado. "Mothers, granddaughters, sisters, cousins are the protagonists of every story," Paxton said.The title story — "Sabrina & Corina" — centers on two cousins who have grown up together, almost like sisters. It opens with Corina reflecting on Sabrina, who has been murdered."The whole thing is a subtle reflection on the value of beauty and what costs does beauty come at, for women particularly," Paxton said. "They're the kind of stories that are going to linger with you for a long time.""One thing that [Fajardo-Anstine] does remarkably well is develop this sense of place. ... She's able to look head on at the beauty of these mountain places, while also not flinching in addressing the complications of the state of flux that Colorado and Denver have been in," Paxton said. "The wounds of gentrification are really handled with such grace and power in this collection. It's unbelievable." Fans of Lauren Groff will find a similar feel in this collection, Paxton said. "Her style of being so directly indirect is very similar to what reading 'Florida' by Lauren Groff kind of felt like. Her insight into women and the way these women are thinking and moving through the world, there's a subtlety that gives it so much power." Sabrina & CorinaSabrina & Corina

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Aaron Cance from The Printed Garden in Sandy, Utah.Get ready for a sci-fi epic that knows its history."A Memory Called Empire" is a new novel from Arkady Martine — that's a pseudonym for Anna Linden Weller who happens to be an expert in Byzantine history.For bookseller Aaron Cance, that background enriches the novel: "It's a fantastic space opera that loosely follows the Byzantine Empire's annexation of Western Armenia in the fourth century.""It's amazing science fiction, but instead of thinking about explosions, exchanges of gunfire, that kind of thing, what a reader is going to find in 'A Memory Called Empire' is espionage and political intrigue," Cance said. "One of the more interesting things that the book does is that it explores the complexities of cultural imperialism.""What we find in Martine's novel is a smaller culture ... that is in imminent danger of being consumed by a leviathan-like empire."The book's main character, Mahit Dzmare, belongs to the smaller, threatened culture — "but at the same time she recognizes the beauty and eloquence" of the dominant, looming culture.In her job as ambassador, "her very first task is to discover the whereabouts of her predecessor, who has gone missing." Those are all the plot details you need, Cance said. More will spoil the read."The whole time I was reading the book, I felt like I was reliving the experience of reading Frank Herbert's 'Dune' for the very first time. It's this sprawling, intricately detailed, really, really well-manufactured culture with extremely well fleshed-out characters, and you are invested almost at the very beginning.""I felt like I was reading tomorrow's classic. This was exquisitely written and it had that same sense of scope and that line of philosophical inquiry [as 'Dune']," Cance said. "It's a big book asking important questions and doing it really well."A Memory Called EmpireA Memory Called Empire

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Joe Chevalier from Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, Mo.Need your next can't-put-it-down read?Bookseller Joe Chevalier recommends "Who Fears Death" by Nnedi Okorafor.It's so engrossing, Chevalier almost missed his flight at the airport because he didn't realize how much time had passed while he was tearing through it.Okorafor is a prolific, critically acclaimed author who mixes fantasy and sci-fi elements to thrilling effect in her fiction."Who Fears Death" is a "fantasy, vaguely science fiction book set in a future Africa," Chevalier said."The protagonist is a biracial child, a child of rape, who grows up with this knowledge and ends up developing magical powers. [She] becomes a reluctant messiah figure and sets out on a quest to both destroy her father and attempt to heal the rifts between the two races in her region," Chevalier said."I love the arc of the story. I don't think anyone is writing like this right now, dealing with these sorts of issues, these kinds of characters. It's very original in its approach to magic."Chevalier said the book is like "reading the beginning of a myth, even though it's set in the future. It's a powerful, gripping story, and a story you immediately fall into.""Who Fears Death" may also soon be on TV: It was optioned by HBO, with George R.R. Martin — of "Game of Thrones" fame — attached as a producer.Who Fears DeathWho Fears Death

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Vicki Burger from Wind City Books in Casper, Wyo.A man walks into a bar.It's not a joke, but rather the beginning of "When All Is Said" by Anne Griffin. That man, who is in his late 80s, orders a drink. The drink is just the first in a series of five; those five drinks form the structure of the novel."Each drink is a toast to someone who is very important in his life," bookseller Vicki Burger explained. "For example, the first drink is to his older brother, who passed away in his early 20s. ... Each drink that he has is that particular person's favorite — or, in the case of his daughter, who died at birth, it was something he was drinking at the time." "You get this short story that's more in form of an elegy to each one of these people," Burger said. "It's just beautifully told. It ranks right up there with the beauty and emotions that are evoked in 'A Gentleman in Moscow,' which is my previous absolute favorite.""To find something that is just such a beautiful tribute to these five people — it's just lovely about how we look back on our lives ... and the people who have been important to us either for good or bad."When All is Said When All is Said

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jake Howell from Commonplace Books in Oklahoma City, Okla.The novel "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt first caught bookseller Jake Howell's eye because it shares a title with a Tom Cruise movie.Sorry, Cruise fans, there's no relation. But you don't want to miss the book.DeWitt's novel is instead a meditation on family that experiments with form and style.It follows a woman who gives birth and chooses to raise her son without a father. "The mother is completely unwilling to let him know who the father was," Howell explained. "At the age of four or five, very naturally, he starts to question why there's no dad around and why she raises him alone."The son is preternaturally intelligent, and his mother does everything she can to encourage that. The book includes passages from philosophers and thought leaders on parenting - including Yo-Yo Ma's father's thoughts on education. The mother devours all of this. "She starts putting that into practice with her own son," Howell said. "This mother, who is clearly in over her head ... she has a prodigy for a child. She openly is telling him: 'I don't know how to raise you.' She's doing her best and doing a good job, but she's being very forthright with him."Halfway through the book, the perspective shifts from the mother's to the son's, Howell said. "He's still so concerned about finding out who his father is, rather than fixing his relationship with his mom."Howell found it to be a powerful examination of family roles. "That was the most interesting part about it - the role of a son, the role of a mother and what a father means to a child who has never had one."The Last Samurai The Last Samurai

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Chris Upton from A Freethinker's Corner in Dover, N.H.Shakespeare wrote some of the most dastardly villains in literature, and a new book from scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores that dark side.Bookseller Chris Upton recommends Greenblatt's "Tyrant," which "explains the psychology of tyrants, how they came to be, and the psychology behind despots and authoritarians and dictators."Greenblatt delves into the hidden — or, not so hidden — messages of Shakespeare's malevolent characters. "Shakespeare and Shakespeare's contemporaries would use historical characters, historical people or events or places to get around the laws of the time" that forbid them from criticizing the ruling class or those in power.The book is a timely read for a reflection on politics and powers, Upton explained.Tyrant Tyrant

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Sara Rishforth from Roundabout Books in Bend, Ore.Sara Rishforth first heard Mark Kurlansky expounding on the history of milk on the Sporkful podcast — and she needed more.Luckily, Kurlansky has an entire book on the subject: "Milk!" It's not the first time the author has tackled the history of an ingredient: He's also written "Salt" and "Cod." The book is packed with plenty of facts that Rishforth's still thinking about, like the fact that sixty percent of the world is lactose-intolerant. Or that almond milk isn't a new trendy sensation — it's actually more than a thousand years old. And probiotics? They've been experimenting with those for centuries. Plus, before Wisconsin residents got a reputation for loving cheese, it was the Danish who were called "cheese heads." The book is also filled with historical recipes, which Rishforth didn't experiment with, but if you want to make yogurt or ice cream like they did hundreds of years ago, the option is available. Milk Milk

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Dave Richardson at Blue Marble Books in Fort Thomas, Ky.Get ready for a road trip.Bookseller Dave Richardson recommends a new young adult novel about a young girl's adventures on the road with her father, and the whole cast of quirky characters they pick up along the way.The book is Dan Gemeinhart's "The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise." "Coyote Sunrise and her father are traveling around the country in a converted school bus," Richardson said. "In reality, they're running away from the grief of losing her mother and two sisters in a car accident. Coyote finds out from her grandmother that she needs to come back home, but her father has refused to do that.""So she has to come up with a plan, and part of that includes picking up several passengers: a cat named Ivan, who is probably one of the coolest cats you'll ever read about; Lester, who is trying to get to a lost love; Salvador and his mother, who are running away from an abusive man; Valerie, a young lady who has been picked out of her house because her parents found out she was gay; and then there's this very, very spunky goat named Gladys."But beware: This book is going to go straight to your heart."There are plenty of issues and serious scenes, and I really would suggest you have tissues ready by the end," Richardson said. "But there's also some laugh-out-loud humor and a great police chase. And really, it's a book about dealing with loss and finding closure and choosing your future.""A sophisticated fourth grader could read it, all the way up through eighth, ninth grade. And if they like realistic fiction, they're going to love this."The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Hannah Oliver Depp from Loyalty Bookstore in Washington, D.C.The first thing to love about Camille Acker's short story collection "Training School for Negro Girls" is the cover."It's got this stunning cover, which makes people who may or may not feel like this is a book for them pick it up. I love when people are creative with covers," said bookseller Hannah Oliver Depp.The insides are equally stunning. "It's a short story collection, and this has been the year of short story collections, I feel. It has been a wonderful time if you like short stories or are looking to get into them.""Training School" is Acker's debut, "which makes me really happy, because I get excited about what someone will do as they go forward," Depp said.The stories in the collection are rooted in Washington, D.C., where Depp operates Loyalty Bookstore. "I think it's a love letter and also a bit of a harsh mirror to Washington, D.C., and also the lives that the women in Washington, D.C., have lived or are currently living through."Acker's writing is "really, really astounding," Depp said. "She gets into characters' heads in a way that is just wonderful. You find yourself completely and utterly involved, and on the side of these women, no matter what is happening to them. "Sometimes you end up agreeing with or siding with a woman who — if you just looked at them on paper — you'd be like: That woman is terrible. Whether or not you end up agreeing with them, you 100 percent understand them and feel like you inhabit their bones, which is a really incredible gift as a storyteller. ... I think there's no one kind of woman and I think she really drives that home in the stories."She writes crisp sentences, which means that the book moves deceptively fast. I think you tend to page through it really quickly, and then sort of be hit, almost slammed in the face with a door, when you're done reading it, when you realize what you've been through emotionally."The collection takes its name from D.C. history, Depp explained:"I encourage everyone to look up the Training School for Negro Girls and learn about what that was, and the history of Chocolate City, and what black women have been trying to do for one another for a long time."To top it off, one of the best stories in the collection is about a TSA worker, so it's very timely."Training School for Negro GirlsTraining School for Negro Girls

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Kelle Barfield from Lorelei Books in Vicksburg, Miss."Mississippi is renowned for so many fabulous authors: Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, more contemporary authors like Jesmyn Ward," says bookstore owner Kelle Barfield. "But we also have a very rich tradition of storytellers."When William Ferris was growing up on a farm outside Vicksburg, Miss., he got access to a tape recorder — a rare technology in the 40s and 50s. And he began to record everything, says Barfield. "Everything from quilt makers, to a mule trader, to baptisms in the local pond."Ferris went on to a career studying storytelling and documenting everyday life. A new box set, "Voices of Mississippi," includes not only his writing but also recordings and documentary films."There is blues music, gospel music and folklore storytelling," Barfield said. Read more: The Thread Ferris' collection showcases his life's work, and Barfield highly recommends it. Ferris also has advice that he shares when he stops by Barfield's store, Lorelei Books: More people should be documenting the stories of their relatives."Grab your phone," Barfield remembers Ferris saying. "You have the advantage of technology today, you can sit down with your granddaddy — you can capture on your phone what used to require elaborate recording technology."

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Danny Caine, the owner of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan.Danny Caine has a new poetry recommendation for those tucked inside reading this winter: Fatimah Asghar's "If They Come for Us.""It's this dazzling poetry collection which tells a story that's at once very intimate and sweeping," Caine said. "It intertwines personal history and identity with global history in a really interesting way." Want more poetry?: Listen to The Slowdown "There's this recurring series of poems called 'Partition' that are ostensibly about what is now India and what is now Pakistan, but there's also themes of partition with family. The speaker of these poems is an orphan — that's just one of the ways the personal and the political intersect in this book."The book explores "the violence of partition, and also the violence of coming of age today in white-dominated America.""One of my favorite parts of the book is her use of poetic forms," Caine said. "It's kind of a tour de force of the different forms a poem can take. There are poems in here that look like a film treatment, there's a poem that looks like a floor plan of a house, there's a Mad Lib, there are charts, there is stuff about translation.""I love this book."If They Come for UsIf They Come for Us

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Betsy Grant from Page & Palette in Fairhope, Ala.C.S. Lewis is on many a bookshelf. The scholar and author is widely known for his writings on Christianity, and for the wonder of "The Chronicles of Narnia."But Joy Davidman is not often part of the story.That changes with Patti Callahan's book, "Becoming Mrs. Lewis." It's a historical novel that draws on the true love story between Davidman and Lewis.When Davidman first came across Lewis' writing, she had very little in common with him: He was a Christian theologist in London, she was a Jewish atheist in New York. But they struck up a correspondence that turned into a friendship, bookseller Betsy Grant explained.The two met in person when Davidman visited London. When she decided she wanted to move there permanently, she needed Lewis' help. She needed someone to marry her.He agreed.But it wasn't just for convenience. "She realized that she was in love with him, and he finally realized he was in love with her," Grant said."Callahan did her homework, she did the research, she read everything that only he had written, but she, as a writer and poet, had written as well.""The book is in the first person, [Davidman's] voice, so it's this strong, sort of feisty, neat woman.""It's just the love story for all time, really."Becoming Mrs. LewisBecoming Mrs. Lewis

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Josh Myers from Farley's Bookshop in New Hope, Pa.The short pitch for "Last Days" by Brian Evenson?"An ex-detective who retired after a particularly traumatic case is kidnapped by a cult who worship through amputation to find out who murdered their leader — who may or may not actually be dead." That's Josh Myers' synopsis for this dark and disturbing mystery. He promises "you're not going to get anything quite like this from any other mystery.""It's got this fever-dreamy quality to it, like a David Lynch movie with David Cronenberg's kind of body horror stuff," Myers said. "It's a good blend of mystery, horror — definitely not for the squeamish, but endlessly fascinating.""If you're a fan of detective stories, this definitely going to be up your alley, but just a bit darker, a little bit more out of left field."Last DaysLast Days

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Annie Metcalf of Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis.In the mood for something scary, but don't need it to be supernatural?Try "Mina," an unsettling, unusual novel that follows a group of high school girls in South Korea.Bookseller Annie Metcalf recommends it "for readers who want to be challenged and scared — but are also interested in new voices in translation." Written by Kim Sagwa, a novelist from South Korea, "Mina" was translated into English by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton. The book follows Crystal, and her friends Minho and Mina. Crystal "has a problem understanding and respecting people who have emotions and show emotions," Metcalf said. "She views these people with derision and incomprehension. She has a lot of rants about 'idiots around her.'"When Mina and Crystal have a falling out, her scorn for these kind of people intensifies and her behavior gets more and more erratic. It leads to this gut-wrenching conclusion that is not for the faint of heart."If you loved Han Kang's "The Vegetarian," which reached acclaim in 2016, "Mina" has a "similar mix of horror and elegance. It's really dreamlike, and there's some astounding little set pieces between Crystal and some of the other characters."It takes the unlikable protagonist to a whole new level, that I've never seen before. Sort of nihilist and brutal, but definitely great for people who are still sort of in Halloween mode," Metcalf said. There are no supernatural elements, but "the real world is plenty scary."MinaMina

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Margaret Leonard of Dotters Books in Eau Claire, Wis.The unnamed narrator at the center of "Scribe" lives in a harsh world, ravaged by war and fever. People survive by bartering what they have, and what she has is pen and paper. In exchange for firewood or food, she writes letters for people. "The book starts with this man named Hendricks coming to her and asking her to write his confession of all of the terrible things he's done through his entire life," said bookseller Margaret Leonard. "And he's asking her to then go and share his words with the people that he's wronged."But the world outside her farmstead is filled with dangers. No one can be trusted."There's very little security in the way that they're all living, so she has a lot of doubts," Leonard said. "But I also think it's clear that she really doesn't want to live that way anymore."So I think even though you have this entire book that's pretty shadowy, pretty dark, kind of violent, ultimately it ends with this very hopeful discussion that if you allow yourself to trust and maybe even love someone, there's healing." For a book set after the destruction of society as we know it, Leonard said, "I found it strangely uplifting." ScribeScribe

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Emma Nichols from the Elliott Bay Book Company.Aminder Dhaliwal's graphic novel began on Instagram.She started posting comics that unfolded in a post-apocalyptic world — a world missing something very specific: men. Dhaliwal's comics imagined a scenario in which a birth defect wiped out all human males. Compiled into a new collection from Drawn & Quarterly, those comics form "Women World," her debut book."It's both very funny and very serious," said bookseller Emma Nichols. In "Woman World," the future is uncertain, anxiety can run rampant and there's the nagging question of how to reproduce and keep the population going. But there are also fart jokes.Some scenes feature the surviving women trying to puzzle out the artifacts left behind. What were high heels even for? "They think it was for creating sharp holes," Nichols said.Nichols' favorite comics revolve around a grandmother who lived before the apocalypse, and how she explains — or doesn't explain — life with men to her granddaughter."It's the silly but relevant humor that really makes this book special ... This is perfect for anyone who doesn't want to go for a super serious book, just wants something that's going to make them laugh, but also isn't ignoring the current situation we're in."Woman WorldWoman World

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Daley Farr at Milkweed Books in Minneapolis.The best reads are the ones you find yourself still thinking about, even after the last page. That's the case for bookseller Daley Farr and "The Second Body" by Daisy Hildyard."I just finished it the other night, and I have been thinking about it for three days. It totally caught me by surprise," Farr said.The short, nonfiction book explores climate change through the idea "that we have two bodies: the human body, which is us with our personalities and our normal human lives, and then this more kind of permeable, animal body that affects other life on earth, that interacts with water and other animals and the air.""I loved it because it deals with a theoretical, complicated idea, but it's so readable. She's kind of funny and really straight-forward."It's the kind of book that shifts how you see the world, Farr said. "It really knocked me out."The Second BodyThe Second Body

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Aaron Cance from The Printed Garden in Sandy, Utah.Aaron Cance has been selling books for 22 years. After more than two decades, some books can start to blur together or feel repetitive."Sometimes halfway through a book, I think I've read this already — but it had a different title and was written by someone else," Cance joked.That's why he was so transfixed by John Larison's novel, "Whiskey When We're Dry.""It's really an unpredictable book. I like to be surprised when I read," he said. "I really wanted to find out what was next, because I didn't feel like I knew what was coming."The story follows 17-year-old Jessilyn, who lives with her father and brother, Noah, on a homestead in the late 1800s. When her father and Noah get in a vicious fight, Noah runs off and Jessilyn is left behind to care for father.The next she sees of Noah is his face on "wanted" posters at the local post office. The reward grows, people gossip, and her brother becomes more and more of a notorious outlaw.Jessilyn is "a very strong female character, which is not common in Western fiction," Cance said. When her father dies, "she realizes that because of the limitations of the time she's living in, she has no way of maintaining or running her family's homestead — and she had to find her brother. She binds up her breasts, puts on a bunch of his abandoned clothing, cuts her hair ... and she sets off to find him. And that is what I think makes it an extraordinary story."What's more, it's Larison's debut novel. "I'm always drawn to a really good debut," Cance said. "I love being able to find a new author."Whiskey When We're DryWhiskey When We're Dry

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Kate Jacobs from Little City Books in Hoboken, N.J.Keith Gessen's portrayal of modern Russia in his new novel, "A Terrible Country," is so vivid, bookseller Kate Jacobs initially thought it felt a little too real."Being half-Russian, I'm always worried about Russia, and I'm always very defensive about people's poor impressions of it, because it's such a complicated and tragic place in so many ways," Jacobs said."But then, thinking about it, I really lived with the book and the story."The novel follows a man who emigrated to America from Russia when he was young. He grows up as an American, becomes a Russian studies major, and when the book opens, he's looking for work."He can't get a job, he's a depressed academic," Jacobs said. Then, he gets a call.His brother, who stayed behind in Russia, is a "wheeler-dealer oligarch." Come back to Russia and take care of grandma, his brother tells him, I have to leave the country for a while.Summoned back to Moscow, the man moves in with his grandmother."The grandmother is the most wonderful character. She's a very elderly and frail Jewish lady who was very much part of the political resistance in her time, she is ironically living in an apartment near Stalin's prisons. She's fading, but she's brilliant at word games and she has very strong feelings about what's going on in Russia."As he settles in with his grandmother, he also pursues a new life: "He meets a girl, he gets involved disastrously with some politics ... It's just this utterly real, modern description of what it is like to be there at this time."It's very harsh and it's full of violence and incongruities, but it's also truly full of the Russian spirit. There's the warmth and character of what Russian people are like, so it's very moving."Also, "it's a beautiful portrait of the relationship between the man and his grandmother, if you've ever cared for an elderly person."Ultimately, Jacobs said, she came around about whether to recommend the novel. "I think it's actually a really humane view, and a very realistic view [of Russia]."Terrible CountryTerrible Country

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Danny Caine from The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan.Those hungering for a new poetry collection, take note.Bookseller Danny Caine recommends "Citizen Illegal" from José Olivarez."It's a funny and occasionally devastating portrait of life as a first generation Mexican-American, as the son of Mexican immigrants," Caine said."It starts with some really brash and funny poems, and towards the end it gets into some really tender poems about death, about the loss of a grandparent. The collection is just a really satisfying read."The collection is published by Haymarket as part of their BreakBeat Poets series.Caine says the series "is putting out some of the most exciting poetry today. I tend to read everything they put out. I like it because it's coming from the Midwest, too. It definitely has a Chicago feel to it. I always look for great art coming from the heartland."Citizen IllegalCitizen Illegal

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Ruth Hulbert from Fireside Books in Palmer, Ala.You know that feeling where you follow a thread and find yourself down the rabbit hole of a great book?That's what happened to bookseller Ruth Hulbert. Years ago, she heard a bar full of people in Seattle break out into song to Woody Guthrie's "Roll on, Columbia." That sparked an interest in Guthrie, and that eventually led her to this book: "Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913" by Daniel Wolff."More than a history of music, this is actually a history of the United States, and of protest in the early twentieth century," Hulbert said."It's a story of three generations of protests, and it's linked together in a really interesting way. I think part of what makes this such a gripping read is that it's actually structured a lot like a piece of music."We get the story of Bob Dylan's musical education and political education and his music career in the turbulent 1960s." Dylan's experience is then "woven in together with Woody Guthrie's musical and political education in the 1930s, which was this restless and cataclysmic time in American history."There were all these interesting streams of American music coming down out of the hills and mixing in the cities and going out on the airwaves. So the 30s and the 60s have all these resonances between them, and underneath these melodies that are being told, there's this baseline of protest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century — of line protests and labor strikes and all these people fighting and singing for a better world.""I picked it up because I was interested in Woody Guthrie and it really just knocked my socks off with how good the writing was. There's nothing unnecessary or ornamental in it; it's very straightforward. I thought the writing of the book was very similar to how the author describes Woody Guthrie's singing style: It's very plain and direct and it's someone who wants to tell you the truth. That really comes through in the writing of this book."Grown-up AngerGrown-up Anger

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Sara Luce Look from Charis Books & More in Atlanta, Ga.Innosanto Nagara first caught readers' attentions with his colorful board book, "A is for Activist," which explains civil rights, social justice and activism for kids as young as two. He's back with a new book, "The Wedding Portrait," which bookseller Sara Luce Look instantly fell in love with."It made me cry about three times, and I just read it again this morning and I cried again," Luce Look said. Ask a bookseller: Get more reading recommendations The book is centered around a wedding portrait taken at a protest against nuclear war. "The couple had met at a protest, so they decided to get married at a protest. They got married, and got arrested, along with the entire wedding party." "In the book, it talks about why [this couple] has the portrait up on the wall, and it talks about why sometimes you need to break the rules: You need to break the rules to protest things that are wrong."The picture book goes on to offer kids "explanations about segregation, civil disobedience, direct action — and it uses real-life examples." It covers Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks and others, all the way up to modern figures who have been involved in protest movements."When I read it, I wanted to show it to every customer who walked through the door."The Wedding Portrait The Wedding Portrait

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Stephanie Schindhelm from Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo.Circe is perhaps the world's oldest sorceress, but until now, she was only a bit player in the story of Odysseus.Bookseller Stephanie Schindhelm recommends Madeline Miller's novel, "Circe," because it puts an end to that.If your memory of "The Odyssey" is rusty, or it never landed on your syllabi, Odysseus and his men wash up on the shores of Circe's island during their oh-so-long-journey. She promptly turns all his men into pigs, and Odysseus must convince her to reverse the spell.Miller's "Circe" expands her story far beyond that. It starts "from the moment she's born, on and on for thousands of years, because she's an immortal goddess and she lives forever," Schindhelm said."Fairly early in the book, she discovers that she has witch-like powers and can actually transform other gods. Because of that, she is banished to an island, which is really where the meat of the story takes place. It's where she deals with being alone and working hard to develop her power, with the occasional people coming through her island. "Miller does a fantastic job of making an immortal goddess very relatable. ... She has an obsession with humanity and with humans and with the mortal realms. She comes to really have more of a connection with mortals than she does with other gods and goddesses." Schindhelm says her store's staff book club all devoured the book. "Our meeting was just all gushing about what an amazing character she was, and how impressive it was that Madeline Miller could write an immortal character who is so relatable."Circe Circe

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Tom Roberge Riffraff in Providence, R.I.Instagram models. Social media stars. "Influencers."If you can't keep track of who is famous these days, you're not alone.Natasha Stagg's novel "Surveys" dives deep into the stew that is sudden, baseless fame.Bookseller Tom Roberge recommends this story of a young woman, who spends her days at a survey center in a Tucson, Ariz., strip mall. She facilitates consumer surveys about a slew of topics — a new flavored vodka or an explosive action movie. She drinks. She does drugs. She lives alone and deals with nasty neighbors."It's unclear how exactly this happens, but within a very short time, she becomes 'internet famous,' and her life changes dramatically," Roberge said."She moves to L.A. and adopts the lifestyle of someone who is famous for the sake of being famous. There begins a very self-aware examination of what all of that means, and the way that her life is monetized.""This is à la Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie in the early 2000s, who would get tens of thousands of dollars just for showing up for 10 minutes at some DJ's party at some club in Las Vegas or something. She is essentially that."But it doesn't last. She becomes disillusioned."It sort of spirals out of control when she starts realizing just how vapid and useless and corrupt the entire ecosystem she is now in is. ... This is a very timely book about the economy and the way that capitalism is affecting people — especially young people in the modern era."Surveys Surveys

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Mara Panich-Crouch from Fact & Fiction Bookstore in Missoula, Mont.Novelist Richard Wagamese made his mark on the Canadian literature scene as a novelist and essayist. Though the author died last spring, his work is steadily finding a new audience in the U.S.Several of Mara Panich-Crouch's fellow booksellers urged her to pick up Wagamese's "Indian Horse" — and when she did, she immediately understood its power."The book is about Saul Indian Horse, who is a First Nations Ojibwe boy, taken by the residential schools," Panich-Crouch said. "It's about the idea of being a residential school survivor." Though Panich-Crouch knew the history of Native Americans and boarding schools in the U.S., Wagamese's work offered another perspective. "Reading this, it made me realize that Canada had a lot of the same programs that we did."In the novel, Saul "finds sport through hockey ... And that helps him basically overcome the trauma, and get through the trauma of the residential school situations."The writing "really made me want to start sharing it with people who ... wanted to find new, fairly unknown — at least in the U.S. — Native writers." Indian Horse Indian Horse

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Rebecca Dowling from Hockessin Book Shelf in Hockessin, Del.Heading out on a summer picnic? Pack your basket, your sandwiches, your thermos — and your copy of "Pignic.""'Pignic' is a sweetly drawn book. It's super charming," says bookseller Rebecca Dowling. "It's perfect for a family to take with them on their own picnic."The book unfolds on a beautiful summer day when a family of pigs heads out for a picnic. "They climb trees, they fly kites, they make all kinds of friends, and they have lunch."Then come the rain clouds. And while that might ruin the day for most families, it's nothing but luck for this crew."After the clouds part and the rain stops, all of the pigs are knee-deep in mud, and they're having a blast."This delightful children's book turns bad luck on its head. "It is just the perfect summer book," Dowling says.Pignic Pignic

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Aubrey Restifo from Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vt.Bookseller Aubrey Restifo has "the perfect mystery for summer."It's Tiffany D. Jackson's "Monday's Not Coming."The young adult novel centers around the closer-than-close friendship of two teenage girls, Monday and Claudia, who live in D.C. "They are utterly inseparable — do everything together, do all their homework together, dance team together, planning out their high school career together, you can't keep them from each other's lives," Restifo explained.But one summer, Monday goes missing."And not only does she go missing, but Claudia, who is telling the story, who is the protagonist, doesn't feel like anybody else notices."Claudia starts the new school year and the teachers don't know, the school nurse doesn't know, but she doesn't stop asking. "She goes around the neighborhood, which is a very tightknit community, but no one can explain where Monday, or Monday's many siblings, are.""That's the mystery that is investigated very intensely in 'Monday's Not Coming.'""It is too intense to read in one sitting, but it's almost impossible not to. ... When you approach the excellent twist in this novel, and as you get to the truth, you will be absolutely rattled."Monday's Not Coming Monday's Not Coming

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Charlotte Glover Parnassus Books in Ketchikan, Ala."A lot of folks do not know the name Eowyn Ivey outside the state of Alaska," says Charlotte Glover. But they should. Ivey's first novel "The Snow Child" was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It's her second book, though — "To the Bright Edge of the World" — that "has ruined me for all other books, for almost two years," Glover said."It is an absolute masterpiece of tone and content and historical fiction. I'm just completely in love with it, and I don't think any other book is going to equal that in a long time."In it, Ivey melds historical fiction "with a smidge of magical realism.""It's strongly based on the real journals of an Army captain who mapped part of Alaska," Glover said. In the novel, a fictional Army captain sets out on a mapping expedition. His young wife plans to accompany him, but when she becomes pregnant, she has to stay behind in the barracks in Vancouver."The bulk of the book is their correspondence, and so it is a Lewis and Clark-type wilderness expedition, mapping a fictional river in Alaska, but told in the voice of a very lyrical woman. It's the most yin-yang book I've ever read in my entire career, where it's so lyrical and lovely, but at the same time it's dealing with an incredibly hard expedition.""There are just so many elements to this book that make it so satisfying and so delicious and so worth reading over and over again that it's just ruined me." To the Bright Edge of the World To the Bright Edge of the World

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Melissa DeMotte of The Well-Read Moose in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.Anthony Horowitz knows a good mystery.The author has multiple novels to his name, on top of a slew of British television series like "Midsomer Murders" and "Foyle's War."But he keeps outdoing himself.Bookseller Melissa DeMotte was hooked by the doubled stakes of "Magpie Murders."Horowitz, she said, "styles his mysteries much like Agatha Christie. It's definitely a whodunit, a lot of suspects, but what makes this really fun is that there's a novel within the novel. So there's two different mysteries that you ultimately are trying to figure out." While the narrator of "Magpie Murders" starts explaining the story of one mysterious death in the publishing world, the book also dives into portions of an author's unpublished manuscript, where there are even more murders afoot in a secluded British village."This guy knows how to create a mystery. He's very crafty. There's not a lot of red herrings — everyone has a purpose in the story. And the sense of place! I loved the description of that little town. It felt very real and very old, and I could just see those nosy neighbors."Ultimately, DeMotte said, "It's a really fun read, a very different style. You have to do a little more thinking. It's a thinker's summer read."Magpie Murders Magpie Murders

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Matt Keliher of Subtext Books in St. Paul.If you walk into the Subtext bookstore in St. Paul, it sounds like there's a fair chance you're leaving with Tommy Orange's debut novel "There There."Bookseller Matt Keliher calls it "the book of the year" and "a book I can't let people leave without."Orange's novel follows twelve Native Americans living in Oakland, Calif., over several decades. It traces their connections, and sometimes their collisions, as the narrative jumps from character to character. More: Native American author Tommy Orange feels a 'burden to set the record straight' "It is an incredible book that is brimming with emotion and force," Keliher said. "The writing is just electric. It's a propulsive novel that makes the reader want to just turn the next page and keep reading.""I just absolutely love it. It's one of the books that reminds me why I love what I'm doing."There There There There

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Julie Poling from Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul.Julie Poling just fell in love with a new children's book: "Bear's Scare."It's written and illustrated by Jacob Grant. The book revolves around Bear, who is very sure he keeps a tidy house. He inspects the rooms, carrying his own stuffed bear, Ursa, along with him."But if you look closely at the illustrations, you see this little spider in every other picture," Poling said. The spider keeps busy, "cleaning, watering the plants, knitting something."Bear is completely oblivious to his houseguest — until he isn't. Suddenly, "Bear realizes they have a spider problem."What comes next is a sweet lesson in friendship, about "how you can be different — and yet still be friends." Plus, Poling added, "the spider's probably the cutest spider you've ever seen."Poling recommends the book for those aged 3 to 7; "Bear's Scare" was a crowd favorite at Red Balloon's story time this week. Bear's ScareBear's Scare

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jake Reiss from The Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, Ala.The folks at The Alabama Booksmith are big fans of author Rick Bragg — big, big fans. They've hosted the author for more than a hundred signings, according to the Booksmith's owner, Jake Reiss.Bragg's first book, "All Over but the Shoutin'," is the store's all-time best-selling title.But Bragg's newest, "The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table," is coming up fast."This is not a cookbook," Reiss said. "While it's loaded with blue-collar recipes, we don't believe many folks buying this book are rushing home to break out the lard and bacon grease to prepare a meal. What it really is is one of America's finest storytellers weaving 150 years of poor but proud Appalachian family history into vignettes wrapped around the genesis of each entree's creation."This delightful read also contains a little dab of reflection on surviving hard times without starving, and more than a smidgen of humor that will make your tummy hurt from laughing," Reiss said. "But mostly this is good old-fashioned fun from a book we believe will become a classic."And, Reiss admitted, there is one recipe the bookstore's staff is hankering to try: quick fried apple pie. He might even ask Bragg to bring some for the next signing. The Best Book in the WorldThe Best Cook in the World

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Lucas Mcguffie from the Montclair Book Center in Montclair, N.J.Haruki Murakami is perhaps best known for his novels: "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," "Norwegian Wood," "1Q84." But bookseller Lucas Mcguffie highly recommends a book of nonfiction Murakami published in the late 90s. It's a mix of "literature and journalism," he said, called "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche."The book examines the aftermath of a 1995 Japanese terrorist attack, when members of the cult Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway during rush hour. After the attack, Mcguffie said, the Japanese media "did what our media would do with that, which is focus on the chaos ... So [Murakami] interviewed a whole bunch of the victims and did these really granular, specific interviews about their experience. Through the whole book you end up getting this painting of the whole event from a million different viewpoints." "One interview is about a woman who got such bad nerve damage she's still in the hospital, she's still being taken care of by her brother, and it doesn't look like she's going to be back to how she was before — whereas many people in this book were ashamed to be interviewed saying they weren't affected enough. The interesting part is the variety of people affected."About a year after the book was published in Japan, Mcguffie said, Murakami interviewed some people who belonged to Aum Shinrikyo about the attack. Those interviews make up the last third of the American translation of "Underground.""If you've read '1Q84,' which is one of his best-known novels in America, it clearly inspired a bunch of that." UndergroundUnderground

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Linda Kass from Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio.Linda Kass is a big Jennifer Egan fan. When Egan's latest novel, "Manhattan Beach," hit shelves, Kass couldn't wait."I'm always excited about Jennifer Egan's books," she said. "I always know when I'm in her hands, I'm going to go somewhere interesting and there's going to be an interesting protagonist.""Manhattan Beach" takes place during World War II, in the secret-filled world of the New York City shipyards. The story revolves around a young woman, Annie [Kerrigan], who becomes the first female Naval diver; her father Eddie, who goes missing; and a gangster named Dexter Styles. "There's this sort of shadowy force lurking at the story's periphery, and there's a relentless search for reinvention that seems to appear in all her novels," Kass said. "There's always her very poignant writing, and dialogue that is just spot-on.""Manhattan Beach" is "very much a sea novel ... The book is teeming with those who earn their living on the water: sailors, shipbuilders, gangster-types sinking bodies to the bottom of the sea."Egan "really displays a mastery in how she puts together her books. There's a huge amount of research — I always learn something in a Jennifer Egan novel. In 'Manhattan Beach,' you learn how to search for a body underwater, how to run a nightclub ... All of this is very casually deployed, but her fiction really buzzes with these factual cross-currents.""I found 'Manhattan Beach' to be a good, old-fashioned page-turner." Manhattan BeachManhattan Beach

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Nathan Montoya, co-owner of Village Lights Bookstore in Madison, Ind.National Poetry Month may have drawn to a close in April, but bookseller Nathan Montoya has a poetry collection to read year-round: Ross Gay's "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.""My simplest review would be: Elegant, accessible, transcendent, earthy, heart-rending, joyful and downright fertilizing," Montoya said. Gay "weaves a very colorful tapestry of reflection on everyday life, not so much elevating but revealing the universal, the sublime in what we might normally consider mundane detail." The collection offers "very down-to-earth poetry, very accessible ... wonderful in its simplicity.""The first poem in the book portrays a joyful celebration of the entire human family under a fig tree, on a street corner," Montoya recounted. "And I'll tell you, I'll never look at a fig the same way again."[He] can make you cry and make you laugh within a few stanzas. Kind of like haiku, in its apparent simplicity, it can open a door of perception to a broad vista."Ross Gay is a gardener, and he works with the economy and elegance of a good gardener. Using the most trivial of natural images or just everyday, workaday human interactions, he surprises us, plunges us, pushes us unexpectedly down a personal footpath of the heart." The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jinny Amundson, one of the owners of Old Fox Books in Annapolis, Md.Jinny Amundson loves "that great armchair adventure type of novel."And it's even better when the story is true.That's the case with her latest recommendation: Candice Millard's "The River of Doubt."It offers a nonfiction account of Theodore Roosevelt's trip through the Amazon. He took up the task after he lost the election, and after he was shot — "when he was looking for another adventure."Amundson said the book captures all of the things the expedition did wrong and all of the dangers they faced. "The journey that he took — even now, there is no way that I would have ever done what he did."At points, it seemed like the trip might be Roosevelt's last. "They thought they were going to die. There was a point where Teddy Roosevelt, as wonderful and fantastic as he is with this take-charge-Rough Riders attitude, even he was sort of beaten by the Amazon and the river."Millard is "a ridiculously good writer," Amundson said. "The way she's able to make it a travelogue as well as talking about the ecology, the geography, the actual cultures — you get a bit of anthropology as well — and weave it all together with a biography of Teddy Roosevelt."There's something very beautiful about being able to do that." The River of Doubt The River of Doubt

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jessica Cox, a bookseller at Plot Twist Bookstore in Ankeny, Iowa."Dread Nation" tells the story of a young girl named Jane in the aftermath of the Civil War.But this Civil War doesn't follow what the history books say. In "Dread Nation," the war ends at the Battle of Gettysburg, when the dead begin to rise and the zombie apocalypse begins."Not only is it fantasy and fun and zombies," said bookseller Jessica Cox. "But you are also dealing with a nation that was split in half, trying to figure out how to work together when you don't see eye-to-eye."The book takes on the issue of race relations, in the chaos of the zombie epidemic. The people in charge establish combat schools that are similar, Cox said, to the federal boarding schools where young Native Americans were once sent. The schools are filled with black and mixed-race students who were once slaves. At the schools "they teach them to fight zombies, and then they are indentured out to wealthy families as servants and bodyguards and companions."It wasn't just the concept that drew her, Cox said, but the writing: "I love to see well-written books do well on the best-seller list.""I thought the characters were unbelievably well done. It's a very quick read." Dread Nation Dread Nation

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Danny Caine, the owner of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan.Europa Editions has done it again.After introducing Elena Ferrante to the U.S. — helping to ignite a worldwide Ferrante fever — the publisher of works in translation has a new epic to devour.Danny Caine, owner of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan., said his shop is a big fan of Europa's catalog, and of their latest offering: "Disoriental" by Negar Djavadi. The book is translated from French."Disoriental" tells the story of Kimia, "a refugee who has immigrated from Iran to Paris with her family," Caine said. "The book opens when she is in the waiting room of a fertility clinic ... and the story of her exile from Iran to Paris is told in flashbacks around the framing device of her in the clinic.""Through the story of her and her family fleeing, we kind of get the whole story of the Iranian Revolution, but in an intimate and moving way."Kimia "is a really amazing protagonist. ... She loves punk rock. She spends a lot of the time in the book coming to terms with her own sexuality. There's a lot of humor in the book, as well. She has a lot of outsized characters in her family, so it's just this big family epic that balances an intimate coming-of-age story with the sweep of an entire nation."The book tells not only Kimia's story, but "the whole story of 20th century Iran as well.""I think fans of Elena Ferrante would like this a lot, too, because it's a story about a very strong woman, very well told," Caine said. "It's also the intersection of national politics with personal identity. I love that about Ferrante, and I love this about 'Disoriental' as well. There's a little bit of Zadie Smith, too, in some of the humor and mixing of the gregarious family history with an intimate personal story." DisorientalDisoriental

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Anne Waters at Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, S.C.Anne Waters recommends a novel set in the hills of western North Carolina, which she hopes will travel far beyond the region.It's "Gods of Howl Mountain," by Taylor Brown.Waters fell in love with Brown's writing in his first novel, "Fallen Land." "It's a Civil War novel — which I avoid like the plague — but I'm here to tell you it is an absolutely rip-roaring wonderful book."With "Gods of Howl Mountain," Waters says Brown has hit his stride again.The novel unfolds in the 1950s, tracing the story of Rory Docherty, who lost his leg in the Korean War and returns home to Appalachia to make a living as a bootlegger.He moves in with his grandmother, Maybelline, who is "a folk healer, but through her past, she's really a survivor." The story of Maybelline's life, and what happened to her daughter — Rory's mother — is an undercurrent that runs through the novel. Brown's descriptions of Rory's bad deeds, running whiskey and drag racing in the mountains, have a folkloric feel to them, Waters said. "It's in the tradition of Ron Rash and another less well-known writer, Wiley Cash. They're all marvelous storytellers.""At the crux of the novel is just this great atmospheric story, that kind of sucks you into the world, and you're rooting for the good guys, and you can just smell and breathe the bad guys. It's just a lot of fun." Gods of Howl MountainGods of Howl Mountain

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Val Stadick, the owner of Main Street Books in Minot, N.D.Imagine you hear about a psychic — a psychic famous for predicting the exact date of one's death.Would you go? Would you want to know?That tantalizing but unsettling premise is at the heart of Chloe Benjamin's "The Immortalists."The novel follows the four Gold siblings, who come of age in 1960s New York City. They take a group outing to a traveling psychic one afternoon to hear their fortunes. She delivers — but in uncomfortable detail, down to the date of their deaths."This is a book our whole staff was very excited to see come in the store, because the premise really intrigued us," Val Stadick said."The Immortalists" explores the burden of knowing, and how that knowledge shapes every decision the siblings make as they grow up. The two youngest Golds leave for San Francisco, to become a magician and a dancer."Benjamin really captures the city in the 70s. She also touched a lot upon the very difficult aspects of that time, which included the spread of AIDS," Stadick said.Meanwhile, the oldest siblings become a doctor and a scientist, studying longevity and tracking down clues about the psychic herself. The book "raises a lot of questions about the choices we make in life and about fate," Stadick said. "She creates characters that stick with you for a long time after the book is finished — but I really like that she doesn't hand you the answers."The ImmortalistsThe Immortalists

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Steve Iwanski from Turnrow Book Co. in Greenwood, Miss.Steve Iwanski has been a fan of Michael Farris Smith since he picked up Smith's novel "Rivers" in 2013."Rivers" unfolds in a flooded town, besieged by hurricanes — "which seems eerily predictive now," Iwanski says. There's a singular style to Smith's writing, as well."Whereas other writers have a beginning, middle and end, Smith's books are all end. They start where a lot of books would have their climax." Iwanski is excited about Smith's latest, "The Fighter," which is set in the Mississippi Delta."You've got a down-on-his-luck, beat-up old prize fighter, who loses $12,000 that he needed to pay off his ruthless boss that sets up these fights.""Backed into a corner, running out of options, his body deteriorating, he reaches out with one desperate last attempt to settle things and save the one woman who was ever family to him. So it's gritty, it's dark, but there's a slight glimmer of redemption for him and for the other characters."The Fighter The Fighter

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Clarrissa Cropper of Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury, Mass.Clarrissa Cropper recommends an eye-opening read on the state of education: "Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools," by Monique Morris.Morris, she said, has worked for years with young girls of color, and this book gives "firsthand accounts of experiences of these young women in schools."The book explores "how schools are sometimes not sensitive to what's going on at home," Cropper said. "[Schools] are quick to say: 'You're suspended for acting out, for this behavior.' But they don't know what's really going in the lives of these young women." Cropper said "Pushout" traces how factors at home "affect their ability to be at school, and be surrounded by the pressures of classmates, teachers, homework." "We as a people, once we know what is going on, we know how we can better help them and serve them and be a better resource to them.""Pushout" is now out in paperback. PushoutPushout