Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Peggy Stout, a co-owner of Prairie Pages in Pierre, S.D.Stout's recommendation is one you may have heard of: "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman. The Swedish book hit shelves two years ago, and just keeps on selling. A film adaptation followed last year. More: Story of a grumpy old man becomes a hit film in Sweden The novel is the story of a grump — a curmudgeon, a crab, a stick-in-the-mud, whatever you prefer. His gruff exterior is put to the test when a young family moves in next door, and promptly crushes his mailbox with their moving truck."When I sell this book, I like to tell people: Keep an open mind, and don't judge him. Yes, he's cranky. Yes, he's a little bitter. But at the same time, as you grow to fall in love with him in a way, you find that he has a heart as big as the world," Stout said."So many times, we overlook older people, as if they've already lived their lives. But I think sometimes when you read a book like this, you find out they're very young inside in so many ways. They've been hurt, they're searching for things. I think sometimes we forget about that.""This book, to me, made me feel again for an older person and how much they have gone through in their lives."Because recommending just one book is nigh impossible for a bookseller, Stout is also excited about "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles, "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead, "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance, "Truevine" by Beth Macy and a pair of books from Jojo Moyes: "Me Before You" and "After You." Man Called OveMan Called Ove

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country to find out about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jason Foose of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz.Foose doesn't just want to recommend "How to Set a Fire and Why" to everyone he knows — he wants to throw it at anyone who walks through the door. It's that good.Jesse Ball's novel is a coming-of-age story and a thriller, Foose said. He describes it as part "Perks of Being a Wallflower," part Chuck Palahniuk, of "Fight Club" fame."It feels like one of the freshest voices I've come across in a long time."The novel follows Lucia Stanton, a teenage girl with a chaotic home life who finds herself involved with a secret arson club at her new school.Lucia is "probably one of my favorite characters I've ever read about. I just want to keep hearing more of her sideways way of looking at the world." She's "a new Holden Caulfield, except, in my opinion, a little bit more insightful and a little bit more emotional."When Foose finished reading the book, he immediately wanted to re-read it. Ball has "a way with words that feels completely unique," he said. How to Set a Fire and Why How to Set a Fire and Why

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Josh Christie of Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine.Josh Christie and Emily Russo opened Print in Portland, Maine, just two weeks ago — and it's been a really good two weeks, Christie said. His recommendation of the movement is Wesley Lowery's "They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement." The book was born out of The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of police shootings last year, Christie said. Lowery himself made headlines when he was arrested while covering protests in Ferguson, Mo. In "They Can't Kill Us All," he expands on the work he did for the newspaper. "He spent a year conducting hundreds of interviews in Ferguson, Cleveland, Baltimore, all over the place," Christie said. "It's really the first book that's a deep dive into the activists of the Black Lives Matter movement and the police on the other side of these conflicts. It's the first really deeply reported book about the crisis in police shootings that's going on."

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with James Collins of The Writer's Block in Las Vegas.James Collins is a big fan of Chinese literature. Sometimes, however, he thinks the genre trends toward despair. "There's a pattern in Chinese literature of all the books being really sad," Collins said. That's why he's excited to recommend Ge Fei's "The Invisibility Cloak": The novel is a comedy.It follows a middle-aged man with nothing good going on in his life, until his friend offers him a mysterious job."It's a really accurate depiction of modern Beijing," Collins explained. Collins visits China at least once a year, and one thing that always impresses him is how rapidly the country changes. "The Invisibility Cloak" taps into that.The book explores "how China has changed since the 1990s," he said. While Ge Fei may not be a widely known name in the U.S., his book is an ideal read for anyone who likes Haruki Murakami, J.D. Salinger, Paul Auster or George Saunders.Collins is also excited about "Ancient Tillage," by Raduan Nassar, which will be published in January. It tells the story of a young man growing up on an isolated farm in Brazil with his deeply religious family.

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Kate Schlademan, owner of The Learned Owl in Hudson, Ohio.Kate Schlademan, owner of The Learned Owl, has a young adult novel recommendation for the holiday season: "Kids of Appetite" by David Arnold.The book follows a young boy, Vic, who is reeling after the death of his father. When his mother announces she's getting remarried, he takes off with his father's ashes — and nothing else. No phone, no money, no plan.He falls in with a group of homeless kids."They form their own little family group and they take care of each other," Schaldeman said. They help Vic decide where to spread his father's ashes, in the places around town he loved the most."It's one of those books that just really pulls at your heartstrings," Schlademan said. "It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, and I think it's a very realistic picture of real issues that kids are dealing with nowadays." Kids of AppetiteKids of Appetite

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Benn Ray, one of the owners of Atomic Books in Baltimore.When Benn Ray was a teenager growing up in suburbia in the '80s, he'd occasionally stumble across the remains of a fire and a pentagram spray-painted on a tree.To adults at the time, that was terrifying."There was this paranoid wave that swept America, that Satanists were out there and they were coming for us," Ray explained."When you told your parents about that, your parents would freak out and insist there were Satanists in the woods. To them, that seemed like a more logical assumption than, say, a bunch of metal kids hanging out in the woods getting high — which is what it turned out to be."Ray recommends a new collection of essays that addresses the paranoia and panic that gripped the country: "Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s," edited by Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe.It's a fascinating read for "anybody who lived through the '80s and '90s, and anybody that is curious about public paranoia."Satanic PanicSatanic Panic

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Bruce DeLaney of Rediscovered Books in Boise, IdahoTen years ago, Bruce DeLaney gave up a career as a physicist to open a bookstore with his wife. He considers it one of the best decisions he's ever made.Rediscovered Books sits just down the street from Idaho's capitol building in Boise. DeLaney sees a wide range of customers cycle through, from hunting and fishing enthusiasts to lawmakers to members of the shop's human rights book club.DeLaney himself reads a lot of history and science fiction, but a new YA title from Sharon Cameron caught his eye this fall: "The Forgetting." It's set in a world where a mysterious plant grows."Every so often, this plant releases a pollen that causes all of the people to forget everything. You forget who you are, you forget what you can do, you forget who your family is. You basically wake up and you know nothing," DeLaney explained."So everyone carries around these journals that they keep that talk about: 'Who am I? Who do I know? What is my history?'"The main character is a girl who doesn't forget. When this pollen causes everyone else to forget everything, she doesn't. She's also one of the very few people who knows that not everyone is truthful in these journals."It's this whole interesting science fiction book about identity and who we are and what is truth and what is history. It's all of these really, really interesting and meaty issues," DeLaney explained. "It's a really great example for people who think: 'Teen books are just for kids.' No. I would recommend this to any science fiction customers who come in."But because DeLaney is a history buff, he had another recommendation to add to the list: Mary Beard's "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.""It gives a history of Rome as the Romans saw it," he said. "What did Cicero think of Roman history? What did Caesar think of Roman history? What did Nero think of Roman history? And how did what they thought about the history of Rome influence Roman cultural moving forward?"It's a fascinating way to look at the history of a people. It would be like looking at our American history and saying what did Lincoln think about American history? What did Kennedy think of American history? What did Martin Luther King think of American history?"For Bruce DeLaney's full recommendation on "The Forgetting," use the audio player above.Buy "The Forgetting"The ForgettingThe ForgettingBuy "SPQR"SPQRSPQR

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Cody Morrison of Square Books in Oxford, Miss.Mary Mann Hamilton tried to publish her memoir of life as a pioneer in the Mississippi Delta in 1933 — but Little, Brown turned it down.This summer however, 83 years later, the publishing company put it in print: "Trials of the Earth." Cody Morrison of Square Bank Books in Oxford, Miss., says the Delta is best known as the birthplace of the blues and a big farming region, but Hamilton's account takes place when it was "just this sort of untameable wilderness."Hamilton moved to the Delta in the late 1800s with her husband and children."She survived tornadoes, bears, panthers, snakes, floods. She lost a few of her children. It was a very hard life, but she's a beautiful writer. Even though it's a simple record, it's fascinating," Morrison said."The writing is surprisingly good, because she wasn't a particularly well-educated person. But it has her unique voice that you sort of want to simmer a little bit."Trials of the EarthTrials of the Earth

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Hilary Gustafson, an owner of the Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, Mich.Karan Mahajan's "The Association of Small Bombs" just hit shelves in paperback. The novel is on the longlist for the National Book Awards, and Gustafson says anyone with a taste for literary fiction should pick it up."It's just kind of like a punch in the gut," she said. "It's intricately devastating ... It's absolutely brilliant. It's the story of a single small bomb in a small market in Delhi, and it cuts deep into the unruly mess of loss — both physically and psychologically."Mahajan's book follows the aftermath of the bombing, tracing ripples of grief and conflict. The novel jumps between the family of two boys killed in the blast, the boys' friend who survived and the bomber himself. "The characters within are scorched by a dazzling amount of suffering, but you're really caught up in their lives," she said. "It's an examination of the consequences of really small decisions, and it explores the indiscriminate nature of terror, which is extremely timely today."Gustafson said that although it's a difficult read, she couldn't turn away. "I remember I was on a plane when I finished the last page, and I just put the book down and was like: 'I need to talk to someone about this book! It's amazing!'"The Association of Small BombsThe Association of Small Bombs

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Shane Mullen of Left Bank Books in St. Louis.Kea Wilson joins the grand tradition of booksellers-turned-authors with her debut novel, "We Eat Our Own." (Critically acclaimed authors like Jonathan Lethem have put in time behind the counter at bookstores, and authors like Louise Erdrich and Ann Patchett even own their own shops.)Shane Mullen, who works at Left Bank Books in St. Louis with Wilson, says "We Eat Our Own" is "a creepy, atmospheric, dark look at the Amazon and filmmaking."The novel is loosely based on a real horror movie where the filming went awry: "Cannibal Apocalypse." In the book, the actors and crew are dropped into an isolated village deep in the Amazon with little direction and, in some cases, not even a script. In addition to the insects and wildlife lurking in the dense foliage, there are also Colombian drug runners whose routes run perilously close to the set.The line between what's staged and what's real gets erased in the chaos, and "whether people are innocent or not is quite a topic of debate," Mullen says. Mullen is also excited about another Missouri-based author, Laura McHugh, and her eerie novel, "Arrowood."McHugh's novel follows Arden, a woman who returns to her small hometown of Keokuk, Iowa, and is confronted with the tragedy that just won't stay in the past. When Arden was small, her younger twin sisters disappeared, and the case was never solved. Arden "doesn't know what's going on, and has been told all these stories and has been followed by reporters for much of her life," Mullen said. The book gives off that "small town feel of 'everybody knows you, everybody knows what you're doing, everybody's watching you at all times.' It's a really great mystery that I think encapsulates the Midwest experience."Buy "We Eat Our Own"We Eat Our Own We Eat Our OwnBuy "Arrowood"Arrowood Arrowood

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Tom Nissley of Phinney Books in Seattle.There's one request that Tom Nissley has trouble filling."When you're a bookseller, one of the most frequent questions — and one of the hardest ones — is when people say: 'I want a happy book.' Especially because I often like books that aren't happy," he said.But Joan London's "The Golden Age" fits the bill.It may not seem like a happy story, on its face. It's set in a children's polio hospital in western Australia in the 1950s. "It's a complex book about complex people, but there is a goodness to a lot of people in the story — and to the story itself — that is kind of refreshing," Phinney said.The book centers on the kids in the hospital, their families and the hospital staff. At the heart of it is a relationship between two young patients."There's nothing else to call it but a love affair," Phinney said. "It's not physical, but it's absolutely compelling and believable and feels authentic. And that's something that you don't read every day."Golden AgeGolden Age

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Carson Evans of the Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Mont.Debut novelists sometimes get a bad rap, but Carson Evans is a champion of the first-timer."People assume they're not as practiced," she said. "But I love debuts."Her fall book pick is a debut novel from Brit Bennett: "The Mothers." "This one in particular is just amazing. I hope she writes hundreds and hundreds more books for me," Evans laughed."The Mothers" follows three young adults who must grapple with the consequences of a single decision they made in high school. Bennett explores the many facets motherhood throughout the book, presenting "a beautiful portrayal of what it means to be a mother."And while the story is fascinating, it was the writing that sold Evans. "The way the words are put together is so beautiful. It's like reading poetry, but in an approachable and wonderful way," she said.The MothersThe Mothers

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Samantha Flynn of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, N.C.Samantha Flynn already has her pick for who should win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction: Amor Towles for "A Gentleman in Moscow."Towles' novel follows Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to house arrest for life in an elegant hotel near the Kremlin. His crime? Writing a poem that was deemed to promote revolt."What ensues is a narrative of how the Count adapts to this life sentence, as well as a piercing satire of the revolution and its aftermath," Flynn said. "I think this a gem, a literary jewel, and I want everyone to read it." Flynn puts Towles in the same league as Tolstoy, Dickens, Woolf and Wharton for his way with language.But of course, as a bookseller, Flynn couldn't recommend just one book. She's also enamored with "The Book That Matters Most" by Ann Hood. Hood's novel follows a woman named Ava, who is reeling from a failed marriage and other family issues. But instead of withdrawing into herself, she joins a book club. The book club's theme for the year is "the book that matters most," and every month a member chooses a book that is central to her life.Hood begins each section with a quote from one of those books, and she ties it into the overall plot of Ava and her family trials."It's really quote a brilliant plot, and one of the most involved and creative I've seen in a long time," Flynn said.

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jean Ann Robison of the Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City.Jean Ann Robison has worked at Full Circle Books for more than 20 years. She doesn't usually read nonfiction, but a new book by one of her favorite authors, Candice Millard, caught her eye.The book, "Hero of the Empire," dives into the early life and adventures of Winston Churchill, before he became a household name and world leader.One of the most fascinating accounts comes from his time as a journalist in South Africa, when he was captured during the Boer War. He planned a daring escape, which reads like something out of "Indiana Jones," Robison said."You couldn't make up a more fascinating, unbelievable story than this," she said.Hero of the EmpireHero of the Empire

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Star Lowe of Star Line Books in Chattanooga, Tenn.Star Lowe is really busy — or, as they say in Chattanooga, she is "scattered, smothered, covered and chunked."She opened her downtown bookstore just over a year ago, and has been "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" ever since. She's barely even had time to read — which is why she started Star Line Books in the first place.But when a children's book landed on her desk this month, she dropped everything.It's called "A Child of Books," and its written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. It tells the story, in sweeping illustrations, of a little girl who sails her raft across a sea of words. Those words in the waves will be familiar to older readers — the waters are made up of quotes from nursery rhymes, lullabies and children's classics like "The Wind in the Willows." The little girl meets a boy on the shore, and calls him on to new adventures.The book is a giant love letter to reading, which is just what Lowe needed."I have read less in the last two years than I've read since I learned to read," she said. "The beauty of children's books and short stories and poems — it's that I can read those in one sitting and feel like, 'Yes! I am getting something read!'"This is a great book, and it's going to entertain children, but it's also going to reaffirm for adult readers why we do it — why we read and why we love it so."A Child of BooksA Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers & Sam Winston Book Trailer

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Kevin Elliott of 57th Street Books in Chicago.If people are looking for "a little something offbeat," bookseller Kevin Elliott has you covered.Pick up "The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time," by Steven Sherrill.It's about a minotaur — yes, that thousands-of-years-old mythological creature from the labyrinth — working a dead-end job as a Civil War re-enactor.Elliott recommends it for fans of Colson Whitehead's earlier books or fans of Neil Gaiman. It's perfect for "people who are looking for a quiet story they've really never seen before.""The premise is absurd, and that's really the only thing about the book that is absurd," he said. "You see these flashbacks to the minotaur's time in the maze and his struggling with violence and solitary urges, but [Sherrill] very quickly transposes that onto what every human being looking for a connection and a friendship is struggling with inside." The book is actually a sequel to 2000's cult hit, "The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break." Both are great, Elliott said — but there's no need to read them in order.The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet TimeThe Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jan Weissmiller and Tim Budd of Prairie Lights in Iowa City. The bookstore is in the same town as Iowa's famed writing workshop, and is widely praised for their well-curated selection.Weissmiller has found herself recommending a book of poetry recently — even to people who aren't big poetry readers. It's James Galvin's "Everything We Always Knew Was True.""His poems are characterized by a plain-spokenness, but I want to say that they're deceptively plain-spoken because really it's not that easy to say something meaningful plainly," said Weismiller, who is one of the owners of Prairie Lights.Budd, a bookseller at the shop for more than two decades, recommended Dan Vyleta's novel "Smoke." The book is set in a world where wicked thoughts actually manifest as black smoke in the air."It's haunted me all summer," Budd said. "It's a very elegant novel, set in historical England, very Dickensian and character-driven and just an exciting, thrilling, epic, chewy read. What we all look for in a good novel." For the Prairie Lights booksellers full recommendations, use the audio player above.

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Cathy Langer of the Tattered Cover in Denver.Langer shared the book that she's been personally recommending to readers looking for something "sweet but also with substance."The book is "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" by Joanna Cannon. It's set in the U.K. in the summer of 1976, and it follows two young girls who take it upon themselves to investigate the disappearance of their neighbor by going door to door and asking questions, while masquerading as Brownies.Langer recommends it to "anyone who is looking for a slightly lighter read but something that's exquisitely written." Readers who enjoyed the recent hit "A Man Called Ove," by Fredrik Backman, will also love "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep," Langer said — it's a "light novel with a deep undercurrent." The Trouble with Goats and SheepThe Trouble with Goats and Sheep