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I read Crow Talk very slowly not wanting the words to ever end. Between the beauty of Beauty Bay and the cozy caretaker cottage and the facts about birds and especially crows, the story of Frankie was a touching tale of nature and love. Frankie has suffered a set back with her dissertation on spotted owls and sadly doesn’t know what to do next except escape to her family’s old summer home on the bay. Every page glows with the breathtaking view of the natural world and when Frankie rescues a young crow, the healing begins for Frankie and the neighbor Anne with her son Aiden. Besides the wonder of nature, this story dwells on family and healing and love and will be remembered by all who luckily read these words.

Crow Talk by Eileen Garvin, (List Price: $28, Dutton, 9780593473887, April 2024)

Reviewed by Nancy Pierce, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia

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King-Miller’s The Z Word captures the same cackling, DIY, gory energy of the first time I ever watched Return of the Living Dead. Set during the sweltering energy of small-town, Southwestern Pride, Wendy finds herself experiencing the start of the zombie apocalypse in the midst of Pride festivities. There’s found family, betrayal, and evil corporations, all centered around the fun bonding activity of hitting zombies with your car.

The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller, (List Price: $16.99, Quirk Books, 9781683694076, May 2024)

Reviewed by Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Savannah, Georgia

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Anyone who has an idol has dreamed of finding them, alone and down on their luck, and becoming the only person they can trust. In many books this is the start of a daydream romance. In The Band, it is the start of dizzying, darkly humorous nightmare. Ma-Kellams’ fiction debut is an incisive examination of stardom, fandom, and parasocial relationships, both in K-pop and in ways applicable to a wide array of cultural phenomena, and it goes deeper than the hand-wringing to be found on social media. This book lays bare what drives real people to adore, and ultimately strive to possess, the projected “selves” of celebrities: dissatisfaction with reality that stems from loneliness, unhappiness, and the desire to adore and be adored at a level impossible to truly achieve. Our elusive narrator does not step fully into the frame until chapter seven, but she relates the interlocking histories of two Kpop groups with intimate knowledge that suggests either that she is omniscient or practicing the stan’s art of investigating and projecting what goes on behind the scenes of fame. As brutally honest–or at least blunt–as she can be, the narrator hardly touches on the most emotionally charged moments of her life, the roots of her own discontent. She breezes past them with (feigned?) nonchalance or elides them with footnotes and hints about her “next novel.” She appears to bare all while dodging true vulnerability–and isn’t that the point? She, like so many, is standing on the precipice of relinquishing herself to fantasy. Ma-Kellams’ prose is arch and clever, studded with research and footnotes, but it never feels overdone or gimmicky. The style is true to the novel’s heart. Her turns of phrase alternately made me laugh out loud and marvel at the depth of insight in a handful of words. While white American celebrities get special treatment, Korean celebrities in LA do not: “If said talent hails from some other part of the world, on the other hand, everyone gets treated as an equal, meaning, a nobody. The opposite of a somebody is an egalitarian.” It is ultimately this book’s compassion that allows its cultural critique to land. We see real sadness and human need in our narrator and her wayward celebrity houseguest. We see the real human cost of the system that entices and entraps idols and their idolators. I devoured this book in a few sittings, but I will be thinking about it for much, much longer.

The Band by Christine Ma-Kellams, (List Price: $27, Atria Books, 9781668018378, April 2024)

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

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This pocket-size book takes just an hour or two to read, structurally spans a day and a night, but holds half a century’s wisdom about bookselling. Paul Yamazaki has been the principal book buyer at Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s iconic City Lights bookstore in San Francisco for 50 years. This brief but complex and consequential collection of interviews with a venerable bookseller of color who’s experienced so much is a gift to all who love bookstores.

Reading the Room by Paul Yamazaki, (List Price: $13.95, Ode Books, 9781958846698, May 2024)

Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton , Georgia

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Well! I was so excited to be asked to be a part of this book! I wasn’t sure what to expect but it exceeded expectations! I am humbled to be in such great company. One of the best things about my job is the people. Book people are the actual best! This book proves it. Fierce, intelligent people across the country were interviewed about their jobs in the book world. We may live far apart, but the message is the same. We care about people reading. We will move heaven and earth to get children to read. We are compassionate and empathetic people who take the time to listen to customers’ stories. I love this world and am so excited to get people to understand how important books and their book pimps are.

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and LibrariansThe Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians by James Patterson, (List Price: $30, Little Brown and Company, 9780316567534, April 2024)

Reviewed by Suzanne Lucey, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina

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Powerful and devastating. The language is so concise and brilliantly moving. Every word makes a massive impact in this slim, arresting poem.

The BrushThe Brush by Eliana Hernández-Pachón, (List Price: $17, Archipelago, 9781953861863, March 2024)

Reviewed by Emily Tarr, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama

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A poem, a prayer, a plea to the universe. Beautifully illustrated and sure the be a beloved gift.

May You Love and Be Loved by Cleo Wade, (List Price: $18.99, Feiwel & Friends, 9781250873958, May 2024)

Reviewed by Michelle Cavalier, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana

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I loved Once Upon A Broken Heart and was very excited to receive a review copy of The Ballad of Never After. Stephanie Garber has done an amazing job of bringing fairy tales to life along with the curses intertwined within them. Garber didn’t just bring one story to life but a story within a story, within another story. Fairy tales are not all gold and glitter, and you see this more so in The Ballad of Never After. You fall in love with all the characters, whether they are “good” or “bad.” I really hope there is a third book in this series, and I am impatiently waiting for it.

The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber, (List Price: $13.99, Flatiron Books, 9781250268433, March 2024)

Reviewed by Mandy Harris, Angel Wings Bookstore in Summerville, North Carolina

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The story is already so creative with its twists and turns, but the illustrations are key to understanding this lively story. The weird little kid? The weird townspeople? The weird spider? Perfect combo. Jess Hannigan is definitely someone to keep an eye on!

Spider in the Well by Jess Hannigan, (List Price: $19.99, Katherine Tegen Books, 9780063289475, March 2024)

Reviewed by Jamie Kovacs, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina