Book Buzz

Spotlight On: Real Americans by Rachel Khong

Adult Fiction, Asian American & Pacific Islander, Cultural Heritage, Family Life

I know I was technically an adult when I wrote my first book, but Real Americans feels, to me, like the first book I’ve written as an adult. What I mean is that I worked at it diligently and devotedly. It felt more like a marriage—something I committed to, that I worked at—whereas Goodbye, Vitamin felt like flings, stolen moments. Even when I was at my busiest I made sure to carve out an hour in the mornings to write. On mornings I did the opening shift at The Ruby, I would make the communal pot of coffee, then place myself in the “podcast room” (this tiny dark closet hung with egg cartons and moving blankets) and write. For the first couple years, I only had those daily hours. And in the last years of writing the book it required more: three to four hours, artist residencies. I mean that in the best way, though. I got married a few months before Goodbye, Vitamin was released, and I think I learned a lot about writing a novel by being in my committed relationship. To both marriage and novel writing, there are challenges, annoyances and frustrations, but also really deep satisfaction, joy, belonging, intimacy, transcendence.

― Rachel Khong, The Rumpus

What booksellers are saying about Real Americans

Rachel Khong has spun a tender and intimate multigenerational family portrait that’s simultaneously a trenchant commentary on the contemporary faces of manifest destiny and the American dream. Real Americans plays with language in delightful and provocative ways, with its multiple narrators unknowingly echoing each other, skipping back and forth through time, and at times swapping between first and second person. The result is a gorgeous novel that hits the reader in so many different ways, one of those rare books that makes you think as much as it makes you feel.
― Akil Guruparan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia | BUY
Basically I opened Rachel Khong’s Real Americans on a Friday afternoon and was annoyed with every distraction–feeding my baby, answering emails, sleeping!–until I closed it, finished, the following Sunday night. What do I love in a novel? Fascinating research, intergenerational conflict/questions/challenges, surprising plot twists, and exquisitely developed characters. Real Americans has it all.
― Laura Cotten, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama | BUY
There are moments in life when choices must be made and most make decisions to the best of their ability. Rachel Khong’s highly anticipated Real Americans tells the story of three generations whose crucial choices, made out of love and best intentions chart courses that are life-changing and at times hurtful. At once a cautionary tale on potential genetic editing as well as a grand family story contemplating what it means to truly be American, Real Americans is filled with characters who are almost too brave who deny their truth to protect others.
― Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia | BUY
What initially appears to be a modern-day fairytale – Chinese-American girl meets rich white boy and falls in love – quickly becomes so much more in this nuanced, multi-generational family saga. Spanning more than 60 years and two continents, and told from three distinctive viewpoints, Real Americans is a powerful novel that raises questions about wealth, ambition, love, genetic engineering, and to what extent it’s possible to shape someone else to be who you want them to be.
― Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi | BUY

About Rachel Khong

Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR; O, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue; and Esquire. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Cut, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and Tin House. In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. She lives in California.

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Spotlight On: Olivetti by Allie Millington

Children, Depression & Mental, Family, Juvenile Fiction, Parents, Social Themes

Allie Millington, photo courtesy the author

Something that has shaped much of my writing is asking the question, “Who have we never heard a story from before?” There were many reasons why I chose to share a typewriter’s untold side of the story, one of them being because I thought typewriters would naturally have many stories to tell (as they’re full of them).

Countless people across history and across the world have a personal connection or fondness toward these charming, clacking machines — and yet, most kids have never had the opportunity to use one. One hope I have for Olivetti is that it can be a bridge between generations, and create opportunities for readers both young and old to share in the nostalgia and power of passing down memories that typewriters bring just by being themselves.

― Allie Millington, Bookweb

What booksellers are saying about Olivetti

All About Olivetti! The beautiful cover art belies the beautiful story. Olivetti tells the story of a family missing connections and how they find their way to new, deeper relationships with each other. plus a magical vintage typewriter! What more could you ask for?!
― Susan Williams, M Judson, Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina | BUY
I love this sweet, unique book! Young Ernest is shy and dealing with his family’s secrets doesn’t help. When Ernest’s mom drops off the family’s beloved typewriter Olivetti at the pawn shop and then disappears, the whole family is thrown into an emotional whirlwind. Ernest and Olivetti team up to find out where mom is and why she left. This story will steal your heart – I never expected to have such strong feelings about a sentient typewriter!
― Andrea Richardson, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia | BUY
A wholly original and utterly charming middle grade novel that will hit you right in the feels. It’s a got a little bit of a mystery, a family that’s lost its way, and a plucky typewriter who breaks the rules of his kind trying to help.
― Melissa Taylor, E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georgia | BUY
I picked this book up for two reasons: the stunning cover and the comp to Jasmine Warga’s A Rover’s Story. No surprise that it was so well done. With a complex familial theme that pulls at your heart strings and an anthropomorphized typewriter that you wanted so badly to befriend, this book had me hooked. It felt like the hug you get from The Vanderbeekers meets the wonder that you experience reading A Rover’s Story.
― Olivia Schaffer, The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia | BUY
Devoured in one sitting. I don’t know what I expected, but this beautiful book was not it. The kind of hope and heartbreak and love that gets you in the corners of your heart and makes you want to laugh and cry all at once.
― Lauren Brown, The Story Shop, LLC in Monroe, Georgia | BUY

About Allie Millington

Allie Millington first wrote Olivetti on her own antique typewriter, who turned out to have an awful lot to say. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and their fluffy dog. You can find her on Instagram: @alliemillington or online at http://www.alliemillington.com.

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Spotlight On: Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

Coming of Age, Fiction, Hispanic & Latino, Literary Fiction, Multiple Timelines

Xochitl Gonzalez, photo by Mayra Castillo

While this is absolutely a work of fiction, it comes from a deeply personal place to me. In some ways, this book has been percolating inside me since my own grandparents moved me from our walk-up in Brooklyn to College Hill nearly thirty years ago.

It was still, in those days, rare to be a Latina at Brown. I was part of a very small community of minority students that sat inside this larger school: a position that came with the comforts of an intimate collective, but all the challenges of feeling like a visitor to a dominant culture.

― Xochitl Gonzalez, Letter from the author

What booksellers are saying about Anita de Monte Laughs Last

An imaginative, inventive and interesting novel. Imaginative in putting together a historic event with present day significance, inventive in it’s use of magical realism, and interesting in its views on women in the arts, and privileged and unprivileged students in academia.
― Andrea Ginsky, Bookstore Number 1 LLC in Sarasota, Florida | BUY
Two days after I finished listening to this book, headlines broke that artist Carl Andre had died. Based on the life and work of Ana Mendieta and her husband, Carl Andrea, Gonzalez captures the ghostly rage of a woman murdered by her jealous husband while grounding the reader with a contemporary narrative that was extremely compelling.
― Adah Fitzgerald, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina | BUY
Wow, wow, wow. This one has fangs. Anita is pure fire. Add Xoxhitl to your list of authors to watch, if you haven’t already. This is a vibrant revenge/coming-of-age story with dual timelines, mirrored situations, and magical elements. It explores the art world, and who is seen and why. A love song to minority women, to up and coming artists, and to anyone that wants to be seen and heard for who they are, not who they know.
― Krista Roach, E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georgia | BUY
A deeply moving book of art, race, feminism and power in relationships. Raquel is a latina woman at Brown, when she decides to base her senior thesis on famous minimalist artist, Jack Martin, she uncovers his artist wife, Anita De Monte. Martin was accused of murdering Anita and successfully erased both her and her art from history after he was acquitted. A gripping story told from the multiple perspectives of Anita, Jack and Raquel.
― Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida | BUY

About Xochitl Gonzalez

Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming. Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR, Olga Dies Dreaming was the winner of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Fiction and the New York City Book Award. Gonzalez is a 2021 MFA graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her nonfiction work has been published in Elle Decor, Allure, Vogue, Real Simple, and The Cut. Her commentary writing for The Atlantic was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, Gonzalez holds a BA from Brown University and lives in her hometown of Brooklyn with her dog, Hectah Lavoe.

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Spotlight On: The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

Fiction, Hispanic & Latino, Literary Fiction

When I lost sight in one eye, I felt heartbroken that all my unrealized characters and their unfinished stories might not find the light of day. So, very slowly, with great frustration at first as I learned to work in new ways with compromised vision, I created a place where they could finally be finished. This is not my last book, or so I hope. I’m not yet ready to join my characters in the cemetery of untold stories.

― Julia Alvarez, Interview, Publishers Weekly

What booksellers are saying about The Cemetery of Untold Stories

I loved the cemetery setting filled with the characters whose unfinished stories were literally buried because the writer didn’t want to lose her mind with so many voices and tales rambling around in her head. She thought they would lie to rest and leave her be, but instead they burst to life, their stories pouring out to anyone who would listen. Imaginative, moving – a real joy to read!
― Cathy Graham, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida | BUY
Alma, a successful novelist, is haunted by the stories she was never able to finish. When she inherits a plot of land in the Dominican Republic, she decides it is time to put those stories to rest, and creates a cemetery for her unfinished manuscripts. Her stories have other ideas. What follows is a fascinating, compelling examination of the nature of stories–why we tell them, who gets to hear them, and the nature of authorship itself.
― Charlie Marks, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia | BUY
This is a novel idea! An author tries to bury her story but the characters come to life and try to change the plot to something they want. Magically told through this creative and fantastic authors voice you want to jump into the book to live the experience. I just couldn’t put it down. This is one that will stay under my skin for a long time.
― Suzanne Lucey, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina | BUY

About Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer in residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.

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Spotlight On: Rabbit Heart by Kristine S. Ervin

Bereavement, Biography & Autobiography, Death, Family & Relationships, Grief, Memoirs, Murder, True Crime

Kristine S. Ervin, photo credit Jon Erivn

Some stories I’ve told again and again.

Like how the detectives stood in our kitchen, the table piled high with tackle boxes and plastic bags. I was eight then, and they pulled strands of hair from our scalps and held our fingers in their gloved hands. How tiny the arcs of my fingerprints must have been, each one placed in a square on the card, their lines like cresting waves. I remember holding it up to the light above our kitchen table, as if it were a map of some kind, but I never thought to look for letters or for symbols.

But other stories are unsayable. I’ve tried to write about Nina Athanassiades again and again, but the language fails me each time. I tell myself to write around it. To cluster those pieces. But they are simply too beautiful to touch.
― Kristine S. Ervin, Interview, Crime Reads

What booksellers are saying about Rabbit Heart

I could never anticipate how satisfying the ending of this story unfolded. Reading this reminded me of The Postcard by Anne Berest; jaw-dropping simplicity and sincerity directly from a person who survived a major trauma inflicted on their family as truth is revealed that you assume would be lost to the passage of time… Books like this give me hope that beauty can truly overcome even the direst of circumstances. How proud her mother would be of her for pulling together such a triumph of a book: to honor memories of the before, to allow space to heal, and to give voice and power back to those who deserve it..
― Alissa Redmond, South Main Book Company in Salisbury, North Carolina | BUY
It was so beautiful, I could barely breathe. So compelling, I couldn’t put it down—but I ached the entire read. Rabbit Heart pulled power and beauty out of such grief–it’s a work of exceptional writing.
― Kendra Gayle Lee, Bookish Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia | BUY
What James Ellroy’s My Dark Places did for motherless sons, Kristine Ervin’s Rabbit Heart does for motherless daughters. And then some. This memoir is a disturbing, poetic, heartrending examination of how her mother’s murder hit her life like an earthquake, with tremors lingering until the present day..
― Sam Miller, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky | BUY

About Kristine S. Ervin

Kristine S. Ervin grew up in a small suburb of Oklahoma City and now teaches creative writing at West Chester University, outside Philadelphia. She holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and a PhD in creative writing and literature, with a focus in nonfiction, from the University of Houston.

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Spotlight On: Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

Bisexual, Coming of Age, Feminist Fiction, Hispanic & Latino, LGBTQ+

Ursula Villarreal-Moura, photo credit Levi Travieso

I wanted to tell the story of a woman who sometimes wasn’t even the main character of her own life. I think it’s an idea that might resonate with other women of color: We live in a society that values men over women, children over mothers, and white people over people of color. Through fiction, I wanted to explore how that sort of hierarchy devalues women of color and how that shapes a life.
― Ursula Villarreal-Moura, Interview

What booksellers are saying about Like Happiness

A searing debut that deftly explores the effects of an unhealthy relationship between a predatory male writer and a young woman on the cusp of adulthood – I couldn’t stop reading it! The characters in this story are all too real, and post #MeToo we see Tatum grappling to understand her story and the abuse she suffered from the toxic man she viewed as her superior for far too long.
― Maggie Robe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
Like Happiness grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t let go. It’s an intimate exploration of power dynamics and the weight of words, but its fine-tuned attention to perspective and devotion is where it shines. Villarreal-Moura’s debut is a quiet stunner.
― Sarah Arnold, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY
Like Happiness is an incisive and blistering coming of age novel that emanates a quiet and methodical rage. Through Tatum, Ursula Villarreal-Moura explores power imbalance, hero worship, and emotional exploitation in a way that keeps the pages turning, while also grappling deftly with sexuality and race. A searing portrait of a young woman trying to understand herself and the older man who irrefutably tangles her identity with his.
― Gaby Iori, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY

About Ursula Villarreal-Moura

Ursula Villarreal-Moura was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, a flash fiction collection. Like Happiness is her first novel.

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Spotlight On: James by Percival Everett

Adult Fiction, Historical, Literary, Satire

Percival Everett, photo credit Michael Avedon

This is a revisiting of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The more correct answer is, it’s the story of Jim Huck’s slave companion throughout Twain’s novel. How Huck and Jim are not together throughout that novel. And so things happened to Jim away from Huck. To say that it’s a retelling is not precise. To say that it’s a reimagining is not quite correct. It’s finally an opportunity for Jim to be present in the story. I had read [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] first, as a kid. And it didn’t come to me really until just a couple of years ago, shortly before I started this novel, I thought: Jim needs to speak.
― Percival Everett, Interview

What booksellers are saying about James

A necessary look into the life of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’s Jim, or James, told with Percival Everett’s unflinching, poetic, and entertaining prose. The story gives insight into the titular character’s perspective while also serving as a damning look at the deep-seated racial injustices of slavery and the way marginalized characters are portrayed in American fiction. The pages fly by, leading to a triumphant finale that is as impactful as anything I’ve read in years..
― James Harrod, Malaprop’s in Asheville, North Carolina| BUY
Before reading this novel I went back and re-read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Since it had been close to 40 years since I read the book, I was glad that I did because not only had I forgotten much of the story but after reading the synopsis of James, I read it with a different viewpoint. James starts out closely following the story in Huck but about half way through veers off. I thought this was a powerful and thought provoking story and i expect it to be one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year.
― Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa, Florida | BUY
A young boy and an enslaved man escape together and travel the river together on a raft. Sound familiar? This book lovingly reimagines Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from the view of Jim, who in this version becomes James as he and Huck get a second chance at life. Thought provoking, full of adventure, and thoroughly original!
― Patience Allan-Glick, Hills & Hamlets Bookshop / Underground Books Carrollton, Georgia | BUY

About Percival Everett

Percival Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction, the feature film based on his novel Erasure, was released in 2023. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Danzy Senna, and their children

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Spotlight On: When the Jessamine Grows by Donna Everhart

Adult Fiction, Civil War Era, Family Life, Historical, Southern

Donna Everhart, photo credit Maranda Walsh Photography

I set the story during a very familiar timeframe, that of the Civil War, but I feel like it is uniquley different from any other Civil War story.. For one thing, Joetta McBride and her husband Ennis live in Nash County, North Carolina, They are substinance farmers or “yeoman” farmers. That is where you grow your own food to feed yourself and your livestock. Yeoman farmers made up 65% of the population of North Carolina at that time. They did not own slaves, they were neutral and didn’t want anything to do with the war. The other thing about this book that makes it uniquely different is that it’s not about the War. Instead, I write about the families who are left behind women like Joetta McBride, who are required and compelled to keep food on the table, keep the farms running, keep their families together. The American Iraqi activist Zainab Salbi says if we are to understand War then we need to understand not not only what happens on the front lines but what happens on the back lines as well, where women are in charge of keeping the family going. And that is the essence of what this book is about.
― Donna Everhart, at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe

What booksellers are saying about When the Jessamine Grows

Good book! The Confederacy has been on my mind often recently, as there a monument near our bookstore when I bought it three years ago; my store was boycotted during the pandemic when a few folks on the internet determined I was a supporter of it’s removal from our town square, so I could relate to this character’s struggle to remain true to her values while worrying about survival. I hope this book will give many readers new insight into the complexities of Southern women’s existence during the Civil War. Little was recorded for posterity regarding those who did not support the Confederacy’s position on slavery, yet many people did live in the South who did not believe in secession – with some losing their lives to maintain their moral codes; this book helps shed some light on those important stories, which deserve telling.
― Alissa Redmond, South Main Book Company in Salisbury, North Carolina | BUY
Historical fiction at its absolute best! Everhart’s carefully crafted female protagonist shows strength, courage and resolve in the face of the many cruelties of the Civil War. Joetta McBride is not your usual demure Southern Belle. She refuses to take sides in a conflict she feels has nothing to do with her family, while her oldest son is eager to fight for the Southern cause. Once her son flees to fight for the Confederacy, Joetta’s husband also gets caught up in the fight while searching for their son leaving Joetta to care for the farm and remaining family on her own. Facing isolation and destruction from the townspeople for offering water to a Union soldier, Joetta deals with grief, starvation and ruin with grace and grit. Even though she could face dire consequences, she still shows compassion to a young Union soldier who is on the verge of death. Everhart has created a new hero with the unflinching, steadfast and ever-courageous Joetta McBride!
― Sharon Davis, Book Bound Bookstore in Blairsville, Georgia | BUY
Lovers of historical fiction will devour this Civil War-era story that takes place in North Carolina. When everyone is taking sides in the war, Joetta McBride and her husband choose to stay neutral, but when their oldest son leaves against their wishes to join the Confederacy, they are forced to get involved. Joetta is left to run their farm and house while Ennis goes off to hopefully find and bring back their 15-year-old son. Readers will love Joetta’s strong convictions and determination to keep things afloat in the midst of war and upheaval. A great read!
― Mary Patterson, The Little Bookshop in Midlothian, Virginia | BUY

About Donna Everhart

Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking the challenges of the heart and the complex heritage of the American South in her acclaimed novels When the Jessamine Grows, The Saints of Swallow Hill, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, The Forgiving Kind, The Road to Bittersweet, and The Education of Dixie Dupree. She is the recipient of the prestigious SELA Outstanding Southeastern Author Award from the Southeastern Library Association and her novels have received a SIBA Okra Pick, an Indie Next Pick, and two Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selections. Born and raised in Raleigh, she has stayed close to her hometown for much of her life and now lives just an hour away in Dunn, North Carolina.

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Spotlight On: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

Fantasy, Vampires, Young Adult Fiction

For the longest time, I wanted to write something dapper—crisp clothes and the cutthroat alleyways of old London— but when my protagonist set foot on the page with her brown skin and foreign roots, straightening her tweed suit and tucking her pocket watch away, she was angry. I realized, then, that I couldn’t write “something dapper” without also addressing colonialism. In my debut novel, We Hunt the Flame, we saw a girl fighting for her own kingdom. In A Tempest of Tea, we see a girl and her crew fighting for a country that isn’t theirs to save, but they’ll do it anyway. Oh, and did I mention there are vampires?
― Hafsah Faizal, Letter to readers

What booksellers are saying about A Tempest of Tea

An orphan with her own agenda of revenge, Arthie is forced to steal from vampire society in order to keep her teahouse and her found family safe. The worldbuilding, the vibes, and the cast of characters are all perfection. Faizal has delivered a twisty page-turner that I haven’t stopped thinking about.
― Chelsea Stringfield, Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tennessee | Buy from Parnassus Books
I’ve had an itch for a really riveting heist story ever since I finished Six of Crows, and I’ve always been weak for found family stories, so when I saw this come in, I immediately snatched it up, I’m so glad I did. The world-building is intricate and vivid; the White Roaring is a perfectly dark, glittering gothic city with so much personality, and the characters are wonderful. Arthie and Jin are some of my new favorites; Arthie is chaotic and clever and selfish at times but in the best way, and Jin is so charming and a complete flirt and so fun to follow. I could say great things about all the characters, no one feels shorted in terms of development and personality, they all mesh together so well and the conflict is so tangible and easy to get invested in. The plot is a little slow at times but those slow moments aren’t wasted, the found family dynamic is always showcased and developed in these moments so they never feel wasted, and it definitely picks up when it needs to. I’m already ready for the sequel, I adore this.
― Winter Goldsmith, E. Shaver, booksellers, Savannah, Georgia | Buy from E. Shaver, booksellers
Arthie runs Spindrift, a tearoom that doubles as a bloodhouse for vampires. It’s not exactly legal, but Arthie holds enough of people’s secrets that the authorities haven’t been able to get to her yet. That changes, though, when Spindrift is threatened by the current monarch, and Arthie is forced to plan a heist under the noses of the government and the vampire society, which leads to even more secrets coming out, including Arthie’s. A heist novel that will appeal to fans of Six of Crows, with plenty of action and romance.
― Melissa Oates, Fiction Addiction, Greenville, South Carolina| Buy from Fiction Addiction

About Hafsah Faizal

Hafsah Faizal is the New York Times bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame and We Free the Stars, and the founder of IceyDesigns, where she creates websites for authors and beauteous goodies for everyone else. When she’s not writing, she can be found designing, deciding between Assassin’s Creed and Skyrim, or traversing the world. Born in Florida and raised in California, she now resides in North Carolina with her husband and a library of books waiting to be devoured. hafsahfaizal.com

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Spotlight On: Welcome to Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum

City Life, Fiction, Korea, Literary, World Literature

Hwang Bo-reum, photo credit Seong Ji Min Clayhouse Inc

While I didn’t plan out the plot before starting to write, I knew the atmosphere I wanted to create. I wanted to write a novel evoking the mood of Kamome Diner and Little Forest. A space we can escape to, a refuge from the intensity of daily life where we can’t even pause to take a breather. A space to shelter us from the harsh criticisms whipping us to do more, to go faster. A space to snuggle comfortably for a day. A day without something siphoning our energy, a day to replenish what’s lost. A day we begin with anticipation and end with satisfaction. A day where we grow, and from growth sprouts hope. A day spent having meaningful conversations with good people. Most importantly, a day where we feel good, and our hearts beat strongly. I wanted to write about such a day, and the people within it.
― Hwang Bo-reum, Letter to readers

What booksellers are saying about Welcome to Hyunam-dong Bookshop

It was wonderful to read Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum. It read like the author did a great job of capturing the highs and lows of running a bookstore, and the emotional journey of the main character as she pursued her dreams. It’s not easy to start a new venture like a bookstore, but it’s inspiring to see how the character found healing and happiness through her work. I do enjoy reading books by authors from different countries. This was a great way to expand my perspective and learn about different cultures and experiences. Have you read any other books by Korean authors that you would recommend? It’s always exciting to discover new authors and stories. Overall, I loved this book, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a heartwarming and uplifting read that celebrates the power of following your dreams and pursuing your passions.
― Valinda Payne-Miller, Turning Page Bookshop, Goose Creek, South Carolina | Buy from Turning Page
A tender and wise exploration of the interior lives of a Korean bookshop staff and their customers. Each person’s story unfolds quietly. As each one’s past comes to meet their present, the community they form opens the way for change and hope. Lovely, in turns melancholy and gently humorous. a must read for all book lovers.
― Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books, Davidson, North Carolina | Buy from Main Street Books
A wonderfully cozy and philosophical about turning over a new leaf, starting again, and the joys and community that a small local bookshop can bring. I loved getting to know each of the characters in Hwang’s warm novel as they fumble off the path that was “prescribed” for them and discover a new world of personal passion and growth. Perfect for readers who enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, or who want a novel that kindly reminds them that life is a winding road full of twists and turns and as long as we keep our hearts open – who knows what opportunities will come!
― Caleb Masters, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, North Carolina| Buy from Bookmarks

About Hwang Bo-reum and Shanna Tan

Hwang Bo-reum is the author of several essay collections, and Welcome to Hyunam-dong Bookshop is her first novel. The novel was initially published after winning a contest held by the Korean platform Brunch. She lives in Seoul.

Shanna Tan is a Singaporean translator working from Korean, Chinese, and Japanese into English. She was selected for two emerging translator mentorships in 2022. Her translations have appeared in the Southern Review, the Common, Azalea, and others. She lives in Singapore.

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Spotlight On: The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers by Sarah Tomlinson

Fiction, Literary

Sarah Tomlinson, photo credit courtesy the author

I decided when I was 16 that I was going to be a novelist. I sold my first book when I was 46, so I’ve been chasing this dream for a while. My mom was a librarian, and so we had a very book-friendly culture. My mom and I still do this when I go home to visit: One of us will put down a book and the other one will pick it up and start reading it. We’re just constantly reading books and talking about them—and giving each other books. I grew up in rural Maine, which, at that point, was very closed-minded. I got completely ostracized. If I had been a guy, I would’ve been beat up all throughout high school.
― Sarah Tomlinson, Interview, The Creative Independent

What booksellers are saying about The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers

With the plethora of Rock n’ Roll fiction that has come out these past few years it’s so nice to see a new take on the bad boy/scenester plotline so prevalent in pretty much all of them. Not that there isn’t some of that here but it comes early and quickly evolves into a novel of family, warts and all (what else? It is a rock n’ roll novel after all,) that turns the hedonism on its head as seen through the eyes of a most original narrator, a ghost writer hired to write the memoirs of two of the principal characters. Excellent!
― Pete Mock, McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro, North Carolina | Buy from Bookmiser
Perfect for fans of Daisy Jones and The Six and Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Loved the perspective of a ghost writer!
― Jessica Nock, Main Street Books, Davidson, North Carolina | Buy from Main Street Books
Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and so much more! A super fun gallop through the shady history of a famous rock band and the mysterious death at the center of their rise to long term fame and adoration. The insights into the ghost writer’s craft and the complications of our own personal histories with the ultra famous and the songs that form the soundtrack to our lives make this more than a glossy read.
― Susan Williams, M. Judson, Booksellers, Greenville, South Carolina | Buy from M. Judson, Booksellers

About Sarah Tomlinson

Sarah Tomlinson, a former music journalist, has been a ghostwriter since 2008, penning more than twenty books, including five New York Times bestsellers. In 2015, she published the father-daughter memoir, Good Girl (Gallery Books). She wrote The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers, her first novel, in between assignments for a who’s who of celebrity clients.

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Spotlight On: The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

Fiction, Literary

Vanessa Chan, photo credit Mary Inhea Kang

The stories in The Storm We Made definitely have their foundations in some of the stories that my grandmother and family have told me. But some stories are also drawn and dramatized from history, while other parts are built from the imagination, as novels do. As the eldest grandchild on my father’s side, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, and over the years, I would glean fascinating and often horrible anecdotes from my grandmother, delivered in a matter-of-fact way….When I finally started writing this book, during the earliest days of 2020 (the part of the pandemic when things were at their worst), no libraries and archives were open. Instead, I relied on my memory, and the stories I had heard before from my family, that I had internalized but never really put to paper. In doing so, I realized I knew more than I thought I did.
― Vanessa Chan, Interview, Bookweb

What booksellers are saying about The Storm We Made

It’s Malaya in WWII during the Japanese invasion and one family is being torn apart. The son, Abel has disappeared. Jasmin, the youngest daughter, is hiding in the basement in order to avoid being pressed into service at a comfort station. And Jujube, the oldest daughter, is barely holding the family together. Meanwhile, their mom, Cecily has a secret: she’s been spying for the Japanese and she’s afraid she’s the cause of all their current strife. Sweeping back and forth between 1937 and 1945, The Storm We Made is a beautifully crafted, but brutal historical novel.
― Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser, Inc., Marietta, Georgia | Buy from Bookmiser
The Storm We Made is perfect for readers of literary historical fiction. I loved the writing and Vanessa Chan wrote about survival, the terror of war and colonization in a way that captivated me from the beginning to end of this story.
― Jessica Nock, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina | Buy from Main Street Books

About Vanessa Chan

Vanessa Chan is the Malaysian author of The Storm We Made, a national bestseller, Good Morning America Book Club Pick and BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick. Acquired by international publishers in a flurry of auctions, the novel, her first, will be published in more than twenty languages worldwide. Her other work has been published in Vogue, Esquire, and more. Vanessa grew up in Malaysia and is now based mostly in Brooklyn.

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Spotlight On: The Fury by Alex Michaelides

Fiction, Psychological, Suspense, Thrillers

Alex Michaelides, photo credit the author

Well, [the narrator, Elliot] may not be likable per se, but I think he’s quite interesting. And I – what I tried to do – it was – honestly, The Fury was the most creative experience I’ve had because I changed the way that I write. My first two novels – The Silent Patient and The Maidens – I plotted them for about a year before writing a word. And then with The Fury, I really wanted to have some fun. And I thought, I’m not going to plot this. I’m just going to write it. And as I wrote it, Elliot told me the story himself. And it was an amazing experience because I wrote it, you know, with him speaking directly to the reader all the way through. And by doing that, I felt that he was sort of telling me the story, I suppose. And all of these things that I didn’t know, like about his childhood and his relationship with an older writer named Barbara West, just appeared, you know, on the page as I was writing, without me having even the names. Everything just sort of magically happened. So it felt like a really creative, joyous experience for me.
― Alex Michaelides, Interview, NPR

What booksellers are saying about The Fury

Escape January-wherever you are-and visit a balmy Greek island near Mykonos where an old goddess channels herself into a plume of wind called The Fury. Key ingredients include: gloriously prepared seafood, the famous and those who wish they were, flashy money, and so, so many secrets. Voiced by a narrator that lays bare the story of a treacherous murder, thread by thread, the reveal unwinds slowly and then all at once, down to the last word of this twisted thriller.
― Julia Paganelli Marin, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas | Buy from Pearl’s Books
This one is a captivating blend of Agatha Christie vibes and modern-day drama, all wrapped in a little tragic love story bow. The short chapters make it an effortless read, but what truly sets it apart is the unique storytelling!
― Janisie Rodriguez, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida | Buy from Copperfish Books
The Fury is an exellent addition to Alex Michaelides’ body of work, with its back and forth discussion of reality and how we expect things to play out in our minds in a whodunit – meets confessional letter – meets tragedy format. Less startling than its predecessors, The Fury is a brain teaser that is engaging, easy to read, and can be read as part of Michaelides’ ongoing universe or as a standalone.
― Shannon Rogers, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina | Buy from Page 158 Books

About Alex Michaelides

Alex Michaelides was born and raised in Cyprus. He has an M.A. in English Literature from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and an M.A. in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient was his first novel, debuting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide. The rights have been sold in a record-breaking 51 countries, and the book has been optioned for film by Plan B. His second novel, The Maidens, was an instant New York Times bestseller and has been optioned for television by Miramax Television and Stone Village.

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Spotlight On: Nonfiction by Julie Myerson

Family Life, Fiction

I’ve always wanted to write things that feel brave. That make people slightly uncomfortable. I like reading work that makes me slightly uncomfortable. That’s why I write. I want to be on the edge of what is OK. I don’t want to hurt anybody I love, of course not. But I need to be as honest as I possibly can.
― Julie Myerson, Interview, The Guardian

What booksellers are saying about Nonfiction

Beautiful and heartbreaking, this is a wound of a novel. The double helix of truth and fiction are the building block of this painful narrative, we are given glimpses of events that seem more like feeling than memory, more dream than reality. Shockingly raw and bravely rendered, I was staggered after finishing this.
― Aimee Keeble from Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina | Buy from Main Street Books
Myerson cuts to the heart of a flawed family dynamic by way of a deflated mother who is incapable of supporting her daughter who struggles with addiction. The absence of names makes this story all-too easy to find yourself in; the rawness and realness of it affirms its clever name. It’s gutting to read, but impossible to ignore once you’ve started.
― Isabel Agajanian from Oxford Exchange Tampa, Florida | Buy from Oxford Exchange

About Julie Myerson

Julie Myerson is the author of ten novels, including the bestselling Something Might Happen and The Stopped Heart, and three works of nonfiction, including Home: The Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived in Our House and The Lost Child. As a critic and columnist, she has written for many newspapers including The Guardian, the FT, Harper’s Bazaar and the New York Times, and she was a regular guest on BBC TV’s Newsnight Review. She lives in London with her family.

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Spotlight On: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

Action & Adventure, Fiction, Genetic Engineering, Science Fiction

One of the simplistic popular misunderstandings [the science fiction] bad label has engendered is that “science fiction” authors are trying to predict the future. We fundamentally are not. We are predicating, not predicting, and that one little letter makes all the difference. We are asking detailed “what-if” questions and building the results of those questions out into narrative. Some of these “what-if” questions might have to do with science and/or technology—but others largely do not. One Philip K. Dick story I love, “Roog”, has a simple predication: garbage men are really aliens, and only dogs know this, which is why they bark at them all the time: they are trying to warn us. The story is hilarious, and horrifying. But it isn’t about science and really, neither is anything else Dick wrote. Yet somehow people call Philip K. Dick a science fiction writer, and don’t think twice about it.
― Ray Nayler, Interview with Eliot Pepper

What booksellers are saying about Tusks of Extinction

Nayler’s newest novella is a one-two punch of beautiful and devastating. In a world where all elephants in the wild have been driven to extinction by poachers, the science world has chosen instead to resurrect the long-dead wooly mammoths–science for the sake of science meets want for the sake of want when this great biological experiment is put up against a revival of ivory poaching culture. Lyrical prose leads the reader through three stories colliding on the fringes of humanity, testing empathy, compassion, and the insurmountable power of human greed.
― Morgan Holub from E. Shaver, bookseller Savannah, Georgia | Buy from Bookmarks
Absolutely loved this! I was a huge champion of The Mountain in the Sea, we’ve hand sold 100 copies in our small town bookstore. The Tusks of Extinction continues Nayler’s brilliant speculative conversation about humans, tech, nature, language, and more. Unfortunately there is no way the $26.99 price point for a 100 page novella is going to work in our market.
― Josh Niesse from Underground Books Carrollton, Georgia | Buy from Underground Books
The Tusks of Extinction hurt me, inspired me, and taught me in less than 100 pages. Through the lenses of an elephant-expert turned mammoth matriarch, a boy on a hunt with his father, and a man who can’t rise above his wealth, Nayler’s conservationist novella reaches into depths of human empathy and bares it all for examination. Nothing so short has ever made me cry so much. I pushed this novella onto every ARC reader I knew.
― KIsabel Agajanian from Oxford Exchange Tampa, Florida | Buy from Oxford Exchange

About Ray Nayler

Ray Nayler is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Mountain in the Sea, which won the Locus Award for “Best First Novel,” and was a finalist for the Nebula Award and the Los Angeles Times “Ray Bradbury Prize.” Called “one of the up-and-coming masters of SF short fiction” by Locus, Nayler’s stories have been published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Vice, and Nightmare, as well as in many “Best Of” anthologies. His stories have won the Clarkesworld Readers’ Poll and the Asimov’s Readers’ Award, and his novelette “Sarcophagus” was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

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