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November 23, 2021 The National Book Awards: Bookseller Perspectives November for most people is a time of leaves turning color, of family gatherings, arguments about stuffing, and the sound cranberry sauce makes when it slides out of its can with a shlorp! to land, jiggling, on a serving plate. It is also, for people in the book industry, the month the National Book Foundation announces the winners of the National Book Awards. Here’s what Southern booksellers thought about some of the finalists and winners: 
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott: Fiction Winner 
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr: Fiction Finalist 
Matrix by Lauren Groff: Fiction Finalist 
Zorrie by Laird Hunt: Fiction Finalist 
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut, trans. by Adrian Nathan West: Translated Literature Finalist 
A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib: Nonfiction Finalist Anything new by Hanif Abdurraqib is something to celebrate. He’s quickly become one of my favorite writers. This book, which highlights some of the many, many black performers in American history, is my favorite so far. It made me laugh, it made me angry, it made me think, and it made me look up old clips from Soul Train on YouTube. – Chelsea Bauer from union ave books in knoxville, TN 
Last Night in the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo: Young People’s Literature Winner Read This Now | Read This Next | The Bookseller Directory |
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Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies… |
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Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves Adult Fiction, Women I really enjoyed The Girl He Used To Know, so reading this book was an easy decision. Layla and Josh are both adjusting to life as singles rather than couples. They ended up single due to very different circumstances, it’s hard not to understand growing apart when you married as a teen. Layla does not have that situation and is torn over her divorce, but more anguished about her marriage and how she was diminished. Josh has no idea how to be single and the online dating scene is portrayed in frightening detail. As they emerge from the turmoil of separation the evolution as individuals and a couple is charming, poignant and entertaining. Reviewed by Jackie Willey, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina |
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Bookseller Buzz |
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Spotlight on: An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten
There are many reasons a crime writer with a successful series might leave their main character behind and launch themselves into something new. The Swedish author Helene Tursten had a long series of successful books behind her featuring her well-liked, married-with-two-kids detective Irene Huss when she decided to write about a completely different character, the absolutely not-married-and-no-plans-to-be Embla Nyström. "After 10 books about Irene, I strongly felt that I had to recharge my batteries," she said in an interview. Readers may well wonder what else Tursten might have been trying to work out when she came up with her other literary character, Maud. Maude is not a detective, not a young woman, and certainly not interested in "justice." Although she’s not shy about dealing out just desserts. An octogenarian who makes full use of people’s tendency to underestimate little old ladies, Maud is rather like a slightly evil Miss Marple. The result is both oddly charming and oddly unsettling. Even sort of scary. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed is Tursten’s second book of Maud stories. It includes everything you might expect from one of Sweden’s best noir writers: Dead bodies. Ruthless criminals. Desperate victims. Cookie recipes. 
What booksellers are saying about An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed
About Helene Tursten Helene Tursten was a nurse and a dentist before she turned to writing. She is the author of the Irene Huss series, including Detective Inspector Huss, Night Rounds, Who Watcheth, and Protected by the Shadows; the Embla Nyström series; and the short story collection An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, which also features Maud. Her books have been translated into 25 languages and made into a television series. She was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she now lives with her husband. |
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Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You by Misha Collins Adult Nonfiction, Death, Grief, Loss, Poetry, Subjects & Themes I loved this collection. Collins lets his reader know that he is writing for himself, fully knowing he is not an established poet. I normally do not read poetry, and I felt relaxed and ready to see what he had to say. It was a treat to see a very public person open up like this. Reviewed by Sissy Gardner, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee |
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My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson Adult Fiction, African American & Black, Short Stories A black professor uses his own son in a study comparing him to ACMs (American Caucasian Males) in “Control Negro.” A single mother lists what to do when “Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse.” A young woman changes herself in an attempt to leave behind her past. An immigrant widowed father finds himself distanced from his children. And, a group of Charlottesville neighbors flee white supremacists seeking refuge in Jefferson’s historic plantation home. Each story examines what happens when “home” is not very hospitable. This collection—the characters and the writing will stay with me. An emotional and brilliant must read. Reviewed by Kelley Barnes, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina |
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Cat Dog by Mem Fox, Children, Concepts, Words A delightfully silly picture book highlighting the differences between cats and dogs, Cat Dog follows a cat who is busy chasing a mouse around the house, while the dog…stays asleep all afternoon. A quirky, entertaining book for all cat and dog lovers. Reviewed by Jen Minor, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
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Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed by Saraciea J. Fennell Hispanic & Latino, People & Places, United States, Young Adult Nonfiction These are the voices. The voices we need to hear, to represent the voices that need to be heard. This collection from fifteen influential Young Adult writers from the Latinx diaspora is the perfect launch pad for conversations and the perfect door to new ideas. Reviewed by Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
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Read This Next! Books on the horizon: Forthcoming favorites from Southern indies… |
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Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit
Adult Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Literary Figures A Fall 2021 Read This Next! Title Jumping off from a mention in a 1946 essay by George Orwell about fruit trees and roses he had planted ten years earlier, Solnit begins a meandering path through a garden of antifascism, art, and the ways in which they intertwined in Orwell’s life. In the span of about 270 pages, coal mining and climate change, mass rose production in Columbia and the invisibility of capitalism’s machinations, Orwell’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War, and his ancestral connection to the slave trade are all explored deftly and, in the ususal Solnit style, with lines beautifully drawn to our current condition. Whether you are deeply interested in Orwell and his milieu or just a fan of Solnit’s incisive writing, you will find this biography/essay collection bears flowers scented with hope, resistance, and pleasure. Reviewed by Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia |
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Southern Bestsellers What’s popular this week with Southern Readers. |
[ See the full list ] |
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Parting Thought “If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one’s chances of survival increase with each book one reads.” |
Publisher:
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance /
siba@sibaweb.com |
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
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