Ask a Bookseller

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 revi...

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 Do...

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 Bat...

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...

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 writ...

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 Benj...

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," Iwansk...

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...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Alyson Jones Turner at Source Booksellers in Detroit. Alyson Jones Turner first heard Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on a podcast, discussing the history of guns in America. With the conversation over gun control filling the news, Turner was hooked by Dunbar-Ortiz's researc...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Morgan Miller, a bookseller at Antigone Books in Tucson, Ariz. "Based on a True Story," by Delphine de Vigan, is the best book Morgan Miller read in 2017 — and in 2018, so far. Readers looking for a twisty page-turner should seek this out, stat . The novel revolve...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jeffrey Blair of EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore in University City, Mo. "Black Panther" fans, here's your next obsession. Bookseller Jeffrey Blair recommends "Miles Morales: Spiderman," a young adult novel by The New York Times best-selling author...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Susan Hans O'Connor, of Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, Pa. Susan Hans O'Connor loves to dig into debut novels: "You feel like you're part of the discovery of a new voice." Her current recommendation is "Everything Here is Beautiful," the first novel from Mira T. L...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Emmet Penney, of Collected Works Bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Emmet Penney is a longtime fan of poet Gabrielle Calvocoressi, who he once had the opportunity to take a class from: "She absolutely changed my life." Calvocoressi's new collection, "Rocket Fantas...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Lori Fazio at R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn. Ever wondered who lived in your house before you? Lori Fazio recommends a novel which expertly indulges that curiosity: It's Ashley Hay's "A Hundred Small Lessons." "You know how you always hear 'if these wall...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Lacy Simons of Hello Hello Books in Rockland, Maine. Lacy Simons is a hard person to buy a book for — she owns a bookstore. But this holiday season, one of her employees did just that. "Which was a bold move," Simons said. Though "it worked out really well for him...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Carla Ketner from Chapters Books & Gifts in Seward, Neb. In a season filled with wishes for the new year, Carla Ketner has two recommendations for young readers. The first is "Wishtree," by Katherine Applegate, for readers 8 to 12. The book's protagonist is a...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Moira Koskey at Green Bean Books in Portland, Ore. Meet Rot. Rot is a mutant potato. But he's not just any mutant potato — he's "a super cheerful and upbeat mutant potato," according to bookseller Moira Koskey. "He loves his life, he loves his friends. He especial...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Karen Barros, from Another Chapter Bookstore in Owasso, Okla. Barros recommends a book about her own state of Oklahoma — and about a crime that shaped the way our justice system works today. David Grann's "Killers of the Flower Moon" follows the fate of the Osage...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. For this week, we spoke with Corey Mesler, of Burke's Book Store in Memphis, Tenn. Corey Mesler doesn't want to describe the plot of "Little, Big," because it might turn away readers who think they don't like fantasy. (He understands — he's normally one of them.) In short, there's a man a...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Danilo Thomas at Sundance Books in Reno, Nev. Danilo Thomas grew up with guys who wrestled. During their season, he remembers, they would fall down the "wrestling hole." Their whole lives became about the physical and mental transformation necessary to give your w...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Vivien Jennings of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kan. Vivien Jennings has a heartfelt recommendation for the holidays: "The Story of Arthur Truluv," by Elizabeth Berg. The book follows Truluv, a recent widower, as he goes about his daily routine. Every afternoon loo...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Sarah Hutton of Village Books in Bellingham, Wash. "The Unseen World" tells the story of Ada, a young girl homeschooled by her father, David, in his computer lab. She grows up in a world of experiments and grad students. "It's the 1980s, so computers aren't really...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Melanie McNair from Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, N.C. "Jesmyn Ward is a genius." That's bookseller Melanie McNair's simplest possible review of the novel "Sing, Unburied, Sing." "It's a road trip novel that also manages to bring in ghosts; incredibly rich pl...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Katharine Nevins of MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, N.H. For people living in unconventional houses and remote locations, there's a very basic question to consider: How do you cook ? Trevor and Maddie Gordon, who live on a sailboat off the coast of California, part...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jamie Thomas, of Women & Children First Bookstore in Chicago. There's a bit of a battle among the staff at the Women & Children First Bookstore: They can't decide who gets to put Jeannie Vanasco's memoir "The Glass Eye" as their staff pick — too many of th...