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 to Greta Helmel from Storied Owl Books in St. Paul. “A Natural History of Dragons” is, as the title suggests, a book about dragons. “But it isn’t your typical dragon book,” said bookseller Greta Helmel. “There’s no dragon riding, there’s no real magic to speak of. It’s...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Aaron Cance from The Printed Garden in Sandy, Utah. Ocean Vuong has earned glowing reviews for his poetry, and now his mastery of language extends into the fiction realm. Bookseller Aaron Cance recommends Vuong’s novel, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.” The novel f...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Danny Caine at The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan. What do you do after snagging both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award? If you’re Colson Whitehead, you come back with another masterpiece. Whitehead’s new novel “The Nickel Boys” will be one of the biggest...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Matt Keliher from Subtext Books in St. Paul. “We are in 1506 Constantinople and Michelangelo is hired by the sultan of the Ottoman Empire to construct a bridge over the Golden Horn.” That’s the setting for Mathias Énard’s novel “Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elep...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Brandy O'Briant from Page 1 Books in Evanston, Ill. Brandy O'Briant didn't choose to read this classic in college — she was assigned it. "I took a class called Absurdity in Literature," she said. "It wasn't a class I was comfortable taking, or wanted to take. I real...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Allison Punch from Old Town Books in Alexandria, Va. When Nishta J. Mehra goes out with her family, people stare. That's just one of the realities she addresses in her essay collection, "Brown White Black: An American Family at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Sexu...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Darryl Peck of Righton Books in St. Simons, Ga. Elizabeth Gilbert is most well known for her take-the-world-by-storm bestselling memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love." But her novels should not be missed. In her latest, "City of Girls," she sends readers to New York City in the...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Gerilee Hundt at Bound2Please Books in Orange, Va. Gerilee Hundt recommends a novel that rose to international best-seller levels of fame a decade ago, but shouldn't be missed if you didn't catch it the first time around. Muriel Barbery's novel, translated from Fren...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Wesley Minter from Third Place Books in Seattle. Wesley Minter doesn't just want you to read "Why Did I Ever." If you spend any amount of time with him, he will require that you read it. "Mary Robison's books are the hill upon which I will die," Minter said. Robison...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Lori Fisher from Quarter Moon Books in Topsail Beach, N.C. Have you ever fallen totally in love with a character in a novel? For Lori Fisher, that character is Birdie Rocas, from the novel "If the Creek Don't Rise," by Leah Weiss. Birdie is a medicine woman of sorts...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Rayna Nielsen from Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans Rayna Nielsen recommends "Letters to the Lost" for a huge age range. It's a young adult novel, she says, but "I loved it. I really enjoyed it." Since then, she's sold it to everyone — from other adults to...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jen Murvin from Pagination in Springfield, Mo. Carmen Maria Machado's short story collection, "Her Body and Other Parties," was a finalist for the National Book Award — and remains a favorite of Jen Murvin's. "It is just one of my favorite story collections I have...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with David Enyeart from Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul. Looking for a thriller that cuts through the genre? Pick up "The Plotters" by Un-su Kim. Bookseller David Enyeart recommends the novel "for the adventurous reader who is looking for something a little off th...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Matt Keliher from Subtext Books in St. Paul. Come in, sit down and just read the first 10 pages. That's how Matt Keliher sets the pitch for Valeria Luiselli's novel "Lost Children Archive." "There's a scene in the first 10 pages of this book that is probably my fa...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Carol Price from BookPeople in Moscow, Idaho. Stella Fortuna has escaped death not one, not two, not three — but seven or eight times. That's where the title of Juliet Grames' novel comes from: "The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna." The book draws on Grames'...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Susan Smelser from The Book Worm in Powder Springs, Ga. "Dear Evan Hansen" is a smash Broadway musical — and now it's a novel, too. Bookseller Susan Smelser recommends the adaptation of "Dear Evan Hansen," which takes on the very difficult topic of teen suicide. E...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Abbey Paxton from BookBar in Denver, Colo. Bookseller Abbey Paxton thinks you should write this name down: Kali Fajardo-Anstine. Fajardo-Anstine is the author of "Sabrina & Corina," a new short story collection. "It's a debut, and she's coming out of the gate...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Aaron Cance from The Printed Garden in Sandy, Utah. Get ready for a sci-fi epic that knows its history. "A Memory Called Empire" is a new novel from Arkady Martine — that's a pseudonym for Anna Linden Weller who happens to be an expert in Byzantine history. For bo...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Joe Chevalier from Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, Mo. Need your next can't-put-it-down read? Bookseller Joe Chevalier recommends "Who Fears Death" by Nnedi Okorafor. It's so engrossing, Chevalier almost missed his flight at the airport because he didn't realize...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Vicki Burger from Wind City Books in Casper, Wyo. A man walks into a bar. It's not a joke, but rather the beginning of "When All Is Said" by Anne Griffin. That man, who is in his late 80s, orders a drink. The drink is just the first in a series of five; those five...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jake Howell from Commonplace Books in Oklahoma City, Okla. The novel "The Last Samurai" by Helen DeWitt first caught bookseller Jake Howell's eye because it shares a title with a Tom Cruise movie. Sorry, Cruise fans, there's no relation. But you don't want to miss...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Chris Upton from A Freethinker's Corner in Dover, N.H. Shakespeare wrote some of the most dastardly villains in literature, and a new book from scholar Stephen Greenblatt explores that dark side. Bookseller Chris Upton recommends Greenblatt's "Tyrant," which "expl...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Sara Rishforth from Roundabout Books in Bend, Ore. Sara Rishforth first heard Mark Kurlansky expounding on the history of milk on the Sporkful podcast — and she needed more. Luckily, Kurlansky has an entire book on the subject: "Milk!" It's not the first time the...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Dave Richardson at Blue Marble Books in Fort Thomas, Ky. Get ready for a road trip. Bookseller Dave Richardson recommends a new young adult novel about a young girl's adventures on the road with her father, and the whole cast of quirky characters they pick up alon...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Hannah Oliver Depp from Loyalty Bookstore in Washington, D.C. The first thing to love about Camille Acker's short story collection "Training School for Negro Girls" is the cover. "It's got this stunning cover, which makes people who may or may not feel like this i...