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 Ronald Davis, co-owner of Wild Fig Books & Coffee in Lexington, Ky. There's a persistent myth about booksellers — that they spend all day reading. In fact, Ronald Davis has very little time to read while running Wild Fig Books & Coffee. That's why he plann...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Vivienne Evans of Books & Books in Miami Beach, Fla. Vivienne Evans has been a bookseller for more than 20 years — long enough that she now just calls herself a "book therapist." Handselling books directly to customers is her lifelong passion, and she said she...

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 of Common Good Books in St. Paul. The British novelist Jon McGregor isn't well known in the U.S. yet, but bookseller David Enyeart thinks that will certainly change. McGregor landed on the Man Booker longlist for the third time this year, this time w...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jude Feldman, at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. Borderlands Books is your place for strange. The bookstore is the city's home for all things science fiction, fantasy, mystery and horror. Jude Feldman, the store's general manager, doesn't just have one recomme...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Vanessa Martini, a bookseller at the legendary City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. This summer was flooded with must-not-miss fiction, but bookseller Vanessa Martini wants to make sure one title doesn't get lost in the rush: Danzy Senna's "New People." The boo...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Steve Bercu, CEO of BookPeople in Austin, Tex. Steve Bercu has a timely reading suggestion for your nonfiction shelf: "Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam." The fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Hue will be marked this January; the battle...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Molly Coogan of Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven, Mass. Molly Coogan is a bookseller at Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. It's the shop the Obama family used to wander through on their summer vacations, and it sits not far...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Kathryn Harper, a bookseller at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in New York City. Kathryn Harper already had a book in mind to recommend to me when I called — and then, she picked up Achy Obejas' "The Tower of the Antilles." She tore through it in two days, and chang...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Meredith Hylton, a bookseller at Indy Reads Books in Indianapolis . Growing up, Meredith Hylton devoured young adult historical fiction. So when she picked up "Serafina and the Black Cloak" by Robert Beatty, it was a welcome return to her young reader roots. It's...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jonah Zimiles of [words] Bookstore in Maplewood, N.J. Some people are better than others at predicting the future. You could be one of them. We're not talking about correctly guessing lottery numbers, but about the kind of practical predictions that people make ev...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Hans Weyandt of Milkweed Books in Minneapolis. For summer reading, bookseller Hans Weyandt said he often turns to true crime: "It's a guilty pleasure of mine." And this summer, he recommends "American Fire." One night in 2012, in a rural part of Virginia, an aband...

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 of Rainy Day Books says that this new spy thriller "grabs you from the very first scene and never lets go." It opens in 1936, when the Russian secret police catch a 16-year-old boy who escaped fro...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Betsy Burton, the co-owner of The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City. You know the feeling of a long, difficult read? The book was good, you're glad you read it, but it was just hard to get through? That's what Betsy Burton was feeling earlier this year: Sh...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. For this week, we spoke with Kate Weiss at Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Ky. Laurel Snyder's new book, "Orphan Island," is aimed at middle grade readers, but there's plenty for adults to enjoy, too, according to Kate Weiss of Carmichael's Bookstore. The novel takes place on an isl...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. For this week, we spoke with Amanda Sutton of Bookworks in Albuquerque, N.M. "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" tells the story of an unusual family experiment: The Cookes adopt a chimpanzee to raise alongside their own young children. The story is told from the perspective of a gro...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jennifer Norton, a bookseller at The Homer Bookstore in Homer, Alaska. Samuel Hawley has a violent past, and his body shows it: He has twelve bullet wound scars. And over the course of Hannah Tinti's novel, Samuel tells his daughter Loo the story behind each of th...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Susan Kehoe, the manager at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach, Del. "The Nix" is a big book. It clocks in at more than 600 pages. And it sat on Susan Kehoe's book stack for almost a year. She just couldn't find the right moment to dive into Nathan Hill's sprawli...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Richard DeWyngaert, the owner of Head House Books in Philadelphia. Richard DeWyngaert picked up "Outline," by Rachel Cusk, while traveling — which is the most fortuitous way to stumble upon this sly novel. It centers on a writer whose life is falling apart. "Her m...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Aja Martin, a bookseller at Indigo Bridge in Lincoln, Neb. Aja Martin is a self-proclaimed geek. She loves graphic novels and comics, and she's excited about a new collection that documents the whole history of female comic book characters. It's "The Spectacular S...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Josie Danz, a manager at Zandbroz Variety in Fargo, N.D. Josie Danz grew up in the bookstore — Zandbroz is a family business. Lately, she's been recommending "Pachinko," a new novel by Min Jin Lee. It's a sweeping family saga set in Korea and Japan. The story span...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Angela Maria Spring, the owner of Duende District , a new bookstore in Washington, D.C. Angela Maria Spring has worked in bookstores for 16 years — in New Mexico, in New York and most recently at Washington D.C.'s storied Politics and Prose. But now, she's trying...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Cynthia Justus, one of the owners of Talk Story Bookstore in Kauai, Hawaii. Talk Story Bookstore, on the island of Kauai, is the westernmost bookstore in the entire United States. Run by Cynthia Justus and her husband Ed, the shop serves both locals and the consta...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Akbar Watson, the owner of Pyramid Books in Boynton Beach, Fla. Watson rarely re-reads books, but he found himself pulling an older book off the shelf this month: "The Healing Wisdom of Africa" by Malidoma Patrice Some. The book explores the role of ritual and nat...

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. For this week, we spoke with Jonathan Sanchez, the owner of Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston, S.C. Kyla Cheng tells you in the very first sentence that you aren't going to like her — but that's what hooked Jonathan Sanchez. Kyla is the central character in Corrie Wang's young adult novel,...