Ask a bookseller

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment.

What does it really take to be a writer?
Bookseller Lacy Simons recommends a novel about a writer who decides the key to her success will be to never have children -- but her plan is challenged.
That time you fell in love with a mutant potato
Rot is a super confident and very friendly mutant potato who is bound and determined to win "The Cutest in the World" contest. Bookseller Moira Koskey said Rot's story is one of her favorite picture books of the year.
A brutal crime and the beginning of the FBI
Bookseller Karen Barros recommends David Grann's book on the murders of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma in the 1920s and 30s: "This book explores those murders, and the birth of the FBI in solving those murders."
'Stephen Florida' is a study in obsession -- and college wrestling
Danilo Thomas recommends a novel about a hyper-focused college wrestler, which gives insight into "fringe, marginal sports and what drives people to commit their whole lives to accomplishing these things."
A story with dark turns and terrific prose
Bookseller Kalyn Beasley recommends "My Absolute Darling," the debut novel by Gabriel Tallent. "If this is any indication of what he can do, I think he's going to do great things."