Heading out for Indie Bookstore Day? Here’s a stack of recommendations
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You know that feeling when you walk into a bookstore and forget the title of every book you’ve ever wanted to read?
Thankfully, booksellers are professional book recommenders, so don’t be afraid to ask for advice, whether you’re looking for yourself or a loved one.
We’ve done some of the asking for you on “Ask a Bookseller,” our regular Saturday morning radio series and podcast. Here’s a bunch of recent recommendations to inspire you ahead of Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday.
Find a character you can’t resist
“Honey” by Victor Lodato. “Honey” is a character-driven novel. Honey is smart, artsy, sexual, vain and very much her own person. She treats high fashion like armor, donning her wig, Chanel and heels even to walk to the drug store.
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“The Bullet Swallower” by Elizabeth Gonzalez James. Set along both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, the story moves back and forth between two timelines, several generations apart.
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro knows he comes from a long line of ruthless men. He feels that violence is in his blood and, lacking options, is soon swept up in a train robbery that goes terribly wrong. In 1964, Antonio’s grandson Jaime Sonoro lives a very different life as an actor and singer in Mexico City.
“The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride. The novel opens in 1972 with a body discovered at the bottom of a well. Who is it, and how did it get there? The answers to these well-kept town secrets take us back to the 1920s. There in the outskirts of Pottstown, Penn., in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill, African American and recent Jewish immigrant communities live and work together.
Everyone in the neighborhood goes to the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, whose owner, Chona, has a soft spot for children. In particular, she’s determined to protect a deaf boy named Dodo.
Thrills and mysteries
“The September House” by Carissa Orlando. Margaret has found her dream home, and she’s not going to leave it. Sure, every September the walls start bleeding and the ghost children return, but Margaret has learned how to put up with that. Even when it drives her husband, Hal, to leave, she stays. And then things get worse.
“Kala” by Colin Walsh. Set in a seaside Irish tourist town, the novel follows a group of friends at two moments in their life. In 2003, during their teenage years, one of the friends — Kala — disappears.
Fifteen years later, the remaining group reluctantly reunites again, back in the same town. Moving among the points of view of three main characters, the novel explores how each of them has changed and been formed by Kala’s mysterious disappearance, and by the secrets they still carry.
“The God of Endings” by Jacqueline Holland. The story of the vampire protagonist, Anna, spans more than 100 years from 1883 to 1984. For an ageless being with a parasitizing existence, every interaction is transitory: mortals will always fade away faster than she does.
True stories, well told
“There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” by Hanif Abdurraqib. It’s a love letter to growing up in Columbus, Ohio, and to basketball, whether played on the neighborhood court where the home team has the advantage of knowing every crack in the pavement, to high school courts and beyond. (And yes, of course, LeBron James is in there, as are people he played against in high school.)
“The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown. The true Depression-era story of nine young men on the University of Washington rowing team who went on against all odds to compete at the 1936 Olympics.
“All The Frequent Troubles of our Days” by Rebecca Donner. Subtitled “The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler,” the biography of Mildred Harnick reads like a political thriller.
Harnick grew up in Wisconsin and met her German husband, Arvid, while attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They moved to Germany when Mildred was 26, during the rapid rise of Hitler. Working with a carefully cultivated network, they passed out pamphlets, gathered intelligence and helped Jews escape the Nazi regime.
“Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk” by Buddy Levy. In 1913, the Karluk, a former whaling boat, set sail from Nome, Alaska, with a crew of 22 men, one woman, two children, 16 dogs and a cat. Its goal was polar exploration, but within about a month of setting out, the ship was trapped in the ice.
Cozy up with a sweet tale, or perhaps a romance
“Yours Truly” by Abby Jimenez. Set at a fictional Minneapolis hospital, two emergency room doctors butt heads in person before discovering their connection through good old-fashioned letters.
“Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club” by J. Ryan Stradal. An “up-north book” focused on a family supper club and the back drop of the beautiful state of Minnesota. It’s a story about relationships and how people measure success, set against a backdrop of relish trays, steak and grasshoppers for dessert.
“A Rake of His Own” by A.J Lancaster. It’s a gas lamp fantasy, an LGBTQ+ romance set in an Edwardianesque world that is not our own. While there are new devices such as automobiles on the road, there is also magic. Marius, the botanist main character, can read minds, but it’s not a gift like most people would think.
Something for the kids
“The Truth about Horses” by Christy Cashman. The novel’s irresistible heroine is 14-year-old Reese, whose mother has died in a car accident. More losses follow. The family sells its horse barn and Reese’s horse, Trusted Treasure. Her relationship with her father falters, and she is understandably angry when it appears that he’s moving on.
The new owner of the barn is a man named Wes, who does not speak and has a unique training style for horses. Reese begins volunteering with him and with the children with disabilities who come to the barn for riding lessons. Slowly, Reese and those around her find healing.
“Saints of the Household” by Ari Tison. Written in poetry and vignettes, the narrative moves back and forth between the points of view of two brothers. Max and Jay are close: Eleven months apart, they are both seniors in high school.
“The Eyes and the Impossible” by Dave Eggers. The main character in the novel is a dog named Johannes who lives in a community of animals in a seaside park where humans come and go.
Johannes serves as the eyes of the park, and he reports all goings-on to the elders, who are bison. Humans think the park is for them, and they visit there to view nature. As the park grows popular, humans increased presence creates worries and problems for the animals.
“The Three Little Tardigrades: A Slightly Scientific Fairy Tale” by Sandra Fay. Just when you thought you’d seen all the possible variations on the classic story of the Three Little Pigs, a new one appears that goes further than any pig has gone before.
Gone are the houses of hay, sticks and straw. These are tardigrades, microscopic invertebrates also known as water bears or moss pigs, and they can live pretty much anywhere.
