Ask a Bookseller

If dreary November weather has you longing to take a trip, Josh Monson of Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul has a recommendation for you: "Home/World: A Circumnavigation of Our Shared Earth" by Ben Hatke. The author is best known for his graphic novels for kids, but this graphic memoir is for a general audience. Inspired by Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg and real-life stunt reporter Nellie Bly, who both went around the world in 80 days (or less) in the late 1800s, Hatke decides to see whether he can do the same, avoiding airplanes if possible. “You’d think it'd be easier in the modern setting,” says Monson. “But it’s actually quite difficult because of difficult political situations, or borders, or the fact that there are almost no ocean liners crossing the Pacific or Atlantic anymore, and you can no longer book single fare travel on freighters like you used to be before the pandemic.”The result is a travel narrative, told in word and image, of encounters across the world that emphasize hope and the kindness of strangers. Hatke took his sketchbook with him on the journey, and Monson says the graphic memoir is a nice balance of writing and ink-and-watercolor images, with “lovely views of Istanbul or these lovely little castle storybook European towns [that] lure you in.”

Bonnie Garmus's debut novel, “Lessons in Chemistry,” published when she was in her 60s, hit the New York Times bestseller list and sparked a miniseries on Apple TV in 2023. Garmus’ new novel “Peck & Peck” features characters who are equally single-minded about their passions, though the subject is not chemistry but poetry, said bookseller Kia White of Lake Country Booksellers in White Bear Lake.“Peck & Peck” is set in 1980s New York City, where recent college grad Batter Gray has one real passion and skill: poetry. He lands what he thinks is his dream job at the prestigious poetry magazine “Peck & Peck,” where he winds up as a copy boy in the basement, which he refers to as the "bomb shelter." He quickly becomes embroiled in office drama. The magazine, for example, is run by twin brothers who hate each other. White appreciated the “next level ridiculous” names of the characters, whom she describes as “both larger than life and super relatable.” Batter's mother, for example, is a typeface expert and designer. “She treats her career and her passion so seriously, but also with so much joy, and I think that runs through the whole book,” White said. “There’s sort of humor in how seriously everybody is taking poetry and art, almost like they’re running it like a big corporate business. But also, the seriousness of that makes it all really beautiful.”

We can't let the Halloween season go without featuring one horror book, and Sarah Gerton of Excelsior Bay Books in Excelsior said her pick is “Between Two Fires” by Christopher Buehlman. The setting is medieval France: The black plague era. A disgraced ex-knight named Thomas encounters a girl who tells him of her visions of a war between heaven and hell that will be raged over control of Earth. Are her words the ravings of a person gone mad, or is she expressing saintly visions? Thomas himself has lost his faith, but he finds himself accompanying the girl and a priest across France to help her with her quest. "I would definitely recommend [this novel] for adults with a strong stomach," cautions Gerton. "This a very, very dark book, so all the trigger warnings [apply]." And yet, this book has garnered a following. It was originally self-published in 2012, and over the years it gained such a devoted social media following that earlier this year, Tor — part of major publisher Macmillan — released a hard cover edition with black sprayed edges. Gerton said she was struck by the tone, which to her felt epic and “almost biblical,” like the translation of an ancient tale. She'd love to see this story make its way to film. “Some of the monsters that they encounter are, like, crazy, and like I would love to see this adapted. But at the same time, I don’t know how they could translate some of the battle scenes,” says Gerton. Subscribe to The Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Amy Erickson of Bluebird Books in Detroit Lakes loved the novel “Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt” by Ben Reeves, but it’s a difficult one to describe. The book is about a man named Travis, who lives in a normal apartment with a cat and has a job he takes seriously: he is literally Death. “Please don't let that put you off, because it is actually really fascinating,” says Erickson. Giving Death a name is not a punchline, nor is it morbid. Travis visits people in their final moments, offers comfort, and delivers them to where they go next (which is not specified in the book). Because Travis is constantly aware of everyone, everywhere, the novel is filled with vignettes and snippets of the lives of ordinary people in a way that reminded Erickson of Allen Levi’s blockbuster novel, “Theo of Golden.” Travis does not intervene with a person’s fate. He avoids making friends with the living until he is drawn into the lives of the woman and her two daughters living across the hall, who invite him to take part in the precious moments of everyday life. “It is so well written. I just fell in love with this book,” says Erickson. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Foggy mornings, apples and pumpkins abound: anyone in the mood for a ghost story? Or rather, in the case of Shannon Sanders’ debut novel, “The Great Wherever,” a story narrated by ghosts who have some pretty strong opinions about the living? This recommendation comes from Victoria Ford of Comma, a bookshop in Minneapolis. Here’s the scenario: Aubrey is 31, adrift and in debt, when she learns that she and three cousins have inherited the family homestead in Tennessee. Aubrey’s great-grandfather was one of the first Black landowners in the country, and legacy draws the cousins together to make a fraught decision: keep the land or sell it? Watching over the four living characters are four ghosts whose deaths prevented them from inheriting. Tethered to the land, they do not want to see it turned into a Costco parking lot. As the ghosts observe, gossip about, and try to influence the cousins, the stories of their own lives and deaths — the secrets that are also part of the family inheritance — come to light. “I just loved Shannon Sanders' voice as an author. She's funny and wry, even though it's a bit of a sad story,” Ford said. “It's a hot summer in Tennessee, and [you can practically] smell the barbecue and feel the sweat trickling down your back as the cousins are debating what to do.”Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Did you ever read the “Baby-Sitter's Club” books? Who was your favorite character? That series by Ann M. Martin is now 40 years old, and it keeps on ticking, having spun off into graphic novels, a Netflix series and even a musical in development, with music by the composer of “KPop Demon Hunters.” To mark the milestone anniversary, Scholastic is releasing 15 expanded "Super Special" books, which are longer and feature the voices of the whole club. The first, released Sept. 15, is "Baby-Sitters on Board," a graphic novel adapted and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan. Today’s young “Baby-Sitters Club” readers may recognize Telgemeier for her own bestselling graphic novels, including "Smile," "Guts" and “Sisters,” among others. Emily Regnier of Cherry Street Books in Alexandria, Minn., expects the new "Super Specials" to be a big draw for readers. She says the new book feels updated for today while still leaning on the characters and situations readers love. In this book, the whole club flies to Florida, takes a cruise to the Bahamas and returns for adventures at an amusement park. Each character has a predicament to work through, ranging from awkward run-ins with fellow passengers to new crushes and babysitting triplets on board.

With school back in session, we’re continuing to bring you recommendations for great reads for kids. Pallas Erdrich of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis says her favorite picture book of late is “The Inquisitive Raven,” written by Richard Wagamese and illustrated by Bridget George. The Ojibwe Canadian writer was known for his novels and memoirs for adult readers, but Erdrich says this picture book, published years after his death in 2017, is pure delight, with illustrations by Bridget George that are “just so soothing.” “The blessing of the book is about connecting with your ancestors and your grandparents and your parents and just being able to learn from the culture that you come from. Kids have a lot of questions about things, and this opens the door to say it's okay to ask questions about your family history [and] about the things around you; and that when you learn those answers, it can all become part of one larger story,” Erdrich said.Click hereThe book follows Rueben, a curious raven, who asks questions and tries to imitate the other forest animals he meets. On the way, Erdrich says, readers learn Ojibwe words, legends, and lore. “It’s a dense enough picture book that I think it would be good for reading a kid to sleep, but also one that they could read when they're between five to 10. It’s one that I would keep coming back to myself as a kid, especially because it just has such a beautiful story at the end.” Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

K-12 school is back in session across the state, and as usual on Ask a Bookseller, we’re marking the occasion by focusing on books for kids and teen. Char Palmer of Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis recommends the YA graphic novel “Angelica and the Bear Prince,” written by Minneapolis writer and cartoonist Trung Le Nguyen. High school drama? Sure. Transformative power of theater? Check. This graphic novel follows a burned-out teen, Angelica, who is buoyed by supportive messages on social from ... a bear? Determined to meet the person inside the bear costume who serves as the local theater’s mascot, she gets an internship at the theater. “It's an adorable story. The art is great, full of whimsy,” says Palmer. “It kind of reads almost like a modern-day fairy tale. So it's realism playing off of the magical kind of whimsy of the theater and the show. It's almost like two different worlds colliding.” Palmer also appreciates that the storm has good trans representation via one of the main characters. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Are you looking for a novel to generate a good discussion for your book club? Pamela Klinger-Horn of Valley Bookseller in Stillwater recommends “Coyoteland” by Vanessa Hua. With the novel’s multiple viewpoints and complex issues, “Coyoteland” will appeal to fans of Celeste Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere.” After years of scraping, Jin Chang has finally managed to move his family into a prestigious suburb east of Berkeley, Calif. Secretly, Jin has high hopes of making a big real estate deal that will cement his family’s future. Next door, Blaire Belle, who is white, makes a show of welcoming her new Chinese American neighbors. That is, until Jin’s hopes threaten her own plans to develop a high-end neighborhood. “This taught me a new [phrase] called ‘performative progressivism,’” laughs Klinger-Horn. “This is a very insightful look at suburbia, where privilege, racism, and class consciousness are set to a low boil and will be soon threatening to boil over because all these people also have teenagers, and you know how teenagers like to push the envelope. They are not happy with the hypocrisy that they see in the town, and they plan to expose this. And the fallout will intensify everything and have a cataclysmic end that will change the course of everyone's life.” The name “Coyoteland” references the fact that humans are not the only ones who view the land as their own. The suburb is in coyote territory. And while the human residents view the coyote who enters the scene as a threatening, dangerous predator, Klinger-Horn says, “he is the least of their worries when they have neighbors like this.”

If you’re in a book club, you know that not everyone is going to like every book every time. So, it was a delight for Gina Grinde of Four Pines Bookstore in Bemidji when everyone liked Bailey Seybolt’s mystery/thriller “Coram House.” "They said, ‘This was a page-turner; I forgot to go to bed on time; I didn't do any chores,’ stuff like that. There's over a dozen of us, and we all agreed upon it. It’s my best-selling book so far this year."Here's the story: Alex Kelley, a true crime writer recovering from a flopped book, gets an exciting offer from an attorney to tell the story of their recent case. It’s an old one: 50 years ago, a boy disappeared from a Catholic orphanage in Vermont. Alex moves to the small town and starts sifting through the case file, but she quickly runs into more questions than answers. Why did the investigation go this direction? Why didn’t they speak to that person? And could the body of the woman who has just been found in a lake be related? Alex sets out on her own investigation, interviewing past residents of the now-closed orphanage. The secrets she unearths in the small town — and the danger that arises — keeps readers turning pages.