The Summer Reading List, Energized!
Announcing Read This Next! 2021 Summer Edition

(Asheville, North Carolina) Southern indie booksellers have selected the 2021 Summer Read This Next! List: their favorite picks for new summer books. Titles are chosen from books publishing from July through September, representing the full range of reader interests. Each of the fifteen has the enthusiastic support of southern booksellers, marking them as hand-sell favorites for the summer. Read This Next! is the "You've got to read this!" list of the season.

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Read This Next! Summer 2021

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Bloomsbury YA, July

"A queer, Black book inspired by The Secret Garden and Little Shop of Horrors with a flower-powerful, badass girl at the center trying to unravel a family mystery. I simply can’t love it more. It’s amazing and you need it in your life."  --Rayna Nielsen from Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, LA

The Way She Feels by Courtney Book
Tin House Books, July

"When I picked up Courtney Cook's book, I immediately read from start to finish. Cook's personality is bright and poppy, friendly and relatable, and somehow this book maintains a level of kindness and vulnerability even when talking about the scary parts of living with Borderline personality disorder. The Way She Feels is the representation of BPD--from confusing and distressing, to joyful and funny--that is needed right now." --Cat Chapman from Oxford Exchange in Tampa, FL

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
Dutton, July

"Mott's latest is no joke. Charlie Kauffman-esque in its surrealism that devolves into almost fever dream with the most unreliable narrator I've ever read. Fantastic writing, and meaning, and it should be read by the masses. 'Memory and death are countries that know no geography.'" -- Amber Brown from Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel
Gallery Books, July

"The Forest of Vanishing Stars is about a young girl kidnapped from her wealthy German parents and raised in the forests of Eastern Europe. From her earliest years, she is taught to survive in the woods. When her captor dies, she is alone until she comes upon a group of Jewish people fleeing from the Nazis. She decides to do whatever she can to protect them until a family secret threatens everything. Atmospheric with hints of fairy tale, The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a stand out in WWII Historical Fiction " -- Jessica Nock from Main Street Books (NC) in Davidson, NC

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
Berkley, July

"It turns out all those hours I spent watching 1980s (and beyond) horror films weren't wasted. From the detrious of popular culture and our own obsession with nostalgia comes up a blistering horror novel that savages society with the same percision and bloodletting as the killers savage their victims. Hendrix's fans will be ecstatic."--Tracie Harris, The Book House in Mableton, GA

 

Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda
Simon & Schuster, July

"You can't always believe what you see. Megan Miranda brings the reader to an idyllic neighborhood, but it's what all the porch cameras don't show that makes this story the heart pounding thriller it is. " --Kate Towery from Fountain Books in Richmond, VA

Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light by Helen Elliz
Doubleday, July

"The thing about Helen Ellis is you can feel her delight in her friends, her husband and the world at large with every sentence. Everything she writes is worth reading and Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light might be her best yet." --Chelsea Bauer from union ave books in knoxville, TN

The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Tordotcom, July

"The Past Is Red is an electrifying parable for this era of climate change, as bitterly optimistic and cheerfully furious as this dire hour demands. All that, and its hilarious and heroic protagonist is sure to steal that gorgeous garbage patch in your chest you call a heart.." --Megan Bell from Underground Books in Carrollton, GA

My Mistress' Eyes are Raven Black by Terry Roberts
Turner, July

"Roberts creates a spookily atmospheric setting and a gutsy detective duo. But Roberts offers more than a compelling atmosphere. My Mistress’ Eyes explores what brings humans to predicate superiority based on genetic expression. What is behind the belief that this assumed superiority excuses the right to commit violence?" --Erin Fowler from Malaprop's in Asheville, NC

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters
HarperTeen, July

"Eerie and chilling to the bone, The River Has Teeth is a razor-sharp novel that had me devouring its secrets late into the night. Unique magic and two girls set on their own quests for vengeance will keep readers turning these pages - and looking over their shoulder for any monsters in the night. ." --Brad Sells from Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN

 

Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So
Ecco, August

"While the ghosts of genocide lurk in the heart of many of the characters in Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties, what comes through in this beautiful collection is the liveliness, humor, love, and tenderness in every character navigating growing up, sex, loss, and family. " --Luis Correa from Avid Bookshop in Athens, GA

King of Ragtime by Stephen Costanza
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, August

"Gloriously illustrated, this glimpse into the South during Reconstruction made me hear my childhood piano lessons and the syncopations of Scott Joplin's ragtime melodies. " --Lisa Yee Swope from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC

Matrix by Lauren Groff
Riverhead Books, September

"Lauren Groff shows us women's desires in an entirely new way and in a place where desire, especially women's desire, is considered sin. Groff builds a world where the men are periphery, yet the patriarchal structures are still palpable. It is a fine line to walk for any woman who dares to go against the grain, and Groff walks that line beautifully through Marie." --Alsace Walentine from Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, FL

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Berkley, September

"If, like me, your catnip is the taciturn, brainy, hot hero who is secretly a big squishy marshmallow at heart, you can look nor further than this awesome debut!" --Angela Trigg from The Haunted Book Shop in Mobile, AL

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
Tordotcom, September

"Lee Mandelo's Summer Sons, a queer horror that sneaks up on you and then tries to possess your body, forcing you to see truths you'd rather ignore." --Faith Parke-Dodge from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC

Read more about Read This Next! at The Southern Bookseller Review
https://thesouthernbooksellerreview.org/category/read-this-next/