Read This Next!, the seasonal list which highlights forthcoming books receiving exceptional SIBA bookseller buzz, is now a monthly event!  Southern indie booksellers have selected five books, their hand-sell favorites for the upcoming month, as January 2022 Read This Next titles.

The chosen books all release in January and represent the full range of reader interests of the southern bookselling community. Each of the selected titles has the enthusiastic support of southern booksellers, making Read This Next! the ultimate "You've got to read this!" reading list for avid readers looking to discover great new books.

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The January Read This Next! List:

The Maid by Nita Prose
(Ballantine Books)Fiction

The Maid is a cozy mystery the way cozies should be written. It is beautifully written, extremely entertaining, has a great mystery, twists you don’t see coming and most of all one of the most endearing and interesting characters you will ever meet. This was one of the most delightful books I have read in ages and the mystery was top notch. –Nancy McFarlane, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
(William Morrow) Fiction

These chapters sang, sad and sweet, full of compassion and urgency. An aggrandized version of COVID-19, (or at least, a relatable pandemic), has crippled the world, affecting myriad characters who all share a similar desire to remain in this world, to continue to love and to live. A beautiful parallel to current events. –Aimee Keeble, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina

Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz
(Random House) Memoir

An exquisite view into the inextricable relationship among love, grief, and hope, Kathryn Schulz’s Lost & Found is a masterpiece. It’s been a while since I’ve underlined so many sentences and created marginalia—from page one, it felt as if I myself was part of Schulz’s story. –Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
(Minotaur) Fiction

Stacy Willingham’s debut novel is an intense psychological thriller to the very end. The brilliance of the twists and turns is in the use of the main character’s narrative point of view. Entertaining, energetic, and unforgettable. In my opinion, a must read! –Sharon Davis, Book Bound Bookstore in Blairsville, Georgia

Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds, Jason Griffin
(Atheneum/Caityn Dlouhy Books) Young Adult

A beautiful and unconventional book capturing what the year 2020 felt like to the youngest child of a fictional Black American family, told in three long sentences and a notebook's worth of art. Haunting and gorgeous, the unnamed narrator's observations speak powerfully to a wide range of emotions, from the despair felt watching the world crumble and seeing the country's betrayal of its Black citizens, to the balm that family connections can provide in the darkest times. –Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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