Current Newsletter: Take your reading to the next level in 2025. Read these next!

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Caylee Wilson, Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Florida
• Caleb Masters, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Baldwin & Co. in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
• Kelley Barnes, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
• Grace Sullivan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
• Mary Jane Michels, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, South Carolina
• Jamie Southern, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Tori Finklea, Union Ave Books in Knoxville, Tennessee
• Sydney Bozeman, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee 
• Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia
• Melissa Taylor, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia
• Holly Wunsch, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
• Katlin Kerrison, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia
• Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
• Hilton Airall, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
• Akil Guruparan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

Book Buzz Feature: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
The mythology of the bog wife began with other stories about nonhuman women who marry into human families, like selkies. There is Welsh folklore of a woman made out of flowers who is brought to life. Thinking about those stories, what I find fun is that there is a certain amount of ambiguity as to how human this woman appears and how human she really is, and how much the husband in question is willfully deluding himself about having some kind of quasi-human marriage partner. I went back and forth about how much to physically describe the bog wife and how much to describe the logistics of this dirt and plant woman who had raised five children and lived in a house and seemed to exist like a human for a while. I ultimately decided, which is pretty habitual for me, that I don’t care very much about the logistics. I wanted her to be in a state of flux. She is more human for a period of time and then less.
― Kay Chronister, Interview, Electric Literature

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar
Even before To All The Boys I Loved Before, I’m a sucker for a fake dating story – add in two young, queer brown women and I was hooked from the outset! ... I adored this book: its Irish charm, its Bengali cultural specificity without falling into a single character type, its tackling of toxic friendship and racial gaslighting, and a satisfying ending on several different fronts make this an easy rec for lovers of fluffy YA!
― Akil Guruparan, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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