Current Newsletter: A green and growing reading list: nature books beloved by booksellers.

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Gainesville, Florida
• Jan Blodgett, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
• Nancy Pierce, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia
• Su Kim, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia
• Jessica Osborne, E. Shaver, Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia
• Alexandra Bender, Fonts Books in McLean, Virginia
• Amanda Grell, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in St Petersburg, Florida
• Meghan Haile, The Lynx in Gainesville, Florida
• Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
• Joshua Lambie, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia
• Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina
• Christina Tabereaux, The Snail on the Wall in Huntsville, Alabama
• Julia Lewis, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
• Jennifer Jones, Bookmiser in Marietta, Georgia
• Adah Fitzgerald, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
• Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Mandolin Moore, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia

Book Buzz Feature: Stag Dance by Torrey Peters

When I first conceived of these stories, around 2016, a lot of trans writing was very sure that it had to be a specific thing: In order to capture the trans experience, we have to invent a totally new narrative for this wild and different style of life that has strange punctuation and asterisks and parentheses in it! And I was very resistant to this because I was like, I actually think that trans lives are built out of the exact same things that any other life is built out of. The emotions that are operative for a trans person are the exact same emotions that are operative for anybody else. It may be arranged slightly differently or with slightly different balances, but 99 percent of them are all the same. And so, there was a way in which I was like, You know what? I’m going to just write trans stories to show that you don’t need to invent some othering form to explain a trans life. You can explain a trans life in a teen romance. Then, I just started finding them fun.

― Torrey Peters, Interview, The Cut

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
I was so happy to get this book (mostly because of how big it was), but I was even more surprised when I sat down to read it, and I was so engaged that I lost track of time, and I couldn’t put it down. It was so amazingly well written, and the characters were astoundingly well written and hilarious. I spent three solid days reading this book, and it never felt like a chore to do so. The ending was amazing, and I can’t wait to have three solid days free so that I can read the next one.
―Mandolin Moore, Story on the Square in McDonough, Georgia