Annoucing Read This Next! 2021 Winter Edition

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is pleased to announce the 2021 Winter Read This Next! list: a selection of winter new releases generating extra excitement from Southern independent booksellers. Each of its fifteen titles will publish between January and March of 2021, and has received multiple high ratings and enthusiastic reviews from southern booksellers, marking them as hand-sell favorites for the forthcoming season. 

Winter 2021 Read This Next titles are chosen from books publishing between January and March and reflect the wide range of reading tastes of booksellers from across the entire Southeast.  Put one of these at the top of your TBR stack, because you will want to read these next!

See the Edelweiss Collection here

Winter 2021 Read This Next

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
St. Martin’s Press, January

“This is one of those books that you can't wait to get back to so you can figure out what is happening.” –Amy McNabb, Reading Rock Books in Dickson, TN

The Push by Ashley Audrain
Pamela Dorman Books, January

“This book will suck you in about the beauty and ugly of being a mother. It shook me to my core!” – Deanna Bailey, Story on the Square in McDonough, GA

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, January

“An incredible debut novel filled with love, light, suffering, pain, and deep beauty - sure to be one of the year's best.” –Caleb Masters, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC

The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington
Algonquin Books, January

“A compelling tale of relationships, money, facade, and good old Southern grandeur.” – Talia Smart, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC

Outlawed by Anna North
Bloomsbury Publishing, January

“Anna North has taken the traditional Western and flipped it on its head with a feminist twist for a very refreshing and timely novel about self-worth.” – Carl Kranz, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
Balzer + Bray, January

“One of those wonderful reads that leaves its readers nose-wrinkling happy.” –Brittany Bunzey, Read With Me in Raleigh, NC

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell
Tin House, January

“A sooty and shadow-filled Victorian London acts as a sentient backdrop to the sinister, dark, clever (and somehow even hilarious at times), detective mystery.” – Cat Chapman, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, FL

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
Tordotcom, January

“A slow-paced meditation - think The Hobbit meets The Prey of Gods - about a young girl who calls down the supernatural and must come to terms with those consequences.” – Lizy Coale, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, FL

The Merciful by Jon Sealy
Haywire Books, January

“Every book club needs to put Merciful at the top of their "next to read" list… a thoughtful and compelling story of just how an accident affects not only the victim and the perpetrator, but also those close to them.” -- Brent Bunnell, Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC

The Project by Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books, February

“Perfectly encapsulates the dueling states of fragility and ferocity that exist within young women when they find themselves alone in a world that isn't designed to protect them from harm. I dare you to pick up this brilliant novel.” -- Cristina Russell, Books and Books in Coral Gables, FL

The Girl from the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat
Graydon House, February

“The journey of Lecoat’s two main characters from subjugated and master to equal lovers is one that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale. -- Annie Childress, E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, GA

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
Park Row, March

“I inhaled this book. The plot sucked me in and checked so many boxes for me--mudlarking (on my bucket list), forgotten women-centric history, botanical poisons, revenge against men behaving badly, and of course, secret apothecaries.” -- Candice Conner, The Haunted Bookshop in Mobile, AL

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Avon, March

“Talia Hibbert is the queen of cozy, sexy, hate-to-love romance and I want to soak in the Brown sisters' stories forever.” -- Sami Thomason, Square Books in Oxford, MS

Red Island House by Andrea Lee
Scribner, March

“A novel of betrayal and class and colonialism, of race and culture, this is a story of finding your own foundational dignity in life’s wreckage.”– Miranda Sanchez, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, NC

Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff
Ecco, March

“This book was just what I needed right now and the most satisfying version of ‘kids in peril’ that I can remember. I will be an evangelist for this book.” -- Angela Schroeder, Sunrise Books in High Point, NC

Read more about Read This Next! at The Southern Bookseller Review:

https://thesouthernbooksellerreview.org