|
You have received this email because you are currently subscribed to receive The Southern Bookseller Review. Please click @@unsubscribe_url@@ if you no longer wish to receive these communications. |
|
|
|
December 29, 2020 Re-envisioning Jane Eyre, and the writer's dread of the second book. 
Some stories take hold of us and refuse to let us go. Not satisfied with having read them, we rewrite them in a hundred variations and permutations, each in its own way a tribute to the original that has lodged itself within our hearts. Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is such a book. Romance, mystery, Gothic ghost story, feminist morality tale, Jane Eyre is a story we never tire of re-telling. The latest incarnation of Jane comes to us in Rachel Hawkins' new novel, The Wife Upstairs. "A modern Jane Eyre set in Alabama? Sign me up!" says Amanda Gawthorpe of Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina. "This was a fun read. A gripping, smart, and engaging retelling with enough nods to the original to make you feel smart." Jane Eyre fans have a chance to meet Rachel Hawkins online in the next edition of the Reader Meet Writer Author Series. (See below) Also in this edition of SBR, read how Amiee Molloy overcame the dreaded "second book syndrome" that haunts every debut author. More bookseller reviews at SBR: Read This Now | Read This Next | The Bookseller Directory Coming up next week on the Reader Meet Writer Author Series: The Wife Upstairs with Rachel Hawkins
What booksellers are saying:
RACHEL HAWKINS is the New York Times bestselling author of multiple books for young readers, and her work has been translated in over a dozen countries. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University and currently lives in Alabama. The Wife Upstairs is her first adult novel. Coming up in January:
Allan Gurganus is widely translated, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Adaptations of his fiction have earned four Emmys, and his stories have been appearing in The New Yorker since 1974. He lives in a small town in North Carolina.
David Zucchino is a contributing writer for The New York Times. He has covered wars and civil conflicts in more than three dozen countries. Zucchino was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his dispatches from apartheid South Africa and is a four-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting from Iraq, Lebanon, Africa, and inner-city Philadelphia. He is the author of Thunder Run and Myth of the Welfare Queen. |
The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus with Allan Gurganus
Wilmington's Lie with David Zucchino|
|
|
Read This Now! Recommended by Southern indies... |
BUY THIS BOOK! |
|
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam Adult Fiction | Family Life | Literary Fiction | Thriller Leave The World Behind is an interesting take on how people react in the case of an emergency surrounded by unknown causes. Amanda and Clay leave Manhattan with their children to escape to a secluded Airbnb on Long Island for vacation. Late in the evening of their first night, an elderly couple claiming to be the owners of the house knock on the door and ask to stay because of a blackout in the city. And more weird things continue to happen…thousands of deer trek pass the house… a sonic boom of sorts cracks all the windows…live flamingos start showing up in the backyard pool…and Amanda and Clay’s son becomes violently ill with no explanation. This book took me a while to get into because the first few chapters are incredibly dense with metaphors and adjectives. I’m glad I stuck with it though, because once you start getting the internal dialogue of the characters…tension and suspicion abound due to the differences of race/social class between the two families. And the scariest part of the novel isn’t necessarily all the natural phenomena, it’s the fear of not knowing why things happen as they do and what kind of darkness that ignorance might bring out of our human nature. --Stuart McCommon, novel. in Memphis, Tennessee |
BUY THIS BOOK! |
|
Cinders & Sparrows by Stefan Bachmann Action & Adventure | Juvenile Fiction | Magic Cinders & Sparrows is so perfectly atmospheric and spooky! I loved rooting for Zita as she came into her powers and her self-confidence, all while unpuzzling the many mysteries of her new home. --Itinerant Literate, Itinerant Literate Books, LLC in North Charleston, South Carolina |
BUY THIS BOOK! |
|
Root Magic by Eden Royce African American | Fantasy | Historical Fiction | Juvenile Fiction | Magic | Middle Grade Root Magic is an own-voices magical realism story about two Gullah Geechee twins, Jezebel and Jay, who start to learn rootwork from their uncle after their grandmother’s passing in 1963. A perfect blend of historical fiction, supernatural fantasy, and a classic story of family and friendship, Root Magic will capture readers, teleporting them to the mysterious marsh inhabited by supernatural beings. Scarier than hags, though, is a local white police officer who has taken to threatening the Turner family. Luckily, Jezebel’s growing affinity for rootwork may save the day. This magical book is sure to be one of my favorites for young readers! --Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
BUY THIS BOOK! |
|
No Surrender by Christopher Edmonds Adult Nonfiction | Biography & Memoir | History Chris Edmonds tells the story of his father Roddie who served in WWII and spent time as a POW in Germany. Standing up to his German captors, Roddie saved the lives of 200 Jewish American POWs and almost 1,300 total American POWs. This is a powerful story of a man who chose to do the right thing and changed the lives of countless others. --Beth Carpenter, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina |
BUY THIS BOOK! |
|
Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston Fantasy | Young Adult | Young Adult Fiction I absolutely adore this clever, cozy, flower-dotted novel that manages to be gentle and whimsical and yet serve up scenes of truly spine-tingling eldritch horror. Written in the vein of Diana Wynne Jones and featuring the absolute Very Best Fox of young adult literature, this is a story that spans the gap between middle grade and adult fantasy readers. I would recommend this to fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon and An Enchantment of Ravens equally, and I cannot wait to read more Ashley Poston. --Cristina Russell, Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida |
|
|
|
Read This Next! Books on the horizon: Winter 2021 favorites from Southern indies... |
BUY THIS BOOK! |
|
The Push by Ashley Audrain Adult Fiction | Thrillers Blythe cannot connect with her daughter Violet since birth. Her husband tells her she’s imagining the dislike from her daughter but when she has her son Sam, motherhood is everything she imagined. Tragedy strikes in their family and leaves Blythe wondering everything: Are the women in her family cursed? Is she imagining and being dramatic about Violet? Or is her husband not being a listening partner? 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, Georgia |
|
Bookseller Buzz |
|
|
Spotlight on Goodnight Beautiful by Amiee Molloy 
Writers sometimes talk about "second book syndrome" -- that dreaded point where, with one successful book completed, you have sit down and be brilliant all over again. Amiee Molloy, whose debut novel The Perfect Mother was a New York Times bestseller, spoke a little bit about that pressure in a recent interview. "The Perfect Mother had been a very private experience," she said, "but for Goodnight Beautiful, it became a much more public experience. If I write another book, I’ll try to mimic the experience of my first novel, in that nobody knows I’m writing it." Molloy seems to have beat her "second book syndrome." Goodnight Beautiful sets out to subvert the usual role of women in the thriller genre, and the general consensus is that it does so with compelling and compulsive success. 
What booksellers are saying about Goodnight Beautiful
About Amiee Molloy Aimee Molloy’s debut novel, The Perfect Mother, was a New York Times bestseller. She is also the co-author of several nonfiction books, including However Long the Night: Molly Melching’s Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters |
 |
|
|
|
Southern Bestsellers What's popular this week with Southern Readers. |
[ See the full list ] |
|
|
|
Parting Thought More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free |
|
Publisher: The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance / siba@sibaweb.com |
SIBA | 51 Pleasant Ridge Drive | Asheville, NC 28805
You have received this email because you are currently subscribed to receive The Southern Bookseller Review. Please click @@unsubscribe_url@@ if you no longer wish to receive these communications.