May Bookshelf

By Romey Petite

This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, by Gabourey Sidibe

Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe tells the captivating story of her life prior to starring and debuting in Lee Daniel’s Precious (2009) and her rise to international fame. Sidibe’s memoir charts a course from growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant/Harlem, raised by a polygamist Senegalese taxi-driving father, an R&B/gospel singer mom (who supported their family by busking in the subway), and her aunt — feminist activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes. From getting her first job as a phone sex operator to her breakthrough role, Sidibe candidly covers a variety of subjects, including friendship, depression, and ongoing struggles in an industry that thrives on enforced beauty standards.

How to Be Human: A Novel, by Paula Cocozza

Still adjusting to life alone in a large house in a London suburb without her ex-boyfriend, Mary finds a baby girl belonging to her neighbors — Eric and Michelle — bundled on her doorstep. The baby isn’t the only unexpected visitor. She’s also acquired a gentleman caller in her garden by way of the back gate — a fox. Mary’s attitude toward the intruder is decidedly more live-and-let-live than her neighbors, who are determined to have the beast exterminated. Mary finds herself between two worlds, the human one she was born into, and one that lies beyond the bounds of her fence in the overgrown enchanted wood behind her house. Cocozza has written for The Guardian, Vogue, The Telegraph and The Independent, and this is her first novel.

A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue, by John Aldridge, Anthony Sosinski

Ripped right from the headlines, A Speck in the Sea is soon to be a major motion picture by the Weinstein Company. On July 24, 2013, between 2:30 and 3 a.m., lobsterman John Aldridge found himself plunging off the deck of the Anna Mary into the Atlantic Ocean, adrift without a life vest. What awoke in him then was a sudden, violent desire to survive despite his being hours from Montauk Harbor. A Speck in the Sea is, at times, bloodcurdling — Aldridge finds himself being appraised as a potential meal by a shiver of blue sharks. At others, it’s insightfully unabashed — forced to adapt, Aldridge fills his heavy fisherman’s boots with air to create a pair of makeshift flotation devices. Readers of Joe Simpson’s Touching the Void will appreciate this story of survival in the face of desolation and what seems like impossible odds.

Novel Destinations, Second Edition: A Travel Guide to Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon

A guide for both sightseeing and time travel, Schmidt and Rendon have the unique ability to endow an inanimate locus (whether a small town, bustling metropolis or a winding road) with a distinct voice, preserving it as a timeless place through their prose. Consider how, to this day, images of Joyce’s Dublin, Virginia Woolf’s London and Kafka’s Prague endure despite each city’s respective changes in architecture and pace of life. Readers will enjoy retracing the steps of Shakespeare, Wharton, Kerouac, Harper Lee and Mark Twain from the comfort of their own armchairs, as well as making travel plans for future excursions — road trips to museums, restaurants and festivals nestled in out-of-the-way destinations.

The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklin’s House, by Daniel Mark Epstein

Benjamin Franklin — the First American, Prophet of Tolerance and the Newton of Electricity — is a Founding Father synonymous with success and prosperity. Few, however, know of Benjamin’s son, William. Born out of wedlock, William Franklin was 21 years of age the day he aided in his father’s experiments with electricity and at his peak, attained public office as governor of New Jersey. During the American Revolution, William was seized by militiamen, held under house arrest for being a Loyalist and eventually driven into exile. Epstein paints a complicated portrait of both men, one who remains an immortal American patriot another who died an obscure expat.

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give, by Ada Calhoun

Following up on her eponymous New York Times essay for the Modern Love column, Calhoun continues her unvarnished approaches to the subjects of marriage, intimacy and the discrepancies therein. Citing friends, poets, priests, rabbis and even unlikely authors (such as J.R.R. Tolkien), Calhoun presents readers with a plethora of post-nuptial advice. Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert and Glennon Doyle Melton will appreciate this exercise in soul-searching as well as its matter-of-fact tone on life happily ever after.

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, by John T. Edge

Columnist John T. Edge delves into the inextricable relationship of politics to food in the South from Huey P. Long to Jimmy Carter. Beginning chronologically in the 1950s with the role of black cooks and maids in the civil rights movement, Edge creates a through line to 2015 with the arrival of what he designates as the culinary New South — the widespread popularity and integration of dishes from Mexican, Vietnamese and Lebanese Americans. Among numerous culinary delights, is the book’s namesake, the nutrient-rich greens of simmering pot liquor. Expounding on the soup’s origins in the homes of poor Southerners, the hotly contested debates over whether the cornbread should be crumbled or dipped, to its eventual inclusion as a quintessential pillar of cuisine Americana, this is a book no true connoisseur would dare to miss.

The Leavers, by Lisa Ko

Through her winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, Lisa Ko gives insight into issues facing immigrants in America today. Deming Guo, 11 years old, finds himself up for adoption when his mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant working at a New York nail salon, disappears without a trace. Separated from his mother by thousands of miles, it is not until they are reunited that they realize leaving is not bad if it’s a choice you make yourself. Readers of Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah won’t want to miss this tale of longing and reconciliation.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS
By Angie Talley

Children’s Book Week is May 1-7. Share a book with a child and look for children’s events all this week in The Country Bookshop and your local library.

Bloom, by Deborah Diesen and
Mary Lundquist

From The Pout-Pout Fish author Deborah Diesen comes a lovely celebration of planting, growing and together time.  Wrap this lovely picture book up with a pair of garden gloves for the perfect spring gift for a young nature lover. Ages 3-6.

The Forever Garden, by Laurel Snyder

Whether singing to her plants or gathering speckled eggs, Honey is in her garden every day. But when she has to move to take care of her sick mother, who will care for the garden once she leaves?  This sweet, beautifully illustrated story is at once an homage to nature and an ode to the beauty of friendship. It’s the perfect gift for a young child when a friend must move away. Ages 4-8.

I Just Want to Say Good Night,
by Rachel Isadora

This absolutely gorgeous book is anything but the typical going-to-bed book. Lala wishes goodnight to a monkey, her chickens and to the ants, but the most stunning image is Lala wishing goodnight to her goat by resting her head on his flank — providing a poignant visual of just how closely connected African children are to the land. Ages 3-6.

Defy the Stars, by Claudia Gray

Noemi, 17 years old and a fighter pilot for her world, stumbles upon Abel, an advanced android-type warrior abandoned for years in a ship left behind after a battle between his world and Noemi’s.  Adventure, romance and ethical decision making drive the story in this un-put-downable read. With Defy the Stars, Claudia Gray has hit the mark for a perfect summer read for fans of Illuminae or Across the Universe. Ages 14 and up.  PS

April Books

By Romey Petite

Royce Rolls, by Margaret Stohl

The author of the best-selling Beautiful Creatures and Black Widow series turns her pen toward satire in this thinly veiled caricature of the Kardashian family. Bentley Royce, a girl of 16 years, is sick of playing second fiddle to her older sister Porsche (Kim), suffering at the schemes of her manipulative mother, Mercedes (Kris), and her brother, Maybach (Rob), who is of little help to her. Reality intercedes when both Bentley and T. Wilson White — her brother-in-law to be — careen off a cliff on Mulholland Drive. Peppered throughout with memo-like footnotes and press releases, Royce Rolls is a rollicking send-up of the culture of reality TV and our desire to live vicariously through the stars.

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories,
by Lesley Nneka Arimah

In What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, Arimah uses speculative fiction to illustrate truths that are otherwise intangible. Each story is a skillfully concocted, strange, yet plausible, world that a novelist might have wasted an entire sea of words on. In one, a girl crafts a baby out of fallen hair she sweeps up at a salon, but her woven-child’s hunger proves far more ferocious than any child born of flesh and blood. In another, an equation is discovered with the potential to solve all the unhappiness in the world, but mathematicians repeatedly fail to fully integrate it into daily life. Fans of Karen Russell’s St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves or Aimee Bender’s Willful Creatures will adore and admire the seamlessness with which Arimah takes only the time she needs to tell a story — before weaving another its equal in depth. 

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, by Norman Ohler

Five years of scintillating research went into Ohler’s Blitzed, an account of the rise of drug culture in Weimar Germany and the immediate fallout — the weaponized manufacture of opiates. It includes the dark history behind corporations such as Merck & Co, Bayer AG and Temmler, and how these companies became producers of narcotics on an unprecedented scale in Nazi-Occupied Germany. Unique to his book is the deconstruction of Adolf Hitler as the teetotaling, abstinent figure the Fuhrer purported himself to be. Blitzed spent five weeks on the best-seller list in Germany, where its publication received considerable acclaim regarding its findings. Its debut on this side of the pond is not to be missed. 

The Boy in the Earth, by Fuminori Nakamura

While being a meditative yet relatively slim weekend read, Nakamura’s The Boy in the Earth has the makings of psychological thriller, a nightmarish noir setting. Part Taxi Driver (1976), part Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, for the author it is a personal voyage into the human soul. The narrator, an orphan and survivor of a traumatic, abusive childhood, finds himself co-habiting with a strange girl who has also fallen between the cracks in the world. Further disillusioned at discovering his father is still alive, he remains desperate for answers. Nakamura’s first novel to be translated into English, The Thief, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is also the winner of the Oe Prize, Japan’s highest literary award.

Foxlowe, by Eleanor Wasserberg 

Set against the backdrop of the East Anglian moorlands, the Foxlowe folk are an in-group holding fast to their strange maypole customs. Superstitious and reclusive, they live in fear of the Bad, cursing the memory of Leavers, and otherwise shun the Outside. In their society power comes from naming and marking boundaries. All new arrivals are rechristened. Green, being born in Foxlowe, has no past outside of their tiny world, but she isn’t the only one for long. A baby arrives and Green finds herself forever bound to this newcomer, having mistakenly named her Blue. While Wasserberg’s invented language in this foreboding coming-of-age novel might put one in mind of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, her approach toward depicting this rural society has earned her comparisons with the haunted works of Shirley Jackson and reveals her to be a promising new talent — a voice in fiction to watch out for.

My Cat Yugoslavia, by Pajtim Statovci

An arranged marriage becomes the impetus for Statovci’s first novel, a tale bridging two moments in time. In 1980, Emine — a Muslim girl from Kosovo — receives a marriage proposal from a man she’s had little chance to get to know. While the pairing is blessed by the girl’s father, it’s clear her own feelings regarding the match aren’t mutual. Shortly thereafter, war breaks out and the couple flees to Finland, where they try to raise a family despite their splintering union. It is their youngest son, Bekim, who features prominently in the adjacent narrative — intertwined with the first and taking place in the present day. He lives a libertine life of eccentricity, allowing his pet boa constrictor free rein of his apartment. His life takes a turn from the simply odd toward the fabulist when he meets an allegorical cat. It is the subsequent conversations with this outspoken anthropomorphic feline that lead Bekim to return to his mother’s homeland and retrace the steps of his family’s fragmented history.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, by Jeff Guinn

The New York Times best-selling author of Manson returns with a chilling new foray into the subject of mass-hysteria and cults of personality with his investigation into the mind behind the Jonestown massacre — Jim Jones. The Road to Jonestown delves deeply into the jungle settlement in Guyana and provides revelations into the bizarre figure of Jones himself, painting a portrait of the enigmatic figure of the Peoples Temple’s leader. Thoroughly researched and compiled from interviews with survivors of the congregation’s cyanide-induced mass suicide, Guinn’s book is a harrowing read into this quintessential, yet uniquely American, tragedy — one that must never be forgotten.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS By Angie Talley

Bunny’s Book Club, by Annie Silvestro

On a sunny afternoon, on the front steps of the library, Bunny discovered the power, the delight of stories and knew he would do anything to have more books in his world.  Book lovers everywhere understand the power of being absolutely drawn in by a good story and will enjoy sharing this tale of book love. Ages 3-6.

65 Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths

Andy and Terry live and write books in their 65-story treehouse that was once 13, then 26, then 38, then 52 stories tall. It has a pet-grooming salon, a birthday room where it’s always your birthday, a room full of exploding eyeballs, a shark tank, a lollipop shop, a quicksand pit, an ant farm and a time machine. Andy Griffiths, author of the wildly popular 13 Story Treehouse graphic novel series will bring his own version of wackiness to The Country Bookshop Thursday, April 6, at 4 p.m.  This event is free and appropriate for children ages 6-12 and their families.

Panda-monium,
by Stuart Gibbs

In this fourth fast-paced endangered species mystery series set in FunJungle, panda fanatics are frenzied, awaiting the arrival of the park’s most thrilling animal yet, Li Ping, a rare and incredibly expensive giant panda. However, when the truck transporting Li Ping finally arrives, its precious cargo has vanished.  Author Stuart Gibbs will visit The Country Bookshop Monday, April 3, at 4 p.m., to introduce Panda-monium as well as his New York Times bestselling Spy School and Space Case series. This event is free and appropriate for children ages 8-12 and their families.

Daughter of a Pirate King,
by Tricia Levenseller

Alosa is the daughter of the infamous Pirate King, the overlord of the seas. When he hears word of a map to an island filled with treasure, he sends the only person he has trained himself — his daughter. She expects her task to be easy but soon encounters a problem, the first mate, Riden. Alosa is just as determined to find the map for her father, but will Riden prove too much to resist? Ages 13 and up.  PS

March Books

By Romey Petite

Eveningland: Stories, by Michael Knight

An American treasure, Michael Knight’s Eveningland is not so much a compilation of short fiction as it is a multi-part portrait of Mobile Bay and the lives of its people. It chronicles the days, from mundane to mythic, leading up to the arrival of a hurricane — a storm that will tear their private worlds asunder. With place as the framing device, the Alabama Gulf Coast inlet hosts a total of seven interlocking stories (like the Vietnam War in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried). Throughout Knight’s prose one hears the voice of a raconteur’s playful spirit — alternatively honest and abashed. His characters are memorable, familiar and genuine. Still, in crafting their private fancies, Knight never fails to incorporate another essential element in Southern fiction — what Flannery O’Connor (to whom the author gives thanks in the acknowledgments) called the grotesque. While the individual stories certainly invite themselves to be anthologized and the format invites each delicacy to be digested a tale at a time, think of it as celebrated storyteller Daniel Wallace of Big Fish meets the format of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). The author will be signing copies of his upcoming collection at The Country Bookshop on Thursday, March 9, at 5 p.m. — an event you’ll want to make sure to mark on your calendar

The One Eyed Man, by Ron Currie

The author of Everything Matters! and Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles returns with this lampoon of literalism. K. is a widower who has awoken one day to find himself unable to accept metaphorical language — preferring only simple, blunt, even crude explanations. In seeking someone who will be honest with him, he finds a confidant in Claire, a grocery clerk (at a thinly veiled Whole Foods parody), when he argues with her over incorrect fruit labels. Slogan by slogan he rejects the comfortable padding of the world that surrounds him, even quibbling over the semantics of a bumper sticker. K. becomes an unlikely hero when he’s thrust into a delicate situation, choosing between being a bystander or foiling a robbery in progress, and is turned into the object of society’s fascination — the star of a reality show — and eventually a target of the brutality that asking the wrong questions may beget.

Spaceman of Bohemia, by Jaroslav Kalfar

When a mysterious comet passes within the vicinity of Earth it turns the night sky strange swatches of purple. Jakub Prochazka, the orphaned son of a Communist Party informer, becomes the country’s first astronaut when he undertakes a dangerous mission offering a chance at both heroism and atonement. What he doesn’t anticipate is that while encased on the eight-month journey into deep space, he will long greatly for his wife, Lenka. There, pining for his beloved, and floating in the unknown, he encounters an eloquent spiderlike entity. Kalfar’s debut novel, evoking a Homeric epic, is an exceedingly pensive odyssey.

Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid, international best-selling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and a PEN/Hemingway finalist for Moth Smoke, returns with a love story verging on magical realism. Against the backdrop of a fractious unnamed country on the fault line of an impending civil war, Exit West tells the tale of the romance between Saeed and Nadia. In a land of escalating violence, they hear rumors of doors that will allow them to escape, making a dangerous and costly journey into an uncertain future. They leave their old world behind and struggle to hold on to each other and their sense of who they are.

One of the Boys, by Daniel Magariel

Though a short read, One of the Boys is no small feat, nor a novel for the faint of heart. A confessional, deep-cutting debut novel told from the perspective of the younger of two sons, it grapples with the grim subject of abuse. Two boys leave their mother behind, siding with their father, the parent they consider the lesser of two evils. The youngest boy even conspires to fabricate evidence against his mother to permanently ensure she will never receive custody. In being manipulated into crafting such a scheme, he finds himself culpable in his father’s crimes. As both boys begin to see a different side to their dad — his negligence, addictions and violent temper — they realize they are obeying him not only because they love him but fearing for their lives. Once you’ve glimpsed past the shuttered windows of this broken family, it will be impossible to look away.

Born Both, by Hida Viloria

The upcoming Born Both is a memoir detailing Hida Viloria’s experience of gradually coming to the realization she is intersex — and subsequent endeavors to spread awareness of it as an individual identity. It’s also about trust, consent and what happens when it is betrayed. Growing up, Viloria struggled with a hyper-masculine father and this book is very much an exorcism of that toxic figure. Being an activist in LGBTQIA rights, Viloria has appeared and been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tyra Banks Show, ABC News, and has also penned articles for The New York Times, CNN.com and The American Journal of BioEthics. Her book’s publication is timely, considering that Hanne Gaby Odiele, a runway model, recently revealed that she was intersex in hopes of spreading awareness and doing away with taboos regarding non-binary bodies. Fans of Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel Middlesex may find that this intimate and jolting account speaks to them in ways fiction, perhaps, cannot.

Sonora, by Hannah Lillith Assadi

Hannah Lillith Assadi’s coming-of-age story, Sonora, is a noteworthy, dreamlike debut. Ahlam, a late bloomer, is the daughter of one world in the Middle East, but two separate visions. Her parents come from both sides of a fault line — Ahlam’s mother is from Israel and her father is a refugee from Palestine. Raised on the barren outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, Ahlam has known little of the conflict, save for the news her father blasts during dinnertime and the stories he tells to remind her of how lucky she is. Unpopular in school, Ahlam finds a friend and kindred spirit in Laura, a maverick whose mother is from a local reservation. Laura awakens the dormant and shy Ahlam to her womanhood — encouraging her to experiment with drugs, boys and witchcraft. Together, they form a pact, eventually fleeing to New York, where they find there are certain troubles you cannot run from — those you take with you.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS By Angie Tally

Birds, by Kevin Henkes

Just in time for spring comes this lovely new edition of Birds, called the “Perfect book for young readers” by the New York Times Book Review. A little girl watches birds from her window and observes their sizes, colors, shapes, and the way they appear and disappear. She wishes she could fly as they do, but celebrates the one big thing they have in common: singing. Ages 2-4.

This House, Once, by Deborah Freedman

A picture book artist/author and one-time architect, Deborah Freedman presents this absolutely stunning portrait of a house from the ground up. A door that was once a tree; a foundation built of rocks once underground; windows once blowing sand — this a perfect coffee-table-type gift for families moving into a new home or budding architects everywhere. Ages 3-6.

Magic Tree House: World at War, by Mary Pope Osborne

The Magic Tree House books, long staples on beginning readers’ shelves, have gotten a new look and are now presented in three divisions: Magic Tree House titles for beginning chapter book readers; Merlin Missions for more advanced readers; and Fact Trackers for nonfiction fans. Additionally, this newest title in the series World at War is the first Super Edition and is Jack and Annie’s most dangerous mission in the scariest time the world has ever known, World War II. No reader will want to miss this longer story with additional facts and photographs. Ages 7-10.

Grandpa’s Great Escape, by David Walliams
and Tony Ross

Grandpa is Jack’s favorite person in the world, but has become confused and believes he is back in World War II where he was an ace fighter pilot. Jack is the only one who understands him anymore, so when Grandpa is sent to an old folks home, it’s up to Jack to help Grandpa plot a daring escape. As their adventure spins out of control, they will need Grandpa’s fighter pilot know-how and Jack’s real world common sense to get home. Ages 8-12.

Genius, by Leopoldo Gout

Three international teenage coding and hacking geniuses who have created an online presence called the “Lodge” find themselves involved in a high stakes competition arranged by a computer genius who may have more than a game in mind. With detailed illustrations and STEM connections, this book is unlike any other for science-minded fiction readers. Ages 12-16.  PS

February Books

By Romey Petite

Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman

The Norse pantheon has never received equal love in America as say, Edith Hamilton’s compendium of the Greek myths or the fairy tales compiled long ago by the Brothers Grimm. How fortunate then that these Scandinavian epics have New York Times best-selling and treasured storyteller Neil Gaiman, who now tasks himself with retellings from the few myths that have survived the test of time. In doing so, Gaiman has created a singularly comprehensive volume for readers both young and old while recounting these obscure stories with an evident deep, formative love (he’s oft-referenced them both in his award-winning Sandman series and his Hugo and Nebula winning American Gods). In the hands of the author’s capable, beloved and familiar voice, curl up by the hearth-fire with Norse Mythology and read of the war between the Aesir vs. the Vanir, the strange self-sacrifice of Odin, the misadventures of thundering Thor, wits of the wily Loki, and the battle at world’s end to come in Ragnarok.

The Lonely Hearts Hotel, by Heather O’Neill

The year is 1910, the setting: a Catholic orphanage in Montreal. This locus becomes the meet cute of two talented prodigies, Pierrot, a virtuoso vaudevillian with a Chaplinesque flair, and Rose, a talented terpsichorean known to break out into her own oddball improvised routines. As Anna Freud said, “Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.” The Lonely Hearts Hotel is the tale of two such souls that manages to be, all at once, whimsical, tragic and ribald. Despite nearly succumbing to the fierce Canadian cold, regular thrashings and questionable punishments from the orphanage’s nuns, these two souls cannot be kept apart, nor will their spirits be broken. Fans of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and the works of Michael Chabon will instantly fall for O’Neill’s charm, flowery language, use of metaphor and vignette-like chapters.

A Separation, by Katie Kitamura

A young woman and her husband, the unfaithful Christopher, make the responsible decision to go separate ways after acknowledging their irreconcilable differences. Prior to the formal divorce and the signing of any legal documents, the couple take a sojourn from each other, if only to delay the inevitable. When the woman receives news that Christopher has gone missing sometime during his research trip in Greece, she finds herself impelled by the mystery of his disappearance. Leaving the comfort of her new lover’s arms, she travels abroad to the remote region of Peloponnese in an effort find her estranged husband. The voice Kitamura employs is detached, sparse, direct, divulging analytical details in an almost clinical way, but still subjective. Appropriately, A Separation is a novel of the nature of secrets, intimacy, and how an abundance of the former can affect relationships.

Shadowbahn, by Steve Erickson

Invoking the lucid dream style of the American road trip novel with a touch of the absurd, Shadowbahn tells of a near future in which icons thought forever lost will reappear, just as a memory can — without warning. In this case, the Twin Towers make an unannounced return in the middle of the South Dakota badlands. This cleverly dubbed “American Stonehenge” begins drawing scores and scores of people to marvel at the sight and pay vigil. Like any inexplicable phenomenon, there are those that come to revere this spontaneous apparition. Meanwhile, Elvis’ stillborn (and little known) brother awakes, possessing a fragmented mirror of his brother’s memories driving him half mad. In keeping with this theme of doubles, two siblings, Parker and Zema, travel together through this territory on their way to visit their mother in Michigan. Despite its experimental nature — Erickson’s prose is part poetry — it’s delightful to read and puts one in mind of Ron Currie Jr.’s Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles. Readers will slowly piece together this dreamlike dystopia a page at a time as though sampling snippets of micro-fiction.

The Refugees, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Pulitzer-winning author of the recent New York Times best-seller The Sympathizer debuts a collection of short stories compiled over a span of 20 years. This long-awaited result is a series of unique purgative experiences of the consequences when long-suppressed memories resurface. In the eponymous tale, for example, a ghostwriter is visited by a ghost of her own — the incorporeal kind. Such spirits are mere shadows — never so malevolent as they are imagined to be. Under Nguyen’s scintillating eye and keen ear for chilling detail, readers experience exorcisms and learn lives left behind are never so far away — though they may take some time in the remembering.

The Book of American Martyrs, by Joyce Carol Oates

Tragedy strikes as a tiny town becomes host to an act of senseless, yet calculating, violence when aspiring martyr Luther Dunphy decides to shoot Augustus Voorhees, a doctor at an abortion clinic. The event becomes the catalyst throwing the respective families, the surrounding community and the nation as a whole into turmoil. Still, Oates paints thorough portrait-like narratives of these two men — managing to transmute them into far more than simple stock characters of murderer and victim. Like a body snatcher climbing behind the face and peering through the eyes of each of these men, the author displays her shocking versatility as she weaves from language of the fanatic to the analytical fishbowl lens of the doctor. Beginning in 1999, recent tragedies have only made this gripping story all the more relevant.

The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir, by Jennifer Ryan

Whisk yourself back to 1940 in Ryan’s debut historical novel. The Chilbury folk have just received the tragic news of their first local loss in the casualties to come — the only son of the Winthrop family. While it’s true he wasn’t exactly well-liked, it only adds insult to injury, as the war has taken another toll on the town: swept away the tenor, bass and baritone sections entirely from the local choir. The vicar doesn’t find the five remaining member’s half-hearted performance terribly promising. Things look grim until Miss Primrose “Prim” Trent, an eccentric music teacher, arrives, managing to reassemble them into the eponymous women’s choir. Inspired by her grandmother’s stories of growing up in a tiny village in Kent, Ryan’s novel is told through epistolary musings — the scathing wit of journal entries and letters written by of Edwina, Venetia, Mrs. Tillings, Silvie (a Jewish refugee from what was then Czechoslovakia) and other local characters that come to life under the author’s pen. Fans of Hannah Kristen’s The Nightingale will want to watch out for this one.

Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee

Told in fluid prose, Pachinko charts a course from the 1930s onward. In Korea, as a young girl, Sunja, the only hope for a poor family, is abandoned by her lover, Hansu, when he receives word she is pregnant with his child. Fearing the disgrace of life as his mistress, Sunja takes refuge in an offer from a Presbyterian minister named Isak, whom she agrees to marry and accompany to Japan to begin life anew. Despite escaping shame in her local community, in following the pastor, Sunja enters into an entirely different kind of exile — that of being a stranger. Residing in Japan during a tumultuous period in history, she faces the incumbent cultural differences, nationalism and prejudice characteristic of the turbulent years to come, while both rearing a family and finding a true friend in her sister-in-law.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS By Angie Tally

Tony, by Ed Galing

Caldecott-winning artist Erin Stead’s lovely soft illustrations bring to life this quiet, gentle poem about Tony, a beloved horse with wide, gentle eyes and a ton of love. Sure to be a treasured favorite of horse lovers young and old, Tony is a nostalgic look back at simpler days when animals and quiet hours were an integral part of everyday life. Ages 3-6.

XO, Ox: A Love Story, by Adam Rex and
Scott Campbell

Clumsy as, well, an ox, Ox finds himself absolutely silly in love with a graceful diva, Gazelle. In letter after letter, Ox declares his undying love for the uninterested Gazelle until . . . Cute and clever, XO, Ox is perfect for Valentine’s Day shelves and will bring a smile to lovelorn readers of all ages. Ages 3-6.

The Unwanteds Quests: Dragon Captives, by Lisa McMann

This is book No. 1 in the new middle-grade fantasy series sequel to the best-selling and award-winning The Unwanteds series, about kids whose creative abilities give them magical powers. Identical twins Fifer and Thisbe Stowe are naturally gifted magicians yet unable to control their amazing powers. When they enter Artime’s magical jungle, they accidentally cause chaos, leading to their possible expulsion from the realm. Called “Hunger Games meets Harry Potter,” it’s the perfect adventure series for book hounds. Ages 10-14. Lisa McMann will visit the Country Bookshop on Thursday, February 9 at 4 p.m. to read from and sign copies of her books.

Short, by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Julia is short. So short, in fact that when she is cast for a summer stock production of The Wizard of Oz, Julia is given the role of a munchkin. By the beloved author of Counting by 7s, this heartwarming and funny novel is a story of passion, kindness, self-discovery, and the importance of those special role models who change us forever. Ages 10-14.  PS

January Books

By Romey Petite

The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, by Stephen Kinzer

The best-selling author of The Brothers and Overthrow examines the key figures who shaped American foreign policy during the Progressive Era, a turning point in U.S. history when opinions over the nation’s involvements abroad were sharply divided. Kinzer’s book delves into the Panama Canal, the Spanish-American War, and the subsequent annexation of the Philippines and the men (Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge and William Randolph Hearst) who were convinced these efforts were necessary, as well as those who protested this period of expansionism (Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington and Andrew Carnegie). A former foreign correspondent for The New York Times and The Boston Globe, Kinzer has a unique perspective on this relevant, fraught and complex debate.

The 5 Love Languages: Singles Edition and The 5 Love Languages: Military Edition, by Dr. Gary Chapman.

While the initial title in The 5 Love Languages series was written for married couples, in Singles Edition Chapman seeks to show readers how they can better communicate in daily life and express themselves to the people that matter most, be it friends or family (or perhaps seeking closure in understanding a relationship that didn’t work out). In The 5 Love Languages: Military Edition, Chapman works with Jocelyn Green, writer of both historical and spiritual nonfiction, to provide advice for the struggles involved in a long-distance relationship, separating the jargon of fieldwork from home life, and strengthening relationships post-deployment.

The Sleepwalker, by Chris Bohjalian

New York Times best-selling author of The Guest Room has delivered a new foray into the realm of psychological mystery. Annalee Ahlberg, a habitual sleepwalker suffering from parasomnia, vanishes from her home one night. As her husband and children search desperately for some trace of her or what they fear most, a body, her eldest daughter, Lianna, slowly finds herself hypnotically drawn to the detective investigating the case. It’s a story certain to keep readers up at all hours, spellbinding until its close.

The Girl Before, by J.P. Delaney

The movie rights to this title were picked up before it even saw print, but don’t write it off as just the latest addition to Delaney’s ongoing suspense thriller obsession. The Girl Before is a gripping read of two girls told from both non-linear and multiple perspectives. The reader flips back and forth while flipping each page: going from one, Emma, to the other, Jane. Both, at one point, find themselves occupants of an apartment at One Folgate Street. In it, each finds the perfect location to suit their respective needs, provided for by the landlord, an eccentric architect. Unbeknown to Emma and Jane, the enigmatic location hosts a trap that the girl before — and the girl after — cannot help but fall into.

Fever Dream, by Samanta Schweblin

In this mesmeric first novel, Amanda lies in the hospital of an agrarian community struggling against the poisonous toxins in her body. A strange boy, David, sits next to her asking questions she replies to reluctantly, half-knowing where those answers will lead. While she struggles for her life, and to remember something the boy insists she must, together the voices weave an arresting narrative of horses, horrors and estranging rituals.

The Bear and the Nightingale, by Katherine Arden

Vasilisa Vladimirovich lives on the edge of a dense Russian wood, a land where the frigid weather rarely relents. The girl is happy there enjoying the folk stories told by her nursemaid. Her life changes when her mother dies and, just as in fairy tales, her father takes a new wife. Now, Vasilisa’s cold-heartedly devout stepmother forbids the girl to honor the spirits from local lore — including the appeasement of the icy demon Morozko. Determined to protect her family from the ravages to their crops and the fierce forest beasts, Vasilisa begins a quest that reveals curious gifts she’s long held back. Wise readers will draw comparisons to the fairy tale retellings of Angela Carter; others will simply enjoy this rare confection — a perfect winter tale.

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney

Rooney draws inspiration from the true life of poet and advertising writer Margaret Fishback, famous for her work for R.H. Macy’s. Dorothy Parker-esque drop-of-the-hat witticisms are all part of the job when you were once the most highly paid American woman in advertising. Rooney chooses an all-in-a-day format for her novel, selecting December 31 of 1984. A snappy, sensible octogenarian making observations with the brevity and lasting impression of a bee sting, Lillian finds herself dodging self-righteous vigilantes, phone calls from men she’s either mothered or been a mother to, and confrontations with shifty characters on New York’s streets. The format will doubtless put readers in mind of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway or the more recent Saturday by Ian McEwan. Rooney breathes life into what could have been a tired trope. Whisk yourself back to another turbulent year in history and ring in the New Year with Ms. Boxfish, the kind of witty woman you could only wish to be.

Lincoln in a Bardo, by George Saunders

A groundbreaking work of historical fiction, Lincoln in a Bardo is the story of Abraham Lincoln, his family, and his third son, Willie, who died when he was very young. What makes the tale truly remarkable is the way the categories of fiction and nonfiction are blurred. Told entirely through anecdotes, both true and fabricated, it is certain to generate controversy and furor from purists. Saunders is already an innovator in the short story form and a significant presence in the world of the short essay (he recently wrote an enormously entertaining piece after attending a Trump rally). His work manages to serve up portion after portion of humble pie with oscillations between both humility and humiliation. You may be scratching your head after hearing this is only his first stab at the novel. Lincoln in a Bardo doesn’t disappoint for a debut or for such a familiar and distinctive voice as Saunders’. It’s a peerless work of the genre achieving a new kind of authenticity.

December Books

By Romey Petite

Forever Words, The Unknown Poems, by Johnny Cash

Very rarely are we permitted a window into the imagination, craft and creative process of one of the true greats, in this case, the Man in Black himself. Forever Words is a treasury of dusted-off relics and artifacts unearthed from the Cash family’s archives. It contains the debut of 40-50 poems, and a trove of new songs penned by the singer-songwriter and legendary lyricist. The book also includes reproductions from Cash’s diary, including his original sketches and conceptual art. The collection is edited by and contains a foreword written by poet Paul Muldoon (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and T.S. Elliot Prize). Die-hard fans of Cash — this is one to watch out for.

George Lucas: A Life, by Brian Ray Jones

The author of New York Times best-seller Jim Henson: The Biography tasks himself with delving into the legacy of another creative visionary — the mind behind the Jedi, the Force, adventures to vast worlds beyond galaxies far, far away and lost treasures that lie in arks, tombs and temples of doom. This isn’t just about Lucas’ blockbuster hits, though. Jones charts Lucas’ transformation from a struggling student to pioneer of film and visuals, beginning with his earlier experimental films at the University of Southern California. Jones shows how he nurtured his passion of combining words with visuals and learned from fellow masters of the art, whether telling us how Francis Ford Coppola whipped the young director into shape or the handshake that began his partnership with Spielberg. Fans, aspiring artists, and those nostalgic for the movie magic of this wizard of special effects will appreciate Jones’ thorough, moving, definitive portrait of the artist.

Metaphors Be With You, by Dr. Marty Grothe

Dr. Marty Grothe, whose forte is the category of words and language, has compiled a list of no less than the finest and most formidable examples of metaphor usage for dabblers and language enthusiasts alike. Grothe, a resident of Southern Pines, will be celebrating his release party at The Country Bookshop at 5 p.m. on Dec. 8. Metaphor is one of the most effective flowers of rhetoric, the bedrock of both homespun wisdom and eloquent, persuasive writing. This event is a rare bloom — not to be missed!

The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis

With The Undoing Project Michael Lewis returns to make his newest foray into the realm of financial journalism. Lewis has written numerous other New York Times best-sellers, including the book that inspired the critically acclaimed film The Big Short (2015) — which ran at the Sunrise back in February. In The Undoing Project Lewis tells the tale of the two key figures that reshaped Big Data Studies, illuminating the collaboration between a pair of psychologists specializing in mathematics and behavior, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. He traces their truly seamless partnership — one that resulted in the publication of seminal studies on the process of decision making, cognitive bias, and predicting reoccurring system errors — research that has influenced much of the author’s own body of work.

A Most Improbable Journey, by Walter Alvarez

Professor Walter Alvarez, scientist, historian, one of the foremost minds in geology today and originator of impact theory, has taken aim at presenting the big picture. His enthralling new read, A Most Improbable Journey, concerns an exercise in mapping out time itself by positing the concept of big history. He categorizes the vastness of time and space into four categories: the cosmos, earth, life and humanity. The book begins with an anecdote of Alvarez chasing the fragments of the Mimbral discovery in 1991 — an asteroid that smashed into the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous period (66 million years ago) and prompted the dinosaur’s mass extinction. Through putting the Earth, even the universe, in perspective, Alvarez reminds us that human history itself is only a fraction of what the past can teach us.

Grape, Olive, Pig, by Matt Goulding

Grape, Olive, Pig, an Anthony Bourdain book, is written by Matt Goulding, co-founder and editor of Roads and Kingdoms online journal and author of the bestselling Eat This, Not That! series. A sequel of sorts to Rice, Noodle, Fish, Goulding has returned with a book navigating a plethora of tastes as numerous as there are cultural identities in Spain. It’s a whirlwind of dishes, destinations, histories, myths and meals meant to be enjoyed over long conversations late into the night — bread, blood sausage, fried pork, salads doused in olive oil and coarse salt. It’s a book for the hungry, but not the faint of heart as it gives the reader a look into the “sacrifice” required to bring such delicious food into being. It is also very much the love story of how Matt Goulding met and wooed his wife, Laura, a native Catalan. Read it and dream of the Iberian Peninsula, whether it’s the winding alleyways of Barcelona or the rustic Basque Country.

Rao’s Classics, by Frank Pellegrino Jr.

In Rao’s Classics, Frank Pellegrino Jr. debuts more than 140 new recipes — creative yet quintessential approaches to linguini, lobster, eggplant and veal. Pellegrino, owner and operator of the famous New York family business and food product line, has published previous entries in this series of cookbooks, including The Rao’s Cookbook, Rao’s: Recipes from the Neighborhood and Rao’s on the Grill. His newest entry tells of the family’s restaurant and this third generation proprietor’s family history. Tables at East Harlem’s Rao’s may be in high demand, but with these recommendations from the chef, you can bring their delightful Southern Italian recipes home to your very own table.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

By Angie Tally

The Christmas Fox, by Anik McGrory. One by one, field and forest, the animals make their way to the barn, bearing gifts for the newborn baby. The cow brings hay, the bluebird brings a sweet song and the lamb brings cozy wool, but the shy little fox seemingly has nothing to offer, or does he? This beautiful take on the Nativity story from the animals’ point of view is the perfect addition to every family’s Christmas collection. Ages 3-6.

Penguin Problems, by Jory John. Some problems are serious, some are silly and some, well, some are just penguin problems. When the water is too salty, the sea too dark, when you are a bird that cannot fly and when everyone you know looks EXACTLY THE SAME, well, those are penguin problems. This fun picture book is sure to make even the grumpiest young reader giggle. Ages 3-6.

Land of Stories: A Treasury of Classic Fairy Tales, by Chris Colfer. Holiday gift-giving time is the perfect time to revisit much-loved classic tales, and what are more loved than classic fairy tales? New York Times best-selling author Chris Colfer has compiled a collection of 35 stories, including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk. Readers young and older will enjoy curling up in front of a fireplace in a deep leather chair with this stunningly illustrated book. Ages 3-adult.

The Sweetest Christmas Eve, by Annie Hallinan. It is Christmas Eve and after a long search, the mouse family has finally found a house of its own. With pink, green, purple and yellow walls, a fireplace of brown bricks surrounded by shiny tiles and room for everyone, it seems perfect. But when they are discovered by a (gasp) human, the mouse family’s holiday peace is threatened. As often happens on Christmas Eve, something magical secures the mouse family’s sweet home forever. Annie will be signing copies of The Sweetest Christmas Eve at The Country Bookshop from 12-2 p.m. on Dec. 10. (ages 3-8)  PS

November Books

By Brian Lampkin and Shannon Jones

We can tell that the food truck phenomenon has reached its zenith, because now you can buy prepackaged, microwave-ready “food truck” food — sometimes in boxes shaped like food trucks! Still, we love the very idea of food trucks, and Vivian Howard, the owner of the acclaimed Chef & Farmer restaurant in Kinston, North Carolina, has us thinking about food. And trucks. Is there a literary intersection? Can we find it? Without GPS?

Deep Run Roots: Stories and Recipes from My Corner of the South, by Vivian Howard. Howard has embarked on a grand tour with her food truck, serving meals along with the wisdom (and more than 200 recipes from eastern North Carolina) she’s gained from her years in the restaurant business. “Part story, part history, part recipes, I’d like to think Deep Run Roots is much more than a cookbook,” Howard says.

Food Trucks!: A Lift-the-Flap Meal on Wheels!, by Jeffrey Burton. For a kid, there is nothing cooler than hitting a food truck with Mom and Dad, then plopping down right there on the curb to devour an overstuffed taco. Now foodies can go behind the scenes of their favorite food trucks with a fun board book: Lift the flaps to see what makes the food in different trucks so yummy, from fryers to griddles, from snow cone dispensers to ice cream freezers. Like its counterparts in real life, this book is a crowd-pleaser.

The World’s Best Street Food, by Lonely Planet, Mark Bittman, James Oseland and Austin Bush. Perfect for a small kitchen shelf, these recipes from street carts the world over are well-organized and easy to follow, authentic but with substitutions given for harder-to-find ingredients so that you can get started exploring the world’s best street food right in your own kitchen. This is a great gift for adventurers who delight in trying new world cuisines. 

Duel: Terror Stories, by Richard Matheson. What is the most frightening 18-wheeler in literary history? Undoubtedly, the truck in Matheson’s short story “Duel.” This collection includes several stories adapted into great “Twilight Zone” episodes.

Truck: A Love Story, by Michael Perry. The New York Times calls it “a funny and touching account” of a love life ruined by Neil Diamond. And the Chicago Tribune, in an over-the-top food metaphor, says, “Perry takes each moment, peeling it, seasoning it with rich language, and then serving it to us piping hot and fresh.”

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella, by Fredrik Backman. The author of A Man Called Ove offers an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories.

J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations, edited and introduction by David Streitfeld. Melville House Publishing does a great service with their Last Interview series, and a famous recluse like Salinger is particularly interesting.

Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film, by Alexandra Zapruder.  The moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder’s film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world.

I’ll Take You There, by Wally Lamb. Lamb’s new novel is a radiant homage to the resiliency, strength and the power of women.

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis: The Vampire Chronicles (Vampire Chronicles #12), by Anne Rice. Is it possible? Another? Yep.  PS

October Books

By Kimberly Daniels Taws

Sirius: The Little Dog Who Almost Changed History, by Jonathan Crown (Oct. 4)

Sirius, a very smart fox terrier, takes a circuitous route from Germany to America and back to Germany during the 1930s and ’40s. Having been a movie star in Hollywood, then taken in by Hitler, he realizes he misses his family and escapes to await his reunion with them. A delightful story of a dog that “almost changed history” and learned that home is where your heart is.

El Paso: A Novel, by Winston Groom (Oct. 4)

The author of Forrest Gump returns with his first piece of fiction in 20 years. El Paso expands the classic Western into epic historical fiction. An aging American tycoon and his son race to the desert to find their ranch destroyed and his grandchildren abducted by Pancho Villa. Yankee money and political clout mean nothing against the harsh climate of Mexico. The father and son nearly lose all hope until a twist of fate connects them with a matador in search of his wife, also abducted by Villa. This book is sure to be the hit of the fall.

Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today, by Simon Morrison (October/November)

Music historian Simon Morrison presents an enthralling and definitive history of the Bolshoi Ballet, where visionary performances onstage compete with political machinations backstage. A fun and sophisticated read.

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit that Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War, by Ben Macintyre (Oct. 4)

The author of A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal returns with this story of the group that forever changed the rules of war, using unconventional tactics to sabotage the German war machine. Most interesting is the mastermind behind the Special Air Service, David Sterling.

Speaking American: How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk: A Visual Guide, by Josh Katz (Oct. 25)

Fantastic graphs show patterns of speech in the United States, including linguistic discrepancies like “lightning bug” or “firefly” and varying terms for BBQ and lawn care. It’s a beautiful package, sure to be an entertaining gift for friends and family members across the country.

Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects, by Richard Kurin (Oct. 25)

This is a well-priced hardcover full of pictures revealing who we are by what we leave behind.

The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill, by Greg Mitchell (Oct.18)

In the summer of 1962 West Berliners risked everything to dig tunnels under the wall and provide dangerous escape routes for East Berliners. Eager to report on the story, CBS and NBC both sponsored a tunnel in exchange for the ability to film the escapees. In the end, JFK and Secretary of State Dean Rusk stopped the documentaries. This book is a riveting look at the people creating and surrounding this moment in time.

Cooking For Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten (Oct. 25)

The Barefoot Contessa returns with a unique cookbook reinforcing her no fuss, no problem cooking that has served as a guidebook for home cooks of all ages. This book is a culinary love letter to her husband of more than 40 years and tells the story of their courtship and life together. It’s full of new recipes for the home cook to prepare for any loved one.

We Show What We Have Learned, by Clare Beams (Oct.25)

This collection of short stories is the latest book from Lookout Press, a small press tied to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Creative Writing Department. The stories are tinged with other-worldliness as ingénues at a boarding school bind themselves to their headmaster’s vision of perfection; a 19th-century landscape architect embarks on his first major project, but finds the terrain of class and power difficult; a bride glimpses her husband’s past when she wears his World War II parachute as a gown; and a teacher comes undone in front of her astonished fifth-graders. This collection of short stories is an accomplished delight and sure to appeal to the literary reader.

The General vs. The President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War, by H.W. Brands (Oct. 11)

Brands, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the contest of wills between these two historic figures, unfolding against the turbulent backdrop of the Korean War and terrors conjured at home by Joseph McCarthy. From the drama of Stalin’s blockade of West Berlin to the daring landing of MacArthur’s forces at Inchon to the shocking entrance of China into the war, The General and the President vividly evokes the making of a new American era.”

The Mothers, by Brit Bennett (Oct. 11)

This literary coming-of-age novel begins with a secret in the teenage years and asks the question if we ever truly escape the decisions of our younger selves, the communities that parented us, and the choices that shape our lives forever.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

By Angie Tally

One More Dino on the Floor, by Kelly Starling Lyons. Budding paleontologists will enjoy hip-hopping, foot-stomping, hand-clapping, finger-snapping and counting one to 10 as the dinosaurs get their groove on in this delightful counting book. With bright colorful illustrations and fun rhythmic text, young readers will be tapping their feet to the Jurassic beat. Dinosaur lovers age 3-8 and their families are invited to meet the author, Kelly Starling Lyons, and celebrate National Fossil Day with an afternoon of dinosaur and fossil fun Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 4 p.m., at The Country Bookshop.

Gertie’s Leap to Greatness, by Kate Beasley. It is the first day of fifth grade and Gertie Reese Foy is 100 percent excited! She has two best friends (Genius Jean and sweet kind Junior), she has an amazing summer story to tell, and best of all, she has a plan for greatness that she is sure will bring her long-lost mother back into her world. But when all the things she holds dear are threatened by new girl Mary Sue Spivey, beautiful daughter of a Hollywood movie producer, Gertie must decide what is really important. With the pluck of Ramona Quimby, the cleverness of Mo LeBeau and the stick-to-it-ness of a Penderwick sister, Gertie will charm her way into the hearts of readers. (Age 8-12.)

Projekt 1065. Award-winning, critically acclaimed, North Carolina Battle of the Books author Alan Gratz, author of the powerful WWII historical fiction novel Prisoner B-3087, returns with another gripping World War II story, this time about Michael O’Shaunessey, the son of the Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany who served as a spy in the Hitler Youth. Despising everything the Hitler Youth stood for, from book burning to horrific games, O’Shaunessey was charged with delivering insider information to his parents and the British Secret Service, but when tasked to find out more about Projekt 1065, a secret Nazi mission, O’Shaunessey must prove his loyalty to the Hitler Youth even if it risks the lives of those he loves. Gratz will be at The Country Bookshop Friday, Oct. 7, at 4 p.m., to discuss Projekt 1065 as well as The League of Seven, Gratz’s Steampunk fantasy adventure series, which is on the North Carolina Elementary Battle of the Books list for 2016-17.  PS

September Books

By Kimberly Daniels Taws

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles.

This is an exceptional book, likely to be read over centuries, not just decades. The author of Rules of Civility returns with his sophomore novel about Count Alexander Rostov, sentenced in 1922 by a Bolshevik tribunal to spend the rest of his life in the posh Metropol Hotel, once a grand destination for dignitaries. While the circumstances of Russia change around the hotel, the count maintains his elegance through emotional trials, friendships and adventures that are a pure pleasure to read.

Darktown, by Thomas Mullen.

Follow two of Atlanta’s first black police officers as they investigate the death of a young black woman last seen in the company of a white man. Feel and experience the prejudice and hostility they face from their peers, and ride with the one officer who dared to reach across racial barriers for answers and justice.

The Orphan Mother, by Robert Hicks.

The New York Times best-selling author of The Widow of the South returns with another Southern epic story about Mariah Reddick, the former slave to Carrie McGavock who becomes a midwife in Franklin, Tennessee, following the Civil War. After her politically minded and ambitious grown son is murdered, Mariah seeks the truth and is forced to confront her own past. 

A House by the Sea, by Bunny Williams.

Designer Bunny Williams provides a peek into her Caribbean retreat in this wonderful coffee table book. The stunning photographs are punctuated with thoughtful essays by friends on the art of entertaining, gardens and much more. 

Bacon, by Fred Thompson.

The author of Fred Thompson’s Southern Sides joins the “Savor the South” cookbook series with a book on bacon that tracks the humble history and our region’s culinary history. The book includes 56 recipes and wonderful information about this popular treat.

Best. State. Ever. A Florida Man Defends His Homeland, by Dave Barry.

The talented Dave Berry applies his trademark humor to a celebration — and high-spirited defense — of the state he calls home, Florida. From Ponce de Leon to modern weirdness, Barry unmasks, as only he can, what makes Florida great. 

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, by Patrick Phillips.

Bill Maher writes that Blood at the Root is able to avoid the self-flagellation usually found in similar accounts and, while ugly things in our past history are certainly unpleasant to read about, stirring the dry bones reminds the living how far they have come and how far they have to go.

Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics? by Mark Thompson.

After serving as a CEO of a major TV corporation, director-general of the BBC and now CEO of The New York Times, Thompson continues his career in writing with a deeply thought out examination of the distortion of the public language and new trends in public engagement. 

In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox, by Carol Burnett.

Learn about “The Carol Burnett Show” firsthand as Burnett reveals the show’s truths, from its inception to the many hilarious antics of her co-stars and guests, including Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, Rita Hayworth and Steve Martin. A great read and a reminder that the great comedic talent still has her touch. 

Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food, by Ali Bouzari.

This well-done book is full of pictures and graphs that impart cooking information not widely known. The core of the book is about food in its elemental form. Divided into sections like “Lipids,” “Water” and “Proteins,” this book uses graphs and pictures to explain a seemingly complicated subject in very digestible terms.

Learn to Cook 25 Southern Classics 3 Ways: Traditional, Contemporary, International, by Jennifer Brule.

Brule brings her well-honed recipe testing skills and open, friendly writing to a Southern cookbook that adds modern twists to traditional recipes. 

Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman: Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland, by Mariam Horn.

This story looks at five very different professionals tied to the environmental movement. The stories from a Montana rancher, Kansas farmer, Mississippi riverman, Louisiana shrimper and Gulf fisherman all reveal the challenges and powerful myths about American environmental values. 

Ten Restaurants That Changed America, by Paul Freedman.

Photographs, images and original menus are not the only parts of this book that bring 10 restaurants and three centuries in America together. The stories of these restaurants provide a social and cultural history revealing ethnicity, class, immigration and assimilation through the shared experiences of food and dining. 

The Tide: The Science and Stories Behind the Greatest Force on Earth, by Hugh Aldersey-Williams.

Bringing together folklore, scientific thinking and literature, science writer Aldersey-Williams examines the tides and how we have sought to understand and manage them for centuries. 

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

By Angie Tally

Dory Fantasmagory: Dory Dory Black Sheep, by Abby Hanlon.

With best buddies, imaginary friends, a loving mother, a pet sheep from outer space and an imaginary evil nemesis, Dory Dory Black Sheep, the third installment in the Dory Fantasmagory series, really has it all. This is my favorite new chapter book series to recommend to young readers and is perfect for kids who love hearing the Ramona Quimby stories and want something similar to read on their own. Author Abby Hanlon will be at The Country Bookshop at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept 21. Young readers are invited to bring their invisible friends or favorite stuffed farm animals for an afternoon of fun. (Ages 6-10)

Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure, by Ann M. Martin and Annie Parnell. Missy Piggle-Wiggle arrived in Little Spring Valley on a warm spring morning, moved into the upside-down house owned by her great aunt Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, was greeted by Wag the dog, Lightfoot the cat, Penelope the talking parrot and Lester the pig, and quickly took up her family responsibility by helping the neighbors, the Free-for-alls, with their (sometimes) lovely children. Written by the delightful Ann M. Martin and Annie Parnell, the great-granddaughter of Betty MacDonald, the author of the original Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Books, Missy Piggle-Wiggle will delight a new generation of young readers. (Ages 8-12)

Framed, by James Ponti. After most 12-year-olds finish their homework, they play Minecraft or go to soccer practice, but 12-year-old Florian Bates spends his time in a very unusual way: He goes to work for the FBI. Using TOAST, a system of his own devising that stands for Theory Of All Small Things, Florian and his neighbor Margaret help the FBI uncover a foreign government spy ring, assist in the recovery of millions of dollars of stolen paintings, and still makes it home in time for curfew. Readers who love Stuart Gibbs’ Belly Up, E.L. Konigsburg’s Mixed Up Files or Elise Broach’s Masterpiece will love this first in what promises to be a delightful fun mystery series. (Ages 9-12)  PS

August Books

By Kimberly Daniels Taws

The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Princess Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis, by Elizabeth Letts

The New York Times best-selling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion returns with a brilliantly written story about Hitler’s effort to build an equine master race with the finest horses in Europe gathered in one place. As the end neared, these beautiful animals were within days of being slaughtered when a controversial covert mission was planned to rescue the horses and smuggle them to safety.

The Fall of Heaven: The Pahlavis and the Final Days of Imperial Iran, by Andrew Scott Cooper

This gripping account of the rise and fall of Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty was researched and written with full cooperation from Empress Farah, Iranian revolutionaries and United States officials from the Carter administration. Starting with Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s childhood, his courtship and marriage to the powerful Farah Diba, the plan to launch Iran as one of the five great Western powers, to life in the embassy during the Iranian Revolution, this book details the final days of one of the world’s most legendary ruling families and sets the stage for the current state of the Middle East.

How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from Puddles to the Sea, by Tristan Gooley

From the author of The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs comes a guide to reading the hidden world of water — bodies both great and small — with skills, tips and useful observations.

War Porn, by Roy Scranton

This masterpiece of a novel takes its title from the term used to describe the videos and images of graphic violence brought back from combat zones and viewed voyeuristically. Experiencing war through the lives of a woman in Utah, a man serving in occupied Baghdad and an Iraqi math professor, the novel merges home and hell, moving back and forth to reveal the humanity that connects us all.

The Nix, A Novel, by Nathan Hill

This family epic about a mother and son finding their way back to each other in both desperate and comic ways reflects the cultural tensions of the past five decades. The Nix is a humorous and heartbreaking work with dead-on descriptions and craftsmanship that draws comparisons to early John Irving.

A Great Reckoning, (A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel), by Louise Penny

The intricate old map found stuffed into the walls of the bistro in Three Pines seems like a curiosity at first, but when the map is given to Inspector Armand Gamache, he shatters the secrets of an old friend and an even older adversary. Louise Penny can craft a riveting and fun detective story like no one else and will be in Pinehurst on September 5 to talk about the book. Tickets are available at The Country Bookshop.

Cooking for Picasso: A Novel, by Camille Aubray

This book is true candy, a sweet treat that includes modern family drama, love, cooking and Picasso in the south of France. A young girl and her aunt head to a cooking class in the south of France and solve the mystery of a grandmother who was there years before.

To the Bright Edge of the World, by Eowyn Ivey

The author of The Snow Child, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, returns with a transporting tale of adventure, love and survival in the winter of 1885. Colonel Forrester, a decorated war hero, leads a small group of men on an expedition to explore the untamed Alaska Territory, leaving his newly pregnant wife on her own at the Vancouver Barracks. Forrester’s terrifying encounters and the deep information about the natural world from the native tribes that blurs human and animal, living and dead, are all recorded in a journal for his wife, who battles a winter that batters her courage.

The Book That Matters Most, by Ann Hood

At the end of a twenty-five year marriage, Ava is desperate for companionship and joins a book group where each member presents the book that matters most to them. Ava rediscovers a mysterious book from her childhood that helped her through the trauma of the sudden death of her mother and sister. Ava’s story alternates with her adult daughter, Maggie, who lives in Paris and is falling into a destructive relationship with an older man. Ava’s quest to find the book’s author unravels her past and offers her and Maggie a chance to remake their lives. 

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

By Angie Tally

Finding Wild, by Megan Wagner Lloyd. This charmingly illustrated book conveys a beautiful message about the many forms nature can take. Not only is it a great gift title, but Finding Wild can also serve as inspiration for home or classroom discussions: “Where do you find Wild?” Ages 3-6.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill. A misunderstood witch, a poetry-spouting swamp monster, a tiny dragon with a simply enormous heart, a girl fed from moonlight, and a town filled with tragic sadness all come together in this brilliant new novel from the author of Witch’s Boy. Fans of Maile Meloy, Alice Hoffman and Shannon Hale will devour this sad, funny, charming, clever stand-alone fantasy adventure. Ages 10-14.

What Elephants Know, by Eric Dinerstein. In the king’s elephant stable on the Nepalese borderlands, it is said elephants choose their people, and Devi Kali has chosen Nandu, a foundling and now adopted son of the head of the stables. But when the stables’ very existence is threatened, it seems Nandu must be willing to give up what he holds most dear to ensure its survival, the elephants’ well-being and the livelihood of his people. Brilliantly written and a literary masterpiece for young readers. Ages 9-12.  PS