Current Newsletter: In praise of the books that make us afraid to turn out the light.

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Daniel Jordan, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Shannon Rogers, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
• Kathy Clemmons, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
• Charlie Monroe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Lynne Phillips, Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, Arkansas
• Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi
• Rachel Watkins, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
• Catherine Pabalate, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Kelley Barnes, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina
• Caleb Bedford, Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi
• Kelley Dykes, Main Street Reads in Summerville, South Carolina
• Hannah DeCamp, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
• Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Lisa Yee Swope, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
• Jordan April, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Book Buzz Feature: Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro
Well, one thing I’ve learned is not to over describe. The tendency is to think, the more description, the more clarity. But I don’t think that’s true. Say I want to describe a vision of three green apples floating in mid-air above a sunlit table. Right now, a first-blush image has appeared in my head, and in yours. But if I go on and tell you that the apples are in a black bowl, that the bowl is also floating, that the table is white marble, and that the sunlight is coming from a dormer window above the table… the more I pile on, the more you have to go back and revise your initial image.

You want to give just enough detail, then let the reader fill in the rest. You’re trusting your reader this way, giving them agency. Reader, you and I are creating this book together. Too much description risks alienating them. –Jaime Quatro, Interview Fiction Matters

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
1950s San Francisco is not the safest place for seventeen-year-old Lily Hu to realize she’s a lesbian, and the danger is only amplified by the anti-Chinese sentiment of the Red Scare. It starts with Lily’s infatuation over the male impersonator Tommy Andrews, and the companionship and understanding of Kathleen Miller, a friend from her math class. It coalesces with love found under the neon sign of the Telegraph Club, a lesbian bar that is equally as threatened by the paranoia of the Cold War. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is beautifully written and utterly transcendent, and serves as a testament to the power and necessity of queer love even in times of danger and intolerance.
― Jordan April, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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