Current Newsletter: Read These Next! Young Readers: Celebrating the Dark

Bookstores with reviews in this week's newsletter:

• Sarah Dimaria, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs,
• Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Alissa Redmond, South Main Book Company in Salisbury, North Carolina
• Anderson McKean, Page & Palette in Fairhope, Alabama
• Mikey LaFave, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
• Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee
• Kelly Justice, Fountain Books in Richmond, Virginia
• Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia
• Sydney Mason, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Tayler Engelhardt, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Bailey Ross, Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs, Louisiana
• Preet Singh, Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Georgia
• Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama
• Sol Johnson, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina
• Hezekiah Olorode, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia
• Morgan Holub, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

Book Buzz Feature: Bright Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang
I don’t know it there’s an inspiration per se other than “I like dragons, and I like lady knights, I want to write a book about those things.” And so I did. “Brighter Than Scale” tells the story of Yeva, a dragon hunter with special abilities who was absorbed into empire against her will as a child and, as an adult, is sent as an ambassador to a nation that worships dragons as part of her emperor’s territorial aggressions. There she meets the girl-king Sookhee, the charismatic leader of the nation. But their growing relationship is threatened when Yeva uncovers secrets that will challenge the way she sees the world, and herself. The book may appear to be a queer love story, and it is indeed a queer love story, but at its core I think it’s about identity, it’s about finding your place and finding yourself in a world which constantly wants to erase you.

― Neon Yang, Interview, OutSFL

Decide For Yourself Banned Book Feature:
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer
A hypnotic onion of a puzzle…peel back one layer and find more questions, fewer answers. All the more triumphant in its building frustration, eventual catharsis. Area X is all of us and none of us, nowhere and everywhere, peering at us with a thousand impossible eyes.
― Morgan Holub, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

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