September has begun, and with it, the anticipation of autumn weather, school, and great fall reads. Emily Bright of MPR News spoke with three booksellers about current trends and favorite reads during a live conversation at the Minnesota State Fair.

Sarah Brown, manager of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, which sells both new and used titles; Makkah Abdur Salaam, Lead Bookseller at Black Garnet Books in St. Paul, which is an abolitionist bookstore that sells BIPOC authors; and Lisa Deyo, owner of Sweet Reads Books in Austin, which specializes in Minnesota authors.

The conversation celebrated Minnesota authors across the state and highlighted the huge variety of books drawing readers to the shelves. From history to dystopian science fiction to cozy romantasy, there was a little something for every reader. 

Click the audio player above to listen to their full discussion and check out the book recommendations below. 

• “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler 
• “How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States” by Daniel Immerwahr 
• “It’s Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)” by Dr. Karen Tang 
• “Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope” by Catherine Coleman Flowers 
• “The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic” by Lindsey Stewart 
• “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson 
• “The Dallergut Dream Department Store” by Miye Lee 
• “The Stars and the Blackness Between Them” (YA) and “Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” (picture book) by Junauda Petris 
• “Black Disability Politics” by Sami Schalk

• “Snowshoe Kate and the Hospital Built for Pennies,” written by Margi Preus of Duluth, illustrated by Jamie Zollars (publication date: Oct. 28) 
• “Nicked” by M.T. Anderson
• “Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980)” by Eleanor Johnson (publication date: Sept. 30) 
• “A Fever in the Heartland: The Klu Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them” by Timothy Egan 
• “Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves” by Sophie Gilbert 
• “Gichigami Hearts” by Linda LeGarde Grover of Duluth 

• “Castle Danger” by Chris Norbury of Owatonna, Minn. 
• “Raven Creek” by Therese Pautz of Austin, Minn. 
• “In the Shade of Olive Trees” by Kate Laak of Rochester, Minn.
• Middle grade novels by Peg Kehret, who grew up in Austin.
• “Breathing in Minneapolis,” a poetry collection by Patrick Cabello Hansel 
• “Lone Dog Road” by Kent Nerburn 
• “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren 

Ask a Bookseller airs Saturdays right after the weather chats at 7:35 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. For the latest book and literary news, sign up for the Thread, our weekly newsletter by Kerri Miller. 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

If you were to find an old copy of the 1944 novel “Absent in the Spring,” it would say the author was Mary Westmacott.

That’s the pen name famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie used when she wanted to write literary fiction, and bookseller Charlotte Lehigh of WordPlay in Wardensville, West Virginia, says the six Westmacotts were, until recently, hard to find. 

“They were the unicorn or the Holy Grail for collectors, and so all of the Agatha Christie fans are very, very excited to be able to have these little nuggets finally back in circulation,” Lehigh says. 

Newly re-published in July, “Absent in the Spring” is a “compulsive” read, says Lehigh.

Christie wrote the book in just three days. Our protagonist, busy wife and mother Joan, is waylaid during her travels and finds herself alone with her thoughts. As she re-examines her life and her relationships, she grows increasingly anxious about what she finds. 

Lehigh says the 81-year-old book still feels relevant: 

“Joan could be any woman at any stage in history, in any place and time. Joan could be stuck in any situation, and the feelings and the human element would still be the same.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Mary Ellen Phillips of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, Colo., says her favorite book of the summer is the debut, much-hailed historical fiction novel “The Hounding” by Xenobe  Purvis.

Set in Oxfordshire, England, in 1700, this story about a rumor gone wild has Salem witch trial vibes. 

The five sisters at the center of the novel don’t fit in. Raised by their widowed grandfather, they don’t act the way ladies are expected to. They’re loud, they make jokes, and they stick to themselves.

The ferryman begins telling the townsfolk that the sisters are turning into dogs at night, and that people have seen these dogs running about town. Many of the townspeople are quick to accept this rumor as truth, and events escalate from there. 

The treatment of women and women’s health is central to this story, which is packed with real historical details.  

Read an interview with Xenobe Purvis here:   

 Xenobe Purvis discusses her debut novel 'The Hounding,' about female persecution : NPR 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Poet and performance artist Andrea Gibson gained social media fame in recent years with their fierce and vulnerable spoken word videos.

Kara Balcerzak, owner of Bonfire Bookstore & Yarnery in Woodstock, Virginia, first encountered Gibson’s poetry when they were the opening act at an indie music concert and held a large audience spellbound with their words. Gibson died in July at age 49 of ovarian cancer.

Balcerzak recommends watching Gibson’s videos and reading their poetry collections, which she says also stand alone on the page.

She particularly recommends Gibson’s most recent book, “You Better Be Lightning,” published in 2021, which she calls an “ode to beauty.”

Balcerzak, who lived in the Twin Cities for 13 years and earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato, before opening her Virginia bookstore, describes the collection:

“The book does tackle some really tough themes, like depression, abuse, chronic illness, the struggles of LGBTQ people and suicide. But I feel like saying that gives a wrong impression for the book, because it is actually filled with so much love and wonder and awe and joy.

“The speaker in this book goes on this journey from being depressed to falling in love with life, from being closed off to people and to the beauty around them, to being vulnerable, and they invite readers to go along on that journey with them. And there are also surprising moments of humor that literally made me laugh out loud.

“I would recommend this book to anyone who's ever struggled with depression. But beyond that, I think this is a book that I would give to anyone who could use a little infusion of beauty and love and optimism in their life. And I would argue that that's all of us.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

PJ Moon of The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kan., recommends a summer read with elements that will appeal to both adults and children.

“Bat Kid” is a recently republished classic manga by Inoue Kazuo, translated by Ryan Holmberg. This is a two-parter: the full 1940’s Japanese manga about a kid who wants to play baseball, followed by an essay by Holmberg that delves into the history of baseball in Japan, and more.

Moon calls “Bat Kid” a classic baseball manga, about a boy who’s new to the sport, whose parents would rather have him home studying. Its drawing style will remind American audiences of older comic strips, like Dennis the Menace.

“What’s really cool about this book in particular is the cartoonist Inoue Kazuo — he would pencil a lot of puzzles, and some of those are in here as well, like crosswords, riddles and brain teasers,” said Moon.

The essay, meanwhile, goes into depth about baseball in Japan during and immediately after WWII, as well as a history of children’s manga at that time.

“It’s such a vibrant package. If you’re at all interested in the history of baseball, especially in Japan, even if you’re not into manga, I think that you would get a lot out of the essay.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

If you’re looking for an outdoor adventure novel about friendship and wonder and — why not? a cryptid — Ellyn Grimm of Dog-Eared Books in Ames, Iowa, has the book for you. She recommends Giano Cromley's novel “American Mythology,” out this week.

Here’s Grimm’s synopsis of a book she calls “heartwarming and a bit creepy:”

“’American Mythology’ is about two friends, Jute and Vergil, from a town in Basic, Mont., and together, they form the Basic Bigfoot Society. Every year, the two of them go on a Bigfoot expedition, hoping to find Bigfoot or find evidence. And this is rooted in a childhood encounter that Jute had, supposedly with Bigfoot. And after that, his father was never the same and and not in a good way.

“This year, it’s going to be a little bit different for them, because Vergil is holding onto a secret that he needs to share. They’re also being joined by Vergil’s college-aged daughter, a professor with somewhat dubious motivations and a documentarian.

“I’m always down for some good Bigfoot content, but this offers so much more, because it’s really a story about friendship; Jude and Virgil have carried each other through some really tough times in their lives. It‘s about the worthiness of pursuing wonder in the world, and the importance of preserving the spaces where wonder can thrive.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

If you’re going to read a book about a dark character or a difficult subject, do it on a sunny summer day, not when you’re home in the cold and dark of winter.

That’s the suggestion of Angel Dobrow of Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, who recommends “Fox: A Novel” by Joyce Carol Oates. We start off the novel from the point of view of Francis Fox, a charismatic middle school English teacher at an elite private school.

When he’s found dead, the town sheriff suspects it’s not an accident, and he begins to peel back the layers. 

Fox — not his real name — is a predator. A pedophile.  

The bulk of the story, though, is from the perspectives of the people connected to Fox or to the school: the plodding, intelligent sheriff; the political headmistress out to protect the reputation of her school; several of Fox’s students and their families. 

What struck Dobrow over and over, she said, was the quality of the writing: 

“It’s interesting; it’s suspenseful. You don’t really know, and until the very end, and even then, you’re not 100 percent sure. It’s not a who-dunnit. It’s just a really good survey of power and human diversity and capacity. It’s a really well-told story.” 

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

“There are books that you can't put down. And then there are books that, even when you put them down, they just stay with you," says Katherine Nazzaro of Porter Square Books, with stores in Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

The book in the latter category — which she’s still talking about months after reading — is “Sour Cherry” by Natalia Theodoridou.

Nazzaro calls it an unorthodox retelling of Bluebeard. The story of Bluebeard involves a young bride who is told by her husband (Bluebeard) never to enter one room in their home.

When she inevitably does enter, she finds the room is filled with the bodies of his previous dead wives. This novel takes a different tack: the novel starts with a woman, Agnes, who raises Bluebeard after the death of her child.

“It sort of asks the question, who was Bluebeard before the fairy tale? You have all of these dead wives that he's collected, but somebody had to be the first dead wife. And what was life like for her before he was this fairy tale monster?”

Trigger warning: domestic violence is a main theme in this novel, whose events also include the death of a child.

Nazarro doesn’t classify this novel as horror. “In my opinion, as a big horror reader, it doesn't get scary enough. It never really delves into horror. But it's a sort of lyrical literary gothic fiction. I really did feel like it was like a physical presence with me while I was reading it.”

David Burton of novel, a bookstore in Memphis, Tenn., recommends his favorite book of the year so far: “The Pretender” by Jo Harkin, which he calls “historical fiction at its very best.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Anne Holman of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, recommends the novel “Old School Indian” by Aaron John Curtis.

Holman calls it a powerful coming-of-age story, when you come of age later in your life in an important way.

The novel follows Abe, who, like the author, is an enrolled member of the Mohawk tribe.

We first meet Abe at age 43 when he is very ill, returning to his family after having lived away for his entire adulthood. The story flashes back to Abe as a college student, falling in love with a young woman named Alex and reinventing himself to appeal to her.

Holman continues, “When he gets sick and goes home, he re-discovers the power of family, and especially his Uncle Budge, who is a healer and lives really, really off the grid and and helps Abe figure out a few important things about himself.”

Holman appreciates the dark humor of the book, the narrator who pops into the story to add his perspective, and the poetry interspersed within the chapters, which she calls “some of the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever read.”