Ask a Bookseller

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.

Kari Meutsch of Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, Vt., loves recommending Katherine Arden’s novels to readers who enjoy historical fiction and want to dip their toes into fantasy. “The history is so well researched that it almost makes the magic and the folklore seem just as real,” Meutsch says.

Arden’s bestselling Winternight Trilogy was set in medieval Russia, and Meutsch says Arden’s new novel, “The Unicorn Hunters,” out this week, “feels like spring: it just feels like growth and promise.”

“The Unicorn Hunters” follows Anne of Brittany (1477-1514), a politically savvy Duchess of Brittany and twice queen consort of France, who did everything in her power to preserve Brittany’s independence. She died without a male heir, and Brittany ultimately became part of France.

But what would have happened if she had magic?

That’s the question of “The Unicorn Hunters.” The novel does indeed involve a unicorn hunt as well as the fairy realm.

“So Anne has the opportunity to try all of these other ways to save her kingdom. Or, it might destroy her; you don't know,” says Meutsch.

“Katherine has such a beautiful way of writing. I really loved the whole package of this book.”

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’s been a trend on Ask a Bookseller these past few months of books that make you feel good about the world. This week, we’re in for something different.

John Shableski of The Otto Bookstore in Williamsport, Penn., says the book that kept him up reading too late at night recently is a collection of YA short stories by Barry Lyga entitled “Before the Hunt.”

The book is the first prequel of Lyga’s YA thriller “I Hunt Killers” trilogy. Both books feature 17-year-old Jasper “Jazz” Dent, whose father is a serial killer.

“If you like Dexter and Hunger Games with a twist of humor, this book is spot on,” says Shableski.

“Before the Hunt” takes place before Jazz’s father is discovered and jailed. Set in a small town in Georgia, Shableski says, “It's a wonderful take on a 17-year-old's perspective of life and love and happiness — and also dealing with the fact that his father is a serial killer. He struggles with the nurture-versus-nature thing, because as he likes to say in one of the books, ‘Take Your Kid to Work Day was different in my house.’”

Jazz, Shableski says, has a wickedly dry sense of humor. The book classifies as horror, given its serious subject matter, but Shableski says the violence is implied rather than splashed across the page.

The second book in the prequel series, “Every Hunter is Hunted,” is billed as an adult mystery featuring Jasper Dent. It comes out June 23.

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’ve read Allan Levi’s bestselling novel “Theo of Golden” — or you’re waiting for a copy to come available at the library — and you’re looking for the next book that will make you feel hopeful about the world, Diane Rineer of Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise, Idaho, suggests the novel, “The Left and the Lucky,” by Willy Vlautin.

At the book’s heart is a friendship: a father/son-style relationship that forms between Eddie, who is a workaholic painter, and 8-year-old Russell, who lives next door.

Eddie has lost somebody in his life, and he wants to make up for it any way he can. Russell is being badly bullied, both at school and by his teenage brother at home. He begins to linger around Eddie, who gives the boy small jobs to do and a listening ear.

“Eddie doesn’t have much, but he does have a big heart,” says Rineer, “and by the end of the book, you just want to hug him.”

“He’s helped so many people along the way in such big ways with what little he has. It’s just a feel-good story, and I feel like we need more Eddies in the world.”

Rineer is a big fan of Vlautin’s novels, in general, and she says this most recent one has her thinking about the importance of helping people in whatever way you can.

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.

Part of the joy of reading historical fiction is discovering moments or voices in our past that resonate today.

For Sophia Terry of Bank Street Books in Mystic, Conn., the novel that had her turning pages — and then diving into internet research to learn more — was "The Lilac People" by Milo Todd. It comes out in paperback this week.

The novel weaves between two starkly different timelines in the life of Bertie, a trans man living in Germany. In the early 1930s, Bertie works with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute for Sexual Science, where his work uplifts a thriving queer community in Berlin.

Ten years later, Bertie and his girlfriend are in hiding, living on a farm under assumed names. A young trans man winds up on their property, still dressed in the prison clothes from the camp in which he escaped, and the couple takes him in.

The fall of the Nazis and the arrival of the Allies, though, does not signal the end of danger for Bertie and other queer people.

Terry recommends this novel for lovers of Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See” and others who enjoy WWII or queer history.

“It was such a powerful debut novel. It’s a chapter of history and voice that you so rarely get to hear from, but it's as much about hope and resilience as [about] these darker chapters of history.”

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.

Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day, a national event celebrating reading and the booksellers at small businesses who put those books into readers’ hands.

Across Minnesota, more than 70 independent bookstores are participating. Many are offering readings, special offers and opportunities to win prizes.

In the greater Twin Cities metro, book lovers can pick up a free independent bookstore passport and get it stamped at any of the 38 participating businesses. Stamped pages serve as coupons for future visits, with bonus coupons and prize drawings for those with 10 or more stamps.