Ask a Bookseller

Minnesota Public Radio
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Looking for your next great read? Ask a bookseller! Join us to check in with independent bookstores across the U.S. to find out what books they’re excited about right now. One book, two minutes, every week. From the long-running series on MPR News, hosted by Emily Bright. Whether you read to escape, feel connected, seek self-improvement, or just discover something new, there is a book here for you.

  1. 3d ago

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘We Burned So Bright’ by TJ Klune

    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. Rachel Ostrom of Acorn Bookshop in St. Paul says TJ Klune’s new novel “We Burned So Bright” might make you cry. Klune is author of charming and hopeful New York Bestselling fantasies “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Under the Whispering Door,” among several others. This new stand-alone novel has a starker premise than some of Klune’s other works: the end of the world. A black hole has been gobbling up the solar system, and in a month’s time, life on Earth will end. Faced with a clear deadline, husbands Don and Rodney take a road trip across the U.S. to reach an important destination before time runs out. On the way, Ostrom says, they encounter memorable characters with their own varied responses to the end of life on earth. She describes one memorable conversation Rodney and Don have around a campfire with a younger couple, where they recall a previous catastrophic experience: “When they were first together, it was in the 80s, in the midst of the AIDS crisis. They're talking about their friends who died during the AIDS epidemic, and how, like, the government did nothing to help them, and it's just really devastating to hear about that. The conversations they have around that were really incredible and even sparked me to want to learn more about that time.” Acorn Bookshop is the most recent addition to the Twin Cities’ rich indie bookstore scene. It opened in late March in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul. Ostrom says it’s a feminist bookstore, with 75 percent of titles written by women. The store has a sizeable children’s, middle grade and young adult section. Ostrom says the store also has a strong nature focus; Acorn Bookshop gives a percentage of sales every month to Voyageurs Conservancy and Friends of the Mississippi River.

    2 min

  2. 6d ago

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Unicorn Hunters’ by Katherine Arden

    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.”

    2 min

  3. May 30

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘Before the Hunt’ by Barry Lyga

    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.

    2 min

  4. May 16

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Left and the Lucky’

    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.

    2 min

  5. May 2

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Lilac People’ by Milo Todd

    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.”

    2 min

  6. Apr 25

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘Flourish’ by Daniel Coyle 

    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.

    2 min

  7. Apr 18

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘This Is Where the Serpent Lives’ by Daniyal Mueenuddin 

    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. Seeing a new work on the shelf written by an author you love can feel like winning the lottery. Shirley Fergenson of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Md., remembers being absolutely captivated by Daniyal Mueenuddin’s 2009 short story collection “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. This year — 17 years later — he’s published a new work of fiction, entitled “This Is Where the Serpent Lives.” Fergenson says when she saw it, she “practically jumped up and down. I took it home, I read it, and I fell in love with it. It's the same voice. I loved it then, and I love it still.” “This Is Where the Serpent Lives” is a sprawling work set in Pakistan over several decades, starting in the 1950s. It’s being marketed as a novel, but Fergenson says it’s actually three short stories and a novella with interlinking characters. “It sort of feels like ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ with a little bit of ‘The Godfather’ thrown in,” she says. “There are rich landowners, there are servants, forbidden Love, ambition, corruption. There is moral compromise and fluid loyalty. It is a class-and-cast panorama of amazingly rich characters. Each one could have a whole story written about them. They're so full of life.” “The main reason to read this book is the exquisite writing, but if you need a story that is one story arc that takes you from the beginning to the end, this is not your story. There are linkages, but they're literary, and they are so beautifully told that even in the bleakest, darkest setting, every detail feels like a photograph through an artist's filter. And the final novella is so powerful that it feels like its own full novel.” Listen to an NPR interview with the author: Daniyal Mueenuddin discusses his debut novel, 'This Is Where the Serpent Lives' : NPR

    2 min

  8. Apr 11

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘Brawler’ by Lauren Groff

    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. Lauren Groff’s novels and short stories have been finalists three times for the National Book Award, and now she’s out with a new collection of short stories entitled “Brawler.” Maire Wilson of Huxley & Hiro Booksellers in Wilmington, Del., says this work is just as strong as her others. Unlike Groff's earlier short story collection, “Florida,” the nine stories in “Brawler” vary their locations as well as time periods and life circumstances. In “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf?,” the longest piece in the book, a young man struggling with alcoholism retreats to his family’s estate to grapple with the ways his life has fallen short of his expectations. “The Wind” is the story of fleeing domestic abuse, passed from mother to daughter. In each story, Wilson says, “everything is so elegantly simple that it's almost like maintaining a conversation with the person across from you, or just kind of listening into this life story. I feel like I'm in the room.” Wilson loves Groff’s “attention to the liveliness of the surroundings” in each story, adding that she comes out of Groff’s novels and short stories "just kind of feeling full” and satisfied.

    2 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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out of 5
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About

Looking for your next great read? Ask a bookseller! Join us to check in with independent bookstores across the U.S. to find out what books they’re excited about right now. One book, two minutes, every week. From the long-running series on MPR News, hosted by Emily Bright. Whether you read to escape, feel connected, seek self-improvement, or just discover something new, there is a book here for you.

Information

  • Creator
    Minnesota Public Radio
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    360
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Minnesota Public Radio
  • Show Website
    Ask a Bookseller

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