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. 1d ago

    Ask a Bookseller: The Raiders of the Arcana series by Jacquelyn Benson

    Maria Lockwood of Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers in Superior, Wis., has a suggestion for a great historical fantasy series that will appeal to fans of “The Mummy” movies. She recommends the Raiders of the Arcana series, which starts with "Empire of Shadows," written by Jacquelyn Benson. Want to add this book to your library? Purchase it here and support MPR and a local bookstore of your choosing The series begins in 1898 in England, but archaeologist Ellie Mallory and dashing adventurer Adam Bates soon travel to Central America in search of a lost city. Naturally, there’s a ruthless villain determined to beat them to the discovery and a mythical artifact buried within the ruins. The series has a slow-burn romance with fun, flirty banter. Lockwood loves the characters. She describes Ellie as “a woman suffragette, so she's very opinionated. She jumps in there and takes control, and I love that about her! The characters are so real, they just jump out of the page at you. You feel like you're carrying around your best buddies in your handbag when you want to read a book; these are great buddies to have along on any kind of excursion,” said Lockwood. There are three books in the series, plus a prequel novella, with a fourth book coming in January.

    2 min

  2. Jun 30

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘Enormous Wings’ by Laurie Frankel

    Are you ready to believe a few impossible things? If so, Sue Zumberge of SubText Bookstore in St. Paul recommends the novel “Enormous Wings” by Laurie Frankel. “The moment I mention that it is about a 77-year-old woman who becomes pregnant, people sort of back away from me,” Zumberge said. “I think it is best described by the epigraph at the beginning of the book, which is from Hilary Mantel's book, ‘Mirror and Light.’ ‘We know it is impossible. The question is, who can best endure impossibility?’” The novel follows Pepper Mills, who moves into a retirement home at her grown children’s insistence. There, she falls in love with another resident and, to the shock of everyone, becomes pregnant. They live in Texas, and a doctor threatens Pepper’s children and their livelihoods if she should seek an abortion. Zumberge said this novel makes an excellent summer read, with themes that feel both timeless and urgent: “our relationship with our family, our relationship with our partners, our ability to make our own choices—not just about keeping a pregnancy, but whether we are able to live on our own.” “The important aspect of this book is that it opens us, through this impossible scenario, to so many other possibilities within our lives. It is a beautiful book.”

    2 min

  3. Jun 28

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘One of Us’ by Dan Chaon

    On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers across Minnesota and beyond to find out what books they’re most excited about right now Jeff Danz of Zandbros Variety in Sioux Falls, S.D., was looking for some escapist fiction when he was drawn to the story of a traveling carnival. He calls Dan Chaon’s gothic horror novel “One of Us” an engaging read with compelling characters that felt like a darker version of a Mark Twin or Charles Dickens adventure. Set in 1915, the novel follows 13-year-old twins Eleanor and Bolt, who have a flawless ability to read each other's minds. When their mother dies, leaving them orphaned, a rather terrifying man calling himself their Uncle Charlie shows up to adopt them. They quickly realize Charlie is a con man who expects them to help with his schemes, and the children devise an escape. They find themselves on an orphan train, traveling through the Midwest with dwindling hopes of being chosen, when a man in a red waistcoat with gold epaulets appears and tells the children “I see you.” He is Mr. Jengling, and he adopts them into the world of Mr. Jengling’s Emporium of Wonders. The traveling carnival world offers a new family in a sometimes-brutal American frontier, as well as opportunities that may cause the twins to grow apart. And Uncle Charlie is on their trail... “It ends,” he said, “in an unexpected way that is satisfying, in that it connects a lot of things. It kept me interested the whole time.”

    2 min

  4. Jun 16

    Ask a Bookseller: ‘It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect’ by Gaelynn Lea

    On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers across Minnesota to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. Eric Plumb of Amazing Alonzo Bookstore in Duluth recommends the memoir "It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect" by fellow Duluthian Gaelynn Lea. Lea is a composer, musician, speaker and disability advocate whose accolades include winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016 and composing and recording the score for “Macbeth” on Broadway. Writing in a conversational style, Lea traces her love of music and the many paths on which it has taken her. Plumb enjoyed learning about Lea’s collaborations with other Duluth musicians, including Alan Sparhawk from Low and blues musician Charlie Parr. If you can, Plumb says, listen to the audiobook, which incorporates some of her music interspersed with her story. Listen to Lea’s interview with MPR’s Kelly Gordon, which aired on Minnesota Now. Plumb recommended the memoir at a live Ask a Bookseller event at the Zeitgeist in Duluth last week. Find summer reading recommendations from North Shore bookstores and libraries here. Gaelynn Lea: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

    2 min

  5. Jun 9

    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

  6. Jun 6

    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

  7. 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

  8. 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
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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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