Feeling conflicted on this and need a second opinion. You probably already know that I have two monthly book clubs. I always share my book picks in an article I write for my community magazine. I live in conservative Texas and so I sometimes get a bit of pushback on my choices, which are often the sort of queer, POC-authored books, or books that center anything-other-than-Christian characters that are often banned here, but last month was the first time that I actually was asked to rewrite my article to pick a different book than the one I’d submitted because the magazine was getting pushback on “appropriateness” and needed me to pick something more “family friendly”.
I considered just quitting but instead I submitted a new article with a different book to spotlight in the magazine….Lula Deans’ Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller. I explained that the book was about a small southern neighborhood where one woman decides to rid the public libraries of all the “inappropriate” books…none of which she’s actually read…and replaces the contested books with her idea of “family-friendly” literature in her Little Free Library. When a young woman secretly fills Lula Dean’s Little Free Library with banned books wrapped in her “wholesome” dust covers (The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette is replaced with The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution…The jacket for Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved) the neighbors who borrow Lula Deans books are changed in unexpected way. A very appropriate read for our times.
I expected that I’d be fired immediately (if you can be fired from someplace that doesn’t pay you) but instead they totally ran it and now I can’t decide if perhaps my replacement article was too subtle, or if possibly the people running the magazine are also a little tired of appropriateness as defined by everyone else. Regardless, I suspect my time there is limited.
Do you want to see my actual pick that was too dangerous for my neighborhood magazine?
It’s In the Hour of Crows by Dana Elmendorf.
In a small town in rural Georgia, Appalachian roots and traditions still run deep. Folks paint their houses haint blue to keep the spirits way. Black ferns grow, it’s said, where death will follow. And Weatherly Wilder’s grandmother is a local Granny Witch, relied on for help delivering babies, making herbal remedies, tending to the sick—and sometimes serving up a fatal dose of revenge when she deems it worthy. Weatherly, when called upon, can talk the death out of the dying; only once, never twice. But in her short twenty years on this Earth this gift has taken a toll, rooting her to the small town that only wants her around when they need her and resents her backwater ways when they don’t.
Weatherly’s cousin, Adaire, also has a gift: she’s a Scryer; she can see the future reflected in the dark surface of her scrying pan. Or at least, she could before she was killed. Weatherly, with the help of Adaire’s spirit, sets out to find Adaire’s killer, no matter what it takes.
What makes this book so dangerous? Witches?…I guess? No fucking clue really. But it’s an excellent book that perfectly balances the line between cozy and unsettling and if you aren’t already a member of the Fantastic Strangelings Book Club this is the perfect book to join on. COME READ WITH US.
Or if your tastes run a little darker I recommend Nightmares from Nowhere, our horror book club.
This month’s book is one of my absolute favorites and I am still thinking about it. It’s The Eyes are theBest Part by Monika Kim.
It’s a feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective. I’ve never read anything quite like it, although it did remind me a little of My Sister, the Serial Killer. A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, and a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other. If you like horror, don’t miss this one.
And if you need more than one book to get you through the month, here are a few June books I loved.
Bear by Julia Phillips – A mesmerizing novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest Island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor. Short but haunting.
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center – A rom-com about a rom-com. It sounds meta but it’s marvelous. (And Katherine is visiting Nowhere Bookshop for a reading and signing this month in our sold-out event.)
Malas by Marcela Fuentes – A story full of passion and revenge, following one family living on the Texas Mexico border and a curse that reverberates across generations. (Marcela is also coming to Nowhere for a signing!)
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe – Weird but fun…wrestling, onlyfans, motherhood, growing up…this one’s got a lot going on.
Happy reading and thanks for supporting Nowhere Bookshop!
PS. We have a new shirt available until June 19th and also we’re in the finals for Best Bookshop in San Antonio. Feel free to vote!
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