Ask a Bookseller

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

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.Minnesota is in the national spotlight as the massive federal ICE operation continues. It can be a challenge to know how to talk to children about this issue, and books can be conversation starters for families, as well as sources of comfort. Timothy Otte of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis says his bookstore, which focuses on books for children, is getting requests for books about community and social justice. And while there is no one perfect book to speak to this moment, he finds himself regularly thinking about a picture book by Oliver Jeffers entitled “Begin Again: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go — Our Human Story. So Far.” Jeffers grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the politically turbulent 1970s and 80’s, and his picture books often focus, in gentle ways, on how we treat each other and live together on one planet. "Begin Again” is a book that Otte says feels appropriate for children and adults alike. Here’s how Otte describes the book: “It is about what we can do and what we can build together. “In the book, Jeffers has a little essay describing the inspiration for the book, and in it, he says that he no longer asks people what kind of world they want, because what people say is in the negative. “They say, ‘This is the kind of world I don't want.’ So now he asks, ‘How do you want to feel?’ And I think that's such a brilliant question, because we can build a world in which we all feel safe, we feel in community, we feel held. We want to have a place to live and food to eat and a group to be in, whether that's a family or a larger community. “This book is a great place to find inspiration for how to make that world a reality, and the kinds of questions that we need to ask both ourselves and the people around us if we want to build that world.”

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.Angel Horne of Two Friends Bookstore in Bentonville, Arkansas, recommends the novel “To the Moon and Back” by Eliana Ramage. It’s a debut novel about a young woman’s quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut.From a young age, Steph Harper is driven to get to space. She throws herself into education and training, determined to get out of Oklahoma. The novel focuses on Steph and the important women in her life — her mother, her artist/influencer sister, her college girlfriend — as their relationships stretch and change through decades and across distances.Horne appreciated the representation in this book, with a queer Cherokee woman in a STEM field at the center, and she also resonated with the setting Like the protagonist, Steph was born in the early 80s, and she appreciated watching her live through the introduction of cell phones and social media.

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.Becky Schlosser of Cherry Street Books in Alexandria recommends the novel "The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett. Schlosser calls it “darkly funny and heartwarming” — a “perfect” story about imperfect people. This story involves a road trip like no other. 63-year-old PJ Halliday — survivor of three heart attacks, million-dollar lottery winner who’s nearly spent through his money — reads in the obituaries that the husband of his high school flame has passed away. She was the one that got away, in his mind, and now that she’s single. PJ decides to road-trip from Massachusetts to her retirement community in Arizona to win her back. Along for the ride are two tween orphans, Luna and Ollie, for whom PJ has recently become guardian; his disgruntled adult daughter; and a seemingly clairvoyant orange cat. Also, he technically doesn’t have a license, given some past DUIs, and he’s had to borrow his ex-wife's car. What could go wrong? Schlosser says this novel, with its sharp wit, is quirky and lovable, but it deals with some pretty heavy, tender topics.” She recommends this story of found family and second chances to readers who like Fredrik Backman’s novels.

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.It’s that time of year when readers start to catalogue their favorite books of 2025, and for bookseller Kelly Evert, that book is “Mona’s Eyes” by Thomas Schlesser. Evert works at Village Books and Paper Dreams, with locations in Bellingham and Lynden, Washington. When a young girl named Mona, living in Paris, learns she’s going to go blind, her grandfather determines to show her as much visual art as he can while she can still see. Once a week, over the course of a year, he takes her to the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and other French galleries, where they focus on a piece of art each time. Evert appreciated both the art discussions and the relationship between Mona and her grandfather. “It’s just very beautiful and loving,” says Evert, who added that the dust jacket of the hardcover book includes images of all the featured artwork. Art lovers will immediately recognize that the famed eyes on the cover belong to Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” not the Mona Lisa, though Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece is one of the 52 works of art featured in the 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.What would the contents of your purse or backpack say about you? Bev Newton of Innisfree Bookshop in Meredith, N.H., recommends a novel about a Parisian bookseller who is so taken by the contents of an abandoned purse, he sets off on a quest to find its owner. Newton calls it “the biggest little book you’ll read this year — a delightful little book." Laurent Letellier discovers the purse, stripped by a mugger of all its valuable or identifying objects. Inside, he discovers a red notebook along with a key chain, a hieroglyph and perfume. Newton says the notebook is full of fragmented “memories and wishes and fears,” adding that readers who wish they kept journals will take comfort in how much can be conveyed in dashed-off remarks. Laurent, with help from his daughter, sets off on a quest to return the purse. But how to find a faceless, nameless woman in all of Paris? The novel has been available in Europe for years, but it was recently translated and made available to the American market.