[title subtitle=”WORDS Sara Putman, owner Bookish
IMAGES courtesy publishers”][/title]
Enjoy these five must-read books from our friends at Bookish, Fort Smith, Arkansas’s only independently-owned bookstore. Shop hours: Monday 11am-4pm, Tuesday – Friday 10am-6pm and Saturday 10am-4pm. Need curbside delivery? Call 479.434.2917 or email orders@bookishfs.com.
The Last Story of Mina Lee
by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
Margot Lee is twenty-six years old and has a complicated relationship with her mother. When Mina, her mom, stops answering her phone, Margot drives back down to her childhood home in Koreatown, Los Angeles. When she finds her dead mother, the investigation uncovers just how little she knew her. Shifting between Mina’s first year in Los Angeles and Margot’s search for answers, this heartfelt generational novel will reveal the fragility of our most important relationships.
Transcendent Kingdom
by Yaa Gyasi
This is a story of Ghanian immigrants to Alabama. Gifty is a scientist who is studying addiction, and through eloquent flashbacks, we get vignettes of the family’s tragedies through faith, science, depression, and grief. This is a gorgeous follow-up to her awards-winning debut, Homegoing.
This Tender Land
by William Kent Krueger
This voyage down the Mississippi with four orphans contains everything you need in a coming- of-age story. When Odie O’ Banion and his brother steal away from the Lincoln Indian School, they take with them a very special little girl and a mute Indian. With nothing but wit and lessons to learn along the way, the four friends find out the truth about each other just in time to save their necks time and again.
Vapors
by David Hill
Hill writes of Hot Springs, Arkansas in its heyday. Gamblers, corrupt politicians, prostitutes, and mobsters were able to get away with anything they wanted to. Hill tells the story of the rise of Hot Springs in three voices: Hazel Hill, his grandmother; Dane Harris, manager of The Vapors; and Owney Madden, a political powerhouse. Hill begins to track the boom of the city in the 1930s and follows it into the 60s.
We Are All Good People Here
by Susan Rebecca White
Eve Whalen is a product of old money in Atlanta, Georgia, and she is paired with Daniella Gold as roommates at Belmont College in the fall of 1962. They become friends, but Daniella’s Jewish father keeps her questioning how much she can fit in. Through the lens of two girls searching for themselves, readers relive the systemic injustices of the South and see how differently they view the world.
