Open Monday–Saturday 9 am–9 pm  • Sundays 10 am–6 pm

 From Mamie:

I want every single novelist and essayist and memoirist and poet and reader to shelve what they’re reading and pick up The White Book by Han Kang (Hogarth $20). On the first page, Kang makes a list of white things. The objects on this list recur throughout the book (not sure I’d call it a novel—it’s more like a series of vignettes). It is the story of a woman whose infant brother died before she was born, whose black eyes are the only thing that isn’t white in her memories. You can read this book in one sitting, but I’m pretty sure that, like I have, you’ll go back to it again and again for inspiration. It’s brilliant, and I can’t stop thinking (or talking) about it.

* * * Staff Picks

From Caroline: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray (Berkley $26). In this novel, a family of four siblings begins to fall apart when their mother dies, and decades later their world is rocked again when their oldest sister is arrested for a crime that affects the entire community. A haunting, twisting story, it is also a look into what it means to be a woman in any number of different roles: mother, daughter, sister, friend, wife, stranger. Arresting and engrossing, these characters and their voices will stay with you.

From Anne: Bowlaway: A Nove l by Elizabeth McCracken (Ecco $27.99). At the beginning of the 20th century Bertha Truitt turns up in Salford, Massachusetts with a bowling ball, a candle pin, and gold. What else would this mysterious woman do but open a bowling alley? She does, and thus begins the saga of Bertha, her descendants and the business that becomes the Bowlaway. The writing is crisp and generous. There are oddballs, scoundrels, waifs, and more, mostly likable. They live life the best way they can while the balls roll and the pins fall...and the reader smiles.

Reader Review The Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown (new in paperback, Picador $17). Wow! Set in the 1950’s NC mountains, this novel will introduce you to snake handlers, moonshiners, herbal mountain medicine, mountain style prostitution, and early stock car racing. This is very literate noir with passages of gorgeous writing which some might find overly florid, but not I. These beautiful pauses allowed me to catch my breath. I’m ready to start one of Brown's other novels.—Jerry in the mountains

NEW IN PAPERBACK THIS WEEK Find these and more here .

The North Carolina Book Festival starts tomorrow! Thursday, Feb. 21 - Sunday, Feb. 24 Nearly 50 local, national and international award-winning and bestselling authors, including William T. Vollmann, Hanif Abdurraqib, Sandra Cisneros, Jill McCorkle, and Jaki Shelton Green, will gather in Raleigh for the festival. Events will be held at venues in downtown Raleigh, at NC State Hunt Library, and at Quail Ridge Books. QRB will be the bookseller at all festival events, and you may pre-order signed copies of authors' books from us (specify "signed copy" when ordering). On Saturday, Feb. 23rd, QRB will host the festival's children and teen events (see below). Find the latest information on authors and venues at the NC Bookfest website and Facebook.com/NCBookfest .

News, Information and Links The 2019 Southern Book Prize winners are in! See the winners in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Children's here . February is Black History Month. Come shop our in-store displays, and browse some of our titles here . The kids' page is here . The North Carolina Writers’ Network Spring Conference is Saturday, April 27, at UNC-Greensboro. Author Michael McFee will give the keynote address. See more at NCWriters.org . QRB specializes in local, NC, and Southern. Find some of our specialty books, maps and DVDs here .

Tyree Daye on this week's Bookin' NC poet Tyree Daye received the 2017 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize and is a 2019 Tufts Award finalist. He joins Bookin' host and QRB Marketing Manager, Jason Jefferies, to discuss what has influenced and inspired his poetry, and to read selections from his book River Hymns . Daye will be at the North Carolina Book Festival on Saturday, Feb. 23, 4:30 p.m. at Neptune's Parlour in downtown Raleigh in conversation with Destiny Hemphill. Bookin' is sponsored by Libro.fm Audiobooks , and the podcast can be found at at QuailRidgeBooks.com/Podcast and on other platforms like iTunes , Stitcher , Spotify .

Book News From Journalist D.G. Martin

D.G. Martin's latest One-On-One column, "Following Lawson through the Carolinas" , discusses Raleigh author Scott Huler's forthcoming book A Delicious Country . Huler traced the steps of early 1700's explorer John Lawson, and he will be at QRB to talk about the journey on Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m.

Martin hosts NC Bookwatch on UNC-TV, airing Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and Tuesdays at 5:00 p.m. D.G.'s guests this week are Richard Rosen and Joseph Mosnier, authors of Julius Chambers: A Life in the Legal Struggle for Civil Rights , about the young man who threw off the fetters of the Jim Crow South to become the nation's leading African-American civil rights attorney. Watch NC Bookwatch episodes online at UNC-TV.org .

Upcoming QRB Events

Thursday, Feb. 21, 7:00 PM JUDY GOLDMAN, Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap " Together is a riveting account of a strong marriage tested when a routine medical procedure goes terribly wrong. Judy Goldman beautifully shows us the challenges and setbacks but also the triumphs as two people find strengths within themselves to create a new life together."—Ron Rash

Saturday, Feb. 23 NORTH CAROLINA BOOK FESTIVAL TEEN'S AND KIDS' EVENTS AT QRB

10:30 AM Jonathan Voss: Brave Enough for Two: A Hoot and Olive Story . A special storytime for ages 4+

2:00 PM Raleigh's Paul Tillery IV: Thundercluck ! Norse mythology and hilarity for ages 8+

4:30 PM Music Together with Jean Marie Whaley Songs and books for ages 6 months and up

6:00 PM "Ask an Author": Q&A session with NC authors of Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction: BRENDA RUFENER, Where I Live : If Linden Rose can follow the rules, no one will ever discover that she is the “homeless girl hiding in front of them.” Ages 13+. KATI GARDNER, Brave Enough : No one with cancer dies in this story. They do play Uno, shave their head, make new friends, attend camp, get kissed(!), and above all, discover they are brave enough to continue living life. Ages 13+. KWAME MBALIA, Tristan Strong Punches A Hole In The Sky : A 7th-grade boy enters a world where ancient African gods clash with gods of African-American legend.

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2:00 PM Editor SCOTT DAVIS presents The Dark Young Man by Jacob Dinezon Scott Davis is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, author, storyteller, and collector of Jewish stories from Eastern Europe. Originally written in Yiddish by Jacob Dinezon (c. 1851–1919), now translated by Tina Lunson and adapted by Davis, The Dark Young Man is a startling novel of mid-19th century Jewish life and culture. Davis is the author of Souls Are Flying! A Celebration of Jewish Stories , and Chanukah Tales from Oykvetchnik .

Book Clubs and Groups - Everyone Welcome!

SciFi/Fantasy and Forever Young combined meeting Thursday, Feb. 21 7:00 PM Triangle Origami Folders United Saturday, Feb. 23 7:00 PM The QRB Book Club Sunday, Feb. 24 4:30 PM Contemporary Fiction Monday, Feb. 25 7:00 PM Mystery Book Club Monday, Mar. 4 7:00 PM

Find the schedule for all of our groups here .

Children's Storytimes Mondays and Saturdays 10:30 AM

The Freakin' Awesome Book Club For Young Adults with developmental disabilities.

QRB Teen Writers Collective Meets at NCSU. Contact Cris.Crissman@gmail.com for info.

Quail Ridge Books 34 Years of Independent Bookselling 919-828-1588 QuailRidgeBooks.com “ You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. ”~~ Madeleine L'Engle For inquiries concerning QuailMail contact editor Kent Bryant at kent@quailridgebooks.com .

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