the ncb newsletter
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Howdy, readers! Hope you're enjoying the State Fair and not suffering from the accompanying traffic too badly.

This week, we have a new novel from Hamnet author Maggie O'Farrell, paperback releases from Louise Erdrich and Mary Roach, an event next month with a trio of great local poets, and the real, hard facts about love...

All that and more is in this edition of the NCB Newsletter!
Event Spotlights: William Kent Krueger Reading / Signing TONIGHT at 6:00pm
We've been beating the drum on this event pretty hard on social media, but in case you missed it, we're having local mystery author William Kent Krueger in the store this evening at 6:00. Krueger is the author of This Tender Land, Ordinary Grace (winner of the Edgar Award for best novel), and the nineteen acclaimed books in the New York Times bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series. In addition to signing, he'll be reading from his newest book, Fox Creek.

In this latest entry in the Cork O’Connor series, the Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux guides a mysterious stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters. On the last journey he may ever take into this beloved land, Meloux must do his best to outwit the mercenaries who follow. Meanwhile, Cork begins tracking the killers, but his own skills as a hunter are severely tested by nightfall and a late season snowstorm. But his fiercest enemy may well be his own deep self-doubt about his ability to save those he loves.

Due to the high demand for this event, we are requiring tickets (which are no longer standard practice for our events). As usual with our ticketed events, the ticket is $5 or free with your purchase of the book in the store, over the phone, or online here. We hope to see you there!
2023 Linnea Calendars Are Here!
The newest calendars from Linnea Design, longtime favorite of Next Chapter readers, have arrived! We have the whole lineup: the full-size wall calendar, the desktop calendar, and the hardcover book format! Buy one now to guarantee a touch of beauty and class for your 2023.
Labor Day Hours
For Labor Day next week, we'll be open 12pm to 5pm. Have a great three-day weekend, everyone!
New Books
AVAILABLE NOW

Carrie Soto Is Back Taylor Jenkins Reid

Six years after her retirement, tennis legend Carrie Soto finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan. At thirty-seven years old, Carrie decides to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe” anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. Even if it means training with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever. Carrie Soto is back for one epic final season in Jenkins Reid's most vulnerable, emotional story yet.
AVAILABLE NOW

The Echo Chamber John Boyne

The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realizing how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words), his wife Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like), and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen. Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone.
AVAILABLE SEPT. 6th: PREORDER NOW

The Marriage Portrait Maggie O'Farrell

Florence, the 1550s. When Lucrezia's older sister dies on the eve of her wedding, the fiancé is quick to request her hand in marriage instead, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia enters a court whose customs are opaque, and her arrival is not universally welcomed. Most mystifying of all is her new husband himself. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, or the ruthless politician before whom even his family trembles? In the court’s eyes, Lucrezia has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.
AVAILABLE SEPT. 6th: PREORDER NOW

Fairy Tale Stephen King

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a teenager who inherits the keys to a parallel world. Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, but he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, local recluse Howard. When Howard dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe: that inside the shed in his backyard is a portal to another world. Here begins a magnificent and terrifying tale in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy—and his dog—must lead the battle.
We no longer have the "One Flesh One End" enamel pins, but you can still get a special black-edged edition by preordering.
AVAILABLE SEPT. 13th: PREORDER NOW

Nona the Ninth Tasmyn Muir

Muir's latest entry in the Locked Tomb tetralogy comes out next month!
This third book delivers everything a Locked Tomb reader could want: old questions answered, new ones raised, swordfights, dad jokes, and a fresh angle on the universe of the Nine Houses. The main story follows amnestic cinnamon roll Nona, whose story of found family reaches hilarious, riveting, and surprisingly tender highs before being forced, both authorially and diagetically, to dovetail with the overarching plot.

Nona the Ninth was cleaved from an over-long final book, and you might argue that it suffers from middle-entry syndrome, tasked with lots of set-up and little resolution. With its previously unintroduced protagonist, readers may also find it digressive. Ameliorating such potential pitfalls are interstitial chapters that expose the incredible history of two of the series's key figures. But even without the revelations there supplied, and even without the context of the final book yet to come, Nona justifies its existence. Muir's complex, lovable characters, skillful worldbuilding, and vivid prose would make this a must-read even as a standalone. As it is, Nona is all that AND the groundwork for an incredible finale.
-Graham
New in Paperback
AVAILABLE SEPT. 6th:
PREORDER NOW
AVAILABLE SEPT. 6th:
PREORDER NOW
Upcoming Events
Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic with Haley Swanson, Kathryn Nuernberger, and Elizabeth R. Tannen

Tuesday, August 30 at 6:00pm
 
Sixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl sent shockwaves through American culture. Helen’s message was radical for its time: marriage wasn’t essential for women to lead rich, fulfilling lives. Now, in these critical, wry, and expansive essays, twenty-four writers reconsider Helen’s advice and how it applies to their own paths, fielding topics that she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—conceive of in 1962: contraception and abortion, queer and trans womanhood, polyamory, celibacy, interracial dating, bodies of all kinds, consent, sex work, IVF, and the pop culture that both saves and fails us. Editor Haley Swanson is an MFA candidate at Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Glamour, Electric Literature, Bustle, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, and elsewhere. She teaches writing at Catapult and lives in New York. Contributor Kathryn Nuernberger’s latest book is The Witch of Eye, which is about witches and witch trials. She is also the author of poetry collections RUE, The End of Pink, and Rag & Bone, as well as a collection of lyric essays, Brief Interviews with the Romantic Past. She teaches poetry and nonfiction for the MFA program at University of Minnesota. Contributor Elizabeth R. Tannen is a writer, editor, and educator based in Minneapolis.
NCB Manga Club: First Meeting

Saturday, September 10 at 5:00pm
 
Come to NCB at 5pm on the second Saturday of every month to talk manga with other weebs, dweebs, and otaku! Hosted by our resident manga experts Emily and Graham (yours truly), the Manga Club provides free Japanese snacks, a 10% discount on ALL manga in the store, and most importantly, a forum to discuss a new title every month. In addition, the title for the upcoming meeting will be 15% off all month, every month. Our first meeting was originally going to cover Inio Asano's Solanin, but it's out of stock with our distributor until November, so we're just going to introduce ourselves and talk about what we're reading right now over Pocky and Ramune. Maybe we can settle the issue once and for all of who is Best Girl. Probably not. Hope to see you there!
Sirens & Muses Antonia Angress,
in Conversation with Alicia Kismet Eler

Thursday, September 15 at 6:00pm
 
Louisa is a thoughtful, observant nineteen-year-old when she transfers to Wrynn College of Art, but she soon finds herself adrift in an environment that prizes novelty over beauty. Complicating matters is Louisa’s unexpected attraction to her charismatic roommate, Karina , the preternaturally gifted but mercurial daughter of wealthy art collectors. Gradually, Louisa and Karina are drawn into an intense sensual and artistic relationship, one that forces them to confront their deepest desires and fears. But Karina also can’t shake her fascination with senior Preston, who is publicly feuding with visiting professor and political painter Robert Berger—a once-controversial figurehead seeking to regain relevance. Antonia Angress was born in Los Angeles and raised in San José, Costa Rica. She is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Minnesota MFA program. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband, the artist Connor McManus. Alicia Kısmet Eler (she/they) is an arts journalist, critic and writer. She is the author of The Selfie Generation and is the visual art critic/reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Their work has been published in The Guardian, New York Magazine, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Alicia grew up in Chicago and is currently based in Minneapolis. She is at work on a novel.
A Boy In The City - S. Yarberry
in Conversation with Sun Yung Shin and Moheb Soliman

Thursday, September 22 at 6:00pm
 
NCB will host a reading with S. Yarberry for their new collection A Boy in the City, featuring fellow poets Moheb Soliman and Sun Yung Shin. In this debut collection of poetry, the obscure and mundane collide. Clever in its playful allusions to Greek myths, William Blake, and other figures, A Boy in the City is a distinct work of joy and liberation that reckons with the language of gender and desire. S. Yarberry is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in Tin House, Indiana Review, The Offing, Berkeley Poetry Review, Notre Dame Review, and The Boiler, among others. They serve as the Poetry Editor of The Spectacle.

Moheb Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest who's presented work at literary, art, and public spaces in the US, Canada, and abroad. His debut poetry collection HOMES, is a current finalist for several awards and put him in the Poets & Writers annual 10 debut poets feature. 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin is a poet, writer, and cultural worker. She is the editor of What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories on Food and Family and of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, author of poetry collections The Wet Hex; Unbearable Splendor; and Skirt Full of Black. She co-directs Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang. Both poets live in Minneapolis. 
Kathryn Savage (Groundglass) and Juliet Patterson (Sinkhole)

Thursday, September 29 at 6:00pm

Kathryn Savage's writing has appeared in American Short Fiction, Ecotone Magazine, the Virginia Quarterly Review, BOMB, and the anthology Rewilding: Poems for the Environment. Recipient of the Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize, she lives with her family in Minneapolis and teaches creative writing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Groundglass takes shape atop a polluted aquifer in Minnesota, as Kathryn Savage confronts the transgressions of U.S. Superfund sites against land, groundwater, neighborhoods, and people. Savage traces concentric rings of connection — between our bodies, our communities, and our ecosystem. Equal parts mourning poem and manifesto for environmental justice, Groundglass reminds us that no living thing exists on its own
Juliet Patterson is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Threnody and The Truant Lover, a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. She teaches creative writing and literature at St. Olaf College and is also a faculty member of the college’s Environmental Conversation program. She lives in Minneapolis. Sinkhole is an elegant, fractured reckoning with the legacy and inheritance of suicide in one American family. In 2009, Juliet Patterson learned her father had died by suicide. Her father's father had taken his own life too; so had her mother's. Why had her family lost so many men, and what lay beneath the silence that had taken hold? Sinkhole layers personal, familial, political, and environmental histories to provide not answers but essential, heartbreaking truth.
From Our Shelves
Staff Pick Spotlight:
Shady Hollow Juneau Black

"A clever work of 'woodland noir' about a charmingly unique town with a murderer afoot, so think Winnie the Pooh meets Murder She Wrote as imagined by Wes Anderson. And if you like it, there are more!"
-Jason
Fact of the Week:

A few months into a new romantic relationship, couples move out of limerence (the initial phase of intense attraction and infatuation) and into attached love (the enduring phase of calm companionship). This shift from attraction to attachment is accompanied by a transition in the brain from dopamine (which encourages impulsivity) to serotonin (which encourages rationality). The common denominator in both phases is oxytocin, which stabilizes the transition, lessening the chances that partners will split in search of a quick dopamine fix.

Learn more about interpersonal science in
Good Chemistry: The Science of Connection From Soul to Psychedelics, by Julie Holland
Next Chapter Reader Poll
Thanks to everyone who responded to last week's poll! Our results were:

What's your favorite bookstore in Minneapolis?
  1. Birchbark Books & Native Arts - 32.7% (18)
  2. Magers & Quinn Booksellers - 18.2% (10)
  3. Moon Palace Book - 12.7% (7)
  4. Once Upon A Crime - 9.1% (5)
  5. Wild Rumpus Books for Young Readers - 7.3% (4)
  6. Boneshaker Books - 5.5% (3)
  7. Milkweed Books - 0% (0)

Other - 14.5% (8)

Well, Milkweed will have to content themselves with being merely the favorite local publisher and not also the favorite local bookstore. We definitely sell enough of their books here! Also, I was surprised at how many votes were for stores I hadn't listed! If you voted for 'other,' feel free to write back and tell me what stores I'm missing.
Now for this week's poll! This is a short-answer poll, so you can respond to it by replying to this email. This also might be the most important poll we've ever done, and I am not being facetious. This week's question:

Every Christmas we collect donations for a local charity. For instance, last year it was the Minneapolis-based My Very Own Bed. Thanks to all you readers, we together raised hundreds of dollars to provide transitional housing for youth. We'd like suggestions for this year's charity. Literacy- or education-related charities will be given preference, as will those local to Saint Paul, but feel free to suggest whatever causes are dearest to your heart. Thanks in advance!
We Are Open!

Three ways to shop with Next Chapter Booksellers:

1. Come in the store and browse. Talk to a bookseller or peruse the shelves, as you prefer. Although the mask mandate is no longer in effect, we do still appreciate it if you choose to wear a mask. 

2. Order online or over the phone for in-store pickup. We'll let you know when your books are ready, then you can swing by and pick them up at your leisure.

3. Get your books delivered to your home. We can mail your books to you (no charge for orders over $50) or deliver them to your home (to addresses in St. Paul only, and again for orders over $50).


We're here 10am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and noon to 5pm on Sunday.
Thanks for reading
all the way to the end.

As always, we've got lots more great books in the store. Come on in and ask us for a recommendation -- or tell us what you're reading right now! And follow us on social media for the latest news: we’re Next Chapter Booksellers on Facebook, @nextchapterbooksellers on Instagram, and @NextChapterMN on Twitter.

See you in the stacks!

Graham (and all of us at Next Chapter Booksellers)