By Jeff McGinnis
Looking for some great options for the readers on your list this holiday? We asked Denise Phillips, owner of Gathering Volumes Bookstore in Perrysburg, for a few recommendations!
Keeping it local
If you want to support Ohio authors, Denise suggests the following titles:
- Mindy McGinnis –Â Heroine (Katherine Tegen Books, $11.99) Young Adult $14+
A captivating and powerful exploration of the opioid crisis, told through the eyes of a college-bound softball star. - Kristen Lepionka – The Last Place You Look: A Mystery (Minotaur Books, $16.99) Mystery & Detective
A thrilling mystery about head-on collision between an allegedly closed case and a tenacious, troubled private investigator who doesn’t know when to quit. - Dan Stout – Titanshade (Daw, $7.99) Sci Fi Noir
This noir fantasy thriller from a debut author introduces the gritty town of Titanshade, where danger lurks around every corner. - Virginia Hamilton – The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $13) Fiction 10+
Hamilton retells 24 classic black American folk tales, accompanied by 40 beautiful paintings. - Saaed Jones – How We Fight For Our Lives (Simon & Schuster, $17) Memoir
The award-winning poet presents a searing and emotional memoir.
New for grownups
Maybe you have someone on your list who is looking for their next great literary adventure. Denise recommends the following books for adults:
- Louise Erdrich – The Sentence (Harper, $28.99) Literary Fiction
When a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is literally haunted by a dead customer, an employee attempts to solve the mystery of this unwelcome guest. - Colson Whitehead – Harlem Shuffle: A Novel (Doubleday, $28.95) Thriller
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Whitehead presents a new tale of heists and cons set in 1960s Harlem. - TJ Klune – Under the Whispering Door (Tor Books, $26.99) Fantasy
A recently deceased man is given one week to cross over to the afterlife, and decides to try and live a full life in seven days. - Richard Powers – Bewilderment (W W Norton & Co, $27.95) Literary Fiction
An astrobiologist searches for life in the stars while trying to raise a troubled son as a widowed parent. - Lauren Groff – Matrix: A Novel (Riverhead Books, $28) Historical Fiction
A seventeen-year-old, cast out of the royal court, is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey.
The good stuff
Want some of the very best to be found at the Volumes? Here are some Denise’s personal favorites:
- Richard Powers – The Overstory (W W Norton, $18.95) Literary Fiction
The 2019 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this book tells several interlocking fables in a variety of time periods. - Fredrik Backman – Anxious People (Washington Square, $17) Humor
This hilarious novel, about a mysterious kidnapping where the hostages turn up fine but the kidnapper disappears, is being adapted into a Netflix series. - Naomi Novik – A Deadly Education (Del Rey, $17) Fantasy
A young sorcerer works to control her destructive powers while trying to survive until graduation at a famous school for black magic. - Brian Alexander – Glass House (Picador, $18) Social Science
Journalist Alexander delivers a profile of Lancaster, Ohio and gives readers a window into the erosion of the American Dream and the rise of Trumpism. - Octavia Butler – Parable of the Sower (Grand Central Publishing, $16.99) Science Fiction
A seminal work by the late sci-fi author, the book provides a powerful fable about climate change and social inequality.Â
