The Bookies Bookstore picks range from enchanting to interplanetary

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from The Bookies Bookstore in Denver recommends books that embrace enchantment, the value of storytelling and memoir.

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From the publisher: Enter a world where time stands still and summer never ends. In the enchanted town of Tannery Bay, it’s July 37, and then July 2 again, but the year is a mystery. Trapped in an eternal loop, the residents embark on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery, unity, and defiance against the forces that seek to divide them.

From Bess Maher, event liaison: “Tannery Bay,” written collaboratively by two authors with Colorado ties, is spellbinding. It’s the setting, it’s the story itself, but mostly it’s the characters’ voices, which are so clear it’s as though they are in the same room with you. 

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From the publisher: There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

From Sharon Halbrook, bookseller: While reading this 2022 Newbery winner, newly out in paperback, I wondered what took me so long to pick it up. After starting, I couldn’t put it down. Although it is the perfect book for 10- to 14-year-old fans of futuristic science fiction and space travel, this intriguing story can easily hold the attention of older teens and adults.

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From the publisher: In her memoir “You Could Make This Place Beautiful,” poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.

From Molly Hultzapple, former bookseller: Wow! Award-winning poet Maggie Smith has written a painfully beautiful memoir about the life-shattering effects of betrayal. I couldn’t put this down! Raw and honest and brave — an inspiration for anyone going through a tough time from an amazingly talented author.

Type of Story: Review

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