On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Coco Casey of Buxton Books in Charleston, S.C., recommends a favorite author local to her store: horror master Grady Hendrix. His novel, “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls,” is out in paperback.

The novel follows a group of pregnant teenage girls in a maternity home who discover a spell book that pulls them into the world of witchcraft and the supernatural. The horror in this book, however, lies in the girls’ real-life situation, which is historically based.

The book is set in what’s called the Baby Scoop Era, from the 1940s to 1973, before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal and Title IX protected pregnant students from discrimination.

The girls were brought to his home to hide their pregnancies; they were given false names and strictly monitored, with the expectation that their babies would be given up for adoption.

"In a world where they have very little control over their own bodies and their own fates, they are given this tool to have control in other realms that they didn't know was possible before,” Casey says.

She says this novel, set in 1970, is “on the lower end of fear factor” for Hendrix’s books, though there is body horror, and the birth scenes are not for the faint-of-heart. She calls the books’ antagonists well-written and “very scary,” mostly because such situations exist.

Casey recommends reading the afterward as well.

"The afterword and the notes are fascinating. He did a lot of research into covens and their lineages, into the medical side of these stories, and into the legal side of these stories. And it's very hard to find accurate historical research for a lot of this, because the point of these homes was that there was no documentation and that it was all buried.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

Sometimes, you just want to escape into a book.

For those who enjoy a cozy romance, Marissa Mills of Luminary Books in Gardnerville, Nevada, says her recent favorite is the novel "If it Makes You Happy" by Julie Olivia.

Think “Gilmore Girls” meets “When Harry Met Sally.” Set in a small town (of course!) in Vermont in 1997, this friends-to-lovers novel is a sweet story with a bit of spice.

Michelle is taking over her mother’s bed and breakfast. Cliff, the single dad next door, is a baker who starts teaching Michelle how to bake so she can handle the breakfast part of her new venture.

Mills says the book has grumpy/sunshine, black cat/golden retriever energy. She appreciates that Cliff’s daughters are key characters in the book, as is Michelle’s dog, Rocket.

It’s not a coincidence that the cover, with its couple strolling near a town-square gazebo, evokes “Gilmore Girls."

Julia Olivia has many romance titles to her name, but “If It Makes You Happy,” published by Penguin Random House, is her first break into major bookstores.

Bookseller Mills says that after their store book club read it, “they fell in love with the author and her writing, and they went back and started reading all of her other works.”

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

More than 10 weeks after the federal immigration enforcement surge began in Minnesota, Border Czar Tom Homan announced this week that federal agents would be drawing down and Operation Metro Surge was coming to an end, though he stressed that immigration enforcement would continue.

In that environment, Minnesota’s indie bookstores remain a source of books for those seeking both to understand what’s happening in this country and to escape from it.

For those who are leaning in, Makkah Abdur Salaam of Black Garnet Books in St. Paul recommends a collection of down-to-earth letters designed to meet you where you are. It’s called “Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis,” edited by Kelly Hayes.

The letters come from contemporary activists and writers from all walks of life whose work focuses on a variety of issues. The letters are titled to help you find what you need in the moment.

There are titles like “Read this if someone you loved has killed themselves or wants to, and maybe you want to, but you also want to survive.” Or, "Read this if you've been assaulted. I believe you.” Or, “Read this if you are panicking about collapse.”

Overall, Abdur Salaam says, the letters offer advice for those who are in it for the long haul.

“It talks a lot about sustainable activism and how that requires mutual aid, collective work with your community, and mutual care. And it also talks about how hope is a practice: it's something that you have to contribute to each day and figure out how that looks for you. [The collection talks about] how conflict is inevitable in any movement, and how to basically navigate that, and how it takes very thoughtful and purposeful action to work through that. That’s how movements survive and stay sustainable.”