Category Archives: Book Talk

Alabama, Book Talk, Bookstore Tourism, Bookstore Travels

Sweet Home Books – Wetumpka, AL

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Sweet Home Books is a lovely little bookstore located in downtown Wetumpka, AL. As soon as you enter you can tell it’s run by a real book person. The first room is mainly kids’ books, plus fun book-related gift-y items. The second room has the adult and YA books.

Everything is new and well organized. Sweet Home Books has a fun Instagram account to follow. There’s plenty of art and shops around the river and downtown as well, so it’s worth a walk around.

Sweet Home Books
107 E. Bridge Street
Wetumpka, AL 36092
Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm
Sunday & Monday – closed

Here are a few photos from my visit:

The Coosa River is a very short walk from the bookstore and has some great views to take in while reading a new book.

If you liked this post about one of Alabama’s indie bookshops, be sure to check out this page where I’m chronicling bookstores in Birmingham, AL.

Book Talk

Looking ahead to 2024

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I hope your holiday season has been book-filled and restful and that 2024 shines brighter than 2023. I mean, no matter how things are, sometimes just hoping that things “are better next time around” is good enough. 2023 had its rough patches, but there’s a new year just around the corner.

I’ve never been much of an Auld Lang Syne kind of person (though New Year’s Eve is absolutely my favorite holiday), and I don’t get very nostalgic, but it is fun to look over a stack of books you have read.

My 2023 stack is 25 titles tall, which LibraryThing tells me is taller than a garden gnome but shorter than a tennis net. I am also reading more contemporary books, with all of my 2023 reads having been published since 1990. I am running about 50% fiction and 50% non-fiction. That sounds healthy, doesn’t it?

book stack height

My favorite fiction reads of 2023 were: Erasure by Percival Everett, How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely, and Trust by Hernan Diaz.

My favorite non-fiction reads of 2023 were: This Isn’t Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew by Daniel Wallace, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer, and Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich.

graph of the categories I read

There are so many books I am looking forward to reading in 2024! Already in the queue are: The Fraud by Zadie Smith, The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading by Andrew Pettegree, The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, and Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson.

I think I am going to have to pick up the Stevenson first. Writers, trains, and a locked room murder seems like a wonderful way to spend the New Year’s weekend waiting for 2024 to arrive.

So, a BIG happy New Year’s to you all! Thank you for stopping by the blog, and I look forward to hearing what you are reading in the new year.

Book Talk, On the TV

Beacon 23 Now Streaming on MGM+

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Hugh Howey’s Beacon 23 debuted on the streaming service MGM+ earlier last week. I really enjoyed the short book the TV series is based on, but it sounds like the reception of the new series has been mixed. You can watch the trailer on YouTube.

The cast looks great and stars Stephan James and Lena Heady. Sounds like they’ve already filmed two seasons. To be honest, I had never heard of MGM+, but I guess this is why you do a high-production series like this – to bring attention to your app/service.

Anyway, Beacon 23 follows the story of an outer space-based lighthouse keeper who takes on a ‘shipwrecked’ traveler. The book is a fast read and has all of Hugh Howey’s signature sci-fi goodness. The reviews have been mixed but trending up. From the few I’ve run across, it sounds like if science fiction is your jam, then you’re going to really enjoy this. I’m one of those that absolutely enjoyed the Silo series on Apple TV (but the books really were better), so I feel like I’ll enjoy Beacon 23 as well.

Cover designed by M.S. Corley

I know that none of this is breaking news, but a buddy just returned my copy of Beacon 23, and it reminded me to look for the show.

Book Talk, Upcoming Titles

Heather Cox Richardson Has a New Book Coming Out

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Heather Cox Richardson is an amazing writer and she has just announced her new book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. The book is due in stores sometime in September 26, 2023. Here is the cover (I love the sunrise glow coming up from the bottom):

Heather Cox Democracy Awakening
ISBN 9780593652961

I first stumbled upon Heather Cox Richardson’s writing back in 2020 when I read How the South Won the Civil War. Which I found fascinating. Her premise is insightful, the research was well done and the writing even better. It was the kind of book that makes you see the impact of historical decisions playing out in the day-today news and happenings all around you. It’s also the kind of book that leaves you with questions as you may not see eye-to-eye with her, but man is the conversation worth having. There is no downside to reading whatever Heather Cox Heather Cox Richardson writes.

Which is why I signed up for her newsletter, back in 2020, just after reading that book. Turns out most folks know her through her newsletter and online writing and discover her books later. Who knew?

Her new book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America is just 250 pages broken into 30 chapters. As she tells it: “…it tries to explain how we got to this political moment…and how we get out.” Sounds like another worthwhile and thoughtful read – whether you agree with her or not.