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May 2026 Book News
and Summer Book Clubs
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| Thank you for your support on Independent Bookstore Day and during the Greater RVA Indie Bookstore Tour (which continues through May 16th). It is great to see returning customers and meet new ones! We are a lucky community of independent bookstores to have such wonderful support and love from so many.
Fun news to share -- check out the new summer book clubs below. Come join us!
Mary
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Summer 2026 Book Clubs
Longtime customer and bookstagrammer Meghan Miller is starting two different book clubs at TLB and they are kicking off this summer. For the romance swoony beach read readers, check out Beach Towels & Banter for feel-good romance reads made for pool bags, vacations, and summer nights. More of a popcorn, one-more-chapter suspense reader? Plot Twists & Sips will be our space for twisty thrillers, shocking reveals, and solid suspense. Come join us! We are going to have so much fun!
Our original store book club moderated by Mary will be back in September with a great fall lineup.
All participants must purchase the book from TLB in order to confirm your sign-up. You can pay for the book in-store or by phone. 804-464-1244. You will receive an email from the store when the books are available for pick-up.
All book clubs meet at The Little Bookshop.
Questions? Call or send an email to:
| | Plot Twists & Sips -- A Thriller Book Club | | |
Tuesday, June 30th at 7:30pm
Hardback $27.99
Please sign up and pay by May 20th
1 starred review
A new scandalous thriller from the author of The Hunting Wives set in 1980s Texas about mean girls, meaner moms, and a murder that shakes the Texas ruling class from their perms to their toes, with a shocking twist ending in the final pages. This is a fast-paced, pure-fun read with plenty of morally gray characters. (publisher mkting)
Meghan says: This boozy, sun-soaked, rich-people-behaving-badly plot is a fun escape read!
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Tuesday, July 28th at 7:30pm
Paperback $19.00
Please sign up and pay by June 20th
2 starred reviews
Nothing is as it seems—and no one is telling the truth—in this page-turning thriller about a young lawyer forced to defend a man on trial for murder against the mentor who taught her everything: her husband. (publisher mkting)
Meghan says: This is a legal thriller that you won't want to put down!
| | Banter & Beach Towels -- A Romance Book Club | | |
Tuesday, June 9th at 7:30pm
Hardback $30
Please sign up and pay by May 12th
3 starred reviews
Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer. (publisher mkting)
Meghan says: This heart-stopping, romantic novel has a cover that screams summer escape!
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Tuesday, July 14th at 7:30pm
Paperback $20
Please sign up and pay by May 22nd
2 starred reviews
A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script. "This book is like a spicy margarita… sweet and a little salty, tart and hot… I have fallen in love with Dolly and with funny, fizzing Annabel Monaghan!"-Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich.
Meghan says: This is a quick, fun read with a gentle emotional tug. I love the oceanside setting and the family backstory and I'm 100% a sucker for fake dating stories!
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Science Fiction
4 starred reviews
The newest Murderbot book is here!
Murderbot is going on a rescue mission. What could go wrong?
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Historical Fiction / Southern
2 starred reviews
The author of The Help has a new book out set in Oxford, Mississippi during the Depression.
The multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything. (publisher mkting)
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Fiction / LBGTQ
7 starred reviews
From the Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo comes a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father’s expectations and a son’s desires. (publisher mkting)
“So immersive, so all-encompassing, that I felt like I was living in it.”—Ann Patchett
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Fiction / Family Life
2 starred reviews
Seventy-seven-year-old Pepper Mills doesn't want to move in to the Vista View Retirement Community but she makes new friends and falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it's cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She's pregnant. (publisher mkting)
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Memoir / Hiking
3 starred reviews
New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off to the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it. (publisher mkting)
“Rollicking, heartfelt. . . . Made me feel the kind of wonder and hope I’ve been longing for.” —John Green, author of Everything Is Tuberculosis
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Fiction / Science Fiction / LGBTQ
5 starred reviews
In this novel of friendship and hard-won hope, four lives are entangled across time by one story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries. (publisher mkting)
“A joy—at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries, and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human...It kept me up all night!” —Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and Song of Achilles
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Historical Fiction / Mystery
2 starred reviews
The daughter of an automotive magnate escapes to an artistic retreat that holds more secrets-and more intrigue-than she could have ever imagined, in this Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea. (publisher mkting)
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Historical Fiction / Colonial America
In time for the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States comes a sweeping, intimate portrayal of Abigail Adams—wife of one president and mother to another—whose wit, willpower, and wisdom helped shape the fledgling republic. A stunning historical novel with modern-day implications from the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton. (publisher mkting)
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Memoir
2 starred reviews
The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community-and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her-in this emotionally rich memoir. (publisher mkting)
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Dystopian / Fantasy
3 starred reviews
An epic, romantic dystopian fantasy begins in Seek the Traitor's Son, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth. (publisher mkting)
"A standout genre-bending adventure with a tender romantic streak." -- Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review
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Fiction
1 starred review
The story of a horse and the woman who loves her--a lively first novel of not-daughters and non-mothers; animals and animal bodies; and how we find freedom, care, and community in unexpected places. (publisher mkting)
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Essays
3 starred reviews
The collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay. (publisher mkting)
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Memoir
3 starred reviews
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers a poignant memoir that intertwines her family's heart-wrenching migration story with the broader historical context of Cuba under Castro, offering a deeply personal yet universally resonant narrative on identity, separation, and the enduring bonds of family. (publisher mkting)
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Romance / Comedy
Ages 12+
Local Author!
A hilarious and swoony rom-com about a girl who pledges revenge on her school's playboy--only to fall for him in the process. (publisher mkting)
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Science Fiction / Robots
Ages 8+
6 starred reviews
Twelve-year-old Zuzu Santos doesn’t want a robot. She and her best friends, otherwise known as “the Valleycats,” would rather explore Bright Valley on their own. But then Zuzu meets Snap, a know-it-all guardian robot with a limited battery life and an abundance of hope. A gripping, stand-alone, thematically rich survival story by two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, for fans of The Wild Robot and A Rover’s Story. (publisher mkting)
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Fantasy / Adventure / Friendship
Ages 8+
3 starred reviews
From two-time Newbery honoree Gary D. Schmidt and two-time PEN Award winner Ron Koertge, Styx and Stones is an unforgettable coming-of-age adventure about friendship, courage, and identity, brimming with Greek mythology and high-stakes action. (publisher mkting)
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Fantasy / Adventure
Ages 8+
2 starred reviews
A spellbinding middle-grade debut about a magical boarding house for dragons and the unlikely siblings destined to save it. (publisher mkting)
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Mystery / Graphic Novel
Ages 5-9
Second in a cozy full-color chapter-book series about the adventures of super-sleuth Ivy and her grandpa Bearlock Holmes. (publisher mkting)
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Nonfiction / History
Ages 4+
“America’s Government Teacher” and author of the New York Times bestselling The Small and the Mighty pens a hopeful picture book about twelve ordinary Americans who stood up to do the next needed thing. (publisher mkting)
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Nonfiction / Ages 6+
4 starred reviews
With dozens of major awards between them, a revered poet and a versatile artist pool their mastery to sing the praises of an undersea wonder. (publisher mkting)
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Fiction / Ages 3+
4 starred reviews
From Caldecott Honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling creator Christian Robinson comes a loving, funny, and profound tribute to all kinds of dads, animal and human. (publisher mkting)
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