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.

Jhoanna Belfer of Bel Canto Books in Long Beach, Cal., recommends the novel “Hula” by Jasmine ‘Iolani Hakes.

Jhoanna calls it a “gorgeously written family saga” offering an “insider look” at Hawaii. The lyrical writing incorporates Hawaiian place and family names, and if you love audiobooks, she says this one makes for excellent listening.

Jhoanna says: There are three generations steeped in the tradition of hula, and they’re wrestling with what it means to be Hawaiian and how to preserve and pass on that heritage.

Hakes delves deeply into questions of sovereignty, cultural ownership and self-determination. It definitely also deals with family expectations, and trying to find your place in a family that is highly regarded in your community, and trying to stand out as an individual, while also taking pride in being part of that heritage.

And it really leads you to question your own responsibilities as a tourist and a traveler. The beginning of the book is kind of a Greek chorus in the third person plural. And it opens with letting you know point-blank that this is not the book that you think it is.

This is not the Hawaii that you think you know. This is an insider's look. A peek behind the curtain, so to speak.

— Jhoanna Belfer

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.

Emily Sands of the Williams Bookstore in Williamstown, Mass., recommends a sci-fi/fantasy quest to keep you company this summer. It’s called “Star Bringer” by Tracy Wolf and Nina Croft.

The voice-driven novel is marketed as “Firefly” meets “The Breakfast Club,” and Emily says that description is spot-on.

Here’s the deal: The sun is dying — quickly — and no one knows why.

At first glance, the story gives off “Dungeons and Dragons” vibes, in the sense that it draws together a sheltered princess, a high priestess who believes she’s part of a prophecy, an escaped rebel prisoner and some grumpy soldiers on a quest.

They find themselves aboard a fall-apart spaceship, having escaped an interplanetary conference. Where should they go? Can they trust each other? Conflicting personalities, ulterior motives, and an LGBTQ+ romance all come together for a quick, entertaining read, says Emily.

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.

Maris Herrington of McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., says one of the best books she’s read so far this year is Chris Whitaker’s mystery/thriller, “All the Colors of the Dark.” It comes out on Tuesday, June 25.

Maris has this preview: It is all about this young boy named Patch. He has one eye, and he kind of considers himself as a pirate.

It’s getting towards the end of that time, and he sees a young girl being taken by a man into his vehicle. He ends up intervening and gets taken instead. And everybody has written him off for dead. But his best friend, Scout, is still convinced that he is alive. She ends up finding him a year later.

Patch is convinced that during that year that he was down in the dark in the basement, there was another girl with him down there named Grace. He’s convinced that she’s still alive. So he dedicates his life to finding Grace.

And thats just how it gets started! It’s a book about friendship, love and obsession. It’s one of the better books I’ve read this year. And it’s sure to capture everyone’s heart. Wow.

There’s a string of murders that are going on as well. There are so many layers to this book, it’s insane. He’s an incredible writer to add those twists and turns and make them all come together. Throughout the entire book, he keeps you guessing. It’s a book that you will not want to put down.

— Maris Herrington

Whitaker will be at the bookstore in Petoskey, Mich., on July 29 as part of a U.S. tour. He does not have a stop currently planned in Minnesota, according to the Penguin Random House website.

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.

Emma Presnell of Carmichaels Bookstore in Louisville, Ky., recommends a brand new short story collection that was released just in time for Pride Month.

It’s a YA anthology called “We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels, and Other Creatures,” edited by Rob Costello.

Here’s what Emma has to say: This is one of the best collections of works in the young adult genre that I’ve seen in a really long time. Every single story has something so unique about it that makes it shine, but the stories also complement each other and no one story feels like it's out-shadowing the others.

To have so many new voices within the queer and trans community in the young adult genre coming together has been so fascinating. And the spins on the different monsters has just been one of the most delightful things to see.

Some of the stories involve monsters that appear in our day to day. Like, it’s just kind of weird, but we go along with it. Others are right on the edge of being spooky, but not being too scary that you’re gonna completely not be able to sleep at night.

— Emma Presnell

While Emma says no story overshadows the others, she says the story about Mothman continued to haunt her for days, "but in the best way possible."

Looking for a novel you can pass around to your friends and family at the next gathering?

Tiffany Lauderdale Phillips of Wild Geese Bookshop in Franklin, Ind., recommends Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel “The Ministry of Time.” She calls it a time-travel romance with a James Bond element, with beautiful writing and ideas that will leave you with plenty to talk about over dinner.

The premise is that a ministry in England has decided to take five people from history who would have died and to plant them into modern-day England, ostensibly to study the feasibility of time travel.

One is an Arctic adventurer from a doomed voyage, another was at the Battle of the Somme, etc. A “bridge” is assigned to live with each person and help them adjust to daily life. Our narrator is paired with the Arctic explorer, who has Victorian ideas about how a man and a woman living together should comport themselves.

Stefen Holtrey of Brilliant Books in Traverse City, Mich., has a title for readers who love to be surprised by something experimental and new.

He’s a big fan of Michael Cisco, whose work is generally classified as weird or speculative fiction but whose novels vary wildly in style. A philosophical writer who tends toward a horror lens, his work regularly defies genres in ways Holtrey finds delightful.

“He’s very experimental. Each one of his books are completely different experiences,” says Holtrey.

Cisco’s new novel “Pest” focuses on a man who transforms into a yak.

Before he was turned into a yak, he was an architect, working for a cult trying to build a piece of architecture to welcome some unseen celestial being into the world. The book goes back and forth between the viewpoint of the main character as the yak and as the architect.

“It’s a phantasmagoric ride through this transformation,” says Holtrey. “When he’s embodied in the yak, it’s some of the coolest writing that I’ve ever read that really puts you in an alien body. I was really interested in just the ways he senses and experiences the world.”

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.

Darcie Shultz of Books and Burrow in Pittsburgh, Kas., highly recommends Linnea Axelsson’s novel in verse “Aednan: An Epic,” which was translated by Saskia Vogel.

It’s a sweeping saga set across 100 years, three generations and two Sámi families. The story encompasses the forces of colonialism and the importance of language.

Translated from Northern Sámi, the title of the book means “the land, the earth and my mother.”

“It’s the most stunning book,” Shultz says. “It reads so quickly, but it contains so much. The author writes about some of the harshest circumstances in the most eloquent way.”

For Shultz, the story held profoundly personal echoes. She explains why she was drawn to this book:

“I’m a member of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. And I have had two family members who were forced into residential schools. My great-great-great-grandfather was in Carlisle in Pennsylvania and then my grandfather — I didn’t learn until I was an adult — was in Fort Lapwai in Idaho.

He spent most of his developmental years in residential school, and it was never talked about at all. And this book and that history of the Sámi people has so many parallels to North American Indian residential schools. Parts of it were hard for me to read because of that history, but that's one reason why I was drawn to it.

The second [reason] was the language: That loss of language and relearning the language. It’s a process that I’m going through and in the third part the daughter of one of the characters is on that journey. I just felt extremely connected to it on a very personal level.”

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.

If you love a good cozy romance or fantasy — romantasy, anyone? — then Charlotte Klimek of Hearthside Books in Watertown, Minn., has the perfect book for you.

You get a good sense of the genre from the title alone; it’s “Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea” by Rebecca Thorne.

Kianthe is the world’s most powerful mage, but all she really wants to do is read a book. What she’d really like to do is leave court life behind and open a tea and bookshop with her girlfriend, Reyna, who serves as a private guard to the Queen.

Finally fed up by the self-centered monarch, Reyna agrees, and the two head to a small town to open the cozy shop of their dreams. Yes, this does mean Reyna has committed treason, and, yes, the Queen swears revenge.

Brimming with fireside conversations, witty banter, and memorable fantastical side characters, “Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea” is perfect for fans of Travis Baldree’s “Legends & Lattes” and “Bookshops & Bonedust.”

The book was published in the UK last year but has not been available in print in the U.S. until this week.