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.”

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.

With the surge of ICE operations in Minnesota now in its third month, indie bookstore owners in the Twin Cities and beyond say that customers are coming in looking for three things: community, books to help them understand what's happening and books to help them escape.

Rima Parikh, owner of the science-first bookstore The Thinking Spot in Wayzata, with some of her recommendations for leaning in.

For a fiction read, Parikh says the classic novel “1984” by George Orwell has been popular. Set in a dystopian future where Big Brother is always watching, the novel describes a world where language is censored, history is changed, and the party in power tells people to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.

For a historical perspective, Parikh recommends the nonfiction book “Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America” by historian Heather Cox Richardson.

“There are many books that try to explain the moment, but she goes way back. She goes back to the founding of America and goes through every twist and turn of our meandering history,” Parikh says. “[She] has a coherent narrative through the whole thing explaining how we got here. And essentially, her theme is that a small group of wealthy individuals have weaponized language and promoted false history, which has led us into the state of authoritarianism.”

For a book to spark conversations among children and adults alike, Parikh recommends a pair of books, “An Illustrated Guide to Bad Arguments” and “An Illustrated Guide to Loaded Language” by Ali Almossawi. These short, illustrated books introduce logical fallacies and other ways language is used to mislead others.

She offers this example in the book of a false equivalence:

“It says, yesterday's violence left 12 rabbits with lost limbs and one badger with slight shoulder pain. And the response: ‘We urge both sides to show restraint.’

“Taken as itself,” Parikh says, “urging both sides to show restraint, yes, [that’s] perfectly valid. However, in this particular context, both sides are not equivalent.”

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.

Minnesota is in the national spotlight as the massive federal ICE operation continues. It can be a challenge to know how to talk to children about this issue, and books can be conversation starters for families, as well as sources of comfort.

Timothy Otte of Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis says his bookstore, which focuses on books for children, is getting requests for books about community and social justice. And while there is no one perfect book to speak to this moment, he finds himself regularly thinking about a picture book by Oliver Jeffers entitled “Begin Again: How We Got Here and Where We Might Go — Our Human Story. So Far.”

Jeffers grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the politically turbulent 1970s and 80’s, and his picture books often focus, in gentle ways, on how we treat each other and live together on one planet.

"Begin Again” is a book that Otte says feels appropriate for children and adults alike.

Here’s how Otte describes the book:

“It is about what we can do and what we can build together.

“In the book, Jeffers has a little essay describing the inspiration for the book, and in it, he says that he no longer asks people what kind of world they want, because what people say is in the negative.

“They say, ‘This is the kind of world I don't want.’ So now he asks, ‘How do you want to feel?’ And I think that's such a brilliant question, because we can build a world in which we all feel safe, we feel in community, we feel held. We want to have a place to live and food to eat and a group to be in, whether that's a family or a larger community.

“This book is a great place to find inspiration for how to make that world a reality, and the kinds of questions that we need to ask both ourselves and the people around us if we want to build that 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.

Need something kind and cozy to sink into this weekend?

Allie Cesmat of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., recommends hopping aboard “The Elsewhere Express.”

It’s the new cozy fantasy by Samantha Sotto Yambao, who drew national attention for her novel “Water Moon,” about a pawn shop where people go to sell regrets. Cesmat compares Yambao’s writing to the playful worlds of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli.

Cesmat says she's never read another book like it. She describes the premise:

“You are adrift in life. You're sitting there, kind of feeling like you have no purpose, nothing's going on, and all of a sudden a train pulls up and lets you on to this world that is set apart from ours. The train [contains] revolving rooms and magical dimensions. You are trying to find your purpose, and your purpose is the train compartment that you're walking towards.”

“We follow two characters on this train as they figure out their purpose is, what they're what they're missing. The train is a closed-door mystery: you don't really know what's happening next. You don't know what the tension is. It's a cozy fantasy, for sure, but it is lyrical. It is magnetic.

“And as you're reading it, you start wondering, well, what's my compartment? Where am I adrift in this world? And it brings hope and comfort that you wouldn't otherwise have.”

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.

Angel Horne of Two Friends Bookstore in Bentonville, Arkansas, recommends the novel “To the Moon and Back” by Eliana Ramage.

It’s a debut novel about a young woman’s quest to become the first Cherokee astronaut.

From a young age, Steph Harper is driven to get to space. She throws herself into education and training, determined to get out of Oklahoma.

The novel focuses on Steph and the important women in her life — her mother, her artist/influencer sister, her college girlfriend — as their relationships stretch and change through decades and across distances.

Horne appreciated the representation in this book, with a queer Cherokee woman in a STEM field at the center, and she also resonated with the setting Like the protagonist, Steph was born in the early 80s, and she appreciated watching her live through the introduction of cell phones and social media.

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.

Shannon Guinn-Collins of Bookworks in Albuquerque, New Mexico says she's still thinking about the novel "Lightbreakers" by Aja Gabel.

Guinn-Collins recommends this novel for fans of literary time travel, as well as for readers of Jennifer Egan and Emily St. John Mandel.

“Lightbreakers” centers on a married couple: Noah, who is a quantum physicist, and Maya, who is an artist. Shadowing Noah’s life is the loss of his young daughter with his first wife.

So, when Noah is approached by an experimental group that is exploring a form of time travel using memory, he takes the opportunity. As he steps further and further back into his own memories, Maya must grapple with the widening gulf with her husband in the present — and what that means for their future.

Guinn-Collins offers this review:

"The book really centers on themes of loss and longing, love and regret — all of these major human themes. It deals with really fraught, difficult topics, but it does so in a way that's really graceful.

“Aja has a really light touch, and her writing is just gorgeous. The language she uses is really beautiful. It carries you forward in a really natural way. But I still found myself pausing and rereading passages just to enjoy what she was doing. Definitely one of my favorites from last year!”

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.

Becky Schlosser of Cherry Street Books in Alexandria recommends the novel "The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett. Schlosser calls it “darkly funny and heartwarming” — a “perfect” story about imperfect people.

This story involves a road trip like no other. 63-year-old PJ Halliday — survivor of three heart attacks, million-dollar lottery winner who’s nearly spent through his money — reads in the obituaries that the husband of his high school flame has passed away.

She was the one that got away, in his mind, and now that she’s single. PJ decides to road-trip from Massachusetts to her retirement community in Arizona to win her back.

Along for the ride are two tween orphans, Luna and Ollie, for whom PJ has recently become guardian; his disgruntled adult daughter; and a seemingly clairvoyant orange cat. Also, he technically doesn’t have a license, given some past DUIs, and he’s had to borrow his ex-wife's car. What could go wrong?

Schlosser says this novel, with its sharp wit, is quirky and lovable, but it deals with some pretty heavy, tender topics.”

She recommends this story of found family and second chances to readers who like Fredrik Backman’s novels.

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.

Alena Bruzas of Francie & Finch Bookshop in Lincoln, Neb., has a recommendation sure to appeal to weather heads and fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” series alike.

It’s called “Wilder Weather: What Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaches Us About the Weather, Climate, and Protecting What We Cherish.” Author Barbara Boustead is a meteorologist, climatologist and Wilder scholar. She brings her passions together for this nonfiction work, published by South Dakota Historical Society Press.

Readers who love Wilder’s tales of growing up in the Big Woods — and on the shores of Plum Creek, etc. — know how dramatically the weather affected her daily life. Droughts, tornadoes, locust plagues and bitterly cold winters determined whether her family would have enough to eat throughout the year. Those stories offer exciting drama, but Boustead was able to verify that most of Wilder’s weather accounting was true.

“She goes into great detail about her methodology, about the science behind gathering this data, how people have gathered data about weather since the 1800s.”

Bookseller Bruzas, who says she is generally more drawn to historical fiction than meteorology, still found the book fascinating.

“The way that she describes the Ingalls family dealing with this weather — some of it was unprecedented. It makes me realize that now we're dealing with a lot of unprecedented weather events, and it feels relevant, almost eerily relevant. She really brings it to the present."