There's good news for lovers of local, independent bookstores: people still want books. Yes, there are many choices for readers these days, but across the country book sales at neighborhood shops seem to be on the rise. And who better to give advice on the best summer reads than local, expert booksellers? Wednesday, we're asking Salt Lake's own Betsy Burton of The King's English, Ken Sanders of Ken Sanders Rare Books, and Catherine Weller of Weller Book Works for their top picks in fiction and non-fiction for both kids and grown-ups.
Adult Titles: Betsy Burton, Ken Sanders, Catherine Weller
Children's Books: Catherine Weller, Betsy Burton
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Ken Sanders' Books for Adults, Ken Sanders Rare Books
Literature and Poetry
- When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams, Picador / Sarah Crichton Books, paperback, $15.00
- Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris, Little, Brown and Company, hardcover, $27.00
- Prisoner of Zion by Scott Carrier, Counterpoint, paperback, $15.95
- May Swenson: Collected Poems by May Swenson, Edited by Langdon Hammer. Library of America, hardcover, $40.00
- The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison, Grove Press, hardcover, $25.00
- A Place in Time: Twenty Stories of the Port William Membership by Wendell Berry, Counterpoint, hardcover, $26.00
- Letters by Kurt Vonnegut. Edited with an Introduction by Dan Wakefield. Delacorte Press, Hardcover, $35.00
Utah, Western and Mormon
- Kick Start: Memories of an Outlaw Biker by Ralph “Teach” Elrod, Friesen Press, paperback, $23.99
- Obstinate Hope: The Western Expeditions of Nathaniel J. Wyeth: Volume One, 1832-1833 by Jim Hardee, Museum of the Mountain Man, hardcover, $24.95
- Life Under China Bridge & Other Stories In Old Park Cityby Gary Kimball, Tramway Books, hardcover, $39,95
- The Pony Express Stations in Utah by Patrick Hearty, self-published, paperback, $10.00
- Nine Mile Canyon: The Archaeological History of an American Treasure by Jerry D. Spangler, University of Utah Press, paperback, $34.95
- Utah's Canyon Country Place Names (2 volumes) by Steve Allen, Canyon Country Press, hardcover, $99.95
Sustainability and Social Justice
- Coal in Our Veins: A Personal Journey by Erin Ann Thomas, Utah State University Press, hardcover, $29.95
- Bidder 70 co-directed by Beth & George Gage, Gage & Gage Productions, DVD, $25.00
- Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan, Penguin Books, hardcover, $35.00
- House of Earth by Woody Guthrie, HarperCollins, hardcover, $25.99
- Woody Guthrie: American Radical by Will Kaufman, University of Illinois Press, hardcover, $29.95
- The Heart of the Monster Why the Pacific Northwest & Northern Rockies Must Not Become an ExxonMobil Conduit to the Alberta Tar Sands by by Rick Bass and David James Duncan, All Against the Haul, paperback, $15.00
Music
- 120 Songs by Tom Russell, Bangtail Press, paperback, $29.95
- Blue Horse Red Desert: The Art of Tom Russell by Tom Russell and with an afterword by Paul Zarzyski, Bangtail Press, hardcover, $39.95
Science
- The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin and Richard Panek, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover, $28.00
Summer Retro Mysteries
Coyote Wind; Specimen Song; Wolf, No Wolf; Notches; Thunder Horse; Long Son; The Stick Game; Cruzatte and Maria; Ash Child; Badlands; The Tumbler; Stewball; Nails by Peter Bowen, St. Martin’s, paperbacks, $4.00 range
The Sins of the Fathers; In the Midst of Death; Time to Murder and Create; A Stab in the Dark; Eight Million Ways to Die; When the Sacred Ginmill Closes; Out on the Cutting Edge; A Ticket to the Boneyard; A Dance At The Slaughterhouse; A Walk Among the Tombstones; The Devil Knows You’re Dead, A Long Line of Dead Men; Even the Wicked; Everybody Dies; Hope to Die; All the Flowers Are Dying; A Drop of the Hard Stuff; The Night and the Music; A Moment of Wrong Thinking; A Candle for the Bag Lady; Let’s Get Lost; Looking for David; The Merciful Angel of Death; Out the Window by Laurence Block, Avon Books, paperbacks, $3.00 range
Tapping the Source; The Dogs of Winter; Tijuana Straights by Kem Nunn, Scribner, paperbacks, $6.00 range
Vanishing Act; Dance for the Dead; Shadow Woman; The Face-Changers; Blood Money; Runner; Poison Flower by Thomas Perry, Ivy Books, paperback, $4.00 range
Catherine Weller's Books for Adults, Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore
- Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac and Other Writings and Conservation by Aldo Leopold, edited by Curt Meine, Library of America, hardcover, $35.00
- Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee, Algonquin Press, paperback, $14.95
- Constellation of Vital Phenomenon by by Anthony Marra, Hogarth, hardcover, $26.00
- Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko, Scribner Book Co., hardcover, $30.00
- Flamethrowers by by Rachel Kushner, Scribner Book Co, hardcover, $26.99
- Goodlife Lab: Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living by Wendy Tremayne, Storey Publishing, paperback, $18.95
- Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach, W. W. Norton & Co., hardcover, $26.95
- How to Buy the Right Plants, Tools & Garden Supplies by Jim Fox, Timber Press, paperback, $14.95
- Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett, W.W. Norton & Co., hardcover, $28.95
- Joyland by Stephen King, Hard Case Crime, paperback, $12.95
- My First Kafka: Runaways, Rodents, and Giant Bugs by Matthue Roth and Rohan Daniel Eason (illustrator), One Peace Books, hardcover, $18.95
- Lexicon by Max Barry, Penguin Press, hardcover, $26.95
- Prisoner of Zion: Muslims, Mormons and Other Misadventures by Scott Carrier, Counterpoint, paperback, $15.95
- Seven Summers: A Naturalist Homesteads in the Modern West by Julia Corbett, University of Utah Press, paperback, $19.95
- Swenson: Collected Poems by May Swenson, edited by Langdon Hammer, Library of America, hardcover, $40.00
- Taipei by Tao Lin, Vintage Books, paperback, $14.95
- Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa by Benjamin Constable, Gallery Books, paperback, $16.00
- To Save Everything Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evegeny Morozov, Public Affairs, hardcover, $28.99
- Who Owns the Future by Jaron Lanier, Simon & Schuster, hardcover, $28.00
- Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt, Liver Publishing, paperback, $16.95
- Why Grow that When You Can Grow This? by Andrew Keys, Timber Press, paperback, $24.95
- Wool by Hugh Howie, Simon & Schuster, paperback, $15.00 (hardcover, $26.00)
Betsy Burton's Books for Adults, The King's English
Mysteries
- A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré, Viking Press, hardcover, 28.95 (Audio Book, $39.95)
- Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover, $26.00
- Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen, Knopf, hardcover, $26.95
- The Golden Egg by Donna Leon, Atlantic Monthly Press, hardcover, $26.00
- Dead Lions by Mick Herron, SOHO, hardcover, $25.95
- The Fame Thief by Timothy Hallinan, SOHO, hardcover, $25.00
Fiction
- Life after Life by Kate Atkinson, Harper, hardcover, $27.95
- The Son by Philipp Meyer , Ecco, hardcover, $27.99
- Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende, Harper, hardcover, $28.99
- All That Is by James Salter, Knopf, hardcover, $26.95
- TransAtlantic by Colum McCann, Random House, hardcover, $17.00
- Harvest by Jim Crace, Nan Talese (Doubleday), hardcover, $24.95
- The Shelter Cycle by Peter Rock, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover, $23.00
- My Father’s Ghost Is Climbing in the Rain by Patricio Pron, translated from the Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem, Knopf, hardcover $24.00
Nonfiction
- The Unwinding by George Packer, Farrar Straus and Giroux, hardcover, $27.00
- Saving Italy by Robert M. Edsel, Norton, hardcover, $28.95
- Letters to a Young Scientist by E. O. Wilson, Liveright, hardcover, $21.95
- Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala, Knopf, hardover, $24.00
Catherine Weller's Books for Children, Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore
- 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, Putnam Publishing Group, hardcover, $18.99
- Ball by Mary Sullivan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover, $12.99
- Boy and the Airplane by Mark Pett, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, hardcover, $15.99
- Curious George Goes Camping by H.A. Rey and Margaret Rey, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, paperback, $3.99
- Dark by Lemony Snickett and Jon Klassen (illustrator), Little Brown Books for Young Readers, hardcover, $16.99
- Homeland by Cory Doctorow, TOR, hardcover, $17.99
- Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, hardcover, $18.00
- One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, Harper, hardcover, $16.99
- One Gorilla: A Counting Book by Anthony Browne, Candlewick Press, hardcover, $16.99
- Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson, TOR, hardcover, $17.00
- That is NOT a Good Idea! by Mo Willems, Balzer & Bray, hardcover, $17.99
- Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, hardcover, $16.99
Betsy Burton's Books for Children, The King's English
Children's Picture Books
- Lucky Ducklings Evan Moore illustrated by Nancy Carpenter, Orchard Books, Hardcover, $16.99
- That is NOT a Good Idea by Mo Willems, Balzer and Bray (Harper Collins) hardcover, $17.99
- A Little Book of Sloth by Lucy Cooke, McElderry Books, hardcover, $16.99
- The Museum by Susan Verde, Illustrated by Peter Reynolds, Abrams, hardcover, $16.95
- Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom by John Rocco, Disney/Hyperion, hardcover, $16.99
- Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom by John Rocco, Disney/Hyperion, hardcover, $16.99
- Who’s on First? by Abbott & Costello, Illustrated by John Martz, Quirk, hardcover, $16.95
- Vader's Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown, Chronicle, hardcover, $14.95
Middle Reader
- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, Random House, hardcover, $16.99
- Doll Bones by Holly Black, McElderry Books, hardcover, $16.99
- Twerp by Mark Goldblatt, Random House, hardcover, $16.99
Young Adult
- The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy, Putnam, hardcover, $18.99
- Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Candlewick, hardcover, $16.99
- Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan, Penguin, Hardcover, $16.99
