Summer 2021.

Each season, Hoopla chooses a Spotlight Selection and produces materials like discussion guides, read-a-like suggestions, book cub meeting planners, and exclusive author interviews to help you get the most out of your reading experience.

The Summer 2021 Spotlight Selection, Learning to Speak Southern by Lindsey Rogers Cook, is available to stream or download as an ebook or audiobook with no waitlists or holds. Everyone can start reading or listening right away.

Lex fled Memphis years ago, making ends meet with odd jobs teaching English around the world. She only returns when she has no choice, when her godmother presents her with a bargain she can’t refuse. Lex has never understood her mother, who died tragically right before Lex’s college graduation, but now she’s got a chance to read her journals, to try and figure out what sent her mother spiraling all those years ago.

The Memphis that Lex inhabits is more bourbon and bbq joint than sweet tea on front porches, and as she pieces together the Memphis her mother knew, seeing the lure of the world through her mother’s lush writing, she must confront more of her own past and the people she left behind. Once all is laid bare, Lex must decide for herself: What is the true meaning of family?