Chris Tonelli, co-owner of So & So Books on Person Street, recommends darkly funny fiction with touches of magical realism.
by Ayn-Monique Klahre
Chris Tonelli is the co-owner of So & So Books, a small, independent bookstore on Person Street, as well as a co-founder of the independent poetry press Birds, LLC. He is the author of five chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections, most recently Whatever Stasis from Barrelhouse Books. He also works in the Libraries at North Carolina State University. In addition to selling books, So & So has two book clubs and offers readings and other book events a couple times a month.
What kinds of books do you gravitate toward, generally?
Usually darkly funny. Sometimes with a touch of magic realism/absurdism. Typically something that is set in a place I’ve never been. Books are a cheap way to travel.
What book are you reading right now?
Our bookclub is reading Pemi Aguda’s short story collection Ghostroots. I’m also reading a book of poems by Jon Woodward called Want For Nothing.
What is the best light read you’ve enjoyed recently?
Andrew Sean Greer’s Less. It’s about an almost washed-up writer who finally wins a big award after watching all his more successful writer friends win awards before him. And just when he thinks he’s finally made it, his book tour (you get to go to places like Tokyo and Morocco) is as bumbling as he is. It’s catty and funny/sad and it won the Pulitzer so it’s not unliterary.
What’s the best heavier book you’ve read recently?
We read a really great debut collection of poems by Hedgie Choi called Salvage for April’s book club (National Poetry Month). But if we’re really talking novels, I guess I’d have to go with Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. It’s a really thoughtful treatment of the immigrant experience, addiction, family, and art. It’s about an Iranian poet, whose family resettled in Indiana, and his struggle with alcoholism and becoming a poet and navigating a variety of healthy and unhealthy relationships. His pursuits take him to NYC and he encounters an artist who eventually illuminates secrets from his past. Kaveh has primarily been a poet until now. This was his first novel, and it’s a really exciting debut.
What is a classic/older book that you either always recommend, or have read many times?
Either Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives or Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
What is a book by a Raleigh or North Carolina author that you’d recommend?
Ina Cariño’s Reverse Requiem. It’s her second book of poems on Alice James; her first, Feast, won the Alice James Award. Ina is a terrific poet, a terrific literary community member—she is the founder of the Indigena Collective, a local reading series that centers marginalized, underrepresented creatives and writers—and she’s an award-winning barista who has worked at a variety of beloved establishments.
Visit So & So Books at 719 N. Person Street, or head to their website soandsobooks.com.
This article originally appeared in the August 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.
