1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
2. Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano
3. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
4. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss
5. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
6. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
7. The Future, by Naomi Alderman
8. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
9. What You Are Looking for Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama
10. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
11. The Secret Book of Flora Lea, by Patti Callahan Henry
12. Absolution, by Alice McDermott
13. Day, by Michael Cunningham
14. Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward
15. Murder Your Employer, by Rupert Holmes
It's likely that being named book of the year by Amazon and Barnes and Noble is giving a sales bump to The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store for independents too. It was also just named to the top ten-best by The Washington Post, as was North Woods.
Last week I gave a shout out to The Door-to-Door Bookstore, a big-hearted, book-related, novel in translation. This week another title hits the list, What You Are Looking for Is in the Library. Michiko Aoyama's book is translated from Japanese by Alison Watts, who gets a rare translation credit on the book jacket. It's about a librarian who gives life-changing book recommendations. For a bookseller or even most book readers, this premise never gets cold!
1. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
3. The Wager, by David Grann
4. Why We Love Baseball, by Joe Posnanski
5. A Very Chinese Cookbook, by Kevin Pang and Jeffrey Pang (Boswell event November 28)
6. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
7. Wisconsin Supper Clubs 2E, by Ron Faiola (Boswell event November 30)
8. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
9. The Mysteries, by Bill Watterson and Jon Kascht
10. My Name Is Barbara, by Barbra Streisand
One doesn't always think about promoting baseball books in fall/holiday season, but hey, that's when people buy books. So for a title like Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, the publisher hoped for a bit of promotion around the World Series (the book came out in September), which could position the book for later gift giving. The good news is that BookMarks shows only raves - three of them! The bad news is that they are all from trades: Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly.
Breaking news: I found The Wall Street Journal review from Ben Yagoda that wasn't indexed by BookMarks: "Not everybody loves baseball and I imagine the minutiae and panegyrics herein will be boring or puzzling to those who don’t. But if you were that kid who felt a surge of gladness when Baseball Digest turned up in the mailbox, and if the game has continued to hold a place in your heart, well, I’ve got just the book for you."
Paperback Fiction:
1. Twilight Falls V4, by Juneau Black
2. The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa
3. A Death in Door County V1, by Annelise Ryan (Boswell event 12/14)
4. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
5. Shady Hollow V1, by Juneau Black
6. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
7. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro
10. Hedge, by Jane Delury (Lit Group 12/4, Virtual Event 1/17)
Several authors have hot releases coming in 2024. We already started seeing preorders for Sarah J Maas's House of Flame and Shadows, volume 3 in the Crescent series and booksellers have been talking about The Fury, the new book (out January 16) from Alex Michaelides. But being that both that The Silent Patient and A Court of Thorn and Roses are still in our top 10, both authors are still have readers to entice.
Paperback Nonfiction:
1. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
2. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, by Nick Offerman
3. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
4. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. All About Love, by bell hooks
7. Murdle V2, by GT Karber
8. Lyrics, by Paul McCarthy
9. Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin, by Kristine Hansen
10. Endurance, by Alfred Lansing
The Murdle (volume 1 and volume 2 - the next one is due April 2024) series reminds me of the Dell Logic Puzzles that are still in the variety puzzle magazines that sometimes pop up at Boswell. You get a bunch of clues about how to match people to occupations and their favorite pies or something like that and there is an accompanying grid to help figure things out. My mother would buy these pocket editions at the grocery store and we would use tracing paper so we could both try to solve them*. Many of the Murdle puzzles have such grids, though I'm told (by Jason, who loves them) that they come with a better story.
Books for Kids:
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid V18: No Brainer, by Jeff Kinney
2. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
3. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
5. Bluey: Hooray It's Christmas, by who know who?
6. The Skull, by Jon Klassen
7. Red and Green, by Lois Ehlert
8. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
9. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, by Mac Barnett, illustrations by Jon Klassen
10. Wombat, by Phiip Bunting
I would like to dedicate this space to my hand-selling of Wombat (two presentations last week that showed up this week's holiday lists) but I have to give a shout out to Jon Klassen, who has two new books in our top ten, his middle grade The Skull and his illustrated collaboration with Mac Barnett for How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? Kirkus on the latter: "For all that it leans heavily on absurdity, this book exhibits some serious heart. In the market for an understated Christmas classic? Behold! A Christmas miracle!"
1. Twilight Falls V4, by Juneau Black
2. The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa
3. A Death in Door County V1, by Annelise Ryan (Boswell event 12/14)
4. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
5. Shady Hollow V1, by Juneau Black
6. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
7. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro
10. Hedge, by Jane Delury (Lit Group 12/4, Virtual Event 1/17)
Several authors have hot releases coming in 2024. We already started seeing preorders for Sarah J Maas's House of Flame and Shadows, volume 3 in the Crescent series and booksellers have been talking about The Fury, the new book (out January 16) from Alex Michaelides. But being that both that The Silent Patient and A Court of Thorn and Roses are still in our top 10, both authors are still have readers to entice.
1. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
2. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, by Nick Offerman
3. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
4. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. All About Love, by bell hooks
7. Murdle V2, by GT Karber
8. Lyrics, by Paul McCarthy
9. Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin, by Kristine Hansen
10. Endurance, by Alfred Lansing
The Murdle (volume 1 and volume 2 - the next one is due April 2024) series reminds me of the Dell Logic Puzzles that are still in the variety puzzle magazines that sometimes pop up at Boswell. You get a bunch of clues about how to match people to occupations and their favorite pies or something like that and there is an accompanying grid to help figure things out. My mother would buy these pocket editions at the grocery store and we would use tracing paper so we could both try to solve them*. Many of the Murdle puzzles have such grids, though I'm told (by Jason, who loves them) that they come with a better story.
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid V18: No Brainer, by Jeff Kinney
2. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
3. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
5. Bluey: Hooray It's Christmas, by who know who?
6. The Skull, by Jon Klassen
7. Red and Green, by Lois Ehlert
8. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
9. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, by Mac Barnett, illustrations by Jon Klassen
10. Wombat, by Phiip Bunting
I would like to dedicate this space to my hand-selling of Wombat (two presentations last week that showed up this week's holiday lists) but I have to give a shout out to Jon Klassen, who has two new books in our top ten, his middle grade The Skull and his illustrated collaboration with Mac Barnett for How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? Kirkus on the latter: "For all that it leans heavily on absurdity, this book exhibits some serious heart. In the market for an understated Christmas classic? Behold! A Christmas miracle!"
*And no, the idea that we would buy two copies never came up.
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