James Patterson

Author James Patterson has selected the independent booksellers who are beneficiaries of his Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program, which in October he said would go to 600 booksellers in $500 increments. As he has done in previous years, Patterson pledged a substantial amount--$300,000 this fall--to fund the program. The complete list of recipients can be seen on the American Booksellers Association's website.

"I've said this before, but I can't say it enough--booksellers save lives," Patterson said. "What they do is crucial, especially right now. I'm happy to be able to acknowledge them and their hard work this holiday season."

The bookseller nomination form asked one question: "In 250 words or less, why does this bookseller deserve a holiday bonus?"

Congratulations to the bookseller winners and many thanks to the ever-generous James Patterson!

For Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., "the season has been strong for us," reported buyer and general manager Arsen Kashkashian. The store is running ahead of last year, with some of that likely attributable to a Dog Man event held with Dav Pilkey on December 2.

Kashkashian said The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is "definitely the big novel of the season," with Stephen Graham Jones's The Buffalo Hunter Hunter also doing well. On the nonfiction side, things are a bit more mixed, with 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon, and Patti Smith's memoir, Bread of Angels, proving popular. 

In children's, highlights include Dav Pilkey's Dog Man: Big Jim Believes and the graphic novel Wings of Fire: Darkstalker by Tui Sutherland. Kashkashian added that a Boulder-themed Monopoly game, which came out in September and features the bookstore on one of the spaces, has been a hit.

Asked about supply-chain issues, Kashkashian said it seems that many publishers are "having some issues getting books out of their warehouses in a timely manner." For sidelines, international orders are being delayed, possibly in Customs, which is leading to "unpredictable shipping times and sometimes an additional tariff charge."

Kashkashian noted that the store launched the Boulder Bookstore Literacy Foundation in September, which aims to provide books to local schoolchildren and recently had a successful book drive for Nederland Middle-Senior High School. The store is also working on a reading retreat in partnership with the Colorado Chautauqua that will take place in late February. The two initiatives have helped make it "an extremely busy season for us," he said.

On the subject of price increases, Kashkashian said it doesn't seem to matter much at this point, and customers simply "want to celebrate Christmas."

In Farmington, Maine, Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers has seen strong sales so far this holiday season, with owner Kenny Brechner reporting that the store is "up a little," though "prices are a little bit higher."

The season's biggest sellers have come from the store's Holiday 20 table. Apart from those titles, Brechner pointed to The Correspondent, Winter Stories by Ingvild H. Rishøi, and the board book Knight Owl's Little Christmas by Christopher Denise as standouts. He added that Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree has sold much better than he expected.

Brechner said he's also encountered supply-chain issues, with one example being the "very popular" sideline Audiopets--aside from one item, the entire line was out of stock. For books, Brechner continued, "all my suppliers are crawling." Nobody is providing accurate information, and "the ability to order anything in time for Christmas after the 12th is a dimming prospect."

While customers seem more prone to discuss economic concerns, and have noted increased costs, they are also "expressing appreciation of having a warm, well-curated, local, physical, community-minded space" in which to purchase their gifts, Brechner said. "And I think importantly, there is a markedly increased desire and appreciation for human interaction. Handselling has taken on a deeper purpose this year."

Stephen Sparks, co-owner of Point Reyes Books in Point Reyes Station, Calif., said the store's November sales were "up 14% over last year," with December sales currently on pace with 2024. Sparks noted that typically, "things are relatively quiet" in December until the week of Christmas, when the store becomes extremely busy. 

Asked about big sellers, Sparks said prize-winners and a few strong local books--including The Extremities!, the debut novel from store manager Samantha Kimmey--have "leaped to the top of our bestsellers." Otherwise, "there's been quite a bit of parity" among fall releases, with event books like The Water Remembers by Amy Bowers Cordalis and the new translation of Rumi's Water by Haleh Liza Gafori standing out.

Supply-chain issues have become a problem, with Sparks reporting that "shipments have gotten very sporadic and split." He mentioned significant issues with two of the largest suppliers, and said there were "orders placed the week of Thanksgiving that are still outstanding."

In general, Sparks said, the store has had an "incredible year," with sales up nearly 18%. The store's transaction counts are up for the year, "which typically means we have more people visiting the National Seashore," and he considered the possibility it might be similar to what the store experienced in 2021.

As more people were getting vaccinated, Sparks recalled, they were making more day and weekend trips to Point Reyes. Perhaps this year, amid rising prices and broader economic concerns, people are visiting the National Seashore in lieu of taking more expensive trips elsewhere. --Alex Mutter

If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Holiday Hum article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.

A children's bookstore called the Wandering Lantern has opened in Lakewood, Ohio, the Land reported.

Located at 15729 Madison Ave., the bookstore held its grand opening on November 29 and offers a wide variety of children's titles. Its event plans include storytime sessions, book clubs, craft nights, and more. In the months ahead, the Wandering Lantern will open an additional room featuring study tables, chairs, and a fireplace, followed by a basement room that will serve as an events space and playroom.

Prior to opening the Wandering Lantern, co-owners Emily Mitchell-Polci and Michael Plant felt there was a dearth of family-focused businesses in the area, despite the high number of families. When a retail space became available, the pair knew right away that a children's bookstore would be a great fit for both the building and the neighborhood. Plant has a background in real estate and construction, while Mitchell-Polci works as an elementary school teacher at a private school. 

"I've never been in a community where every single person I bumped into is so nice, so inviting, and welcoming," Plant told the Land.

"People are pumped," Mitchell-Polci said prior to the store's opening. "I've been in here every day, opening boxes and trying to clean and put stuff away, and people knock on the window and ask what's coming in the space. They're just so excited."

The Black Rose, a bookstore and cocktail lounge in West Branch, Iowa, has closed its bricks-and-mortar store and switched to an online-only business model, Little Village reported.

Owner Ashley Kofoed made the announcement on social media on Sunday, writing: "This chapter was full of beauty, struggle, laughter, long nights, and unforgettable moments--but like all stories, it has reached its natural end. But endings are not the same as disappearance. The Black Rose lives on--just in a different form."

Going forward, the Black Rose will continue to sell books online, including blind dates with a book, special boxes, holiday drops, and curated collections.

The bookstore and bar, which sold new and used titles, food, and craft cocktails, opened earlier this year. 

"Thank you for being part of this journey--whether you've visited once, visited often, or found us from miles away through a screen," Kofoed wrote. "The love you've shown us has meant more than you know. This isn't a goodbye. It's a page turn."

British author Madeleine Wickham, better known for her pen name Sophie Kinsella and bestselling novel Confessions of a Shopaholic, died December 10. She was 55. The Guardian reported that Wickham, "dubbed 'the queen of romantic comedy' by novelist Jojo Moyes, wrote more than 30 books for adults, children and teenagers, which have sold more than 45 million copies."

Sophie Kinsella

Wickham studied music at New College, Oxford, before switching to philosophy, politics and economics. After graduation, she became a financial journalist, but said she found the job dull. She wrote The Tennis Party, her first novel, at 24.

"My overriding concern was that I didn't write the autobiographical first novel," she told the Guardian in 2012. "I was so, so determined not to write about a 24-year-old journalist. It was going to have male characters, and middle-aged people, so I could say, look, I'm not just writing about my life, I'm a real author."

She went on to write six more novels under her own name between 1995 and 2001, including Cocktails for Three, The Wedding Girl, Sleeping Arrangements, and The Gatecrasher. 

Wickham submitted her first manuscript written as Sophie Kinsella, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, without revealing her identity to her publishers. The Guardian noted that the novel--published as Confessions of a Shopaholic in some countries--was released in 2000 and became the first of 10 installments in the Shopaholic series, with the first and second novels being adapted into films. 

Beginning in 2003, she wrote standalone novels as Sophie Kinsella, including Can You Keep a Secret?, The Undomestic Goddess, Remember Me?, and, most recently, The Burnout (2023). She also created the children's book series Mummy Fairy and Me, published between 2018 and 2020, as well as a YA novel, Finding Audrey (2015).

Araminta Whitley and Marina de Pass, her agents at the Soho Agency, told the Bookseller that Wickham was "an intelligent, imaginative, loving, and irreverent woman who valued the deeply connective power of fiction. She had a rare gift for creating emotionally resonant protagonists and stories that spoke to, and entertained, readers wherever they were in the world and whatever challenges they faced. She also had an unmatched wit and ability to find the funny side. Comedy, for her, was both an art form and an intellectual pursuit and she instinctively understood that it is often a tightrope act of balancing light with dark. Her readers, and we include ourselves in that, felt seen and understood by her protagonists and their stories." 

Bill Scott-Kerr, publisher at Transworld, her publisher for the past 30 years, said: "I have had the true pleasure of knowing Maddy for the past three decades. Transworld have been lucky enough to publish every one of her adult novels. She was our author, our cheerleader, our fellow conspirator and our friend.... Maddy leaves behind a glorious and indelible legacy: a unique voice, an unquenchable spirit, a goodness of intent and a body of work that will continue to inspire us to reach higher and be better, just like so many of her characters." 

Sara Jaffe (l.) read from her short story collection Hurricane Envy (Rescue Press) at Fabulosa Books in San Francisco with Shoshana von Blanckensee, author of the novel Girls, Girls, Girls (Putnam).

The most popular book club titles at Reading Group Choices in November were Bog Queen by Anna North (Bloomsbury Publishing) and The Mad Wife by Meagan Church (Sourcebooks Landmark).

At the future of agency:

Kailey Wolcott joins as senior publicist.

Alyssa diPierro joins as campaign manager.

The Avid Reader in Davis, Calif., posted a video on Instagram and "sayin' a lil prayer that you'll shop small this holiday season."

Today:
Fresh Air: Sam Smith and Phil Jackson, authors of Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players (Penguin Press, $32, 9798217060702).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 this weekend from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Sunday, December 14
8 a.m. Piers Morgan, author of Woke Is Dead (HarperCollins, $32, 9780008555498). (Re-airs Sunday at 8:04 p.m.)

9:10 a.m. Matthew Davis, author of A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore (St. Martin's Press, $30, 9781250285102), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. (Re-airs Sunday at 9:09 p.m.)

10:43 a.m. Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization (W.W. Norton, $29.99, 9781324106234), at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. (Re-airs Sunday at 10:41 p.m.)

11:52 a.m. Eileen Flanagan, author of Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth Is Saving Us from Our Illusion of Separation (‎Seven Stories Press, $21.95, 9781644214787).

1:55 to 7 p.m. Coverage of the 2025 Boston Book Festival. Highlights include:

• 1:55 p.m. Julia Ioffe, author of Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, and Fatemeh Jamalpour, co-author of For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran's Women-Led Uprising.
• 2:52 p.m. Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling, and Johnisha Matthews Levi, author of Number's Up: Cracking the Code of an American Family.
• 3:54 p.m. Tracie Canada, author of Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football, Giri Nathan, author of Changeover: A Young Rivalry and a New Era of Men's Tennis, and S.L. Price, author of The American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse.
• 4:57 p.m. Aymann Ismail, author of Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith, and Finding Meaning in America, Steve Majors, author of Man Made: Searching for Dads, Daddies, Father Figures, and Fatherhood, and Michael Thomas, author of The Broken King.
• 5:57 p.m. Adam Becker, author of More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, Max Chafkin, author of The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and the Rise of the Silicon Valley Oligarchs, and Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley.

The Children's Book Council and the National Science Teaching Association have selected winning children's and teen titles for the Outstanding Science Trade Books and Best STEM Books of year. The American Society for Engineering Education, the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association, and the Society of Elementary Presidential Awardees are partners with the Children's Book Council and the National Science Teaching Association for the STEM awards.

To see the 36 best children's books with science content published in 2025, click here. To see the 22 best children's and YA books with STEM content in 2025, click here.

Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, December 16:

W.E.B. Griffin Direct Action by Jack Stewart (Putnam, $32, 9798217046386) continues the Presidential Agent thriller series.

The Once and Future Queen by Paula Lafferty (Erewhon, $32, 9781645662891) is a romantasy reimagining of King Arthur.

May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin (A John Scognamiglio Book, $28, 9781496751973) is the second Chef Paul Delamare mystery.

All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man by C.M. Kosemen (‎Wilton Square Books, $25, 9781806770021) is an illustrated guide to future human evolution.

Detours: Hope & Growth After Life's Hardest Turns by Elizabeth Smart (‎Post Hill Press, $28.99, 9798895650066) is a memoir about healing from trauma.

I Love You Alotl, I Love You So Much by Giselle Angel, illus. by Su Youn Lee (Harper, $9.99, 9780063449190) is a punny picture book about love featuring an axolotl on every page.

Love Finds a Way by Vern Kousky (Roaring Brook, $18.99, 9781250334756) follows one bird's efforts to avoid love altogether.

Age Like a Girl: How Menopause Rewires Your Brain for Mental Clarity, Increased Confidence, and Renewed Energy by Dr. Mindy Pelz (‎Hay House, $29.99, 9781401975562) is a scientific guide to menopause.

Dig Me a Grave: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Who Seduced the South by Richard A. Harpootlian and Shaun Assael (Citadel, $29, 9780806542881) chronicles a South Carolina serial killer.

Beyond Korean: Easy Recipes for Korean, Japanese, and Chinese Favorites by Aaron Huh (‎DK, $35, 9798217127160) includes 100 recipes for noodles, soups and more.

Paperbacks:
Love in Plane Sight by Lauren Connolly (‎Berkley, $19, ‎ 9780593815687).

The Miracle Morning After 50: A Proven Path to Joy, Vitality, and Purpose for Aging Adults by Hal Elrod and Dwayne J. Clark (BenBella, $19.95, 9781637746196).

A Most Worthy Husband by Faye Delacour (‎Sourcebooks Casablanca, $17.99, 9781728290690).

You Can Scream: A Laurel Snow Thriller by Rebecca Zanetti (Kensington, $18.95, 9781496760821).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover
The Merge: A Novel by Grace Walker (Mariner, $28, 9780063446731). "With a sense of dread and unease that brings to mind notes of The Stepford Wives, this slow-burn science fiction thriller gripped me from the first page. This book will give you so much to think about." --Brandy Herr, Arts & Letters Bookstore, Granbury, Tex.

Lucky Seed: A Novel by Justinian Huang (Mira, $30, 9780778387862,). "Good Eggs meets Crazy Rich Asians as a wealthy Chinese family with multiple dysfunctional issues bank on the leading queer son to produce a male heir to continue the traditional namesake and lineage." --Gerard Villegas, Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane, Wash.

Paperback
The Sofa by Sam Munson (Two Dollar Radio, $17.95, 9781953387974). "Many fictional families have dealt with cursed objects unwittingly introduced into their homes. In this case, it's a couch that seems to be the root cause of happenings just strange enough to invite the possibility of the supernatural." --Tony Paese, Books & Company, Oconomowoc, Wis.

Ages 4-8
While We Wait by Bee Johnson (Holt Books for Young Readers, $18.99, 9781250901231). "An adorable rhyming picture book that examines the beauty of the little moments. The 'waiting' can be the best part of some days, and with lovely illustrations, this story is a perfect reminder that while we wait, we can do so much!" --Rifka Lichtig, McNally Jackson Books, New York, N.Y.

Ages 10-14
The Last Ember: The Aerimander Chronicles Book 1 by Lily Berlin Dodd (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, $19.99, 9780374393120). "A charmingly refreshing take on classic tropes and storylines, full of wit, adventure, and heart. Dodd's unique writing style, quirky characters, and transportive setting make this my favorite pick for upper-middle-grade fantasy fans." --Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books, Beverly, Mass.

Ages 12+
Wavelength by Cale Plett (Groundwood Books, $17.99, 9781779460295). "Wavelength is a debut novel that the queer community will take to its heart. It's got the depth of understanding you'd hope for, while being lots of fun. With an emphasis on LGBTQ+ characters and young romance, this writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has gifted us with something fresh." --Linda Bond, Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane, Wash.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Dogs and Monsters) was always leaving home. That is the impression he gives readers in Leaving Home, his beautifully written, collage-like memoir of moments that shaped him as a person and as a writer.

Leaving Home consists of 87 nonlinear sections varying in length (some just three paragraphs, others several pages) along with family photos and drawings by the author--even footnotes. It opens with Haddon's sister, Fiona, and her recurring nightmare of their father wielding a knife, which continued for 45 years until Alzheimer's necessitated his move to a care home. Haddon, too, had nightmares in childhood, describing himself as "an anxious and depressed child." He speculates about what others call nostalgia, the nature of "longing, this echo of some remembered comfort." The delight of the memoir comes from his grappling with answers to his own questions: "Is it that, as children, we live inside a bubble of focused attention which gives everything inside the bubble a memorable fierceness?"

Luckily, Haddon appears never to have lost his bubble of focused attention. He supplies uncanny details that place readers beside him at Brighton's Palace Pier, with its sounds, smells, and sights. These details launched the title story from his collection The Pier Falls. He writes of the adults and children he worked with, who had a variety of disabilities both mental and physical, and their impact on him: "Our humanity is not an individual quality that can be measured and traded and celebrated and ignored, but an activity, a thing human beings do together." Such observations give readers insight into Haddon's compassion for his parents, despite their lack of affection for him and Fiona throughout their lives, and also for his hero Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. "Why am I me and not someone else?" Haddon wonders, and the answer, he believes, is "intimately connected to our ability to tell stories."

Haddon's bracing, raw honesty reveals his struggle with mental illness, his love for his wife and two children, his views on spirituality, and the life-giving force of his writing: "I've learnt that an artistic success, however big, gives you nothing new to work on this morning, and it's doing new work this morning that makes me feel at home in the world." He notes for one of his writing groups, "As writers we... can simply lay one thing beside another and let readers do the rest." Haddon's recollections create a moving cumulative effect; he gives readers the space to savor his epiphanies and arrive at their own. --Jennifer M. Brown

Shelf Talker: In Mark Haddon's moving collage-like memoir, significant moments in the author's life add up to a wondrous whole and provocative worldview.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"

--Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

But wait, don't those classic lines come from a book? Does that make bookshops exempt from the "store" jibe?

In any case, the holiday season can be a serious wake-up call for new booksellers, especially in those challenging moments when the shop is crowded and some of Who-ville's book-buying citizens get a little grinchy themselves. In the heat of the retail moment, a little voice may whisper, "This isn't what I signed up for."

Quickly you learn to become the person your customers need you to be. That's part of the job description, even if at times it may require a little method acting.  

One important aspect of the job, however, does take getting used to, and can further ramp up holiday season stress levels. Call it "the grind," that unceasing bookseller's to-do list that doesn't care how many customers come through the front door. Confession: I kinda love the grind. 

No matter what someone might have been expecting when they applied for and got a job as a frontline bookseller or opened their own shop, the reality soon hits that the work is much more than handselling, wandering the stacks, and talking books with colleagues. The list of routine daily tasks can sometimes feel like it approaches infinity.

Not long ago, I was having a nice conversation with a bookstore owner about, well, many things bookshop-related. When I mentioned that I'd been thinking lately about "the grind" and how it takes time for a new bookseller to adjust to (maybe even become a little addicted to) the complicated, messy routine the job entails, her eyes lit up with recognition: Yes! We leaned into the topic, exchanging retail war stories like the bookish veterans we are, almost reveling in the chance to talk about a side of bookselling we don't necessarily want the public to see. Always show them the ducks floating serenely on a pond, not the webbed feet paddling furiously under the surface.

John Evans

I happened to bring the subject of "the grind" up recently with John Evans, co-founder, with Alison Reid, of the original Diesel, A Bookstore stores throughout California and now co-owner of Camino Books: For the Road Ahead in Del Mar. He was quick to take the baton and run with it.

"As to grind: well, I don't think of most of it as a grind but as a vibrant entity requiring care," he said. "So new booksellers are less likely to consider the intricate details needing our focused attention: the meticulous receiving, entering, sorting and shelving; the perpetual straightening, dusting, sweeping, alphabetizing, organizing displays; and the online orders, e-mail correspondence, social media posting that are constantly shuffled into the workday.  

"The grind part of quotidian bookseller lives comes mostly from publishers and distributors. Baroque phone systems; sluggish accounting practices; unnecessarily convoluted special terms offers; and of course the two worst--damaged or short shipments and lack of invoices in the box--all combine to tear at the workday and pull booksellers out of the real work of bookselling, helping customers find the books they want and need." 

Most patrons never have the chance to get a peek behind a bookstore's curtain at the grind. Every day, good booksellers offer them a cozy, calm, welcoming shop full of literary wonders for people who choose to come through their doors. It all makes for excellent theater, and if they don't see or appreciate all the backstage labor, so much the better.

As Evans points out, however, "the job of a bookseller is complex: maintain the physical aspects of the store and its inventory; at all times be responsive, resourceful, even miraculous, with customers; and always increase your knowledge of books in the deluge of titles published and previously published. Many publishers, however, have largely distanced themselves from bookstore life.... Booksellers are just the worker bees hopefully promoting only their titles to the masses, and smaller portion of their market. The polar opposite of how communities, neighborhoods, towns, and cities full of readers regard bookstores."

Regarding the "retail drudgery" of the bookselling life, he said, "I like every aspect of bookselling.... I love the editors, sales reps, fellow booksellers, and authors. One thing every bookseller should have besides a love of books, is a lively interest in people. That curiosity marries well to book curiosity. If you love books and find humans fascinating, you're in heaven.... The key is to just change up these important, repetitive tasks every two hours. Or take the inevitable interruptions, disjunctions, and spontaneous re-directions in stride and let the bookstore's liveliness take you for a ride."

Evans also observed that to call what booksellers do retail "is an odd reduction, since it is a cultural institution--and not just through the events it does, but every cubic inch of it. It sells books so that it may exist in the current economic system we reside within. So, don't bring your drudgery, status anxiety, misanthrope, time-tracking, work is a drag, mindsets into the bookstore. Just leap into the surging waters--the water is warm." 

Sound advice on how not to let the grind steal booksellers' Christmas.

--Robert Gray, contributing editor