Sales during 2005 have been "up and down" at the Odyssey Bookshop, S.
Hadley, Mass., but October and November were good months, and co-owner
Joan Grenier is hoping that the momentum will continue and December
will go well, too.
Between recent unseasonably warm weather and "everyone focused on the end of the semester," it's still a little early in the season for the store, which is in the Five Colleges area. But the Odyssey has been preparing for the holidays. As at other stores, "there is not a great fiction title everyone needs to have," but the staff "all has fiction favorites and we're trying to work on selling those," Grenier said.
Besides the usual titles that are selling well--from Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin to A Million Little Pieces by James Frey to The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion--the Odyssey is promoting and seeing strong sales of the following:
In the Province of Saints by Thomas O'Malley, which the store chose for its First Edition Club (which features a book of literary merit with potential collectibility that is signed and goes to about 100 people around the country). "I absolutely love" this title, Grenier said.
The Encyclopedia of New England, a $65 Yale title that has just come out. "We won't sell tons, but it will do O.K."
An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas by Diane Wilson. "This amazing story is by a fourth-generation shrimper and the mother of five in a little county of 15,000 people who found out it was the most polluted place in the country."
The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons from a Life in Nature by David Gessner about nature writer John Hay who lived for 60 years at his house, Dry Hill, on Cape Cod.
Several titles have done well following fall author appearances, including one of our favorites, Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind's Relationship with Earth's Most Primal Element by Suzanne Staubach as well as 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann, "a local"; Katz on Dogs by Jon Katz, which "keeps selling"; St. Albans Fire by Archer Mayor, a Vermont mystery writer; Sex Wars by Marge Piercy, who drew 75 people at an appearance last week.
The store is also handselling three children's titles:
Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, which Odyssey's Cindy Pile described as "a picture book told in rhyme that's wonderfully illustrated and has little things to look for in the paintings on each page."
Shamoo: A Whale of a Cow by Ros Hill, also a picture book, about a cow who learns to swim and teaches other cows. "It's very drolly illustrated and has a wonderful sense of humor," Pile said.
The Seven Professors of the Far North by John Fardell for children 8-12, "an adventure tale that has some fantasy" about six professors abducted by an evil professor and taken to an island in the Arctic Ocean. Three children go to rescue them. "It reminds me of a James Bond movie," Pile commented. "They go on their own and use their innate cleverness."
Among other changes this year, the Odyssey has expanded its sidelines section and is stocking more gifts. For example, the store has been selling some "colorful and pretty" bottle stoppers, mousepads, coasters that it displays with a wine tasting book, spin tops and a range of kits for making books by hand using origami paper. So far, according to sidelines buyer Sarah Colgazier, "different things are selling satisfactorily," but in contrast to some years, there is "no hot sideline"--at least yet.
Between recent unseasonably warm weather and "everyone focused on the end of the semester," it's still a little early in the season for the store, which is in the Five Colleges area. But the Odyssey has been preparing for the holidays. As at other stores, "there is not a great fiction title everyone needs to have," but the staff "all has fiction favorites and we're trying to work on selling those," Grenier said.
Besides the usual titles that are selling well--from Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin to A Million Little Pieces by James Frey to The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion--the Odyssey is promoting and seeing strong sales of the following:
In the Province of Saints by Thomas O'Malley, which the store chose for its First Edition Club (which features a book of literary merit with potential collectibility that is signed and goes to about 100 people around the country). "I absolutely love" this title, Grenier said.
The Encyclopedia of New England, a $65 Yale title that has just come out. "We won't sell tons, but it will do O.K."
An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas by Diane Wilson. "This amazing story is by a fourth-generation shrimper and the mother of five in a little county of 15,000 people who found out it was the most polluted place in the country."
The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons from a Life in Nature by David Gessner about nature writer John Hay who lived for 60 years at his house, Dry Hill, on Cape Cod.
Several titles have done well following fall author appearances, including one of our favorites, Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind's Relationship with Earth's Most Primal Element by Suzanne Staubach as well as 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann, "a local"; Katz on Dogs by Jon Katz, which "keeps selling"; St. Albans Fire by Archer Mayor, a Vermont mystery writer; Sex Wars by Marge Piercy, who drew 75 people at an appearance last week.
The store is also handselling three children's titles:
Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, which Odyssey's Cindy Pile described as "a picture book told in rhyme that's wonderfully illustrated and has little things to look for in the paintings on each page."
Shamoo: A Whale of a Cow by Ros Hill, also a picture book, about a cow who learns to swim and teaches other cows. "It's very drolly illustrated and has a wonderful sense of humor," Pile said.
The Seven Professors of the Far North by John Fardell for children 8-12, "an adventure tale that has some fantasy" about six professors abducted by an evil professor and taken to an island in the Arctic Ocean. Three children go to rescue them. "It reminds me of a James Bond movie," Pile commented. "They go on their own and use their innate cleverness."
Among other changes this year, the Odyssey has expanded its sidelines section and is stocking more gifts. For example, the store has been selling some "colorful and pretty" bottle stoppers, mousepads, coasters that it displays with a wine tasting book, spin tops and a range of kits for making books by hand using origami paper. So far, according to sidelines buyer Sarah Colgazier, "different things are selling satisfactorily," but in contrast to some years, there is "no hot sideline"--at least yet.