We visit again the three bookstores whose holiday sales we've been covering regularly this month.
The Flying Pig Bookstore
The winter storm that hit New England late Saturday night did nothing to dissuade one intrepid shopper. On Sunday afternoon she arrived at the Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., on cross country skis and left with purchases tucked in a backpack. Others too braved more than 15 inches of snow to purchase gifts. "Surprisingly, we did a decent business Sunday," said co-owner Josie Leavitt.
Saturday sales were brisk, and nonfiction titles still reign as the store's bestsellers--most notably Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips, Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain and The Rejection Collection volumes 1 and 2. Along with Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs, fiction selections showing steam are The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Annie Dillard's The Maytrees.
The Flying Pig's No. 1 title is Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont. "It's an amazing cookbook," said Leavitt. Shelburne Farms is a well-known 1,400-acre working farm and nonprofit environmental education center with a lakeside inn and a restaurant.
Popular kids' selections include Knut: How One Little Polar Bear Captivated the World, Llama Llama Mad at Mama, The Daring Book for Girls, The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! by comedian Steve Martin and New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.
So far this season sales at the Flying Pig are up 13.5% over last year. During the handful of days remaining in the 2007 holiday shopping season, "I'm hoping to do better than I did last week," said Leavitt. "And I'm hoping to sell more fiction."
The Yellow Book Road
This past week the Yellow Book Road in La Mesa, Calif., had an increase in sales as well as a boost in profile. The children's bookshop was featured in a San Diego Union-Tribune article about specialty bookstores in the area.
Last Friday the store hosted Edith Hope Fine and Judith Pinkerton Josephson, the authors of Armando and the Blue Tarp School. The duo also appeared at a local school, events that had been scheduled to take place in October but were postponed due to severe wildfires in the area.
The visit made Armando and the Blue Tarp School and Fine's other tome, Under the Lemon Moon, Yellow Book Road's top sellers for the week, followed by Jan Brett's The Three Snow Bears and Gary Soto's Too Many Tamales. New among the bestselling books are Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer, The All-I'll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll by Patricia C. McKissack, Randall de Sève's Toy Boat and the pop-up version of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia by Robert Sabuda, Matthew Reinhart and Matthew Armstrong.
Sales were up 30% over this same week last year, noted Yellow Book Road owner Kristin Baranski. "It seems to be a pretty happy Christmas season around San Diego," she said. "Many people feel blessed after the fires this year to have their health, and most of us still have homes."
Murder by the Book
After a frenzied week of sales, the atmosphere was slightly calmer over the weekend at Murder by the Book in Houston, Tex. The Italian-set mystery The Rainaldi Quartet by Paul Adam has replaced Sue Grafton's T Is for Trespass as the store's top seller, while Saturday's No. 1 book was A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir edited by Megan Abbott. A glowing endorsement appeared in the Chicago Tribune last week--the review is displayed on an easel with the books--and enticed readers to purchase the collection.
Three events are taking place this week at Murder by the Book, beginning tonight with the authors of Houston Homicide, Bill Crider and former Houston p.i. Clyde Wilson. On Saturday David Welling will promote Cinema Houston, a coffee table book about the history of the city's theaters. The local connections are making both books favorite gift selections, said store manager McKenna Jordan.
Deanna Raybourn garnered a following among Murder by the Book staffers with her debut, Silent in the Grave, and she'll appear at the store on Friday evening to sign copies of her new novel, Silent in the Sanctuary. The Victorian mystery is officially on sale in early January, and Murder by the Book is the only store at which Raybourn will appear this year to promote it.
On Christmas Eve day, Jordan will take on the role of entertainer. A classical violinist and the concertmaster for Houston's Opera in the Heights, she and a vocalist will perform a repertoire of holiday songs. A full house is expected for what has become a tradition for many customers, including a seven-year-old who is planning to bring her dad to the festivities.
Overall, noted Jordan, December sales are up significantly from last year, boosted by a signing with Grafton earlier this month. Gift certificate sales are up as well, both in terms of the number sold and the denominations purchased. A popular pairing is a gift certificate and one of the store's branded T-shirts bearing the slogans "Suspect everyone" and "Go to hell, I'm reading."
Next year Murder by the Book may do even better because of a book--but in an unusual way. The store is featured in a forthcoming Frommer's publication, Suzy Gershman's Where to Buy the Best of Everything: The Outspoken Guide for World Travelers and Online Shoppers.--Shannon McKenna Schmidt