With less than a week to go until Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah, booksellers from around the U.S. offer their assessment of the holiday shopping season:
Phinney Books in Seattle, Wash., has had a fall season that has matched last year's "almost exactly," reported owner Tom Nissley, "which we're very happy with."
Nissley described most of 2024 as a year without a single huge book that everyone needs to have. Over the past week or so, however, James by Percival Everett has started to emerge as that title, with Nissley describing it as a book that one can give to "almost any reader." His personal favorite handsell of the season, he said, is A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter, written in 1938 and recently reissued by Pushkin Press. And "many, many people," he added, seem to want to read or re-read On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder.
Other highlights include The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan, which has "been a hit ever since it came out," and Jonathan Blitzer's Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, which has seen a nice boost since it was included in the New York Times' Top 10. All of Claire Keegan's "beautiful little books," including Small Things Like These, have seen boosts as well. Local titles also do well over the holidays, with two examples this season being Street Trees of Seattle by Taha Ebrahimi and Renee Erickson's cookbook Sunlight & Breadcrumbs.
Nissley noted that while shipping has been slow from some midsize suppliers, and some titles have been out of stock since early December, things have been running "relatively smoothly." And when it comes to titles being out of stock in particular, the situation is better this year than the "first couple Covid seasons."
Looking ahead, Nissley expects the end of the season to be "very busy," and hopes there isn't any severe weather right around Christmas. "Although even if there is," he said, "we'll likely stay open." The "real unknown," he continued, is "how the country, and our part of it, will respond when the new regime actually takes power in January." Priorities may change, but Nissley said he has "no idea how that will relate to publishing, and to reading."
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In Nashville, Tenn., Parnassus Books has had a very good season so far, reported general manager Andy Brennan. Sales are up a bit over last year, and the store is shaping up to have a strong fourth quarter.
Among the season's strong sellers are Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten, Bel Canto Annotated Edition by Ann Patchett, James, Time of the Child by Niall Williams, Small Things Like These, Water, Water by Billy Collins, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci, The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell, and The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin.
Brennan said the store's "biggest concerns" have been with The Serviceberry, which went out of stock shortly after its publication date, and Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, which also went out of stock almost immediately. Aside from those two titles, though, "there haven't been any serious supply-chain issues."
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For Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, Minn., this holiday season is the store's 40th, and owner Holly Weinkauf believes that major milestone has played a part in a "so-far successful season." At the moment, sales are up 4% compared to 2023. Things have gotten very busy in the past week, Weinkauf noted, and there is still one more weekend before Christmas. At the same time, Minnesota recently had its first big snow, "which always puts people more in the holiday shopping mood." She is expecting this year to shape up as one of the store's best holiday seasons.
Weinkauf pointed out that while Red Balloon is mainly a children's store, it does have an adult section and occasionally an adult title is the bookstore's top seller. That is the case this year with The Serviceberry. Other popular titles include Dog Man: Big Jim Begins by Dav Pilkey, Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison and Brianne Farley, The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo and Júlia Sardà, The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood and LeUyen Pham, and The Ultimate Minnesota Cookie Book by Lee Svitak Dean, Rick Nelson, and Tom Wallace. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown and The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and LeUyen Pham are two big backlist titles.
Asked about supply-chain issues, Weinkauf said the store did have to wait a bit for The Serviceberry to come back in stock, but more copies arrived just in time for the last two weeks of shopping. Ultimately, "things have been pretty smooth this year. Whew!"
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Leviathan Bookstore opened in St. Louis, Mo., earlier this year, so owners James Crossley and Amanda Clark have no prior holiday seasons to compare this year to. Nevertheless, Crossley and Clark are "pretty happy with how things are going in our little pop-up space."
While Leviathan is less than a year old, both Clark and Crossley have extensive experience at other indie bookstores, and Crossley commented that "2024 might have the least holiday feel ever." Gift buying started late, he explained, and there is "less interest in Christmas books than I can remember." That said, customers have responded well to some unusual holiday titles from small presses, such as the 2024 Short Story Advent Calendar from Hingston & Olsen and the Christmas Ghost Stories series from Biblioasis.
Crossley reported that customers' interest is "divided among the celebrated titles of 2024," such as All Fours by Miranda July, James, The Serviceberry, and Playground by Richard Powers. A local book, Mapping St. Louis by Andrew Hahn, has also seen a lot of interest. And in the absence of "big breakout books," Crossley added, there haven't been major problems with the supply chain aside from some occasional shipping delays.
Thanks to the late Hanukkah, Crossley and Clark are looking forward "to a bigger-than-expected post-Christmas week." --Alex Mutter