Ye Olde Partners
Page
*A Collection of
Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"When I work,
I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be
straightforward
terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not
familiar.
But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and
hear . . ."
--Don
DeLilo
2015:
THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN REVIEW
It's official:
The 2015 holiday season is over. It was an odd one. There were no
last minute Oprah recommendations that everyone absolutely had to have, much to
the chagrin of Mitch Albom and The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto (9780062294418)
25.99. Actually, most of the biggest sellers seemed to be titles that
have been out for a bit like Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See (9781476746586)
27.00, Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk (9780802123411) 26.00, and David
McCullough's The Wright Brothers (9781476728742) 30.00. To no
one's great shock, nobody cared about the latest incarnation of Meyer's Twilight
(9780316268394) 21.99, and, in fact, I believe you can stick a sharpened
stake in the heart of that franchise. "It's dead, Jim."
Instead, we were chasing the
other Meyer -- Marissa Meyer and her Lunar Chronicles, especially the first one
in the series, Cinder (9781250007209) 9.99. As for other hot teen
titles, there wasn't much. We did well with the two Disney Descendants'
titles: Mal's Spell Book (9781484726389) 11.99 and Mal's Diary (9781484726853)
9.99. Also, Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush Saga experienced a
surprise rebirth with both Hush, Hush (9781416989424) 11.99 and Finale
(9781442426689) 11.99 selling the best of the lot.
As for science fiction or
fantasy, or as those literary types like to call it, speculative fiction or
magic realism, it was a weak holiday season. If only George R.R. Martin
had found the time to complete the sixth book in the Song of Ice and
Fire series The Winds of Winter, we would be laughing all the way to
the bank, but instead, we were sold his prequel A Knight of the Seven
Kingdoms (9780345533487) 30.00. To most of us, it was fairly obvious
early on that this wasn't what his fans wanted.
Most of the usual bestselling
authors did well. For example, we're still waiting on the reprint for
Nicholas Sparks' See Me (9781455520619) 27.00, and a reprint on Joel
Osteen's The Power of I Am (9780892969968) 26.00. (Yes, Joel has
become a holiday fixture on the bestseller lists.) But, of course, the
big winners this year were the coloring books with Ms. Basford leading the
way. We did receive two new coloring books yesterday: Posh Adult
Coloring Books: Happy Doodles for Fun & Relaxation (9781449475581)
12.99 and Paisley Designs for Fun & Relaxation (9781449474201)
12.99. Sigh . . .
Next week, we'll talk about diet
books.
Don DeLilo has a new book coming
in May. Read about it here: http://flavorwire.com/548047/don-delillo-announces-new-novel-zero-k-about-a-secret-compound-where-death-is-exquisitely-controlled
Odds
& Sods
We've been told
it's the start of a new tradition -- The college football playoffs will be on
New Year's Eve this year. One of those teams is the Michigan State
Spartans, and we will have a new book about the Spartans that will cover the
2015 season in mid-February. It's called Green Machine (9781597256261)
34.95. The Lansing State Journal and the Detroit Free Press have joined
forces to put together this beautiful coffee table book. It will be
non-returnable, but at a 40% discount. Go Green! Go White!
Everyone here at
Partners would like to wish you and yours a very Happy New Years!