Monday night I experienced one of the coolest things ever. It’s called Rep Night. It’s when representatives from publishing houses come and basically showcase titles they think we should pay attention to so we can handsell them to the customers. I came in late, so I missed most of everyone’s names, but I did see that we had reps from Penguin Random (forever Random Penguin in my mind), HarperCollins, Hachette, and Chronicle Books. Forgive me if I missed someone.
There were a lot of great titles pitched. Here are a few that interested me. Some are out already and some will be published soon.
- Chronicle Books
- Hachette
- The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests by Jon Stewart and Chris Smith (11/22/16)
- The Wonder by Emma Donaghue
- Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
- IQ by Joe Ide (10/18/16)
- Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created by Laura Miller, Lev Grossman, John Sutherland, Tom Shippey (11/1/16)
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2/17/17)
- HarperCollins
- Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson (I read this and really enjoyed it. Woodson does so much with so little.)
- Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Marot Lee Shetterly
Random PenguinPenguin Random House- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai (2/7/17)
- The Mothers by Brit Bennett
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- Swing Time by Zadie Smith (11/15/16)
- The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri (11/15/16)
There were also a number of winter picks of books that are already out, but I might save that one for a big holiday post. 😉
So besides telling us which books they thought we’d like, they also brought ARCs. The greatest thing was watching all my coworkers load up bags of galleys all while saying “I really shouldn’t do this, I have a stack at home I need to get to” even though we do need to. Bookselling is not just looking up “the book with the blue cover that might be about mediating” or ringing up that stack of kids books. It’s also being about to make recommendations to the customers when needed. It’s what separates us from Amazon or even Barnes and Noble. We don’t carry every book obviously because its impossible, but what we can do, is have a carefully curated selection that at least someone in the bookstore can tell you something about and be passionate about it. Recommending books and handselling can be its own topic so I won’t go down that rabbit hole, so basically bringing home a bag of ARCs is fundamental to my job. At least that’s what I’m telling both myself and my husband when he side-eyes yet another bag of books coming into the house.
So I bet you’re asking what was in that bag? Have I ever let you down on not telling you about my literary loot? Some were ones mentioned before and some were new-to-me titles
- IQ by Joe Ide
- The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch (4/18/17)
- Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (not a galley either! An actual hardback!)
- Swing Time by Zadie Smith
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- How to Win at Feminism: The Definitive Guide to Having it all – And Then Some! by Reductress (I’m still trying to figure out if this is for feminism or against or what. I’ve only just flipped through it quickly. I’ll report back when I find out.) (10/25/16)
- Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl (I am picking up the first of this series on Friday at a Marvel event at another bookstore. What great timing!)
- The Wonder by Emma Donaghue
- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
- Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Any of these sound like your bag? Let me know!
