Here at ABC our experts always strive to bring the best to our customers and let you know what we love. We also get an inkling at what books you love through our monthly(ish) Bestseller lists, compiled from the lists of our three stores. We love to share this with you, too, because your TBR-list can never be long enough, right?
In December we’ve had many repeats from the previous month, including All Fours, Autocracy Inc., Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Blood Over Bright Haven, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, A Court of Thorns and Roses, I Who Have Not Known Men, Intermezzo, The Message, Nexus, Odyssey, The Striker, The Vegetarian, Want and What You’re Looking for is in the Library.
But new and classic titles were also (re)discovered. The anxiously awaited The Book of Bill finally made a reappearance, a smaller edition of Iron Flame was a flaming success, the classic Women Who Run With the Wolves keeps going strong, and let’s not forget the Bookerprize winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey, among others.
The Book of Bill by Alex Hirsch
Did you miss him? Admit it, you missed him.
The demon that terrorized Gravity Falls is back from the great beyond to finally tell his side of the story in The Book of Bill, written by none other than Bill Cipher himself.
Inside, Bill sheds light on his bizarre origins, his sinister effects on human history, the Pines family’s most embarrassing secrets, and the key to overthrowing the world (laid out in a handy step-by-step guide). This chaotic and beautifully illustrated tome contains baffling riddles, uncrackable ciphers, lost Journal 3 pages, ways to cheat death, the meaning of life, and a whole chapter on Silly Straws. But most importantly, The Book of Bill is deeply, deeply cursed.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
SECRETS. SACRIFICE. SURVIVAL.
Against all odds, Violet Sorrengail made it through her first year at Basgiath War College, but now, the real training begins. The stakes are higher than ever, and a determination to survive won’t be enough this time.
When a powerful new enemy threatens everything she cares about, including the man she loves, Violet must do whatever it takes to keep their secrets safe. One wrong move could have horrifying consequences – and as the web of lies spun by those in charge starts to unravel, nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
THE DEADLY SECOND YEAR AT BASGIATH AWAITS
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize.
Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft above the earth. They are there to collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
The Wicked Years Wicked (movie Tie-In) by Gregory Maguire
Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence.
And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.
Wind and Truth: Book Five of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the Number One New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive.
Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare-and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
In Women Who Run With the Wolves, Dr. Estés unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairy tales, and stories, many from her own family, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature.
Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine.
Dr. Estés has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.