The Rest of the Best Sellers
The Ribbon’s Year in Review 2017
The Ribbon presents a series of year-in-review content: best-sellers, staff picks, guest picks, and more. We celebrate the year that was in books, and hopefully provide you with some handy guides to navigate your holiday shopping. This list includes a selection of Literati’s bestselling titles for books not featured on our Best Sellers Published This Year list. Note that this includes some titles associated with our ticketed events. Entries are presented in alphabetical order by author’s last name, and we’ve broken them up into handy categories. Click the title to be directed to our online store and purchase the title directly from Literati!
Here: How We Got to It, Where We Go from It
Our best selling books can move by trends — television adaptations, revival in cultural interest, a really memorable radio interview, internet buzz, et al. But these best-sellers are united by something greater — they seem to speak to our fraught present moment, offering wisdom or context, warning or wisdom.
We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
Between the World and Me, By Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Circle, by Dave Eggers
Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert
It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis
How to Love, Thich Nhat Hanh
Citizen: An American Lyric, by Claudia Rankine
The Literary Night Table
Literary fiction and poetry is what butters our bread at Literati. Our booksellers snatch up advanced copies from sought-after novelists, we covet review copies of the latest poetry, our literary events make up our virtual marquee, and — of course — our customers like to make tidy little stacks of these books in their cozy homes. Here’s what our customer’s amalgamated literary night stand might look like.
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Our Endless Numbered Days, by Claire Fuller
Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Grief is the Thing with Feathers, by Max Porter
Max Porter has manifested here the inexplicable: that twinkling, misty space in one’s life where a beloved should still stand. At times impossible to keep reading without tears escaping, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and always heartbreakingly honest, Grief is the Thing with Feathers brings to life that shapeless hope-after-loss feeling we might never think is possible. This book is a love note to humanity and to that feathery thing that comes after. — Claire
The Secret History, By Donna Tartt
Night Sky with Exit Wounds, by Ocean Vuong
A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihari
All I can say about this novel is that it is pure emotion on paper. On the surface, A Little Life follows the lives of four close college friends as they grow into adulthood. It is impossible to reduce this novel to a plotline, though — the experience of the novel takes precedence over the story itself. For me, this book is about the power of the past and of human relationships, and is ultimately an exploration of the deep struggle of being a human being. Equal parts beautiful and heartwrenching, this is one of the most extraordinary books that I have ever read. — Kelsey
A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
My best friend was once an uchideshi: a live-in student who trains and assists a sensei 24/7. He tried to dive to the heart of zen. He would embark on weekend-long meditation sessions and describe that feeling as suddenly realizing everything was vibrant, connected, in the moment. A Tale for the Time Being doesn’t necessarily dive to the heart of zen, but it did make me feel more connected, more in the moment. This book is easily one of my favorite books I’ve read. There is some magical realism, some zen undercurrents, but mostly, it is about learning to be happy in the here and in the now, learning how to find home. A delightful read. — Mike
The Perennial Best Sellers
Some books spill off our shelves like a winning stack in computer solitaire — we wonder just how many homes in our sleepy city, by percentage, just have them. And we smile, glad that they do.
A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
In The Woods, by Tana French
Milk and Honey, by Rupi KAur
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
Bluets, by Maggie Nelson
Sci-Fi Stalwarts
When we recently re-organized sections on Literati’s main floor, we added extra room for corner Sci-Fi section. With good reason. Here are the titles driving an ever-expanding, oft-loved section.
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab
I’ve been on the hunt for some great new fantasy, and this book was everything that I needed. Parallel Londons exist within the world of this novel, each with its own complicated relationship with magic. Kell is one of the last magicians able to travel between the Londons and has a dangerous interest in smuggling magical objects. Delilah is a young woman surviving as a criminal in Grey London who gets drawn into Kell’s quest to repair that damage he has caused. But don’t call her a sidekick — she has motivations of her own. I loved the characters in this smart fantasy, and I can’t wait to read what comes next. — Kelsey
Rebecca Solnit
We sometimes joke that Solnit could have a section all to herself in Literati. And on this list, her incisive yet categorization-defying could slot in nicely in several sections. Her trio of recent titles have become an education unto themselves, and so why not celebrate our customer’s love for her by compiling her hits under one heading.
Men Explain Things to Me
This is the book that inspired the Literati Feminist Book Club, if only because Rebecca Solnit is all kinds of important. She is feminist, environmental activist, unyielding ally to the oppressed. She is an incredible person, and this is an incredible book. Our activism and action is demanded now more than ever, and if you’re looking for a jumping off point into becoming enraged and engaged, this collection is for you. Read this, and then read Hope in the Dark, and then read the Mother of all Questions, and then keep reading and keep acting. And to the men reading this: stop explaining shit to me. — Claire
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
The Mother of All Questions
Hope in The Dark
Standouts from Downstairs
Sometimes, Literati’s basement nonfiction sections don’t get the love they’re owed. After all, it’s easy to miss the stairs as you enter and are bewitched by new releases at our front table display. But there are endless treasures to be found in the lower level, and this short list of hits culls from its diverse shelves.
