First and foremost, all of us at De Stiil insist on wishing you a great, healthy, successful, and yes, happy 2023.
We are sure that your mailbox is already full of similar wishes from your local realtors, restaurants, delis, gyms, and various dog groomers.
Chances are they don’t mean it. Not really.
But we do.
We probably wished you a happy 2022 in person last January and we hope that it worked and helped you along the way.
On the subject of 2022, we have great news. Thanks to you, the bookstore is quietly growing every month and our accountant seems to approve. Nothing makes us smile more than a happy accountant.
Now. Let’s talk about what we really care about: books.
THE BOOKS YOU BOUGHT IN 2022
On January 31st at 6 pm, while you were getting ready to party until dawn, we were wrapping up the year at the bookstore. Don't feel guilty, it's a lot more fun than you think. These are the bookstore's 6 best sellers of 2022.
A couple of things surprised us in that list. Can you guess?
Well, five of them were on Our Picks shelf, which means that either you trusted our choices, or we were really pushy about them. We like to think that you trust us.
The third best seller was the stunner: a first novel released by an independent publisher that we all loved at first sight. Bravo Sasha Fletcher for providing us with one of the wildest love stories we have ever read. We love selling this book and we love the readers who choose it.
Finally, you have such good literary taste, it is beyond words!
OUR FAVOURITE READS OF 2022
Every bookseller at the store was asked to name the 5 books they most enjoyed reading in 2022. They did not have to be new releases. Interesting how we all seem to agree on some titles.
AUDE'S PICKS
BRAEDAN'S PICKS
OLIVIA'S PICKS
RICHARD'S PICKS
YANN'S PICKS
ORDERING NEW BOOKS IN 2023
This year, we have decided to concentrate on ordering from smaller independent publishers and hunting for great books in translation. You probably already know that a scant 3% of newly published books in English are translated from other languages? This statistic blew our mind considering that a whopping 7 100 different languages are spoken in the world! Finding the best of these 3% and bringing them to you should keep us busy for a good part of the coming year.
We also realize that hardcovers are not your (or our) cup of tea so, unless it is a book that we absolutely, urgently must read right this minute, we will wait a year or so for the paperback version. A year on Pluto is more than 248 of ours, so it could be a lot worse if you ask us.
JANUARY NEWS
After the holidays, our shelves are left pretty bare, and we can hear our voices echoing eerily among the depleted stacks of the bookstore. It does not last.
This month (which means this past week), we ordered A LOT of books.
We didn’t try to second-guess your new year’s resolutions, so there will not be many diet and health books on our tables. Come to think of it, there will be none, but you know you can always order them fom us, if only to hear the wonderful sound of the typewriter we use to keep track of the titles (just don’t forget to pick up your orders when they arrive).
This month, we thought that you might enjoy a few murder mysteries, other detective miscellany and various skin-crawling albeit literary horror reads.
This week, we will receive a few classic cozy detective novels by Elizabeth George and Dorothy L. Sayers, as well as The Villa by Rachel Hawkins and The Club by Ellery Lloyd, newly released in paperback.
Tender is the Flesh by Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica is a brilliantly nightmarish horror novel that will definitely not appeal to the faint of heart among us. However, good is good, and this is good.
We are also excited to receive the paperback version of How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, a brilliant, haunting and hopeful dystopian first novel with an impressive pedigree of reviews.
Last but not least, Bret Easton Ellis is publishing The Shards on January 17th. We could not resist the hardcover on this one. This new novel is revisiting Less than Zero with a serial killer thrown in for good measure. It fits in the spooky, murder, horror theme of January at the bookstore.
Other news:
If you enjoyed reading The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber, and it seems that you did en masse last year, his posthumous work, Pirate Enlightenment is for you. It will be released on the 24th and will be on our tables the very same day. You might be interested to read Noam Chomsky's take on it on artreview.com.
Last year, we loved The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka that will be released in paperback on January 24th.
You might remember seeing The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks on our shelves in the Fall and then it was gone for quite a while. It is finally coming back this week. Make sure to pick it up this time! It's worth it.
What else?
Ah yes. We chose not to invite Prince Harry to our January literary fest as we are not keen on ghostwritten memoirs of the rich and famous. However, it will soon be available at an airport near you.
JANUARY STORE EVENTS
Page Break is returning on Wednesday the 18th. Remember Page Break? You come to the bookstore around 6:30 pm. You leave your cell phone at the counter, and we trade it for a glass of wine. You pick a chair, a pillow, or a mattress to snuggle up with a book that you brought or bought at the store. Starting at 7, we all read silently together. This year, we are asking for a contribution of $5 per Page Break. Olivia, the Page Break Mom, will be away for the first few sessions. We will all miss her but apparently, she does have a life to live elsewhere. Also, we might tweak the playlist a bit if we have time.
Free Books are available again. You get a free Advance Reading Copy of a yet to be published book with every purchase while supplies last. If we forget to offer it to you (as we are prone to do), just remind us at the counter!
Typewriters are back for your one-finger typing pleasure. You can use them as much and as long as you want. Time to find your inner Didion!
Not much else this month. We are very busy preparing amazing surprises for February. No spoiler but it involves Writing Workshops and Valentine Extravaganzas.
Also, we must find time to do the inventory at some point. We might close for a day or not. We will keep you posted.
Thank you for your time and stay tuned for more of our breathtaking adventures in bookselling.