BOOKS IN HAND • What Customers Bought in August 2021 » The Novel Hermit

BOOKS IN HAND • What Customers Bought in August 2021

September 6, 2021 Comment : 1

We’re selling a lot of the same books now, and I can’t wait to see new titles.

During the last week of February 2018, I pondered about what type of post to make for “Books in Hand.” At first, I planned to discuss all the books customers came in asking for or buying, but that’s a bit too much because everybody came in asking for different books, and I didn’t remember all of them. My boss showed me a way to check our store’s best selling books, and I found out what we sold a lot of!

And that’s what this post is—seeing the top selling books of August 2021!

FICTION

Holy Mother Cover

HOLY, MOTHER COVER! • HC vs PB: Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali

August 30, 2021 Comments : 2

holymothercover

Inspired by What She Reads, Pure Imagination Blog, and Stacked.

I admit I’m a book cover snob. Who isn’t though?

Book covers are the first thing that attracts readers to a book. A good cover can draw someone is, just as a bad cover can easily draw someone away. It can essentially make or break a book. Holy, Mother Cover! is where I showcase the book covers that stand out (or make me cringe), and discuss cover changes.

(A big special thanks to Georgie at What She Reads for bestowing me this fabulous name and to Charlotte at The Simple Tales for creating the beautiful feature banner you see before you.)

**HC vs. PB: Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali**

Reviews

REVIEW • The Housekeeper Sees All (All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue)

August 25, 2021 Comment : 1

Maeve’s strangely astute tarot readings make her the talk of the school, until a classmate draws a chilling and unfamiliar card—and then disappears.

After Maeve finds a pack of tarot cards while cleaning out a closet during her in-school suspension, she quickly becomes the most sought-after diviner at St. Bernadette’s Catholic school. But when Maeve’s ex–best friend, Lily, draws an unsettling card called The Housekeeper that Maeve has never seen before, the session devolves into a heated argument that ends with Maeve wishing aloud that Lily would disappear. When Lily isn’t at school the next Monday, Maeve learns her ex-friend has vanished without a trace.

Shunned by her classmates and struggling to preserve a fledgling romance with Lily’s gender-fluid sibling, Roe, Maeve must dig deep into her connection with the cards to search for clues the police cannot find—even if they lead to the terrifying Housekeeper herself. Set in an Irish town where the church’s tight hold has loosened and new freedoms are trying to take root, this sharply contemporary story is witty, gripping, and tinged with mysticism.

myreview

I received this book for free from Walker Books for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

First sentence: “The story of how I ended up with the Chokey Card Tarot Consultancy can be told in four detentions, three notes sent home, two bad report cards, and one Tuesday afternoon that ended with me locked in a cupboard. “

Be careful of the power that tarot cards can bring.

For Irish teenager Maeve Chambers, she doesn’t know that. All that she knows is that she was cleaning out the Chokey—a long cupboard akin to a closet in the basement of her school—as punishment and left with tarot cards in her hands. Thus begins her foray into the tarot card business, where Maeve gains the attention from her peers. It’s all great until she does a reading for her ex-best friend Lily, and the next day, said ex-best friend disappears. Did Maeve have a hand at Lily’s disappearance or is there more at foot? Something more sinister and supernatural?

Discussion

BOOKS IN HAND • Bestselling Mangas in July 2021

August 23, 2021 Leave a Comment

BOOKS IN HAND—a blog feature where I show the top-selling books at my bookstore!

In the past 12 months, my bookstore has been selling an insaneeeee amount of manga, and what do I do with that knowledge? See which ones customers are asking for!

And that’s what this post is—seeing the top selling mangas of July 2021! (There was no post for June because I forgot to look up the information.)

MANGA

Chainsaw Man Vol. 1 | I Want To Eat Your Pancreas | Hunter x Hunter Vol. 1 |
Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 11 | Horimiya Vol. 1

Discussion

BOOKS IN HAND • What Customers Bought in July 2021

August 8, 2021 Leave a Comment

We’re selling a lot of the same books now, and I can’t wait to see new titles. During the last week of February 2018, I pondered about what type of post to make for “Books in Hand.” At first, I planned to discuss all the books customers came in asking for or buying, but that’s a bit too much because everybody came in asking for different books, and I didn’t remember all of them. My boss showed me a way to check our store’s best selling books, and I found out what we sold a lot of! And that’s what this post is—seeing the top selling books of July 2021!

FICTION

Discussion

TBR • Books by Asian Authors Everybody Should Read (Including Me)

July 26, 2021 Comments : 2

What common things do all these books have in common in this post? They’re written by Asian authors, and they’re books I want to read (and you should too!).

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to see so many intriguing books by Asian authors that are out this year. I may not have read any it, but I desperately want to, and I sure hope everybody is taking note and putting these books on their TBR list.

These are books that feature LBGTQ+ characters and retells history or a classic with a different spin. Let’s see what these books, shall we?

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Why would I want to read She Who Became the Sun? It’s pretty bold of the publisher to market this as “Mulan meets The Song of Achilles” when this book is probably even more than those two stories. This sounds like a fantastic epic rooted down in history that features LGBTQ+ characters, which is everything I ever want in a book. I don’t read historical fiction fantasy, but that will change with She Who Became the Sun.

I imagine if people enjoyed the historical fantasy of The Poppy War, they will enjoy this too.

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