\n<\/p>\n
In analyzing our annual round-up of the year\u2019s best sellers, we find a couple of things that are striking. One phenomenon some of you have noticed the past couple of years, especially once we recently expanded with new shelf space for them: romance novels. These are not your mama\u2019s Harlequin bodice rippers. Many take on more contemporary themes and attitudes, e.g. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo<\/a> (#9) and Daisy Jones and the Six<\/a> (#35) by Taylor Jenkins Reid; The Court of Thorns & Roses<\/a> (#16) and The Court of Mist and Fury<\/a> (58) by Sarah Maas; Colleen Hoover\u2019s It Ends with Us<\/a> (19), It Starts with Us<\/a> (40), Verity<\/a> (53), and Ugly Love<\/a> (86); Happy Place<\/a> (20) by Emily Henry; Lucy\u2019s Score\u2019s Things We Never Got Over<\/a> (49), Things We Hide from the Light<\/a> (74); and Lucy Foley’s The Paris Apartment<\/a> (54).<\/p>\n Another noticeable fact: at least thirty of the authors of these 100 books either now live in Oxford or have in the past, and twenty-five more are writers who appeared at our store to present or read from their books. John Grisham had several books on the list, beginning with our number 1 \u2013 The Exchange<\/a>, of course, which, due to the novel\u2019s connection to The Firm<\/a>, moved out of Square Books at a faster rate than any book in recent memory. The Boys from Biloxi<\/a> (#2) was still going strong, however, when The Exchange was released. Sparring Partners<\/a> (29) and Sooley<\/a> (62) also showed up. Not to be outdone, William Faulkner\u2019s paperback and Modern Library editions scatter the list, including The Sound and the Fury<\/a> (47), the Selected Stories<\/a> (22), The Bear<\/a> (6), As I Lay Dying<\/a> (48), and the fairly recently reissued corrected edition of Faulkner\u2019s mystery stories, Knight\u2019s Gambit<\/a> (52). Two Oxford, Mississippi volumes from John Cofield made the list \u2013 Vol. 2<\/a> at #12 and this year\u2019s Vol. 3<\/a> #11.<\/p>\n Treasured Mississippians are here: Richard Ford and his excellent and perhaps last Bascombe novel, Be Mine<\/a> (42) (on the SB YouTube channel, his event in Oxford<\/a>); Eudora Welty\u2019s Delta Wedding<\/a> (92); Deer Creek Drive<\/a>, by Beverly Lowry (33), and Jesmyn Ward\u2019s knock-out Let Us Descend<\/a> (4): (revisit her reading at the Powerhouse here<\/a>). A parade of Oxford writers follows: Curtis Wilkie and his eternal The Fall of the House of Zeus<\/a> (76), Vishwesh Bhatt and I Am From Here<\/a> (8), Michael Farris Smith\u2019s Salvage This World<\/a> (27); A Place Like Mississippi<\/a> (28), by Ralph Eubanks; John Currence\u2019s Big Bad Breakfast<\/a> (71) and John T. Edge\u2019s Potlikker Papers<\/a> (96); Wright Thompson, with Pappyland (hardcover edition<\/a> #25 and paperback<\/a> #39) and The Cost of These Dreams<\/a> (78); Daffodil Hill<\/a> (85) by Jake Keiser; Lee Durkee\u2019s splendid Stalking Shakespeare<\/a> (41); another year on the list for World of Wonders<\/a> (43) by the indomitable Aimee Nezhukumatatil; a nice surprise from John Hunter, his Maps and Legends: The Story of R.E.M.<\/a> (64); ditto Tyler Keith\u2019s bit of noir, The Mark of Cain<\/a> (88), and a distant reminder of Richard Grant due to The Deepest South of All<\/a> (37). In our record book for numerous years on this list are Wyatt Waters\u2019 An Oxford Sketchbook<\/a> (31) and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council\u2019s Square Table<\/a> (44), now being stalked by Ed Croom\u2019s lovely treatment of Faulkner\u2019s grounds, The Land of Rowan Oak<\/a> (31). Ann Abadie\u2019s marvelous American Landscapes<\/a> (93) arrived only in November and quickly scrambled onto this list, while Charles Wilson\u2019s The Southern Way of Life<\/a> (15) was available all year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Many of the writers put books on this list by virtue of a visit or event here. Ann Patchett could not do a reading but did zip by one day to sign enough copies to have her Tom Lake<\/a> be our #7. Jesmyn Ward helped her cause in a sold-out event at the Powerhouse, as mentioned, and Cody managed to persuade Chuck Palahniuk to come here with Not Forever, but for Now<\/a> (10), an event in which apparently no one got hurt. We will long remember a special visit from Laura Dern with her co-author mother, Diane Ladd, which launched their Honey, Baby, Mine<\/a> to our #13 spot \u2013 thanks, y\u2019all. Luke Russert made an impressive showing on Thacker Mountain with his Look for Me There<\/a> (99), while Charles Frazier returned to SB with his The Trackers<\/a> (34) and another long-time favorite here, Ron Rash, came to us with The Caretaker<\/a> (79).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Daniel Mason\u2019s appearance<\/a> on behalf of a personal favorite novel, North Woods<\/a> (45), was memorable. Harrison Scott Key killed it here with How to Stay Married<\/a> (56) and Jeanette Walls impressed with Hang the Moon<\/a> (63). Two excellent noir writers brought out crowds \u2013 S. A. Cosby and Eli Cranor, with All the Sinners Bleed<\/a> and Ozark Dogs<\/a> (#80 and 82, respectively). A lovely and inspirational little book, Quotations of Martin Luther King<\/a> (30) returned, about whom this fall Jonathan Eig spoke eloquently about in King<\/a> (89), only to be matched by Margaret Renkl with The Comfort of Crows<\/a> (83) and Grace Elizabeth Hale, author of In the Pines<\/a> (95). Trae Crowder \u2018n them\u2019s classic Liberal Redneck Manifesto<\/a> (77) continues to resonate from their previous appearance; ditto for two favorites now in paperback: Kathryn Schulz\u2019 Lost & Found<\/a> (90) and Casey Cep\u2019s Furious Hours<\/a> (73).\u00a0<\/p>\n Books that have appeared on most of the nation\u2019s bestseller lists often climb onto ours, too, of course, including Walter Isaacson\u2019s Elon Musk<\/a> (72), The Woman in Me<\/a> (86) by Britney Spears, The Dictionary of Lost Words<\/a> (#84, with help from Jude), Anthony Doerr\u2019s All the Light We Cannot See<\/a> (67), Midnight Library<\/a> (81) by Matt Haig, Richard Osman\u2019s Thursday Murder Club<\/a> (75), A Little Life<\/a>, Hanya Yanagihara (91), Alex Michaelides\u2019 The Silent Patient<\/a> (24), Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow<\/a> (68) by Gabrielle Zevin, Trust<\/a> by Hernan Diaz (69), The Covenant of Water<\/a> (46) by Abraham Verghese, and, in spite of its title, I\u2019m Glad My Mom Died<\/a> (100), by Jennette McCurdy. Also listed are Make Your Bed<\/a> (66) by retired Admiral William H. McCraven, and The Fourth Wing<\/a> (38) and Iron Flame<\/a> (51) by Rebecca Yarros, both of which would have fared far better had the publisher\u2019s supply kept up with demand here. There was also Prince Harry\u2019s Spare<\/a> (59), and although he — Prince Henry Charles Albert David, Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton, Baron Kilkeel \u2013 did not come here, his ghostwriter was once here; some of you will remember this author of a fine book, The Tender Bar<\/a>: J. R. Moehringer. David Gran made a double play — The Wager<\/a> (36) and Killers of the Flower Moon<\/a> (32) — and there were very strong performances by Bonnie Garmus\u2019 Lessons in Chemistry<\/a> (17) and Barbara Kingsolver\u2019s Pulitzer-winning Demon Copperhead<\/a> (18).<\/p>\n The world of sports gave us our #3 bestseller, from the great sportswriter Rick Cleveland, with Neil White — The Mississippi Football Book<\/a>; Ole Miss 2022 Baseball National Champions<\/a> continued to sell at #23, Michael Oher\u2019s When Your Back\u2019s Against the Wall <\/a>(5) and Resilient Rebels<\/a> by Chase Parham (#14), while from the kitchen beckoned Elizabeth Heiskell with Come on Over<\/a> (21) and Robert St. John and his breakfast recipes in Mississippi Mornings<\/a> (26). We are grateful to a number of publishers for supplying us with stock signed by the author, which no doubt helped some titles make the list: Don\u2019t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You<\/a> by Lucinda Williams (94), The Creative Act<\/a> by Rick Rubin (65), The Making of Another Major Motion Picture<\/a> by Tom Hanks (70), James Lee Burke\u2019s Flags on the Bayou<\/a> (87), The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store<\/a> by James McBride (97), The Vaster Wilds<\/a> by Lauren Groff (98), and Only the Dead<\/a> (55) by Jack Carr \u2013 greatly abetted by the author\u2019s having shot a bullet hole through one of the book\u2019s pages. In every copy. For real.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2023 was a great year for books and we appreciate our partnerships and support from writers, publishers and their reps. Square Books had an exceptionally strong year in 2022 and managed in \u201923 to squeak beyond that; so, most of all this report is to you and for you, Constant Reader and Square Books friend, and we thank you for making it all possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Richard, Lisa, Cody, and Lyn<\/p>\n P.S. Look for similar news from Paul at SB Jr \u2013 and Happy New Year!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In analyzing our annual round-up of the year\u2019s best sellers, we find a couple of things that are striking. One phenomenon some of you have noticed the past couple of years, especially once we recently expanded with new shelf space for them: romance novels. These are not your mama\u2019s Harlequin bodice rippers. Many take on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[88381,1752,32836,10879,15175,357,647,213],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-240099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-2023s","tag-books","tag-bookstore","tag-from-square-books","tag-independent","tag-oxford","tag-square","tag-top"],"yoast_head":"\n