{"id":27017,"date":"2018-09-07T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=27017"},"modified":"2018-09-07T08:00:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T12:00:46","slug":"the-fun-of-a-good-literary-scramble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=27017","title":{"rendered":"Books on the Brain: A Bookseller&#8217;s Literary Scramble"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style=\"width: 262px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bookpeople.com\/sites\/bookpeople.com\/files\/A_CatalogPage%20%281%29.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"212\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last year&#8217;s BookPeople catalog proofs.<\/p><\/div><br \/>\nThe BookPeople holiday catalog is a big production. Every year, booksellers compete to have their essays featured along with themed photo shoots to accompany the buyers\u2019 curated holiday gift guide. It\u2019s not exactly a strict best of the year overview, though there\u2019s certainly a lot of crossover with our end of year lists. It\u2019s more designed to express our personality as a store as we offer our own gift picks for every type of reader, across age, style, and genre. The catalog really drives sales for us in November and December, so it\u2019s worth putting in the time to make it as good as we can. It\u2019s a fun but slightly overwhelming task.<!--more--><br \/>\nI never quite get to every book I\u2019d <em>like<\/em> to read (does anyone ever?), but the curation process can certainly start to feel all-consuming\u2014like a puzzle my brain can\u2019t quit until the final copy\u2019s out the door. With about 40 total slots, breaking down to 12-14\u00a0books per age range (ages 0-8, 7-12, 12+), I always go through <img decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/images.booksense.com\/images\/838\/678\/9780763678838.jpg\" width=\"189\" height=\"218\" \/>dozens of options for each spread. And there were a lot of great books this year: books with aching truths at their heart, books filled with mind-blowing math and mad science, books that reinvented stories we thought we knew, books that took us on thrilling journeys to the stars, and books that just made us laugh. And as the\u00a0competing narratives and characters swirl around in my brain, I find they start popping up unexpectedly at odd times and places before getting tucked back down again into place\u2014almost like a (nowhere near as profound)\u00a0bookseller version of Ekua Holmes\u2019s nebular celestial collages from <em>The<\/em> <em>Stuff of Stars. <\/em><br \/>\nI can\u2019t be the only bookseller sitting in a meeting these days to suddenly imagine the woman in black from <em>Hurricane Child<\/em> standing in the corner. No? Or to spend my commute pondering whether Merci Su\u00e1rez and Lucy from <em>The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl<\/em> would be friends if they transferred to the same school. I\u2019ll admit that Merci probably isn&#8217;t as good at math as Lucy, but she definitely knows what it feels like to be an outsider. And what if you threw Suzy from <em>The Train to Impossible Places <\/em>into the mix? She totally loves physics and might be able to hang\u00a0through some advanced mathematical reasoning.<br \/>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 25%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-27017 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-medium'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27020'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781338129304-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27018'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9780763690496-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27021'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781524767570-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27019'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781250189509-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<br \/>\nAnd during a torrential rainstorm (like we\u2019ve been getting this week), how can you not yearn to curl up in front of a fire with Charlie, <em>Sweep<\/em>\u2019s lovably sooty golem, preferably<em>\u00a0<\/em>with the purring three-headed cat from\u00a0<em>Sanity &amp; Tallulah <\/em>nearby and the smell of stewed chicken and bacalao from Zuri\u2019s Mama\u2019s kitchen in\u00a0<em>Pride <\/em>wafting in the air<em>. <\/em>Of course, cozy scenes tend to go right out the window when Charlie Hern\u00e1ndez swings through on the run from mythological mayhem, all feathered limbs and wise cracks.<br \/>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 25%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-27017 gallery-columns-4 gallery-size-medium'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27025'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/sweep-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27023'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"208\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781368022804-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27022'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9780062564047-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27024'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"207\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781534426580-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<br \/>\nThis is getting out of hand. Perhaps returning to the gentle forest of <em>Bear and Wolf <\/em>for a soothing walk would calm the mental chaos. Carmela would make a particularly excellent walking companion, her birthday bracelets jangling\u00a0satisfyingly along the way. Actually, can you hear the sound of waves drifting from over the treetops? On second thought, maybe we should just stay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780062860729\">away from the water<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780062696601\">out of the woods<\/a> and have a good laugh, courtesy of the folks at Wee Society. By the way, have you heard how lions like their cheeseburgers? (Medium rawr!)<br \/>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 20%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-3 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-3' class='gallery galleryid-27017 gallery-columns-5 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27031'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781592702381-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27030'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"135\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/carmela-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27028'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"105\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9780062860729-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27027'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"99\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9780062696601-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?attachment_id=27033'><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"111\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/9781524759964_IL_5_3dd95-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<br \/>\nThis moment of literary chaos is\u00a0brought to you by my overly book-full brain. But that&#8217;s how it\u00a0<em>should\u00a0<\/em>feel right now in\u00a0the first week of September. That&#8217;s how I know summer&#8217;s really over. How does this time of year feel to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A joyful dive into the jumbled brain of a buyer preparing holiday highlights. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}