NEWS

“Paddington could hardly believe his eyes. His dream had come true at last.”
―A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Main Street Books is publishing new information every day for the 12 Days of Books. The following is a consolidation of those emails.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Main Street Books’ Twelve Days of December! We’re looking back at the  48 books that shaped 2024. Each day, we’ll share a themed book list that captures the spirit of the year. Our bookstore windows have transformed into Paddington’s world, where we’re also sharing these lists with the community.

While fantasy and romance have been bedrock genres, romantasy took the spotlight in 2024. Combining titillating romance and fantastical world-building in equal measure, romantasy also stands out for elevating the book as object. And really beautiful objects, at that.

Here are Main Street Books’ top romantasy books of 2024:

• A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
• One Iridescent Night by Brianne Wik (our very own bookseller!)
• Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
• The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

Find the long list HERE

See you tomorrow for Day 2 of Twelve Days of December.

DAY TWO

In January of 2024, we launched two new book clubs to accompany our long-standing chapter of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, the Lit League and the Main Squeeze. Our book club hosts reviewed their 30+ book lists and picked the books that gave them the best combined reading and discussion experience this year. Drumroll . . .

For Day Two of our Twelve Days of December, we present the books that stood out for our book clubs this year:

• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
• How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
• A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
• This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan

Find the list with all the details HERE.

Curious about joining a reading group? The Lit League reads new and older fiction, intentionally selecting books that shine light on groups often marginalized in publishing, particularly BIPOC writers and stories. The Main Squeeze reads romance with a commitment to selecting books with diverse characters. Both book clubs are open to the public, and would be delighted to have you!

DAY THREE

We delight in discovering books that shake up our reading experience, lighting up the staff group chat with exclamations and consuming our pre-opening conversations with energetic banter.

We don’t describe these books with fondness as much as obsession. These books have relatable characters who make strange, wild, can’t-look-away decisions. These books are brilliantly written but stretch our imaginations into uncomfortable shapes.

This year’s list is terrifying, weird, poetic, and surreal. Please read so we can discuss!

For Day Three of the 12 Days of December, we present our favorite books we couldn’t stop talking about:

• All Fours by Miranda July
• Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Piglet by Lottie Hazell

Find the long list HERE.

DAY FOUR

We’ve made it to day four . . . but what is time even? Today, the books in our feature belong to widely varying genres but are united by an esprit de corps that asks that very question. Each of these wildly entertaining books employs the time loop.

From an attic that generates new husbands to time travelers who must return to the present before their coffee gets cold, each of the books on today’s list explore love and grief beyond the boundaries of time.

On Day Four of the Twelve Days of December, we present our favorite books of 2024 that loop time:

• The Dead Cat Tail Assassinsby P Djèlí Clark (genre: fantasy)
• Long Division by Kiese Laymon (genre: Young adult fiction)
• The Husbands by Holly Gramazio (genre: adult fiction)
• Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (genre: fiction translated from Japanese)

DAY FIVE

A woman checks into a hotel for the weekend with no bags.

A young college student has an unorthodox plan for supporting herself and her infant.  A diligent shrew answers the door to an unexpected guest.  And a Davidson College alum visits her college-town bookstore for the first time in 15 years (ok, so that’s not what the memoir is about, but her visit was a stand-out and her story is fascinating).

What do these characters have in common? These are the ones that stuck with us in 2024, in our imaginations and in our conversations, for months after we closed the book.

We invite you to meet them, too.

Today is Day 5 of our Twelve Days of December and we present the most memorable characters of 2024:

• The Wedding People by Alison Espach
• A Little Less Broken by Marian Schembari ‘09
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• Little Shrew by Akiko Miyakoshi

DAY SIX

Today is Day 6 of our Twelve Days of December and we present the best picture books of 2024:

 

DAY SEVEN

This year brought us some delightful reading trends that we want to commemorate with today’s list. Each book represents a moment, as they say.

Cozy translations are bringing delight! Our favorites have been translated from Japanese and Korean. Jan’s particularly fond of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (from last year) and its sequel, More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop.

Last year, Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing (see here) had dragons painted on the edges of the book, and readers lost their minds! This year, we’ve got stenciled & painted edges galore; everything from moons and flames to books and snitches. I am particularly fond of Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning.

Bookish people tend to be creative, and this year they’ve taken up watercolor painting! In particular, Emily Lex’s watercolor workbooks have been all the rage. Folks create watercolor paintings within the workbook using Lex’s tutorial, color guide, and pencil sketches.

Last but least, we’d be remiss if we didn’t note the trend set by Hug Me Little Bear whose torch is being carried through 2024 by Bel the Unicorn. These board books have been wildly popular for their irresistible, fuzzy appendages!

For Day 7 of our Twelve Days of December, we present our favorite book trends of 2024:

• Stenciled and painted book edges — Beach Read by Emily Henry
• Board books with appendages — I’m Bel the Unicorn by Judy Brown
• Watercolor books — Seaside Watercolor Workbook by Emily Lex Studio
• Cozy translations — More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa and Eric Ozawa

Check out the long list HERE.

DAY EIGHT

This was the hardest list to create of all. The dozens of incredible author events we hosted this year showcased the deep talent of our Lake Norman and Charlotte regions. Our local authors enrich our community in countless ways.

I am committed to featuring four books each day, with no exceptions, but I found a loophole in my rule for days like today when I  want to celebrate a much longer list of books; I’ve got a long list HERE.

Thank you so much to each writer we’ve hosted this year. It has been our honor to help bring your books to our readers.

For Day 8 of the Twelve Days of December, we present our top local authors of 2024:

• The Nature Reset by Kathleen McIntyre
• Country of Under by Brooke Shaffner
• Girls We Sent Away by Megan Church
• Unbound Gifts by Douglas Young

Find the long list HERE.

DAY NINE

Long-established as a favorite genre among our staff and customers, romance remains a go-to choice for escape and entertainment.

This year’s top romance reads at Main Street Books include the best flirtatious banter courtesy of Christina Lauren, a library read-a-thon, two private islands, scandalacious blackmail at work, and four happily-ever-afters.

For Day 9 of our Twelve Days of December, we present our top romance titles of 2024:

• Funny Story by Emily Henry
• The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
• Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
• The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

Find the full list HERE.

DAY TEN

While I have an undeniable penchant for reading fiction, one of my absolute favorite books of this year is on today’s list. I was skeptical of Evan Friss when I first started reading The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore. I’ve read some snobby books about bookstores, but Friss regaled me with charming tales of bookstore-owning icons from Ben Franklin, the first bookstore-owner in the US, to Frances Steloff, the book-smuggling woman who owned New York’s Gotham Book Mart and founded the James Joyce Society. The Bookshop made me want to own a bookstore. Ha!

This year will be indelibly shaped by several other top books in non-fiction which gave us the concept of the gift economy, the call to choose love, and a close look at the five months between Lincoln’s election to president and the start of the Civil War.

For Day 10 of the Twelve Days of December, we present the top nonfiction books of 2024:

• The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
• Somehow by Anne Lamott
• The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The Bookshop by Evan Friss

DAY ELEVEN

There are thousands of new books every week and millions every year. You’ve likely heard about a lot of the books in our Twelve Days of Christmas because the marketing reached you from several other sources before you even opened our retrospective. It reached us, too, and tends to shape our reading.

Today I want to share with you a handful of books our staff loved, even though they didn’t have the high-dollar advertising budget that some books get.

Today we have humorous poetry for fans of Maggie Smith, a Parisian literary salon dodging the capricious King Louis XIV (my personal favorite), a gorgeously illustrated depiction of love, and a teen girl’s coming-of-age around a Dungeons & Dragons table.

For Day 11 of our Twelve Days of December, we present our favorite under-the-radar books of 2024:

• What Love Looks Like by Laura Obuobi and Anna Cunha  

• The Modern Fairies by Clare Pollard

• The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall

• A Bit Much by Lyndsay Rush

DAY TWELVE

We saved the blockbuster hits for our final post. Sometimes the commercial successes aren’t the same as our favorite reads, but 2024 hit it out of the ballpark.

You won’t be surprised that the #1 bestseller at Main Street Books was Percival Everett’s James, which tops hundreds of lists this year and reimagines Mark Twain’s of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved runaway companion of Huck. (While you’re adding books to your list, go ahead and include Colored Television by Everett’s wife, Danzy Senna.)

You might not be surprised that local favorite and all-around terrific human, Tommy Tomlinson, makes the list with his book, Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show.

The hit that snuck up on me is Ina Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. We have some avid home cooks on staff whose enthusiasm for the Barefoot Contessa brought her fans out of the woodwork! They also threw the most amazing party to celebrate this book with our friends at Knotty & Board Interiors.

Last but not least, Amy Tan rounds out our blockbuster list with her pandemic essay collection, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, in which she reveals that she is a talented nature artist. Yes, Amy Tan, author of the classic 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club, is a phenom with colored pencils.

For Day 12 of our Twelve Days of December retrospective, we present Main Street Books’ blockbuster titles of 2024:

• Fiction — James by Percival Everett

• Memoir — Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

• Nonfiction — Dogland by Tommy Tomlinson

• Science — The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

 

Thank you so much for reading along. This series has been such a joy to create and share. See you in the shop! Or shop online!

Tips for placing your book orders during the holidays:
We are stocked up for the holidays. You can see when we have a book is available in our store when you look at the title on our website.

Place orders online for pickup from the bookstore. We’ll pull your order, gift wrap, and have it ready for pickup at the register or curbside cart.

We are currently fulfilling special orders* within 3 -5 business days, as long as the book is in stock in our warehouse.

Order ASAP! ETAs will only get longer as we near Christmas.  We do our best to give accurate delivery estimates, but weather and unanticipated issues can cause delays.

Our holiday hours: We are open every day until Christmas!
Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve: 10 am – 2 pm
Dec. 25th: Closed
Dec. 26th: Closed

*If we don’t have the book you want in our store, we can typically place a “special order” for you. That means we order the book in from our warehouse for you to pick up in the store. Pay ahead online or pay at pickup. No extra fees.

With cheer,

The Main Street Books Team

HOURS

Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sunday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.