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Annie Bloom’s Books, Broadway Books and Powell’s City of Books told us what their No. 1-selling books were for the month of January. Here’s what Portland is reading:
Annie Bloom’s Books
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
This epistolary novel was a New York Times bestseller and the “breakout novel no one saw coming,” according to The Wall Street Journal. It takes the shape of a series of letters written by the protagonist, Sybil Van Antwerp, to people she knows (her brother, her best friend) and to those she does not (Joan Didion, Larry McMurtry) and was the top seller at Annie Bloom’s last month.
Broadway Books
The Big M: 13 Writers Take Back the Story of Menopause, edited by Lidia Yuknavitch
Broadway Books’ January bestseller was an anthology, edited by Lidia Yuknavitch, that includes pieces by fellow Portlanders Monica Drake and Cheryl Strayed as well as heavy hitters like Roxane Gay, Joey Soloway and Pam Houston, exploring themes like freedom and mortality, sexuality and the patriarchy as they describe changes in their bodies and lives.
Powell’s City of Books
Dungeon Crawler Carl: Dungeon Crawler Carl 01 by Matt Dinniman
This book is the first in the Dungeon Crawler series, of which eight books have been published so far—but the paperback edition of the first book was just published in December, causing a spike in sales, according to Powell’s staff. Dungeon Crawler Carl tells the story of a Coast Guard vet and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world, in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon.
