Earlier this week, we had the wild idea of doing some data crawling and thought we'd take a look-see at what the bestsellers have been for the first half of 2021. That list is up on bookshop.org, and it is ranked in order of total number of titles sold. We have some thoughts about that list, primary of which is that we seem to be done reading political commentary. Huh. How about that?
Anyway, check it out. Ponder what it says about our reading and crafting habits.
And now, let's talk about what's hot this week.
First up is The Art of the National Parks. In case you haven't been completely overwhelmed with all whoop-dee-whoop-whoop about the Fifty-Nine Parks project and their absolutely marvelous art prints of the National Parks, here's the coffee table version.
Why yes, of course, we're getting one for ourselves.
And speaking of spending time with nature, Claire North's Notes From the Burning Age is out this week. North continues to zig and zag with idiosyncratic speculative stand-alone novels, and Notes From the Burning Age concerns the plight of Ven, who was once a holy man. He's approached by a political group who has need of his special talents, and once again, he's back in the archives, translating ancient manuscripts from a time when military operations and climate change went hand in hand. Naturally, someone's not telling the truth, and Ven's task becomes very complicated as he realizes the Brotherhood has an agenda that might be at odds with his naturalist leanings.
And speaking of crawling through the archives, here is Kai Kupferschmidt's Blue: In Search of Nature's Rarest Color. Blue, as you may know, is really tricky to synthesize, as many of the methods involve using materials that will kill you dead. In fact, in 2009, an Oregon scientist and his team managed to discover a new inorganic blue pigment that is the first new blue since cobalt, back in 1802. Exciting stuff, and Kupferschmidt's book covers Mas Subramanian's discovery as well as the historical colors that have fascinated us since Egyptian times.
We're just going to put this one right here, mostly because it fits the theme this week of Artsy Books. We have no practical knowledge as to whether the patterns in this book work any better or worse than traditional methods. String art and pipe cleaners are definitely cheaper than historical materials, however. Plan accordingly!
Meanwhile, Solo: The Survivors of Chaos, the second volume of Oscar Martin's marvelously rendered graphic novel, is out this week. Did you know that Martin has been drawing Tom & Jerry comics for the last, uh, eighty bazillion years? Anyway; talking animals; dystopian landscapes; gritty sword fights. You know your inner twelve-year old is all over this.
On a lighter note, Alexander McCall Smith is back this week with another installment in the case of the Department of Sensitive Crimes. Swedish police detective Ulf Varg is tasked with some of the quirkiest cases in Malmö, and in The Man with the Silver SAAB, Varg is approached by a local art historian, who wants the police to protect his reputation before it is utterly ruined. The case starts with dead fish stuffed in a car's radiator and escalates to art forgery and more heinous actions.
Oh, and here's a nod to current crafting trends: The Official Harry Potter Baking Book. We're not entirely sure how forty recipes that are "inspired by the films" are somehow "official," but whatever. We're probably the only pedants in the room on this one. Anyway, this one is sure to be a hit with beleaguered party planners everywhere.
And speaking of party planning gone awry, here's Karen Tanabe's A Woman of Intelligence, a historical thriller set in the 1950s. Katharina West, once an up-and-coming UN translator and bon vivant girl about town, has discovered that marriage and middle age is so very dour and unexciting. Fortunately, the FBI has a dangerous job for her: cozy up to an old college flame who might be a Soviet agent. What's a bored housewife to do? Well, you can imagine what she does, and naturally, things get complicated from here. Tanabe plots this one with verve and her period details will make you yearn to see this one on the big screen.
And speaking of strangely comfortable reads, Chuck Wendig is back this week with The Book of Accidents, which is all about family, doppelgängers, reasons to stay out of the woods, dimensional doorways, and the evil that people do. Show up for the family drama; stick around because you just have to know how it ends. Surely, everyone survives, right?
Probably not.
And speaking of engrossing reads, Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Becomes the Sun starts out as something familiar, but which turns into something else entirely by the time it finishes. In a fantastic China, a young woman and her brother are orphaned by a bandit attack. When her brother dies shortly thereafter, the last member of the Zhu clan takes on his identity. Soon thereafter, she finds herself thrust toward the destiny meant for her brother. Can she make it hers? Parker-Chan adroitly mixes deep world-building, high action, and introspective character work for a thrilling read.
