Atomic Books Blog

  As people, we continue to organize around belief structures, and then we apply purity tests to allies to make ourselves feel more righteous, more true, superior. But where can this lead? Our 2022 theme is Cults - what is a cult? Is one person's religion another's cult? Can a book club become a cult?  OUR 2022 CULTS READING LIST January - American Cult: A Graphic History Of Religious Cults In America by various February - Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell March - I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad by Baynard Woods / Brandon Soderberg April - The Girls by Emma Cline May - Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover June - Trust Exercise by Susan Choi July - The Cold Millions by Jess Walter August - Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon September - American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin October - Universal Harvester by John Darnielle November - Nob

  Atomic Books 2021 Best Selling Fiction & Poetry 1. Dune by Frank Herbert 2. We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker 3. Song For A New Day by Sarah Pinsker 4. Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 5. Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality (33 1/3 series) by John Darnielle 6. Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix 7. Parable Of The Sower by Octavia E. Butler 8. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 9. Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu 10. Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 11. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney 12. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino 13. Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes 14. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 15. Death In Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh 16. Street Cop by Robert Coover / Art Spiegelman 17. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters 18. Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab 19. Final Revival Of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton 20. Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 21. First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami 22.

 These are our best selling titles from May 2021.    ***BEST SELLING FICTION*** 1. We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker 2. Dune by Frank Herbert 3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 4. Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau 5. Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 6. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 7. First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami 8. Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix 9. Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang 10. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata ***BEST SELLING NON-FICTION*** 1. Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner 2. World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain / Laurie Woolever 3. Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements by Bob Mehr 4. We Own This City by Justin Fenton 5. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 6. Shock Value by John Waters 7. Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture by Grace Elizabeth Hale 8. Authentic: A Memoir by the Founder of Vans by Paul Van Doren 9.

 These are our best selling titles from April 2021. ***BEST SELLING FICTION*** 1. In The Tall Grass by Stephen King / Joe Hill 2. Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer 3. First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami 4. Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones 5. Dune by Frank Herbert 6. Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 7. Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 8. Gideon The Ninth by Tasmyn Muir 9. First Become Ashes by K.M. Sparza 10. Song For A New Day by Sarah Pinsker ***BEST SELLING NON-FICTION*** 1. We Own This City by Justin Fenton 2. Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner 3. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History Of Punk by Legs McNeil / Gillian McCain 4. Mr. Know It All by John Waters 5. Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America by Lawrence T. Brown 6. Horror Stories: A Memoir by Liz Phair 7. Role Models by John Waters 8. 2015 Baltimore Uprising by various 9. Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and

  What is the perfect rock book? Is there a perfect rock book? Can such a thing even exist? Our 2021 theme is Rockers - what we've missed the most during the pandemic is live music, communing with artists, and what better way to remind ourselves about the meaning of music and the arts in our lives than reading about it and talking about it? OUR 2021 ROCKERS READING LIST January - Song For A New Day by Sarah Pinsker February - 33 1/3: Black Sabbath Master Of Reality by John Darnielle March - Clothes Clothes Clothes Boys Boys Boys by Viv Albertine April - Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil May - Trouble Boys by Bob Mehr June - Girl In A Band by Kim Gordon July - The Final Revival Of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton August - A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan September - Vernon Subutex 1 by Despentes October - Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson November - What Are You Doing Here? by Laina Dawes December - Wicked + Divine Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen / Jam

1. Super Good Baking for Kids by Duff Goldman 2. Indecent Exposure by John Waters 3. A Beautiful Ghetto by Devin Allen 4. What It's Like To Be A Bird by David Allen Sibley 5. How To Talk To Your Cat About Gun Safety by The American Association Of Patriots 6. Cool Beans by Joe Yonan 7. Dolly Parton Songteller by Dolly Parton / Robert K. Oermann 8. Scream With Me by Tom Bejgrowicz / Jeremy Dean 9. That Was Awkward by Emily Flake 10. Basquiat by Jean-Michel Basquiat    

1. Mr. Know-It-All by John Waters 2. I Got A Monster by Baynard Woods / Brandon Soderberg 3. Flowers In The Gutter by K.R. Gaddy 4. Antiracist by Kondwani Fidel 5. 18 Tiny Deaths by Bruce Goldfarb 6. How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi 7. Promised Land by Barack Obama 8. 2015 Baltimore Uprising by various 9. Role Models by John Waters 10. White Fragility by Robin Diangelo 11. Carsick by John Waters 12. Killers Of The Flower Moon by David Grann 13. If You Love Baltimore It Will Love You Back by Ron Cassie 14. Not In My Neighborhood by Antero Pietila 15. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates  16. Five Days by Wes Moore  17. Mutations by Sam McPheeters  18. We Speak for Ourselves by D. Watkins 19. Little Weirds by Jenny Slate 20. Action Park by Andy Mulvihill / Jake Rossen 21. Wow No Thank You by Samantha Irby 22. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 23. Come and Be Shocked by Mary Rizzo 24. Color Of Law by Richard Rothstein 25. Splendid And

1. Dune by Frank Herbert 2. Parable Of The Sower by Octavia E. Butler 3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 4. Severance by Ling Ma 5. Normal People by Sally Rooney 6. Girls Like Us by Elizabeth Hazen 7. City We Became by N.K. Jemisin 8. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem   9. Song For A New Day by Sarah Pinsker   10. Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett 11. A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James 12. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 13. Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes by Suzanne Collins 14. Death On The Nile by Agatha Christie 15. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson 16. Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu   17. Agency by William Gibson 18. The Searcher by Tana French 19. Death In Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh 20. Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 21. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut 22. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 23. Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 24. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 25. Overstory by Richard Powers 26. Fifth Season by N.K. Je