Atomic Books Blog

  (bookmark art by Jordan Jeffries)  We know people are into binge-reading right now - 1000 page novels, 15 800-page books in a series, etc. - but we think in 2026, we're going need more time to do other things. So, we've gone in the other direction - novellas and short books. But don't let the page count fool you - these books say more than most (and they do it with fewer pages!).  OUR 2026 LITTLE BIG IDEAS READING LIST January - Train Dreams by Denis Johnson Libro.fm Audiobook February - Hope In The Dark by Rebecca Solnit Libro.fm AudioBook March - All Systems Red by Martha Wells Libro.fm AudioBook April - Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King / Bilquis Evely May - Little Lumpen by Roberto Bolano Libro.fm AudioBook June - Faltas by Cecilia Gentili July - I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman Libro.fm AudioBook August - Jane: A Murder by Maggie Nelson September - The Employees by Olga Ravn October - Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich Libro.fm A...

People come into the shop all the time and ask, "Where's your romance section?" We repress the urge to ask, "What kind of bookstore are you mistaking us for?" Instead, we say, "Sorry, we don't have a romance section." So as a compromise, or perhaps just to further confuse things, we decided our 2025 theme would be our take: Bad Love. OUR 2025 BAD LOVE READING LIST January - So Late In The Day - Claire Keegan February - Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath March - Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder Libro.fm AudioBook April - Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer Libro.fm AudioBook May - This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar / Max Gladstone Libro.fm AudioBook June - Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon Libro.fm AudioBook July - Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier Libro.fm AudioBook August - Crash by J.G. Ballard Libro.fm AudioBook September - The Price Of Salt by Patricia Highsmith Libro.fm AudioBook October - ...

These titles are the top 25 original graphic novels/self-contained trade paperback best sellers at Atomic Books in 2023. 1. Ducks: Two Years In The Oil Sands by Kate Beaton 2. Penny by Karl Stevens 3. Monica by Daniel Clowes 4. It's Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth by Zoe Thorogood 5. Complete Eightball: Issues 1 - 18 by Daniel Clowes 6. Birds of Maine by Michael DeForge 7. A Guest In The House by Emily Carroll 8. Black Hole by Charles Burns 9. Cosmic Detective by Jeff Lemire / Matt Kindt / David Rubin 10. Night Fever by Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips / Jacob Phillips 11. The Mysteries by Bill Watterson / John Kascht 12. The Tick: The Complete Edlund by Ben Edlund 13. A People's History Of American Empire by Howard Zinn / Paul Buhle / Mike Konopacki 14. Girl Juice by Benji Nate 15. Billionaires: Lives Of The Rich And Powerful by Darryl Cunningham 16. The Watchmen by Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons 17. A Christmas Beastiary by John Kenn Mortensen / Benni Bødker 18. Werew...

 These titles are the top 30 fiction and poetry best sellers at Atomic Books in 2023. 1. Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance: A Novel by John Waters 2. The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers 3. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk 4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin 5. Holding Pattern by Jennie Xie 6. Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica 7. Dune by Frank Herbert 8. Swamplandia by Karen Russell 9. Loner Forensics: Poems by Thea Brown 10. Sleeping Giants by Sylvian Neuvel 11. Only Good Indians: A Novel by Stephen Graham Jones 12. Charm City Rocks: A Love Story by Matthew Norman 13. Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 14. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy 15. McSweeney's #71: The Monstrous and the Terrible by various 16. Yellowface: A Novel by R. F. Kuang 17. After Tonight, Everything Will Be Different by Adam Gnade 18. Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy 19. The Passenger b...

These titles are the top 30 non-fiction best sellers at Atomic Books in 2023. 1. John Water: Pope Of Trash by John Waters 2. Festive Maryland Recipes by Kara Mae Harris 3. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner 4. Fran Lebowitz Reader by Fran Lebowitz 5. Role Models by John Waters 6. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin 7. The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women by Lisa Perrin 8. Desert Oracle: Volume 1: Strange True Tales from the American Southwest by Ken Layne 9. Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America by John Waters 10. Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters 11. You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult by Lane Moore 12. Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste by John Waters 13. Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris 14. Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas 15. All About Love: New Vi...

  We thought 2024 might be an appropriate year to explore the way things end. Careers, relationships, our emotional state, the world. All things end. Maybe even American democracy. But on the bright side, often the end of one thing is the beginning of something new. We're not sure how we'll be feeling by this time in 2025, so let's get ahead of things and look at The End. OUR 2024 THE END READING LIST January - Monica by Daniel Clowes February - The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa March - Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica April - My Year Of Rest And Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh May - Out by Natsuo Kirino June - This Is The End Of Something But It's Not The End Of You by Adam Gnade July - Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin August - The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert September - Slow Horses by Mick Herron October - Toad by Katherine Dunn November - Human Target (complete, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2) by Tom King / Greg Smallwood December ...

Prior to Diamond Comics Distributors shedding publishers (or losing their exclusive arrangements with select publishers), one perk for comic book stores was that a number of publishers offered their trades and graphic novels to the direct market weeks, sometimes a whole month, before the book market. And since everyone who sells books competes with Amazon, this perk could be immensely helpful in competing against a giant corporate online retailer who has a history of aggressive and industry-destroying pricing.  Something we've noticed that no one in the comics press (or anywhere else as far as we can tell) seems to be talking about is the loss of that exclusive sales window for the direct market as publishers scurry to bookstore distributors for graphic novel and trade collection distribution. But it seems to have been disappearing with publisher after publisher - first DC, then Marvel, and now others like Image and Dark Horse. For comics shops this adds confusion when trying to an...

Our theme this year is Outer Limits (as in "the outer limits of human belief"). It's like an X-files year! Or an In Search Of year. It's not about the supernatural but more like the paranormal, or the cultural history of investigations into the nature of such things. UFOs but not sci-fi. Not ghost stories but ghost hunting. Cryptids, not mythological creatures. What is real? What is nature? What is in the wild out there? In the universe? Why do we think there's something more out there? Things that exist at the very outer limits of human belief. OUR 2023 OUTER LIMITS READING LIST January - Desert Oracle: Volume 1: Strange True Tales from the American Southwest by Ken Layne February - I Hate This Place Volume 1 by Kyle Starks / Artyom Topilin / Lee Loughridge March - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk April - Communion: A True Story by Whitley Stieber May - Swamplandia! by Karen Russell June - Demon-Haunted World: Science as ...

  Atomic Books 2021 Best Selling Comics: Stand Alone Graphic Novels 1. Secret To Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel 2. On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden 3. Heaven No Hell by Michael DeForge 4. Crisis Zone by Simon Hanselmann 5. Billionaires: The Lives Of The Rich And Powerful by Darryl Cunningham 6. Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done Done? by Harold Schechter / Eric Powell 7. Too Tough To Die: An Aging Punx Anthology by Haleigh Buck / J.T. Yost 8. Bubble by Jordan Morris / Sarah Morgan / Tony Cliff / Natalie Riess 9. Trots & Bonnie by Shary Flenniken 10. Sweet Tooth Compendium by Jeff Lemire 11. A People's History of American Empire by  Howard Zinn / Paul Buhle / Mike Konopacki 12. Mycelium Wassonii by Brian Blomerth 13. Reckless: Friend Of The Devil by Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips 14. Essential Dykes To Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel 15. American Cult: A Graphic History Of Religious Cults In America by various  Atomic Books 2021 Best Selling Comics: Graphi...

  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 Pau...

 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...