Christmas predictions: Nat Latter from Rabble Books & Games in Perth

Friday, 22 November 2019 Books+Publishing

In the lead-up to Christmas, the busiest time of year on the bookselling calendar, Books+Publishing is asking booksellers across the country to predict their biggest sellers and surprise sellers.

In this instalment, Nat Latter from Perth’s Rabble Books & Games offers their Christmas predictions.

Fiction

Our standout bestseller has been Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press), who I think has captured everyone’s hearts with his radical vulnerability. While technically a young adult book, it is currently the jewel of our fiction table. I predict strong sales for Damascus (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U), Girl, Woman, Other (Bernardine Evaristo, Hamish Hamilton) and The Weekend (Charlotte Wood, A&U).

Nonfiction

There is a glorious range of nonfiction to choose from this Christmas, but my favourites are Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Saturday Portraits (Hachette), Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk: How Indigenous thinking can save the world (Text), and Lindy West’s The Witches Are Coming (A&U), which will do really well with our market. Also Dark Emu (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala) just continues to sell and sell, and I don’t expect that to let up.

Cookbooks

This is a Book for People who Love Hot Sauce (Matt Garczynski, Orion) will do very well, as will the beautiful nonnas of Pasta Grannies (Vicky Bennison, Hardie Grant). Warndu Mai (Hachette) is doing well leading up to Christmas too.

Art/design

There’s lots of excitement about the new Yayoi Kusama book (All About My Love, with Akira Shibutami, Thames & Hudson) and there are two books showcasing Philippa Nikulinsky’s work coming out, which will both do well (Nikulinsky Unfolded: Xanthorrhoea and Nikulinsky Naturally: An artist’s life, ed by Ted Snell, both Fremantle Press). A Little Feminist History of Art (Charlotte Mullins, Thames & Hudson) is proving to be a great stocking filler.

Children’s

Ahh, narrowing this down was so hard! I’m really taken by Under the Stars: Astrophysics for bedtime by Lisa Harvey-Smith (MUP), The Lost Fairy Tales by Isabel Otter (illus by Ana Sender, Little Tiger Press) and for the very-littlies we’ve been selling lots of My Country by Ezekiel Kwaymullina and Sally Morgan (Fremantle Press), which is now out in a board book.

Young Dark Emu (Bruce Pascoe, Magabala) will continue to sell well. Oh, and Bluey! Of course, the Bluey books (The Beach, Time to Play! and Fruit Bat, all Puffin) will do fabulously.

Local interest

Stories of Perth (Brio) continues to do really well for us over a year on, and I expect it will thrive at Christmastime again. We are always very keen to recommend it to people for the interesting perspective on such familiar places, and we particularly love Cassie Lynch’s opening story about deep time.

Little Nic’s Big Day (Nic Naitanui, illus by Fatima Anaya, Albert Street Books) is also doing incredibly well for us. I love that this book will find its way into so many homes with its wonderful message of celebrating difference.

Surprise bestsellers

Well, I’m not sure it’ll surprise anyone when Customer Service Wolf (Affirm, December) by our very own Anne Barnetson is a bestseller. But I’m sure it will also be a favourite in indies across the country, who probably already have her comics stuck on the wall above the kettle.

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