Check out our Octavia Books bestsellers for the 6 weeks ended May 8, 2023 (including pre-orders):
From the New York Times bestselling illustrator and former ballet soloist Robin Preiss Glasser comes a story about a young ballet dancer whose boundless determination makes her dream of dancing with the American Ballet Theatre come true.
Jake Stark. Hit songwriter for Nashville music publisher, MegaMusic.
Until he's not. When MegaMusic decides to not renew his contract over a lack of hit songs, Jake is at a loss. His creative energy is down, and the bills are piling up.
It is 1883, and America is at a crossroads.
The instant New York Times bestseller!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE 2023 CALDECOTT MEDAL • This glowing and playful picture book features an overheated—and overwhelmed—pup who finds his calm with some sea, sand, and fresh air. Destined to become a classic!
“Humorous, inventive illustrations brimming with visual charm.”—Kirkus
From New York Times bestselling creator of Tomorrow I'll Be Brave comes a delightful picture book following an inquisitive little letter "u" as she finds out all the ways letters are seen and used in the world.
In Draining New Orleans, the first full-length book devoted to "the world's toughest drainage problem," renowned geographer Richard Campanella recounts the epic challenges and ingenious efforts to dewater the Crescent City.
(This book cannot be returned.)
"A documentarian revisits the funkiest musical byways in this scintillating memoir...A vibrant, entertaining panorama of music-making and the picaresque struggle to capture it on film." -Kirkus* Starred Review
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.
DOG MAN IS BACK! The highly anticipated new graphic novel in the #1 worldwide bestselling series starring everyone's favorite canine superhero by award-winning author and illustrator Dav Pilkey!
Piggy has returned, and his newest plot is his most diabolical yet. WHAT other new villains are on the horizon? WHERE are they all coming from?
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: “a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention” (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show.
Think punk was only a boys club? Read about the women who were the punk revolution
(This book cannot be returned.)
The first edition of Becoming Evil spoke unforgettably to a world shell-shocked by 9/11 that faced a new war on terror against members of an Axis of Evil.
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before.
(This book cannot be returned.)
Gina Ferrara's collection Amiss might be subtitled, "American Femicide" these lyric poems are sympathetic, even intimate, elegies for, and apostrophes to, women killed or missing in every state in the Union.
In Fly-Fishing, Christopher Schaberg ponders his lifetime pursuit of the widely mythologized art of fly-fishing. From the Michigan lakeshore where he learned to fish to casting flies in a New Orleans bayou, Schaberg sketches landscapes and fish habitats and shows how fly-fishing allows him to think about coexisting with other species.
The #1 New York Times bestseller.
"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment.” —Anne Lamott
A stunning YA fantasy debut, perfect for fans of Holly Black and Justina Ireland, about a Black girl (and sword expert) fighting a Fae uprising in Shakespearean London
Sixteen-year-old Joan Sands is a gifted craftswoman who creates and upkeeps the stage blades for William Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men.
One morning in Miami Beach, an unexpected guest showed up in a luxury condominium complex's parking garage: an octopus. The image quickly went viral. But the octopus-and the combination of infrastructure quirks and climate impacts that left it stranded-is more than a funny meme.
Hold on to your car's alignment. In this parody of the classic children's book Goodnight Moon, sleepy readers will dream of orange cones and chicken bones, blown out tires and downed wires, and so many more amusing rhymes in this funny-but-true take on eroding roads.
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
“The beach-read master hooks us again."—People
Today, most of Louisiana's camellia gardens feature plants of recent vintage that are sources from 20th and 21st century nurseries. Only a few scattered "ancients" such as 'Alba Plena' have been generally recognized.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“A twisty, immersive whodunit perfect for fans of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.” —People
"Spellbinding." —The New York Times Book Review
"[An] irresistible literary page-turner." —The Boston Globe
A rhythmic jazzy story in verse, Jazz Cats tells about the escapades of some real cool New Orleans cats that know how to entertain. From the blow of the clarinet and trumpet to the pluck of the fiddle bass and beating the trash can drums, these Dixie, dancin', jazz cats know how to have fun.
From the foremost figure on the New Orleans' drinking scene and the owner of renowned bar Cure, a cocktail book that celebrates the vibrant city
New Orleans is known for its spirit(s)-driven festivities.
A remarkable poetry collection with "inextinguishable generosity and abundant wisdom" (Monica Youn) from Clint Smith, the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Critics Circle award-winning author of How the Word Is Passed.
Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood,
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The iconic singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy winner opens up about her traumatic childhood in the Deep South, her years of being overlooked in the music industry, and the stories that inspired her enduring songs in this “bracingly candid” (The Wall Street Journal) memoir.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE of the TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR by THE NEW YORK TIMES * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * SLATE* THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER *
Also named one of the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by Vanity Fair, Time, NPR, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, Self, Vogue, The New Yorker, BBC, Vulture, and many more!
OLIVIA
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret
(This book cannot be returned.)
Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Media expert Devorah Heitner, however, believes that technology offers huge potential to our children-if parents help them.
"Funny, wild, witty, and profound.”―Victor LaValle
"A wild and wonderful debut, teeming with music, family and art."—New York Times
"Magical, lyrical, gritty, otherworldly…hype like Bayou Classic in the 90s."—P.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From the author of Dear Edward comes a “powerfully affecting” (People) family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Told in rotating points of view, this Tilt-A-Whirl of a novel brims with jangly tension – an undeniably engrossing guessing game.” — Vogue
This “important and timely” (Drew Faust, Harvard Magazine) #1 New York Times bestseller examines the legacy of slavery in America—and how both history and memory continue to shape our everyday lives.
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are ho
The hidden history of the haunted and beloved city of New Orleans, told through the intersecting lives of nine remarkable characters.
"I'm Always so Serious is brilliant." --Terrance Hayes, winner of the National Book Award for Lighthead
Karisma Price's stunning debut collection is an extended
meditation on Blackness, on family, on loss. Anchored in New Orleans and New
York City, these poems braid personal and public histories into a cultural
Email or call for price
Take a trip on the river! See your favorite boats as you drift down the Mississippi from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and out to the Gulf.
In Tide Lines: A Photographic Record of Louisiana's Disappearing Coast, Ben Depp's photographs capture the beauty, complexity, and rapid destruction of south Louisiana. Once formed by sediment deposited by the Mississippi River, the Louisiana coast is now quickly eroding. Two thousand square miles of wetlands have returned to open water over the past eighty years.
The story of the impactful partnership between humans and mockingbirds, both scientifically and culturally over the centuries, written for young adults by award-winning nonfiction powerhouse Phil Hoose.
AN INDIE NEXT PICK!
From the #1 bestselling author in Japan comes a celebration of books, cats, and the people who love them, infused with the heartwarming spirit of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles.
THE BELOVED #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER—FROM THE AUTHOR OF HANG THE MOON
The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.
"A remarkable, vivid, and meticulously researched story about an unjustly forgotten major figure of the nineteenth century." - Nicholas B. Lemann
"It's more than a bio. It's a way to understand Jewishness, the South, and America." - Walter Isaacson
WINNER OF THE 2023 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
A New York Times "Ten Best Books of 2022 • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE
This is the story of a city that shouldn't exist. In the seventeenth century, what is now America's most beguiling metropolis was nothing more than a swamp: prone to flooding, infested with snakes, battered by hurricanes.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Workshop Team Assessment is a 38-item paper handout that is an excellent team development tool. A key component of the facilitator-lead Five Dysfunctions of a Team Workshop, the Team Assessment delivers what the name implies "a team assessment" rather than an individual self-assessment.
From the bestselling Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn creators, Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, comes another heartwarming and hilarious Kitty and Unicorn story about feeling like a “third wheel”—and the enduring magic of true friendship
Kitty has a grand idea.
“Let’s throw a kitty-corn party!”
But when newcomer Puppy messes up Kitty&
Journey through the beautifully hand-lettered messages by award-winning illustrator Jessica Hische. This uplifting and positive book - now a New York Times best seller - encourages kids to promise that tomorrow, they will try new things, do their best, and be brave.
Tomorrow I'll be all the things I tried to be today:
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A collection of raucous stories that offer a “vibrant and true mosaic” (The New York Times) of New Orleans, from the critically acclaimed author of We Cast a Shadow
Song for My Fathers is the story of a young white boy driven by a consuming passion to learn the music and ways of a group of aging black jazzmen in the twilight years of the segregation era. Contemporaries of Louis Armstrong, most of them had played in local obscurity until Preservation Hall launched a nationwide revival of interest in traditional jazz.
