Octavia Books Bestseller List

Check out our Octavia Books bestsellers for the 6 weeks ended May 8, 2023 (including pre-orders):

Gloria's Promise (American Ballet Theatre): A Ballet Dancer's First Step By Robin Preiss Glasser, Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593181003
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Studio - March 21st, 2023

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.


The Greatest Song: Spark Creativity, Ignite Your Career, and Transform Your Life By Kevin Griffin Cover Image
$21.95
ISBN: 9781612546032
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Brown Books Publishing Group - April 25th, 2023

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.


The Auburn Conference By Tom Piazza Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781609388812
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: University Of Iowa Press - May 1st, 2023

It is 1883, and America is at a crossroads.


Hang the Moon: A Novel By Jeannette Walls Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781501117299
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - March 28th, 2023

The instant New York Times bestseller!


Hot Dog: (Winner of the 2023 Caldecott Medal) By Doug Salati Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593308431
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf Books for Young Readers - May 24th, 2022

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!


Who Will U Be? By Jessica Hische, Jessica Hische (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Jessica Hische, Jessica Hische (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593385029
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Workshop - April 11th, 2023

“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.


Draining New Orleans: The 300-Year Quest to Dewater the Crescent City By Richard Campanella Cover Image
$39.95
ISBN: 9780807178546
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: LSU Press - May 3rd, 2023

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.


Notes from the Road: A Filmmaker's Journey through American Music By Robert Mugge Cover Image
$21.99
ISBN: 9781958861097
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
(This book cannot be returned.)
Published: Sager Group LLC - February 4th, 2023

"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



The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder By David Grann Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780385534260
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Doubleday - April 18th, 2023

#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: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea: A Graphic Novel (Dog Man #11): From the Creator of Captain Underpants By Dav Pilkey, Dav Pilkey (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Dav Pilkey, Dav Pilkey (Illustrator)
$14.99
ISBN: 9781338801910
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Graphix - March 28th, 2023

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?


Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel By Bonnie Garmus Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780385547345
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Doubleday - April 5th, 2022

#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.


Hit Girls: Women of Punk in the Usa, 1975-1983 By Jen B. Larson Cover Image
$28.95
ISBN: 9781627311236
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Feral House - January 10th, 2023

Think punk was only a boys club? Read about the women who were the punk revolution


Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing By James E. Waller Cover Image
$35.95
ISBN: 9780195314564
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
(This book cannot be returned.)
Published: Oxford University Press, USA - March 22nd, 2007

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.


Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel By Gabrielle Zevin Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593321201
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf - July 5th, 2022

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.


Amiss By Gina Ferrara Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9781953252760
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
(This book cannot be returned.)
Published: DOS Madres Press - April 20th, 2023

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.


Fly-Fishing (Practices) By Christopher Schaberg Cover Image
$15.95
ISBN: 9781478019367
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Duke University Press - March 14th, 2023

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 Creative Act: A Way of Being By Rick Rubin Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9780593652886
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Press - January 17th, 2023

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


That Self-Same Metal (The Forge & Fracture Saga, Book 1) By Brittany N. Williams Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781419758645
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Amulet Books - April 25th, 2023

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.


The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience By Robert R. M. Verchick Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9780231203548
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Columbia University Press - April 11th, 2023

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.


Goodnight Pothole By Shannon Atwater Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781455627370
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pelican Publishing Company - March 6th, 2023

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.


New Orleans: A Writer's City By T. R. Johnson Cover Image
$24.95
ISBN: 9781316512067
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Cambridge University Press - March 2nd, 2023

Happy Place By Emily Henry Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780593441275
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Berkley - April 25th, 2023

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“The beach-read master hooks us again."—People


Early Camellias in Louisiana, 1825-1860: Long-Lost Treasures Rediscovered By F. Wayne Stromeyer, Trenton L. James, John L. DiLeo (Photographer) Cover Image
$55.00
ISBN: 9798218085322
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vellichor Press - December 17th, 2022

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.


I Have Some Questions for You: A Novel By Rebecca Makkai Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593490143
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Viking - February 21st, 2023

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


Jazz Cats By David Davis, Chuck Galey (Illustrator) Cover Image
By David Davis, Chuck Galey (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781565548596
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pelican Publishing Company - September 30th, 2001

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.


Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em from the Award-Winning Bar By Neal Bodenheimer, Emily Timberlake, Denny Culbert (By (photographer)) Cover Image
$29.99
ISBN: 9781419758522
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Abrams - October 25th, 2022

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.


Above Ground By Clint Smith Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780316543033
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown and Company - March 28th, 2023

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,


Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir By Lucinda Williams Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9780593136492
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Crown - April 25th, 2023

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.
 


The Candy House: A Novel By Jennifer Egan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781476716770
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - March 7th, 2023

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


The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) By Abraham Verghese Cover Image
$32.00
ISBN: 9780802162175
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press - May 2nd, 2023

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


Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World By Devorah Heitner Cover Image
$29.95
ISBN: 9781629561455
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
(This book cannot be returned.)
Published: Routledge - October 13th, 2016

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.


The Ballad of Perilous Graves By Alex Jennings Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780759557208
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Redhook - January 17th, 2023

"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.


Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel By Ann Napolitano Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593243732
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: The Dial Press - March 14th, 2023

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 Paris Apartment: A Novel By Lucy Foley Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063003064
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - February 21st, 2023

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


How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America By Clint Smith Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316492928
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown and Company - December 27th, 2022

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


Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans By Dan Baum Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780385523202
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House - February 16th, 2010

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 By Karisma Price Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781956046045
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Sarabande Books - February 14th, 2023

"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


Boats on the Mississippi By Ryan Murphy Cover Image
$11.95
Email or call for price
ISBN: 9780990409328
Published: Millfree Mursaps Media - December 10th, 2018

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.


Tide Lines: A Photographic Record of Louisiana's Disappearing Coast By Ben Depp, Monique Verdin (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Ben Depp, Monique Verdin (Introduction by)
$35.00
ISBN: 9781496843913
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: University Press of Mississippi - January 23rd, 2023

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.


Duet: Our Journey in Song with the Northern Mockingbird By Phillip Hoose Cover Image
$24.99
ISBN: 9780374388775
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) - September 13th, 2022

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.


The Cat Who Saved Books: A Novel By Sosuke Natsukawa, Louise Heal Kawai (Translated by) Cover Image
By Sosuke Natsukawa, Louise Heal Kawai (Translated by)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780063095731
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: HarperVia - March 14th, 2023

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 Glass Castle: A Memoir By Jeannette Walls Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780743247542
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - January 17th, 2006

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.


The Sugar King: Leon Godchaux: A New Orleans Legend, His Creole Slave, and His Jewish Roots By Peter M. Wolf, Calvin Trillin (Foreword by) Cover Image
By Peter M. Wolf, Calvin Trillin (Foreword by)
$36.00
ISBN: 9781669829317
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Xlibris Us - November 1st, 2022

"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


Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner By Barbara Kingsolver Cover Image
$32.50
ISBN: 9780063251922
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper - October 18th, 2022

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 


Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner) By Hernan Diaz Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593420317
Availability: Not in stock. Usually arrives in 2-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - May 3rd, 2022

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


The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans By Lawrence N. Powell Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9780674725904
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harvard University Press - October 14th, 2013

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: Team Assessment By Patrick M. Lencioni Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781118127308
Availability: Backordered
Published: Pfeiffer - April 24th, 2012

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.


Party Hearty Kitty-Corn By Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Shannon Hale, LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781419750953
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Abrams Books for Young Readers - March 28th, 2023

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&


Tomorrow I'll Be Brave By Jessica Hische, Jessica Hische (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Jessica Hische, Jessica Hische (Illustrator)
$17.99
ISBN: 9781524787011
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Workshop - October 16th, 2018

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:


The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You: Stories By Maurice Carlos Ruffin Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593133415
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: One World - June 21st, 2022

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: A New Orleans Story in Black and White By Tom Sancton Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781590513767
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Other Press - April 20th, 2010

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.