As soon as the pandemic and stay at home orders began in March of last year, sales of cookbooks jumped, including in the Baking category. Sales of Baking titles ended the year up 60% over prior year. Bread, cake, cookies and more – PRH and our distributed clients have the top-selling titles.

“GameStop, AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry, Dogecoin and silver – all have been subject to epic rallies and falls in recent days, spurred by droves of retail investors driving up prices and then selling.” (CNBC) With so much unusual activity around the stock market, now may be a great time for accounts to feature books that explain the basics of the market and remind private investors how it can work for them.

March is Women’s History Month, which celebrates the vital role of women in American history. Remarkable female entrepreneurs, scientists, politicians, athletes, artists, and spies, among others, abound historically and today. Our first female Vice-President has been elected. A woman heads the European Central Bank for the first time ever. The first female president of the New York Stock Exchange has been appointed.

Although many think of St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) as a day of parading and imbibing, St Patrick’s Day is a global celebration of Irish culture. It particularly remembers St Patrick, one of Ireland’s patron saints, who ministered Christianity in Ireland during the fifth century. To commemorate this holiday, bookstores and libraries may choose to focus on the wealth of exceptional writing by Irish writers, or books set in the country. 

In many regions of the U.S., we’re coming up on gardening season in the spring. Prep work begins even sooner. The PRH and distributed client title lists are chock full of titles for gardeners, both beginners and more advanced green thumbs. 

With Covid keeping most readers at home and dreaming of travel, the favorite category of “armchair travel” has become even more compelling. Or for those that in general are unable to travel widely, books that take you there without ever leaving home are a delightful alternative.

Over five decades after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, American society is still working towards the dream that he envisioned. These ten essential books shed light on these decades after Dr. King’s life, the Civil Rights movement, and show how his legacy has shaped the past half-century. These titles share the experiences of activists, lawyers, and journalists about the ongoing and necessary work towards racial equality. (Courtesy PRH.com)

Originally created to celebrate American’s first President, George Washington, and officially called “Washington’s Birthday,” this annual federal holiday is now used to honor and remember all past US presidents, and in particular Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. With consumers focused on the recent inauguration of a new President, interest may be especially keen this year to learn more about American leaders starting with President Washington and up to President Biden.

In late February, Putnam’s THOSE WHO ARE SAVED will join other World War II novels that have deeply satisfied readers’ curiosity and compassion about the war. To celebrate that publication, ask accounts to consider doing promotions around WWII titles, both fiction and non-fiction.

Online searches for “reiki” spike in the first quarter. Reiki is a very specific form of energy healing, in which hands are placed just off the body or lightly touching the body, as in “laying on of hands.” According to many versions of its origin, Dr Mikao Usui, a Japanese seeker of spiritual truths, brought the Reiki method of healing into human awareness in 1922 after a deep spiritual experience.

Last week’s invasion of the U.S. Capitol buildings and the ongoing insistence of some of our leadership that the U.S. presidential election was won fraudulently, on top of Presidential leadership practices over the past 4 years, have led to questions about whether we can, in fact, sustain a democracy. PRH and its client publishers have published numerous bestselling titles over the past few years that address many of these issues, and belong in bookstores and libraries during this challenging time.

Herewith a highly curated list of Black History titles – classics and contemporary biographies, memoirs, essays, history, even poetry, from a broad spectrum of voices. Speaking to slavery, civil rights, the arts and current events, these books are a great starting point for Black History Month promotions as well as being essential to every bookstore and library inventory year-round.