Sunday, April 3, 2011

Bestsellers Have Tiger Fever, plus Bezmozgis, Bismarck, and Rothfuss in the Journal Sentinel and New York Times

Some bestseller fun, starting with hardcover fiction
1. The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht. I'm not going to link every book but you get the idea.  This will lead you over to our website for purchase.
2. The Land of Painted Caves, by Jean Auel
3. The Troubled Man, by Henning Mankell (the last Walldender?)
4. Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss (see below for more Rothfuss)
5. We The Drowned, by Casten Jensen (author event on May 5, 7 pm)
That's three weeks in a row for The Tiger's Wife, which probably doesn't have quite as good placement in mass merchandisers as Jean Auel.

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Beyond DiMaggio, by Lawrence Baldassaro
2. The Bedwetter, by Sarah Silverman
3. The Pope's War, by Matthew Fox
4. The Social Animal, by David Brooks
5. The Corporate Lattice, by Catherine Benko and Molly Anderson
A very event-driven top five (and no, we didn't have an event with David Brooks). It was interesting how different the crowds were at our women's leadership and spirituality and aging conference.  One was way more into books and bookstores than the other.  Can you guess which?

Paperback fiction:
1. Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
2. The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
3. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
4. Separate Kingdoms, by Valerie Laken
5. Jane Austen, by Charlotte Brontë (Couture Classics Edition)
The film opened at the Downer, and we have several different editions available, including the tie-in.  Folks, however, seem most drawn to the Couture Classics edition with cover art by Ruben Toledo. Here's a recent event/discussion wrap up.

Children's Books (events included, bulk sale excluded)
1. I Am a Bunny, by Ole Risom, with illustrations by Richard Scarry
2. Ollie's Easter Eggs, by Oliver Dunrea
3. When I Grow Up, by Al Yankovic
4. Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad, by Jacky Davis
5. Cuddle Up, Goodnight, by Kate Cleminson
Happy Easter!  And happy ladybug table, which gives Jacky Davis three nice places in the store to sell books (we also have a floor display and a Boswell's best slot.)

Today's Journal Sentinel has a review from Mike Fischer for The Free World, by David Bezmozgis.  It's one of those novels I was supposed to read ahead of time!  Fischer sort of liked it. There is also a commissioned piece on Patrick Rothfuss on the development of The Kingfisher Chronicles. New writers can take solace that he had trouble finding an agent.

Front page of the New York Times Book Review is Jonathan Steinberg's Bismarck: A Life.  Now that you are only allowed to jump to a certain amount of New York Times articles without paying, you should be more cautious about your browsing!  I have a home subscription, but I've been too lazy to find my account information from the last paywall.  But that said, there is also a review of The Free World by one of the New York Times's favorite regular reviewers, Liesl Schillinger.

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