What's Selling This Week at Boswell? It's Not Every Week That You Can See My Favorites Represented So Aggressively...

This week we have a very large book club that picks their titles annually, who are coming in to buy their selections. Usually I work with a theme of their choice, but this year they decided to Daniel's picks. Not all books sell the same because some people already have some of the titles, some folks don't come to all the meetings, and some books have extra sales during the week.  We sold a couple of extra Slap, for example, from my plug on the Kathleen Dunn show.  And yes, we also sold our in-stock Middlemarch that as well.

Paperback fiction:
1. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

2. The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas

3. Day for Night, by Frederick Reiken

4. Tinkers, by Paul Harding

5. A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True, by Brigid Pasulka

6. Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay

7. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

8. Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

9. Montana 1948, by Larry Watson

10. The All of It, by Jeannette Haien

Jason just told me "One Day" got bumped to The Oriental from the Downer, but as you can see, we've still got "Sarah's Key."

Paperback nonfiction

1. Half a Life, by Darin Strauss

2. The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edwin de Waal

3. Amazing Grace, by Kathleen Norris
4. The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists, by Timothy Messer Kruse

5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

Another book club success has been Kathleen Norris's Amazing Grace. Our Penguin rep wondered what was going on. It's just one large group, and they are physical book buyers who are mostly choosing the bookstore. Go figure!  Oh, and thank you.

Hardcover fiction:

1. The Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles

2. The Magician King, by Lev Grossman

3. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

4. Turn of Mind, by Alice LaPlante

5. The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan (we're finally out of the bloody stain covers)

Yes, the blockbuster twins (Grossman and Duncan) have become a trio with the release of Ready Player One. Or rather, the trio's third tentpole switches out--this is our first week without George R.R. Martin in our top five. Our pop on Alice LaPlante is at least partly of national origin--the book is #27 on the New York Times print hardcover bestseller list.  Congrats!

Hardcover nonfiction:

1. Architect for Art: Max Gordon, edited by David Gordon and Nicholas Serota

2. Elvis Presley: Reluctant Rebel, by Glen Jeansonne, David Luehrssen, and Dan Sokolovic

3. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

4. 1493, by Charles C. Mann
5. It's All About the Dress: What I Learned in Forty Years about Men, Women, Sex, and Fashion, by Vicki Tiel

Vicki Tiel is the woman who is responsible for the miniskirt and Elizabeth Taylor's caftan. Oh, she would be a good guest judge on Project Runway to promote the book, wouldn't she?

Kids' Books

1. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

2. On the Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillman

3. The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, by Jeanne Birdsall

For this list, I merged both editions of On the Night You Were Born, as I did for The Help.  I could probably locate all the other movie tie in and dual kids editions and rework the list, but you want me to get this out the same week  I run the numbers, right?

All titles available on our website (I highlighted a few), many also as ebooks and many of those at prices comparable to other retailers.  Visit our website for more information.