Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sunday Bestsellers--Including Five Books in Translation, Two of Which are Connected to Nathan Englander

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Carry the One, by Carol Anshaw
2. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
3. American Dervish, by Ayad Akhtar
4. Elegy for Eddie, by Jacqueline Winspear
5. Satantango, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai

Alas, Boswell fave Jacqueline Winspear is not coming to Milwaukee this tour for Elegy for Eddie, as her schedule is heavily booked with great Chicago events over the next few days. It's not too late to plan a trip to Chicago!

Monday, April 2nd, 11:45am
The Bookstall Women Writers Series Luncheon
811 Elm St., Winnetka, IL 60093
847-446-8880 (this is likely sold out, so do not head there without trying to make a  reservation)

Monday, April 2nd, 7:00pm
Anderson's Bookshop
124 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville, IL 60540
630-355-2665

Tuesday, April 3rd, 6:00pm
57th Street Books
1301 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL
773-752-1571

And if you live somewhere else, here are more appearances.

Our other sales pop is from Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, who of course is headlining our current translation table with Satantango. The New York Times Book Review critic Jacob Silverman noted: " In the fiction of Laszlo Krasznahorkai, such questions are secondary. Instead, he offers us stories that are relentlessly generative and defiantly irresolvable. They are haunting, pleasantly weird and, ultimately, bigger than the worlds they inhabit."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Dust to Dust, by Benjamin Busch
2. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
3. The New American Haggadah, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer and translated by Nathan Englander
4. Drift, by Rachel Maddow
5. Imagine, by Jonah Lehrer

Kudos to Hachette for getting more copies of The New American Haggadah out before Passover. I was a little worried to promise that this would be here in time for this Friday. And what a great interview with Rachel Maddow on Fresh Air this week. We've been hustling folks to buy tix to the Next Chapter event at the Riverside Theater before tickets sell out.

We've got our own rush on for our visit from Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild. This has turned out to be even bigger than we expected. We're now projecting for 150-200 folks turning up at our free, non-ticketed event and we're making the necessary arrangements, like ordering 100 more copies of the book in time for Monday, April 16, 7 pm. Doors close when we reach capacity (a little more than 300), but we'll always let folks come back for the signing afterwards. And yes, we still have first editions.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The All of It, by Jeannette Haien
2. Horses Where the Answers Should have Been, by Chase Twichell
3. The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson
5. The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht
6. Suddenly a Knock on the Door, by Etgar Keret

Being that I've said quite enough about our top five of late, I call attention to #6 on this week's bestseller list, Etgar Keret's new collection of stories and flash fiction, Suddenly a Knock on the Door, which just came out this week. Keret's previous selections have always had big fans at the Schwartz; Library Journal notes "these stories take the world by storm and by stealth, in equal parts and everything in between." And note that one of the translators is the very same Nathan Englander of The New American Hagaddah, as well as his most recent collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, by Gloria Steinem
2. Moving Beyond Words, by Gloria Steinem
3. How to Grow a Backbone, by Susan Marshall
4. The Book of Drugs, by Mike Doughty
5. Uprising, edited by John Nichols

It's always nice when you can say you've met everybody in the top five. Steinem noted at the Women Leaders conference that she's working on a new book, so perhaps there will be future appearances on the Boswell bestseller list. Ms. Marshall lives in Oconomowoc and also noted that she has new books coming out from a local publisher. And we're supposing that Nichols will duplicate his popular Madison event for Uprising somewhere in Milwaukee soon, whoever the bookseller winds up being

Books for Kids
1. The Candy Shop War, by Brandon Mull
2. Beyonders Volume One: A World without Hereoes, by Brandon Mull
3. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
4. Fablehaven (V1), by Brandon Mull
5. Mockingjay (V3), by Suzanne Collins

Brandon Mull, who was as noted previously, in town to promote The Beyonders Volume 2: Seeds of Rebellion, gave a thumbs up to Suzanne Collins' series. And just to get a plug in for some non-event, non-bulk-order, non-Collins' titles, we had nice weeks with Wildwood and I Want my Hat Back.

No comments: