Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 20, 2019

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 20, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Raised in Captivity, by Chuck Klosterman (New York Times reading profile here)
2. The Golden Hour, by Beatriz Williams
3. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
4. If You Want to Make God Laugh, by Bianca Marais
5. The New Girl V19, by Daniel Silva
6. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
7. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
8. Circe, by Madeline Miller
9. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert
10. The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake

I wanted to pronounce that despite coming in third in sales, The Nickel Boys was our best non-event sales pop for hardcover fiction in 2019, but then I got cold feet and decided to go back through every bestseller list since January 1. And now I can comfortably pronounce that The Nickel Boys was our best non-event sales pop for hardcover fiction in 2019, substantially beating out #2, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which is solidly ahead of #3 (a number of books bunched together and several weeks of Where the Crawdads Sing). There might be a signed copy or two left. Here's Pamela Paul with Whitehead on the New York Times books podcast.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. For the Good of the Game, by Bud Selig
2. The Ideas That Made America, by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen
3. I Know What I Saw, by Linda S Godfrey
4. The Second Mountain, by David Brooks
5. American Carnage, by Tim Alberta
6. Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo
7. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat
8. A Good American Family, by David Maraniss
9. Independence Corrupted, by Charles Benjamin Schudson (event at Boswell Wed 7/24, 7 pm)
10. Educated, by Tara Westover

From Politico's Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta (who formerly wrote for the conservative National Review) comes American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump. Think of this less about Trump and more about schisms in the Republican party that led to Trump, per Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times and other critics. Here's Alexa Buechler in the Journal Sentinel offering excerpts from interviews with Wisconsin politicians Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus.

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
2. Hum If You Don't Know the Words, by Bianca Marais
3. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
4. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
5. We're All in This Together, by Amy Jones
6. The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
7. Tear It Down V4, by Nick Petrie
8. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, by Ottessa Moshfegh
9. There There, by Tommy Orange
10. City of Brass, by SA Chakraborty

With several more readers coming back and telling us how much they enjoyed We're All in This Together, Chris and I have gone into competitive hand-selling mode, which is tricky for me, as I'm excited about several other titles. But who doesn't love a competition? I think Chris won this week as he sold two copies to sisters, who are going to read it together. I'm waiting for a group of sisters to come up to us and say they've started a new book club and they are only going to read books about fighting sisters who ultimately make peace with each other, only sometimes not until they are very old and other times after one of them dies. I think we could give them ten years of suggestions. Said one author in the last few weeks, "If they weren't fighting, where would the plot be?" Maybe solving mysteries?

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Radical Guide for Women with ADHD, by Sari Solden and Michelle Frank
2. 111 Places in Milwaukee that You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden
3. Milwaukee Jazz, by Joey Grihalva (event at Boswell Mon 7/29, 7 pm)
4. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
5. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, by Chuck Klosterman
6. Live and Let Live, by Evelyn M. Perry
7. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
8. Spying on Whales, by Nick Pyenson
9. Apocalypse Any Day Now, by Tea Krulos
10. The Fall of Wisconsin, by Dan Kaufman

Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures is having a nice paperback pop at Boswell. I'm not sure where it was selling (it wasn't designated for the new paperback table), but I just added it to our water table, as it would be nice to keep it going. The curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, author Nick Pyenson offers answers to your biggest whale-oriented questions. From Sasha Vignieri at Science, the magazine of AAAS: "In the end, the reader takes away an improved knowledge of whales, especially their history, but perhaps even more importantly, a deeper understanding of the intertwining of our fates."

Books for Kids:
1. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
2. Pigeon Has to Go to School, by Mo Willems
3. Share Your Smile, by Raina Telgemeier
4. Bad Guys in the Big Bad Wolf V9, by Aaron Blabey
5. On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas
6. Rise of Kyoshi V1: Avatar, the Last Airbender, by FC Yee
7. Lawrence in the Fall, by Matthew Farina, with illustrations by Doug Salati (event at Boswell Sat Sep 21, 11 am)
8. Other Words for Home, by Jasmine Warga
9. Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas, by Aaron Blabey
10. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid V1, by Jeff Kinney

One of the most popular graphic novelists for kids (Smile, Sisters) now offers a nonfiction guide (if I called it a journal, it wouldn't qualify for our bestseller list) for storytellers, Share Your Smile: Raina's Guide to Telling Your Own Story. It also includes a preview of Guts, which releases on September 17. It also includes "behind-the-scenes info from Raina's own comics-making adventures." Here's a video showing you all that's included.

From the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins's essay "How to Read More Books, Starting Right Now": "I read a lot of books. During this decade I’ve finished more than 100 in a year at least twice. Sometimes when people find this out, I get polite chatter about how I find the time, not unlike the kind of talk a person who trains for marathons might get. But once in a while a person wistfully tells me they’d like to read more and asks me how they can. This story is for you, Wistful People."

Jonah Larson's crocheting videos are now part of a book, Hello, Crochet Friends! Amy Schwabe reports "It’s for sale through places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble." It will also be available in independent bookstores, and in fact, Larson has an event coming up at Boswell in November.

The Chain is now being proclaimed the thriller of the summer. Agent Shane Salerno convinced Adrian McKinty to have a book set in the United States instead of Belfast and what was a short story with a compelling concept became a bestseller. Part of the recent parenting thrillers, like The Need, from Helen Philips. Tod Goldberg: "The actions of characters are boiled down to familial ethics, understandable motivations, and good old-fashioned revenge, which makes for a satisfying and deeply rewarding read, no matter the season."

Rob Merrill in the Associated Press on Knife, the new mystery from Jo Nesbo - it's "a sharp example of the genre."

Barbara VanDenburgh of The Arizona Republic offers her picks for summer:
1. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
2. The New Girl, by Daniel Silva
3. Tell Me Everything, by Cambria Brockman
4. Talking to Robots: Tales from Our Robot-Human Features, by David Ewing Duncan
5. If You Want to Make God Laugh, by Bianca Marais