Sunday, March 26, 2023

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending March 25, 2023

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending March 25, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson (watch event recording here)
2. Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano
3. Earth's the Right Place for Love, by Elizabeth Berg (Register for March 27 in-person event here)
4. When in Rome, by Liam Callanan
5. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
6. I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai
7. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
8. So Shall You Reap, by Donna Leon
9. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
10. Old Babes it the Wood, by Margaret Atwood

This week Penguin Random House has 8 of the top 10 slots on hardcover fiction. One of the two they do not have - and the only one that everyone agrees is hardcover fiction - Mackesy's graphic story is often categorized elsewhere - is So Shall You Reap, the latest mystery from Donna Leon, the investigation of the death of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. Mark Sanderson in the Times (UK) wrote: "So Shall You Reap is as witty and wise as anything Leon has written. To read her is to restore the soul.”

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
2. The Devil's Element, by Dan Egan
3. Eat to Beat Your Diet, by William W. Li
4. Reflections!, by Terry Wells-Jones
5. Milked, by Ruth Conniff
6. Am I Pretty When I Fly?, by Joan Baez
7. The 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones with The New York Times
8. A Waiter in Paris, by Edward Chisholm
9. I'm Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy
10. It's a Good Day to Change the World, by Lauren Schiller and Hadley Dynak, illustrated by Rosy Petri (Register for March 30 in-person event here)

Independent David R. Godine has a hot title in Joan Baez's Am I Pretty When I Fly?:An Album of Upside Down Drawings, notably because we had some signed-by-the-author copies and they were all on hold. From Lana Del Rey, because, why not?: "Am I Pretty When I Fly? shows me a side of Joan Baez I could not have imagined. It is entertaining, moving, ridiculously funny, insightful, and mysterious." Please note we are out of signed copies.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Night of the Living Rez, by Morgan Talty (NBCC John Leonard Prize winner)
2. The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
3. The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
4. Circe, by Madeline Miller
5. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
6. Locklands, by Robert Jackson Bennett
7. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka
8. Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree
9. The Candy House, by Jenifer Egan
10. French Braid, by Anne Tyler

There's no better way to get ready for Independent Bookstore Day (April 29) than by reading a title from our books about bookstore table. The bestselling offering of the season is The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai. From the publisher: "A high schooler is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his father when a talking cat enlists his aid liberating unloved books from neglectful owners.' The author, a doctor by trade, won the Shogakukan Fiction Prize for this novel, which was adapted into a hit film.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Reflections!, by Terry Wells-Jones
2. Vagina Obscura, by Rachel E Gross
3. Brewtown Tales, by John Gurda
4. We Don't Know Ourselves, by Fintan O'Toole
5. The Fish That Ate the Whale, by Rich Cohen
6. The Athropocene Reviewed, by John Green
7. The Forest Unseen, by David George Haskell
8. The Insect Crisis, by Oliver Milman
9. All About Love, by bell hooks
10. Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest, by Teresa Marrone

Here's a shout out I don't think I've done before - WW Norton and their sister imprint Liveright have three of this week's top ten slots o our bestseller list. Topping them is Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage, which was shortlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Ed Yong, author of the bestselling An Immense World, calls Gross's latest "Science writing at its finest - revelatory, wry, consequential, necessary, and incredibly hard to put down."

Books for Kids:
1. The Sinster Booksellers of Bath, by Garth Nix
2. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix (two editions)
3. Sabriel, by Garth Nix (multiple editions)
4. Just Ask!, by Sonia Sotomayor
5. Unbound, by Joyce Scott, Brie Spangler, and Melissa Sweet
6. Eric Loves Animals, by Eric Carle
7. Terciel and Elinor, by Garth Nix
8. The ABCs of Wisconsin, by Sandra Magsamen
9. The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Easter Egg Hunt, by Eric Carle
10. Twenty Questions, by Mac Barnett, illustrations by Christian Robinson

A great collaboration between Mac Barnett and Christian Robinson, Twenty Questions is, per the publisher, "an interactive series of captivating questions, prompting readers to choose their own stories to fit the thought-provoking illustrations. Brimming with creativity and inspiration, a perfect read-aloud for families or the classroom, intriguing for readers of all ages." Kirkus calls it "Quirky entertainment to jump-start creativity."

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