Sunday, January 21, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending January 20, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending January 20, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. True North, by Andrew J Graff
2. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
3. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
4. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
5. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
6. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
7. Hot Springs Drive, by Lindsay Hunter
8. Northwods, by Amy Pease (Boswell Feb 3 event - register here)
9. The Waters, by Bonnie Jo Campbell
10. The Ascent, by Adam Plantinga (Boswell Jan 26 event - register here)

2024 events count for half of this week's hardcover top 10, with previous programs for True North and The Waters, this week's event with Lindsay Hunter for Hot Springs Drive, and upcoming programs with Amy Pease for Northwoods and Adam Plantinga for The Ascent. Signed copies are available for all, and you can request personalization for Pease and Plantinga. And of course our friend Jason (not the buyer, the rep) noted both North Woods and Northwoods are both in our top 10.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Atomic Habits, by James Clear
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
3. Oath and Honor, by Liz Cheney
4. The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, by Tim Alberta
5. Correction, by Ben Austen (Boswell Jan 23 event - register here)
6. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
7. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
8. The Wager, by David Grann
9. How Not to Age, by Michael Greger
10. Eve, by Cat Bohannon

The 2024 personal growth table might have helped How Not to Age: The Scientific Approach to Getting Healthier as You Get Older. From Kirkus Reviews: "None of Greger's revelations seems likely to lead to vast life extension, but this is a welcome addition to a genre that continues to grow in popularity. A physician tells you everything you ever wanted to know about life extension with less nonsense than usual."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Thursday Murder Club V1, by Richard Osman
2. Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo
3. The Best You Can Do, by Amina Gautier (Boswell Jan 25 event - register here)
4. The House of Sky and Breath V2, by Sarah J Maas
5. Horse, by Geraldine Brooks
6. A Map for the Missing, by Belinda Huijuan Tang (Upcoming Boswell-run book clubs)
7. The London Bookshop Affair, by Louise Fein
8. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
9. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
10. The Last to Vanish, by Megan Miranda

Selling off the new paperback table is Pedro Páramo, a reissued novel that has taken on new life with an upcoming Netflix adaptation by Rodrigo Prieto. The publisher calls it a "highly influential masterpiece of Latin American literature, now published in a new, authoritative translation, and featuring a foreword by Gabriel García Márquez." Carlos Fuentes called it "The essential Mexican novel, unsurpassed and unsurpassable."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda
2. Master Slave Husband Wife, by Ilyon Woo
3. Everything I The Know About Love, by Dolly Alderton
4. The Hundred Years War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi
5. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frederic Gros
6. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
7. My American Dream, by Barbara Feigin (JCC January 23 event - more here)
8. Short and Sweet Mini Crossword, from the New York Times
9. Rand McNally Road Atlas 2024
10. G Man, by Beverly Gage

It's the first week out for Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom in paperback. The book spent three weeks on The New York Times bestseller list in hardcover and had five raves and three positives on BookMarks. From Priscilla M Jensen in The Wall Street Journal: "Anyone who has read the subtitle will already know that the Crafts made it not only to Savannah but to a new life outside of bondage. But the story is so richly dramatic, and Ms. Woo so skilled at spinning it out, that at times it’s a genuine nail-biter."

Books for Kids:
1. Misfits V1, by Lisa Yee, illustrations by Dan Santat
2. Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee
3. Who Got Game?: Basketball, by Derrick Barnes
4. Divine Rivals, by Rebecca Ross
5. Dogtown, by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko (Virtual school visit January 23 - more here)
6. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
7. Winter Turning V7 graphic novel, Tui T Sutherland
8. Bear Hugs from Brown Bear and Friends, by Eric Carle
9. Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
10. Powerless V1, by Lauren Roberts

The opening entry in a YA fantasy romance duology, Divine Rivals has been out since last April and is not due for paperback until 2026. The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books notes: "Eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow drops out of school to make ends meet, and her mother's alcoholism worsens after Iris' older brother joins the goddess Enva's war against the god Dacre. Taking a job at a major newspaper, Iris finds herself competing for the columnist position with the infuriating, and infuriatingly handsome, Roman Kitt. To cope, she types letters to her missing brother, knowing she cannot send them, and instead slips them into a wardrobe where, much to her surprise, they disappear time and time again. It's even more surprising when someone other than her brother suddenly writes back." Whatever your trope, enemies to lovers or enchanted typewriters, this one's for you. 

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