Sunday, January 28, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending January 27, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending January 27, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Ascent, by Adam Plantinga (signed copies)
2. Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar (Boswell Feb 13 event - register here)
3. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
4. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
5. The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray
6. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
7. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
8. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
9. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
10. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

Our top debut this week is Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!, what with a front page New York Times Book Review placement and other raves - it's the best reviewed book on LitHub's BookMarks last week. From Junot Diaz's review: "In Cyrus, Akbar has created an indelible protagonist, haunted, searching, utterly magnetic. But it speaks to Akbar’s storytelling gifts that Martyr! is both a riveting character study and piercing family saga."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Tread Loudly, by Kristine Cherek
2. Correction, by Ben Austen
3. Oath and Honor, by Liz Cheney
4. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
5. Never Enough, by Jennifer Breheny Wallace
6. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
7. The Rediscovery of America, by Ned Blackhawk
8. Eve, by Cat Bohannon
9. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
10. Wisconsin Supper Clubs, by Ron Faiola

Many 2023 titles are still dominating our list, including The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, by Ned Blackhawk. This National Book Award winner was also a Tims Top 5 book for 2023. It is also notable that Ingram is currently out of the book at all warehouses. From Kathleen DuVal in The Wall Street Journal: ""Eloquent and comprehensive. . . . By presenting post-1492 history as a series of encounters between the various peoples of the Americas and the peoples from Europe, Africa, and Asia--rather than as an account of Europe's discovery of a new world--Blackhawk provides a view of that past from multiple perspectives."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Best that You Can Do, by Amina Gautier (signed copies)
2. Horse, by Geraldine Brooks
3. Chain Gang All Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
4. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
5. Pedro Paramo, by Juan Rulfo
6. Bad Cree, by Jessica Johns
7. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa
8. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
9. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
10. A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan

We are constantly being asked the question, "So when will this book be out in paperback?" and what many years ago was a sure thing - 12 months, has become much more of a guessing game. The standard for a book that did well enough to go into paperback (omitted paperback reprints are more common than they used to be for fiction) seems to be inching to eight months for several large publishers, such as Chain Gang All Stars, but a perennial bestseller will keep it going in hardcover, and while that used to be the trajectory for one title a year, it's much more common. Horse was officially in hardcover for 19 months.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. My American Dream, by Barbara Feigin (signed copies available)
2. Rescuing Our Sons, by John Duffy
3. The Hundred Year War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi
4. High Risers, by Ben Austen
5. Hollywood Standard, by Christopher Riley
6. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda
7. The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Nolan
8. How to Do Nothing, by Jenny Odell
9. The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine, by Michael Scott Baumann
10. The Switch, by Jason Puskar (Boswell Feb 15 event - register here)

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 leads sales for the three books on the Middle East war. It is also top 10 on the New York Times bestseller list. From David Gardner in The Financial Times: ""Rigorous and lucid . . . Rashid Khalidi, the intellectual heir to Edward Said, has written one of the great books on the Israeli-Palestinian question."

Books for Kids:
1. Dogtown, by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko
2. Buffalo Fluffalo, by Bess Kalb, illustrations by Erin Kraan
3. The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers
4. Clifford the Big Red Dog board book, by Norman Bridwell (Boswell Feb 10 photo op - register)
5. What Feelings Do When No One's Looking, by Tina Oziewicz, illustrations by Aleksandra Zajac
6. Eclipse, by Andy Rash
7. Have You Seen My Invisible Dinosaur, by Helen Yoon
8. Rabbit Listened, by Cori Doerrfeld
9. M Is for Monster, by Talia Dutton (Boswell Feb 7 event - register here)
10. Who Got Game?: Basketball, by Derrick Barnes

The cuteness of Buffalo Fluffalo has captivated many a bookseller, including the Boswellians. From Booklist: "Wordplay, rhythm, and rhyme add greatly to the fun of sharing this picture book with children, who will enjoy chiming in on the chorus, particularly on days when they too have 'had enuffalo.' Great fun for reading aloud." Kirkus added: "Fun, silly stuffalo."

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