Sunday, April 7, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 6, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 6, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. James, by Percival Everett
2. Table for Two, by Amor Towles
3. The Women, by Kristin Hannah
4. The Price You Pay V8, by Nick Petrie
5. I Cheerfully Refuse, by Leif Enger (Boswell Apr 15 event)
6. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
7. Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange
8. The Hunter V2, by Tana French
9. The Great Divide, by Cristina Henríquez
10. Whalefall, by Daniel Kraus (Boswell April 8 event)

Top (and only) first week out this week is Amor Towles's Table for Two, stories and a novella. Our staff rec is from Tim, for whom this was his Towles introduction. I suspect that is rather unusual. On BookMarks, Towles got three raves and three positives - Hamilton Cain in The New York Times is one of the raves, calling it a knockout collection. From the review: "The Oscar goes to 'Eve in Hollywood,' a novella that unfolds during the filming of Gone With the Wind. Towles tricks out the Tinseltown lore in a homage to the heyday of studio moguls and the hard-boiled fiction of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, even alluding to actual legends like Errol Flynn’s use of two-way mirrors and peepholes."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The False White Gospel, by Jim Wallis (signed copies)
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger (Kissinger in conversation at Boswell April 30)
3. There's Always This Year, by Hanif Abdurraqib
4. The Age of Revolutions, by Fareed Zakaria
5. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
6. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
7. Oath and Honor, by Liz Cheney
8. Plantyou: Scrappy Cooking, by Carleigh Bodrug
9. Slow Productivity, by Cal Newport
10. Burn Book, by Kara Swisher

Top non-event debut is Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present from CNN host Fareed Zakaria. BookMarks roundup: two raves, a positive, a mixed, and a pan. I read The New Yorker view and based on other ratings BookMarks offered, I would call it mixed. From David Brooks: "Zakaria's book will help readers feel honored and grateful that we get to be part of this glorious and ongoing liberal journey. He understands that we liberals can't just offer economic benefits; we also have to make the spiritual and civic case for our way of life."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Goodbye Vitamin, by Rachel Khong (May 15 Boswell event)
2. Hang the Moon, by Jeannette Walls (April 10 Boswell event)
3. Dune V1, by Frank Herbert
4. Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton (Boswell-run book club checklist)
5. When Women Were Dragons, by Kelly Barnhill
6. Dune Messiah V2, by Frank Herbert
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
8. A Court of Silver Flames V5, by Sarah J Maas
9. The Three Body Problem V1, by Cixin Liu
10. The Rule Book, by Sarah Adams

I'm sure you all know that sports romance is a hot subgenre, though The Rule Book, the latest romance from Sarah Aadms, is football-based and not the hottest of the hot sub-subs, hockey. From Publishers Weekly: Publishers Weekly: "Adams dazzles in her latest, a saucy second chance rom-com. Quirky Nora 'Mac' Mackenzie struggles to make a name for herself as a sports agent. After working her way up through the male dominated corporate ladder, she finally has a chance to represent legendary NFL tight end Derek Pender. There's just one problem: eight years ago, Nora walked away from Derek, her first love, without explanation." 

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Have I Told You This Already?, by Lauren Graham 
2. Dead Man Walking, by Helen Prejean 
3. Christ in Crisis, by Jim Wallis
4. Master Slave Husband Wife, by Ilyon Woo
5. Reading the Room, by Paul Yamazaki (Boswell event April 26)
6. River Profiles, by Pete Hill (Boswell event April 17)
7. Rand McNally Road Atlas 2025 large scale
8. Wisconsin for Kennedy, by BJ Hollars
9. Pathogenesis, by Jonathan Kennedy
10. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond

I haven't really paid attention to the Rand McNally Road Atlas in years. I had no idea that the large scale spiral bound seemingly outsells the classic, with Ingram stocking twice as many copies of the former.

Books for Kids:
1. The Mystery of Locked Rooms, by Lindsay Currie
2. Claymates, by Devorah Petty
3. Every Day's a Holiday, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Husna Aghiniya
4. Scritch Scratch, by Lindsay Currie
5. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Melanie Demmer
6. Sleep Train, by Jonathan London
7. Hustle Bustle Bugs, by Catherine Bailey
8. Dog Man V12: The Scarlet Shredder, by Dav Pilkey
9. Amulet V9: Waverider, by Kazu Kibuishi
10. Nothing, by Nicholas Day

We had a wonderful day of school visits with Lindsay Currie, featuring her latest Novel, The Mystery of Locked Rooms. From Publishers Weekly: "Seventh grader Sarah and her two best friends West and Hannah call themselves the Deltas for their love of puzzles. Their unique and perfectly balanced individual skills aid in their team efforts to solve even the hardest of escape room riddles. ...Currie builds suspense via high-stakes brain teasers in dark rooms and periods of isolation as the Deltas endeavor to solve the biggest, most dangerous series of escape rooms they've ever faced."

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