Hardcover Fiction:
2. Country People, by Daniel Mason
3. Whistler, by Ann Patchett
4. The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans
5. Land, by Maggie O'Farrell
6. Yesteryear, by Caro Claire Burke
7. The Calamity Club, by Kathryn Stockett
8. The Shampoo Effect, by Jenny Jackson
9. Things We Never Say, by Elizabeth Strout
10. Carl's Doomsday Scanario V2, by Matt Dinniman
The only new title in our top ten this week is this week's major release, Cool Machine, the final book in his Harlem Trilogy. BookMarks scores 14 raves and 3 positive reviews, including this from Leigh Haber in The Los Angeles Times: "A dizzyingly brilliant measure of the versatility and depth of the acclaimed author’s literary talent ... The intricacy with which Whitehead details the planning and execution of this caper marks him as a top-tier researcher - he’s drawn on many primary sources to ground this work of fiction in historical fact."
1. This Is the Plan, by Ben Wikler
2. Milwaukee Flavor, by Visit Milwaukee/Ann Christenson
3. Regime Change, by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
4. London Falling, by Patrick Radden Keefe
5. All American Patriotism, by Rachel Campos-Duffy
6. The Book of Birds, by Robert MacFarlane and Jacki Morris
7. Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About, by Isabel Klee
8. The Land and Its People, by David Sedaris
9. Talking Classics, by Mary Beard
10. Famesick, by Lena Dunham
One way that university presses get bigger names normally tied to larger houses is by publishing lectures. I still remember the success of Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings, which was published by Harvard. And my friend John noted that Patti Smith (tickets available now) has a lecture published by Yale. That's the case with Mary Beard's Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old, which has six raves and a positive from BookMarks. Maureen Corrigan notes in her NPR review: "If the word 'lectures' makes you want to head for an exit door, you don't know Beard's style."
1. Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi
2. The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
3. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weird
4. The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
5. Circe, by Madeline Miller
6. God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
7. Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
8. Sunburn, by Chloe Michelle Howarth
9. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante (Boswell-run book clubs)
10. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
Nothing new here, so I'll point out the Odyssey fever has swept up Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad, and likely Madeline Miller's Circe too. Shouldn't we also be seeing a pop in Percy Jackson? Antonio Ferme reports on academic conversations about the film in Variety.
1. A Marriage at Sea, by Sophie Elmhirst
2. Small Steps, by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller
3. The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay
4. To Life, by Joel Greenberg
5. What If We Get It Right, by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
6. Young Washington, by Peter Stark
7. The Salt Stones, by Helen Whybrow
8. Secret Wisconsin, by Tom Manus and Kristi Flick Manus
9. Midwestern Death Trip, by Meaghan Garvey
10. The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson
Selling off the new paperback table is The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd Life, which I'm calling out partly because it's a Milkweed book and I'm also reading a Milkweed book, Patient, Female, the new collection of stories from Julie Schumacher. The Stone Stories, about a sheep farm in Vermont, was listed among the best books of the year in The New Yorker: "Whybrow is uniquely positioned to understand what humans have lost in severing their bond with nature, yet her message is more hopeful than bleak..." To be fair, this is an enormous list, way more than we usually see in a best-of roundup.
1. The Rock and the River, by Kekla Magoon
2. Take My Patty, by Alison Hayes
3. The Girl in the Blue Coat, by Monica Hesse
4. The Boy on the Wooden Box, by Leon Leyson
5. Parallel Journeys, by Eleanor Ayer
6. Peekaboo Dog, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
7. The Makers, by Christa Yelich-Koth (Boswell August 19 event)
8. Heartstopper V6, by Alice Oseman
9. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Manga, by Dav Pilkey
10. Chains V1, by Laurie Halse Anderson
We've got a few American Revolution-themed titles selling this week, and they cover the spectrum. I thought Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains was a school order, but no, they were individual sales. It was a National Book Award finalist back in 2008 as well as winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction. If you're wondering which book won the 2026 award, it's A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez by María Dolores Águila.
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