What did I really want? The Boswell bestsellers for the week ending January 2, 2021

What did I really want? The Boswell bestsellers for the week ending January 2, 2021

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
2. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
3. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
4. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar
5. The Searcher, by Tana French
6. Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
7. Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
8. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
9. The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter
10. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman

My end of the year reading is like a literary Janus - I'm simultaneous looking ahead to 2021 while still wondering what I missed in 2020. I wound up reading Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi's second novel, which would help me get some points in the "how many books did you read on various notable books of the year roundups." Ron Charles in The Washington Post: "When she was just 25, Gyasi reportedly sold her debut novel, Homegoing, for $1 million. It was the kind of financial windfall that whips up fawning publicity and - despite the book’s success — skepticism. If there are any skeptics left, they can stand down now. Homegoing wasn’t beginner’s luck. Gyasi’s new novel, Transcendent Kingdom, is a book of blazing brilliance." I also thought it was an interesting match with Brandon Taylor's Real Life (shortlisted for the Booker), another novel set in a science graduate program.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. Wintering, by Katherine May
4. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garten
5. 99% Invisible City, by Roman Mars and Kurth Kohlstedt
6. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
7. Mediocre, by Ijeoma Oluo
8. Food Fix, by Mark Hyman
9. Songteller, by Dolly Parton
10. Dessert Person, by Claire Saffitz

December publications are always a tricky thing - you've got to carefully stage for January and February reviews and features without the appearance of the book having sat around too long. Brittney Cooper reviewed the December 1 release Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America in The New York Times, writing: "Ijeoma Oluo punches up rather than down, reckoning culturally, politically and historically with white men. These are the people, she writes, who do most of the dirty work and decision-making that goes into maintaining America’s systems of power."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen
2. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
3. Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stewart
4. Circe, by Madeline Miller
5. Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
6. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
7. The Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler
8. The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
9. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
10. Raven Tower, by Ann Leckie

We had a very nice first week of paperback sales on The House in the Cerulean Sea, which had a nice holiday pop in hardcover. Jen writes: "Linus Baker is your typical by-the-book company man, so when he is given a classified assignment - go to a secret location for a month and observe the six children of the orphanage and its head master - you could say the unflappable Mr. Baker may be in over his head. Especially when one of those children is the antichrist." Macmillan is the Bethlehem Steel of trade paperback pricing. Please refer to my college economics class for details.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Locally Laid, by Lucie B. Amundsen
2. The Ballad of an American, by SHaron Rudahl
3. How to Do Nothing, by Jenny Odell
4. White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
5. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
6. Know My Name, by Chanel Miller
7. Trick Mirror, by Jia Tolentino
8. The Office, by Andy Greene
9. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
10. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs, by Caitlin Doughty

Another first week sales pop recorded, this time for How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - looks like the paperbacks are getting a head start on the hardcovers coming out next week. Here's Ellie Schechert in The Guardian talking to Jenny Odell, who introduces her profile thusly: "Redirecting our attention towards our natural surroundings is Odell’s strategy for resisting a profit-driven tech landscape that, in separating our bodies and co-opting our attention, is possibly torching our ability to live meaningful lives, and preventing us from noticing. (Odell herself uses birdwatching as an antidote."

Books for Kids:
1. My Little Golden Book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Shana Corey
2. When, by Victoria Laurie
3. Hope Nation, by Brock Rose
4. Scritch Scratch, by Lindsay Currie
5. A Friend for Henry, by Jenn Bailey
6. I See Things Differently, by Pat Thomas
7. Planet Earth Is Blue, by Nicole Penteleakos
8. Ian's Walk, by Laurie Lears
9. One of Us Is Next, by Karen McManus
10. Dear Justyce, by Nic Stone

It's a school order, but it's also from 2020 - the paperback edition of Planet Earth Is Blue. From the starred Booklist review: "Panteleakos' debut novel is an intricate and poignant portrait of love, loss, and courage. Nova, 12, is autistic and nonverbal, and she and her devoted older sister, Bridget, have been bounced from foster home to foster home since Nova was five. The story's set in the mid-1980s, so the resources available to Nova are paltry, and the language about her diagnosis is hurtful, though Bridget and Nova's new foster parents, Francine and Billy, are wonderfully supportive."

Boswell top 50 fiction hardcovers for 2020

Here are our top 50 hardcover fiction books for 2020

1. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar
2. Everywhere You Don't Belong, by Gabriel Bump
3. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
4. The Second Home, by Christina Clancy
5. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
6. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
7. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel
8. Trace Elements, by Donna Leon
9. Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer
10. The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett

11. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
12. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
13. Lakewood, by Megan Giddings
14. American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummings
15. The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel
16. Crooked Hallelujah, by Kelli Jo Ford
17. The Wild One, by Nick Petrie
18. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia
19. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
20. Saving Ruby King, by Catherine Adel West

21. The Searcher, by Tana French
22. Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
23. We Ride Upon Sticks, by Quan Barry
24. A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik
25. Writers and Lovers, by Lily King
26. All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny
27. The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter
28. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
29. The Book of Longings, by Sue Monk Kidd
30. The Paris Hours, by Alex George

31. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
32. The City We Became, by NK Jemisin
33. Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
34. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
35. The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
36. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
37. A Time for Mercy, by John Grisham
38. The Long Petal of the Sea, by Isabel Allende
39. Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline
40. The Coyotes of Carthage, by Steven Wright

41. Moonflower Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
42. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab
43. Oona Out of Order, by Margarita Montimore
44. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
45. The Knockout Queen, by Rufi Thorpe
46. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
47. The Other Mrs., by Mary Kubica
48. The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante
49. The Lives of Edie Pritchard, by Larry Watson
50. Weather, by Jenny Offill

Three titles in our top ten had no event momentum helping the titles along - The Vanishing Half, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (which some consider nonfiction), and Such a Fun Age (only we did sell a lot of books in expectation of an event, only the event didn't happen). You can also include The Dutch House, as that event was in 2019. I should mention that sales were up 35% for Patchett's hardcover over her last, even though our event for Commonwealth logged more sales (because we didn't share them with another store). 

On the hardcover nonfiction list, our top 4 books mimic most independents, I'm guessing - A Promised Land (and yes, it outsold Becoming in its first season), How to Be an Antiracist, Caste, and Untamed. #5 was The Well-Plated Cookbook, from local Erin Clarke. I found a recording error on one title, so the nonfiction list is not quite right. And there are a lot of special orders that we're grateful for, but don't really indicate very much about what's selling. We had these on the fiction list as well, but in that case, we picked the titles and chased them, so we take more credit.

On the paperback fiction list, our top two link to our library fundraiser event - Circe and The Song of Achilles from Madeline Miller, followed by The Overstory and Normal People. All four titles were major national bestsellers. #5 was Girl, Woman, Other, one of two Booker winners on our year-end list.  

One thing I kept noting throughout the year was how sales of our top titles were up during the pandemic, particularly when we were closed to browsing, at the expense of other titles that would gain through browsing, notably recent paperbacks. In fact, when I looked at #50 on the hardcover and paperback fiction lists, the story was there. Our #50 hardcover fiction title's sale was 40% higher than its equivalent in 2018, while the #50 paperback's sales was 20% lower than the 2018 title. 

White Fragility led our paperback nonfiction list with a combination of individual and group sales, with several other books about race - Stamped from the Beginning, So You Want to Talk About Race, and The Warmth of Other Suns - in our top 10. Also top 10 is Braiding Sweetgrass, the book of nature essays from a biology professor and member of the Potawatomi Nation whose sales were doubling every year until they exploded in 2021.

School and nonprofit sales drove just about every book in our top 50 kids titles, but I should give a shout out to The Snowy Day board book, which increased sales 20% over 2019 with almost all sales (I have a 5 copy school order) to individuals. Our top new middle grade book was Skunk and Badger. Our top new picture book was You Matter, helped along by a lot of programming. Thank you to all our partners and authors who helped put that programming together. It makes a difference!

Event alert - Michelle Gallen, author of Big Girl, Small Town, in conversation with Jim Higgins

We just have one event this week, but it's a great one - Michelle Gallen will be in conversation, live from Dublin, with Journal Sentinel Book and Arts Editor Jim Higgins for Big Girl, Small Town on Tuesday, December 29, 2 pm Central (that's 8 pm Dublin time). Her book was published in December and has been a big hit at Boswell. In fact, we've run out of books - we have more on order from the publisher and wholesaler. But that's no reason not to attend virtually - you can register for the Zoom webinar right here.  Cohosted by CelticMKE.

Big Girl, Small Town was published by Algonquin on December 1. That's not always an auspicious time for literary fiction - by then, many reviewers are already turning to year-end compilations, so late great reviews wind up bumping year-end hosannas until the following year. That was the case for Perumal Murugan's The Story of a Goat (December 10, 2019 release date), which wound up on New York Times critic Perul Seghal's top books of 2020. 

Here's what Ron Charles wrote in The Washington Post when he reviewed Gallen's debut: "This year’s publishing season is over. The important, noisy novels have all been released. The prizes have been awarded. The list of Best Books for 2020 has been posted. But hold the door! Make room for this late arrival from Dublin: an immensely lovable debut novel by Michelle Gallen called Big Girl, Small Town." As you can gather from this intro, he really liked it. Maybe it will be in Charles's top ten of 2021.

Jim Higgins of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is also a fan, and that's what led to this event. He mentioned enjoying it, and then we got a sneak preview that the book would land on his editor's choice for the year. I wondered if he'd be up for an afternoon of conversation. And he was! We went through the proper publishing channels to set things up.

Here's what Higgins wrote in his end-of-year writeup: "Bright, earthy and funny, Majella works in a chip shop in a Northern Ireland border town, copes with her alcoholic ma and watches Dallas DVDs to relax. She's also on the autism spectrum, constantly analyzing the people around her to know how to respond. The star of Gallen's novel is my most unforgettable fictional character of 2020."

Our event is free and co-hosted by CelticMKE. Want a wee taste of what's to come? Here's Michelle Gallen with her sampling of Irish slang. More when Gallen speaks to Jim Higgins about Big Girl, Small Town on Tuesday, December 29, 2 pm CST. 

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 26, 2020

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 26, 2020

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
2. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar
3. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
4. Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
5. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia
6. The Searcher, by Tana French
7. A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik
8. The Second Home, by Christina Clancy
9. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
10. Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
11. The Children's Bible, by Lydia Millett
12. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by V.E. Schwab
13. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
14. Perestroika in Paris, by Jane Smiley
16. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

I looked at Lydia Millet's sales since we've been open and none of her titles (she's fairly prolific, with a book every two years or so) even hit the upper single digits. So The Children's Bible is practically the definition of a breakout, helped by 10-best status on The New York Times. Here's Kay's rec: "Millet gathers a large group of old friends and their children for an extended summer vacation in a ginormous rented house. The children, largely teens, are more or less forgotten by their drunken, self-absorbed parents. The kids, embarrassed - even horrified - by their parents’ behaviors, actively disown them and take charge of their own vacation. A gigantic, climate-change-driven storm takes them all by surprise, causes significant destruction, and widens the wedge between adults and kids. Without giving away more of the story, Millet suggests the younger generation has the drive, but perhaps not all the tools, to save themselves, and even their disdained parents..."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. Wintering, by Katherine May
4. Bag Man, by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz
5. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
6. The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson
7. The Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptation, by Edward O. Wilson
8. Humans, by Brandon Stanton
9. Dessert Person, by Claire Saffitz
10. What It's Like to Be a Bird, by David Sibley
11. Pappyland, by Wright Thompson
12. Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
13. The King of Confidence, by Miles Harvey
14. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garten
15. Is This Anything, by Jerry Seinfeld

I've noted that while it's been a great year for books, there have been some holes. There doesn't seem to be a sports book that crossed over to our audience, and while there were lots of hit cookbooks, the only food narrative that really worked for us was Pappyland, and I couldn't get into it, despite me enthusiastically pushing a craft beer book several years ago. It felt like we were a little short of big histories and biographies. Though we did nicely with The Year 1000 (a top five for Conrad, though I don't have a rec to share), being #2 on Edelweiss for the country suggested it didn't work elsewhere. I also noted that our huge success with The King of Confidence was duplicated, but it was all in the Midwest (once again, using the Edelweiss peer sales as a guide). The rest of the country took this as a regional book - too bad for them!

Paperback Fiction:
1. Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart
2. Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen (Register for December 29 event here)
3. The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. Through This Door, edited by Peggy Rozga and Angela Trudell Vasquez
5. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
6. Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
7. Home Body, by Rupi Kaur
8. Circe, by Madeline Miller
9. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
10. Devotions, by Mary Oliver

If you'd ask me in 2000 what I thought a paperback bestseller list would look like twenty years in the future at my theoretical bookstore, would I have said poetry and prize-winners? I think not. Even the books that flirt with genre like Interior Chinatown (a Jason rec: "Delivers several knock-out punches at our society and culture") and The Water Dancer are not exactly what you'd call escapist. More of that on the hardcover list!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
2. American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of Wisconsin, by Charles Hagner
3. Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee, by Jennifer Billock
4. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
5. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe
6. The Ungrateful Refugee, by Dina Nayeri
7. Sapiens: A Graphic History, by Yuval Noah Harari
8. What's Your Enneatype, by Liz Carver
9. 111 Places in Milwaukee You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden 

10. The Seine, by Elaine Sciolino

The second half of the holiday season has a closer-to-average bestseller list with 4 of the 10 books in this category being regional. A late entry was Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee by Jennifer Billock, who had her launch with Historic Milwaukee. Now-gone gems like Oriental Drugs and the Public Natatorium (closed in 1985 - just missed it and the dolphin shows!?) mix with staples like Solly's. What about Frenchys? How about Sally's? And what of the German staples, Karl Ratzsch and John Ernst?You'll have to read the book to find out.

Books for Kids
1. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen
2. If You Come to Earth, by Sophie Blackall
3. Bunheads, by Misty Copeland and Setor Fladzigbey
4. Atlas of Record Breaking Adventures, by Lucy Letherland
5. Cozy, by Jan Brett
6. The One and Only Bob, by Katherine Applegate
7. No Reading Allowed by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter
8. Cat Kid Comic Club, by Dav Pilkey
9. Bad Guys V1, by Aaron Blabey
10. Mysteries of the Universe, by DK/Will Gater
11. Legendborn, by Tracey Deonn
12. Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger
13. Elevator Bird, by Sarah Williamson
14. The Deep End, by Jeff Kinney
15. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats

In the YA world, two staff favorites have nice showings in the week before Christmas, Elatsoe from Amie and Legendborn from Jenny. I was aware of Jenny's top 5, but it was only when I read her rec card that I learned that Tracy Deonn's debut is her top pick. Her review: "Sixteen-year-old Bree enrolls in the Early College program at the University of North Carolina after the sudden and devastating loss of her mother. During Bree’s first week on campus, a Shadowborn demon attacks her, throwing Bree into the world of the Legendborn, a secret society of students made up of descendants from King Arthur and his Round Table." Read the rest of the review here.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 19, 2020 - the almost no links edition

Boswell Bestsellers for the wek ending December 19, 2020 - almost no links edition

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell (#11 Edelweiss, but #1 in the Midwest)
2. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
3. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar (#1 Edelweiss)
4. The Searcher, by Tana French
5. Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline
6. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia
7. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
8. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
9. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (#1 on Edelweiss)
10. The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter
11. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
12. Oona Out of Order, by Margarita Montimore (#1! see below)
13. The Talented Miss Farwell, by Emily Gray Tedrowe (Register for January 5 event here)
14. Crooked Hallelujah, by Kelli Jo Ford (#1 Edelweiss) 

15. The Second Home, by Christina Clancy

Jenny's favorite book of the year is Oona Out of Order, the novel about the woman who lives her years in random order, and though I haven't read it, I've just bought my second copy, once again as a gift. We both noticed that we have the #1 indie sales on the Edelweiss inventory sharing site. We're tied - help us solidify our first place run. From Mary Cadeen in USA Today: "Montimore proves an adept storyteller. Oona is a good balance between serious and silly. There are laughs, to be sure, but the author captures the essence of Kenzie's 19-year-old self in an older body without making the story slapstick. With its countless epiphanies and surprises, Oona proves difficult to put down."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garten (the best sales for us of her last six books)
4. What It's Like to Be a Bird, by David Sibley
5. The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson
6. The 99% Invisible City, by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt
7. Ottolenghi Flavor, by Yotam Ottolenghi
8. The Best of Me, by David Sedaris
9. Humans, by Brandon Stanton
10. Songteller, by Dolly Parton
11. The Well-Plated Cookbook, by Erin Clarke (signed copies available again - #1 Edelweiss)
12. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
13. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh
14. The King of Confidence, by Miles Harvey (#2 Edelweiss)
15. Dirt, by Bill Buford (#4 Edelweiss)

Just finished The 99% Invisible City, which might be meant for browsing, but I tend to read these kind of books cover to cover. My rec: "Here’s proof positive that you don’t have to be obsessed with a podcast to enjoy the spinoff book. Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlsedt’s 99% Invisible has been around for ten years, but I never heard of it. This very enjoyable book (one of my customers described it as upscale bathroom reading) looks at everything from left turns to squirrels to uncomfortable benches to brick veneers. Alas, it’s not an urban planning podcast – this is just the first topic they decided to cover. Mars’s show reminds me a bit of Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge, as hosted by Rod Serling. As an aside, the publisher chose to give a different ISBN inventory code to the signed (well, initialed) edition, even putting it on the bellyband. Sometimes we have a different ordering ISBN but the book itself has the same identifying code, to make reordering easier when the signed copies run out. But in this case, the sales are separate, maybe not on national bestseller lists, but on the Edelweiss industry peer sharing site. Some stores (like Boswell) override to the unsigned IBN, but other stores clearly don’t. But to you, that’s invisible!"

Paperback Fiction:
1. Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen (register for December 29 event here)
2. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
3. Home Body, by Rupi Kaur
4. The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5. Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stewart
6. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
7. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
8. Devotions, by Mary Oliver
9. Best American Short Stories 2020, edited by Curtis Sittenfeld
10. Circe, by Madeline Miller

Jim Higgins naming Big Girl, Small Town as one of his top ten books of 2020, combined with an upcoming event, got Gellen's novel to #1. I finished it last week and wrote my staff rec this morning. "It’s just a few years after The Troubles have wound down with the peace agreement, but it’s still not a good idea for Protestants to cross to the Catholic part of town after dark. For Majella O’Neill, it’s personal – her uncle and now her grandma has been murdered, her uncle has disappeared, and her ma’s a bit of a mess. Majella, a big woman whose comfortable in her body, works the night shift in chip shop, with the story written diary style, over the course of a week. Big Girl, Small Town is more of a character novel , so not much happens , but Majella’s presence explodes over the pages. She’s on the spectrum but keenly observant and also very funny. I’m not always crazy about reading stories in dialect, but Irish slang is fascinating, plus I didn’t really know until now that battered and fried sausage was a thing. What have I been missing? And until you read Big Girl, Small Town, I can say the same for you."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. ABA Field Guide to Birds of Wisconsin, by Charles Hagner
4. The Seine, by Elaine Sciolino
5. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
6. Wow, No Thank You, by Samantha Irby
7. Vegetarian Flavors with Alamelu, by Alamelu Vairavan
8. The Truths We Hold, by Kamala Harris
9. Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl
10. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara

If you look at the nonfiction paperback list and the advice list of The New York Times, only two books here cross over, Braiding Sweetgrass and The Truths We Hold. That said, Wow, No Thank You did hit #1 on the nonfiction paperback list on publication and was just named one of critic Parul Sehgal's ten best books of 2020 in The New York Times. From her review: "Life has never been better to Samantha Irby. Can she still be funny? It’s a gentler kind of humor we encounter here. The drama of publishing a book or pitching a show to Netflix executives (so many chairs in the room!) can’t compete with the rawness and surreal scatological pageantry of the earlier essays. Nor must it."

Books for Kids:
1. Wishes and Wellingtons, by Julie Berry
2. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen (#1 Edelweiss)
3. No Reading Allowed, by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter
4. Scritch Scratch, by Lindsay Currie
5. Riding Chance, by Christine Kendall
6. Cat Kid Comic Club, by Dav Pilkey
7. Sun Flower Lion, by Kevin Henkes (#1 Edelweiss)
8. Fifty Adventures in the Fifty States, by Kate Siber (#2 Edelweiss)
9. The Oboe Goes Boom Boom Boom, by Colleen AF Venable and Lian Cho (#1 Edelweiss)
10. Snow Birds, by Kirsten Hall and Jenni Desmond
11. Every Night Is Pizza Night, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Gianna Ruggiero
12. Everybody's Tree, by Barbara Joosse and Renée Graef
13. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls V1, by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo 1

14. All Because You Matter, by Tami Charles

While we've noticed some books have cut back on having us do virtual school events, Sourcebooks has been full steam ahead, and that led to them having three of our top four books in sales this week. Scritch Scratch is a older (10+) middle grade novel of the parnormal in Chicago. Who is this Mary Downing Hahn that everyone references in their reviews? I'm intrigued. Kirkus writes "Mary Downing Hahn fans will enjoy this just-right blend of history and spooky." And Booklist wrote: "The author of The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street ventures into Mary Downing Hahn territory with a mildly eerie tale that is as much about building trust and new friendships as it is about figuring out what a soaked, importunate ghost wants."

Visit our website for more info, but alas, our order buttons are down until Christmas. Like many indie bookstores, moving half our business online has stretched us to the limit. Thank you for your patience and good humor.

Book recommendations on WUWM's Lake Effect

 

With Lake Effect on December hiatus, you're probably hungry for our daily Milwaukee talk show fix. If you didn't hear my segment on books aired in early December, you can listen to it here.

Here are the books I mention.

Thinking Inside the Box, by Adrienne Raphel

The Coyotes of Carthage, by Steven Wright

Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell

The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett

the flu book I was describing was The Great Influenza, by John Barry

Hench, by Natalie Zina Walschots

Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake, with illustrations by Jon Klassen

The Breaker, by Nick Petrie (on sale January 12)

Rhythm of War, by Brandon Sanderson

The sequel to Murder at the Mean House is Murder at Wedgefield Manor, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (on sale March 30)

Everywhere You Don't Belong, by Gabriel Bump

We Ride Upon Sticks, by Quan Barry

The next to the next to the last week of pre-holiday sales - Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 12, 2020

The next to the next to the last week of pre-holiday sales - Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 12, 2020

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell (watch video)
2. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
3. The Searcher, by Tana French
4. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar (watch this video)
5. Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
6. The Boy, the Mole, The Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
7. Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline
8. The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter
9. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Morena Garcia
10. The Paris Hours, by Alex George (watch this video)
11. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
12. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
13. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
14. Writers and Lovers, by Lily King
15. The Coyotes of Carthage, by Steven Wright

I've read half (8) of this week's top 15 and I would say there are at least three more books I wish I had read. Only four titles match the New York Times bestsellers for this week, five if you include Mackesy's book, which the NYT files with miscellaneous. The others are The Vanishing Half, The Searcher, Anxious People, and Ready Player Two. An additional four titles are on the American Booksellers Association indie bestseller list - Hamnet, Deacon King Kong, The Cold Millions, and Mexican Gothic. On their list, Mackesy's book is nonfiction. I guess I'm going to have to look at that thing again. 

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. What It's Like to Be a Bird, by David Sibley
4. Post Corona, by Scott Galloway
5. Bag Man, by Rachel Maddow
6. The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson
7. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
8. Dessert Person, by Claire Saffitz
9. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garton
10. Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
11. Rise, by Marcus Samuelsson
12. Humans, by Brandon Stanton
13. His Truth Is Marching On, by Jon Meacham
14. Superman's Not Coming, by Erin Brockovich (Register for December 16 event here)
15. Songteller, by Dolly Parton

On this list, we have six titles overlapping with NYT nonfiction - A Promised Land, Caste, The Splendid and the Vile, Untamed (yes, we have the special tip-in edition), Humans, and Songteller with the two cookbooks on miscellaneous - Modern Comfort Food and Dessert Person (Publishers Weekly gave Dessert Person a starred review), plus Mackesy. And Post Corona's on the business list. The ABA list also has What It's Like to Be a Bird. We'd be selling A Wealth of Pigeons, but since we don't expect copies before the holidays, we're not longer pre-selling it. Take out the event book and you have Bag Man and His Truth Is Marching on.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Through This Door, edited by Peggy Rozga and Angela Trudell Vasquez
2. Aimless Love, by Billy Collins
3. Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart
4. Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
5. Devotions, by Mary Oliver
6. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
7. Big Girl, Small Town (Register for December 29 event here)
8. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
9. The Story of a Goat, by Perumal Murugan
10. The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

When one looks at holiday trends, one might not immediately think poetry for Christmas, but three of our top 10 fit in that category, with Rupi Kaur bubbling under. I'm guessing Aimless Love was for a book club, but Through This Door was just reviewed in the Journal Sentinel by Jim Higgins and I should note that up until right now, the book wasn't available for ordering through our website. That said, we may run out of stock shortly.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. The Seine, by Elaine Sciolino
3. Life in Short, by Dasha Kelly Hamilton
4. The Rise of Wolf 8, by Rick McIntyre
5. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
6. The Yellow House, by Sarah Broom
7. Emergent Strategy, by Adrienne Brown
8. White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
9. The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson
10. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe

After six years, Braiding Sweetgrass hits #1 on a particularly busy week, no less. New on the list is Life in Short, the new collection of Dashnettes from Dasha Kelly Hamilton. Published by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, this book also straddles the lists, being sort of poetry (fiction) and sort of inspiration (nonfiction). As was the case above, I've just added this to our website so the book can be ordered here. When we do this ourselves, you don't get inventory levels. Right now we have a few left!

Books for Kids:
1. The Very Last Leaf, by Stef Wade and Jennifer Davidson (Watch this video)
2. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen (Watch this video)
3. Elevator Bird, by Sarah Williamson
4. Sun Flower Lion, by Kevin Henkes
5. No Reading Allowed, by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter
6. Every Night Is Pizza Night, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Gianna Ruggiero
7. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade and Melanie Demmer
8. Bunheads, by Misty Copeland and Setor Fladzigbey
9. Snow Birds, by Kirsten Hall and Jenni Desmond
10. Everybody's Tree, by Barbara Joosse and Renée Graef
11. Paper Peek Animals, by Chihiro Takeuchi
12. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
13. 50 Adventures in 50 States, by Kate Siber
14. What We'll Build, by Oliver Jeffers
15. Dress Coded, by Carrie Firestone

What do our top five books (and #10) all have in common? They all did virtual school events with us, even during the Christmas season. If you're a publisher, you probably didn't send us too many authors for schools in the winter due to weather. But with virtual events, here's your chance to beat testing season. The latest is Elevator Bird, who did her first of two school visits on Friday, following a nice public event the week before. We just got our bookplates, but I'm guessing they will go fast. I really like the Richard Scarry-like page where Williamson explains what all the characters do at the hotel.

As I have mentioned in a few talks, this was not a great year for innovative board books, but we do like Paper Peek Animals, a hidden-picture book with some die-cut action too.

At the Journal Sentinel, here are Jim Higgins's top ten books of 2020:
--Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen (Register for December 29 event here)
--Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse
--Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, by Kathleen Rooney (Watch Rooney's event here)
--Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar (Watch Akhtar's event here)
--The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix
--Network Effect, by Martha Wells
--The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, by Deesha Philyaw
--The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
--Unconquerable Sun, by Kate Elliott
--Warhol, by Blake Gopknik 

This list appears to be in alphabetical order. We just got in more stock of Big Girl, Small Town.

Here are Carole E. Barrowman's top 10 books of 2020.
--Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby (Watch Cosby's event with Barrowman here)
--And Now She's Gone, by Rachel Howzell
--Squeeze Me, by Carl Hiaasen
--The Ninja's Blade, by Tori Eldridge
--Out of Time, by David Klass
--Your House Will Pay, by Steph Cha
--A Song for Dark Times, by Ian Rankin
--The King's Justice, by Susan Elia MacNeal
--Survivor Song, by Paul Tremblay
--Catherine House, by Elizabeth Thomas

This list is not in alpha order, so it might be ranked. Barrowman told me that Blacktop Wasteland really his her #1 pick. 

Here's what's selling at Boswell for the week ending December 5, 2020

Here's what's selling at Boswell for the week ending December 5, 2020

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
2. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
3. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
4. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar
5. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
6. Ready Player Two, by Ernest Cline
7. Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
8. Murder at the Mena House, by Erica Ruth Neubauer
9. The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter
10. Writers and Lovers, by Lily King (Register for December 9 event here)
11. The Searcher, by Tana French
12. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
13. Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno Garcia
14. The Knockout Queen, by Rufi Thorpe
15. Perestroika in Paris, by Jane Smiley

My reason for featuring 15 titles are twofold. As you probably guessed from how folks by for the holidays compounded with how folks buy online, our hardcover bestseller sales far outpace paperbacks. Not only do paperbacks not get media attention, but they rarely come out before the hardcover has run its course - in the old days, a paperback might be release while the hardcover was still selling strong. But you also have to go all the way to #15 to find a new title, Jane Smiley's Perestroika in Paris. As one amateur critic said to me: "It's Smiley's take on The Boy, The Mole...only with an Eiffel Tower." Reviews are great - Helen McAlpin on the NPR website called it a "delightful heartwarming tale."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garten
4. A Wealth of Pigeons, by Steve Martin and Harry Bliss
5. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle
6. What It's Like to Be a Bird, by David Sibley
7. The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson
8. Songteller, by Dolly Parton
9. Ottolenghi Flavor, by Yotam Ottolenghi
10. The Well Plated Cookbook, by Erin Clarke
11. The King of Confidence, by Miles Harvey
12. Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
13. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat
14. Hidden Valley Road, by Robert Kolker
15. Let Us Dream, by Pope Francis

I'm not exactly sure why, but Ina Garten's last two books, Cook Like a Pro and Cooking for Jeffrey, saw sales downturns, and I wondered if this was it for her. But no, Modern Comfort Food has already almost doubled sales of her two releases and is closing in on 2012's Barefoot Contessa Foolproof. It might be the way folks order online (zeroing in on key titles instead of browsing) or it may be that Garten is, per Sophie Hanscombe in Financial Times, "Comfort Food Provider-in-Chief." And apparently many of us need that. 

Paperback Fiction:
1. Devotions, by Mary Oliver
2. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
3. Home Body, by Rupi Kaur
4. The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
5. The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. Still Life, by Louise Penny
7. This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger
8. Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, by Kathleen Rooney
9. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
10. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead

We thought we'd see a lot of Intstagram poets break out in the wake of Rupi Kaur, but in the end, nobody really duplicated her success, though we had a few lesser pops. CBC's Tom Power notes on their arts show q, which airs on Wisconsin Public Radio: Kaur says while writing Home Body, the pressure to follow the success of her hit debut Milk and Honey resulted in impostor syndrome — an overwhelming belief of inadequacy that often occurs among artists and high achievers who begin to fear being exposed as a fraud.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee, by Jennifer Billock
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom
4. Burnout, by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
5. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
6. Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin, by Anna Lardinois
7. The Seine, by Elaine Sciolino (Register for December 10 event here)
8. Field Guide to Birds of Wisconsin, by Charles Hagner
9. Fading Ads of Milwaukee, by Adam Levin
10. Gathering Moss, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Seems like old times! We haven't had a regional-focused top 10 paperback nonfiction in months, but this week's top ten is half Milwaukee and Wisconsin books. The big breakout is Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee, which had its debut at a Milwaukee County Historical Society event.

Books for Kids:
1. The Assignment, by Liza Wiemer
2. Everybody's Tree, by Barbara Joosse and Renée Graef
3. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake and Jon Klassen
4. Sun Flower Lion, by Kevin Henkes
5. Elevator Bird, by Sarah Williamson
6. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
7. Dear Justyce, by Nic Stone
8. Cat Kid Comic Club, by Dav Pilkey
9. Grime and Punishment, by Dav Pilkey
10. Mysteries of the Universe, by DK, with text by Will Gater
11. Every Night Is Pizza Night, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Gianna Ruggiero
12. What We'll Build, by Oliver Jeffers
13. If You Come to Earth, by Sophie Blackall
14. No Reading Allowed, by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter 

15. The Deep End, by Jeff Kinney

Today was kids event week, with three programs in five days. But one non-event book that had a nice week is a picture book that Amie featured in our holiday gift guide and I just presented at the Friends at the Shorewood Public Library book talk, though those sales have been logged yet. Every Night Is Pizza Night, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, with illustrations by Gianna Ruggiero is about Pipo, who loves pizza, only to discover that other foods are equally delicious. Lopez-Alt is known for his food writing, notably in The Food Lab. Do they give Beard Awards for picture books? Kirkus Reviews called it "a delightful culinary ode to the multicultural world we live in." It's also part of the busy, busy picture book trend, with the main narrative accompanied by lots of asides.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins profiles Through This Door, a collection of poems from Wisconsin's poet laureates, assembled by Margaret Rozga and Angela C. Trudell Vasquez.