What's Selling This Week, January 8-14? Being That I am Tabulating This Remotely, There Were a Few Surprises for Me Too.

Greetings from Atlanta! It's good to know that we still sold a few books while I've been gone.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. American Dervish, by Ayad Akhtar
2. Believing the Lie, by Elizabeth George
3. Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James
4. The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
5. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach

In Believing the Lie, the new Thomas Lynley mystery from Elizabeth George, a wealthy businessman asks for a more thorough investigation of the mysterious death of his nephew, which has been ruled accidental. I don't think so!

Our rescheduled Ayad Akhtar event went very smoothly. Now I can start worrying about David Finch (Tuesday), Hannah Pittard/Patrick Somerville (Thursday, January 19), and Adam Johnson (January 23).

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Townie, by Andre Dubus III
2. Van Gogh, by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith
3. Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
4. The Obamas, by Jody Kantor
5. Pity the Billionaire, by Thomas Frank

What's going on with that sales pop for Townie, being that the event with Andre Dubus III is not until February 17? This is for our in-store book discussion on Monday, February 6. Though the paperback will be out in time for folks who want to wait, we're discounting the hardcover 20% until then so that folks who want to can get an early start on the book.

The Obamas doesn't sound particularly salacious--just the case of a modern working couple who had to revert to a more old-fashioned marriage paradism as that is pretty much still required for a president. It will be interesting to see if when we get a female president, her husband (yes, I'm making many assumptions here) leaves his job.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht
2. Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes
3. Swamplandia, by Karen Russell
4. The Fallback Plan, by Leigh Stein
5. Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, by John Le Carre

Lauren Beukes's sales pop is also due to an upcoming book club discussion. The in-store science fiction group is meeting to discuss Zoo City on Monday, February 13, 7 pm. The novel is said to be an interesting take on the urban fantasy genre, set in a reimagined Johannesburg.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
2. Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff
3. Gimbels Has It!, by Michael J. Lisicky
4. Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism, by Ralph Nader
5. Your True Home, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Nader's new book has been on and off our bestseller list since it came out late last year, but now that the gift sales are out of the way, it's ranking is a bit higher. It's sort of a progressive answer to the (are they more conservative or libertarian?) anti-big government books that periodically hit a nerve.

We're kind of surprised at the background color change for the paperback edition of Bossypants. I am all for yellow books, but this one seems a bit off. Just for the record, it is rather trendy of late. Here's a collection of yellow bestsellers in the house.

And now you can answer that question, "Is this book yellower than a duck or not quite as yellow?"

Books for Kids:
1. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
2. The Fault in our Stars, by John Green
3. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
4. I am a Bunny, by Ole Rissom/Richard Scarry
5. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox/Helen Oxenbury

The Fault in our Stars is about a cancer patient who falls in love at a support group. Booklist called it " Booklist called it his "best and most ambitious novel to date" and you may have heard that he signed every copy of the first printing, a big first printing.