Sunday Bestsellers-Films and Signed Copies Drive Sales.

Paperback fiction:
1. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
2. Silver Sparrow, by Tayari Jones
3. Fifty Shades Freed, by E.L. James
4. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
5. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
6. Fifty Shades Darker, by E.L. James
7. Caleb's Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks
8. The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht
9. Elizabeth I, by Margaret George
10. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, by Deborah Maggoch

Needless to say, E.L. James is driving sales in paperback fiction (we actually have an erotica subcategory, which we almost never use), but beyond that and our book club staples and post-event pops, it's nice to see folks checking out Deborah Maggoch's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which has been at both screens at the Downer Theatre for several weeks. I thought I'd reference Mike Scott's review in the New Orleans Times Picayune, as I am still smarting over their news to publish only three editions per week, but he quibbled more than most of our customers. So we'll also link to Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle, who offered five stars instead of three.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Uprising, by John Nichols (signed copies available)
2. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
3. It Started in Wisconsin, edited by Paul Buhle
4. F in Exams, by Richard Benson
5. Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff

Nichols and Buhle pop from our Monday event. Not much else to say of interest here. We've gotten through the college graduations and there's a few weeks more left of high school (regarding F in Exams, though it always sells well from our impulse table). It's almost time to flip the graduation and Father's Day tables.

Hardcover fiction:
1. Canada, by Richard Ford
2. Sacré Bleu, by Christopher Moore
3. In One Person, by John Irving
4. The Newlyweds, Nell Freudenberger
5. Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel

Lots of interesting review of Mr. Ford's latest. Here's Emily Donaldson in the Toronto Star: "Ford has built his peerless reputation writing a uniquely proprietary version of the common man, one who resists the examined life with amiable taciturnity, who views regret as a waste of time. Fate, in Ford’s world, is simply luck: good or bad."

And here is Jane Uruquhart in the Toronto Globe and Mail: "There is a sure-footed, plain-spoken quality to Ford’s language that is pitch perfect for the tale being told, as well as for creating the atmosphere of the landscape, both physical and emotional, with which Dell must come to terms. It is a language that back-flips over Ford’s celebrated Bascombe Trilogy (he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Independence Day, the second of the three books) and into the cadences and reflections of his beautiful 1990 novel Wildlife, also told from the point of view of a teenaged boy."

It also got reviewed in the United States.

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Are You my Mother, by Alison Bechdel
2. End this Depression Now, by Paul Krugman
3. The Good Food Revolution, by Will Allen
4. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen
5. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed

Our Bechdel pop was based on us getting back in signed copies, though based on our sales of them, they won't be around much longer. And speaking of post-event sales (three out of the top five on this list), lots of folks have been asking me where else Will Allen will be speaking, as they were not able to attend our event. On Monday, June 18, Allen is at the Oconomowoc Arts Center, and we should soon know the date at Discovery World for folks who are say, carless.

Books for Kids:
1. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
2. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
3. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
4. Good night Wisconsin, by Adam Gamble
5. Show Me a Story: Why Picture Books Matter: Conversations with 21 of the World's Most Celebrated Illustrators, by Leonard S. Marcus

Several booksellers and customers alike have been enthusiastic over this collection of interviews with children's book illustrators.  The Kirkus review notes the fascinating insights but pines that there is overlap from a previous volume. The likelihood, however, is that you probably haven't read the previous volume. 

Next week's sales pops?

Front page New York Times Book Review:
The Outsourced Self, by Arlie Russell Hochschild, reviewed by Judith Shulevitz
The Great Divergence, by Timothy Noah, reviewed by Benjamin Friedman
Land of Promise, by Michael Lind, reviewed by David Leonhardt.
Three books on the front page and black on green graphics does not give me hope for great sales on these. The internet version has traditional contrast.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Cue section, Jim Higgins's summer reading round up is so all-encompassing that I'm going to look at it tomorrow, when we only have one event for our weekly round up. But there is also:
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain, reviewed by Bryan Wooley
The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, by Shehan Karunatilaka, reviewed by Conrad Bibens
and an interview with Delia Ephron, author of The Lion is In, reviewed by Nancy Chipman Powers.