What's Selling This Week at Boswell, May 13-19, 2012?

Later note: my apologies about my "link here" notes that were not taken out after I added the link. And I should note we that we are closing today (May 20, 2012) at 5 pm for a rep presentation.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
2. Home, by Toni Morrison
3. In One Person, by John Irving
4. Sacré Bleu, by Christopher Moore
5. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Morrison might charge past Mantel next week, being that she’s on the front page of The New York Times Book Review. Leigh Hager Cohen notes “this work’s accomplishment lies in its considerable capacity to make us feel that we are each not only resident but co-owner of, and collectively accountable for, this land we call home.”  And here's the AP interview with Morrison by Hillel Italie.

But maybe Mantel will keep her lead. Mike Fischer in the Journal Sentinel reviews Bring Up the Bodies this week, calling the book “riveting” and a worthy sequel to Wolf Hall.

In an interesting dual interview, John Irving in the current Out magazine notes that In One Person’s theme of bisexuality was partly inspired by his recently out son Everett. It turns out that Edmund White, a close friend of the family, also used Everett as inspiration for his recent novel, Jack Holmes and His Friend.

And finally I note that the trend in shelving used to be that we took novels seemingly published as adult works and put them in young adult, but nowadays, we seem to do the reverse. While Ransom Riggs’ novel makes the top five, our adult fiction list also includes Goodnight iPad and I am a Pole and So Can You. To the bookstores shelving this with the kids’ titles, Amie would suggest you reconsider.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Good Food Revolution, by Will Allen
2. Prague Winter, by Madeleine Albright
3. The Passage of Power, by Robert Caro
4. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen
5. Wheat Belly, by William Davis

Not too many surprises here. Here’s Carolyn Kellogg review of Prague Winter in the Los Angeles Times. And you don’t generally see health and diet books regularly in our top five nonfiction, but Dr. Davis’s charges against wheat, particularly heavily cross-bred hybrid wheat, have struck a chord with customers, and it doesn’t hurt that Davis practices in the Milwaukee area.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
2. Ash Wednesday, by Harol Eppley
3. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
4. Fifty Shades Darker, by E.L. James
5. Reternity, by Neal Wooten

Neal Wooten’s Reternity is being read by one of our in-store book clubs, and it’s also gotten some nice reviews. Kirkus noted that “an earnest coming-of-age tale as well as an inventive look at the contested borderland between science and faith.” Read the rest of the review here. On trend with this blur between adult and kids’ books, Ingram classified it as an adult novel, but Kirkus reviewed it as a teen novel.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Truck Food Cookbook, by John T. Edge
2. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
3. There are Things I Want You to Know about Stieg Larsson and Me, by Eva Gabrielsson
4. Uprising, by John Nichols
5. Arrested Development, by David Couper

This list is a nice mix of event memories and ones to come. Nichols appears at Boswell tomorrow, May 21, 7 pm, and Gabrielsson is on Wednesday, June 6, 7 pm. This New York Times piece shows how the Stieg Larsson trilogy connects with the rest of his life. (link here).

Books for Kids:
1. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
2. Insurgent, by Veronica Roth
3. Divergent, by Veronica Roth
4. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
5. I am Number Four, by Pittacus Lore

We had some large school orders this week; sometimes its hard to separate the bulk from the individual demand. But both groups of people were excited about Veronica Roth’s newly released sequel to Divergent. Kirkus states that “anyone who read the first book was dying for this one months ago; they'll hardly be able to wait for the concluding volume.”

Also in the Journal Sentinel Cue book page, there’s a nice profile of Jesmyn Ward from Carolyn Kellogg (yes, the same person who reviewed Albright) plus Carole E. Barrowman’s new mystery column featuring:
--Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby, by Ace Atkins
--The Lost Ones, by Ace Atkins
--Getaway, by Lisa Brackman
--Fallen Angels, by Connie Dial.

Barrowman notes that both Atkins novels succeed, offering high praise. Sharon will second that, at least on the Parker.