Hardcover fiction:1. Redshirts, by John Scalzi (event is Monday, January 11, reserve a signed copy)
2. The Green Shore, by Natalie Bakopoulos
3. Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
4. Sacré Bleu, by Christopher Moore
5. Amped, by Daniel H. Wilson
Amped is the new novel by the author of the bestselling Robopocalypse. Select human beings are implanted with a device that makes them superhuman. Then the government passes a measure that controls their movement, just as our hero, Owen Gray, is implanted, sending him on the run. Hey, this reminds me a bit of Drew Magary's The Postmortal, from last year.
Hardcover nonfiction:1. The Good Food Revolution, by Will Allen
2. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
3. Swerve, by Stephen Greenblatt
4. House of Stone, by Anthony Shadid
5. Eat and Run, by Scott Jurek with Steve Freidman
Eat & Run is the new book from not the writer but one of the characters in Christopher McDougall's bestselling Born to Run. Jurek speaks much about the plant-based diet that drives him. His veganism contradicts accepted wisdom about protein-heavy eating for athletes.
Paperbgack fiction:1. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
2. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
3. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
4. Fifty Shades Darker, by E.L. James
5. Fifty Shades Freed, by E.L. James
This reminds me a bit of the old days when the New York Times bestseller list would be filled with Garfield comic strip anthologies, which even stranger, they categorized as nonfiction. It is said that this was why the NYT separated out advice, how-to, and miscelleaneous from traditional nonfiction. But it's nice to know that at least two writers can outmaneuver the James juggernaut, leading us to without a special erotica bestseller list for at least another week.
Coming in at #7 is Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending. Most indies I spoke to decried the early release of this paperback. Our thoughts are that with the Man Booker Prize in hand, this novel would not be forgotten with a twelve-month lifespan instead of eight. But regarding keeping hardcovers when the paperback comes out, this is a clear case where it's a worthy endeavor. The problems are twofold: 1) inclination to return 2) inclination not to reorder. And how does one decide what book is worthy? Jason and I are going to work on this.
Paperback nonfiction:1. There are Things I Want You to Know About Sieg Larsson, by Eva Gabrielsson
2. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
3. Uprising, by John Nichols
4. Unlikely Frienships, by Jennifer Holland
5. Death in the City of Light, by David King
Interestingly enough, Larson's Devil in the White City had a sales pop this week, at the same time that David King's Death in the City of Light hit our bestseller list, which appears to be a conceptual melding of Larson's two hits. Like Devil, Kirk's book follows a serial killer through an unrelated history event. Like Garden of Beasts, that event is the rise of the Nazis. The Daily Beast called King's work "richly reported and engagingly written." I think we also had a good read from Jason on it, but I'm not positive.
Books for kids:1. Tall Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz
2. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
3. The Search for Wondla, by Tony DiTerlizzi
4. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
5. Ghostopolis, by Doug Tennapel
DiTerlizzi, who was previously best known as the illustrator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, has borken out with his new series, now in paperback. In The Search for Wondla, Eva Nine is forced to abandon her underground sanctuary, now destroyed. She knows that other humans exist because of a scrap of paper she has, but can she find any? The second volume, A Hero for WondLa, is now out in paperback. And needless to say, the illustrations are great too.
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