Sunday Post--What Sold at Boswell for the Week Ending July 21, 2012.

I spent Sunday at the Chicago gift show, and while I was tempted to take my laptop, I realized that 1) it would be very heavy and 2) I would likely at least one of my precious hours working on the blog, when I should be finding ornaments, lunch bags, and that vendor with the wooden trees from Germany that we had in 2010. So now it's pretty late and I can't remember why we sold anything.

Hardcover fiction:
1. Gold, by Chris Cleave
2. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
3. Fallen Angel, by Daniel Silva
4. Canada, by Richard Ford
5. Redshirts, by John Scalzi

Gone Girl is on fire, with all the enthusiasm she generated before publication translating into amazing word of mouth building on great reviews. Now Tana French's fourth novel, Broken Harbor, just got a rave in the New York Times too, and she was sort of one of our Flynn comparisons. We'll see if they are battling it out next week.

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Barack Obama: The Story, by David Maraniss
2. The Good Food Revolution, by Will Allen
3. Bushville Wins, by John Klima
4. The Price of Inequality, by Joseph Stiglitz
5. The Passage of Power, by Robert Caro

I guess when it comes to this category, boys rule this week. Jason spotted Will Allen at the Fox Point farmers market last Saturday, and we also noticed he did a two-hour signing at B&N. I suspect more is to come. We were also remiss in noting that Klima wound up signing at the Milwuakee County Historical Society last week. Hope interested parties caught the notice in the Shepherd Express.

Paperback fiction:
1. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
2. Pryme Knumber, by Matt Flynn
3. The Devil all the Time, by Donald Ray Pollock
4. The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach
5. Incendiary, by Chris Cleave

Nice to see a pop at Chris Cleave's event for Incendiary. The London Telegraph noted: "The eloquence of Cleave’s heroine is equal to the atrocity that claims her family. She is by turns funny, sad, flawed, sympathetic, both damaged and indomitable, and triumphantly convincing." We have signed copies.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Clemente, by David Maraniss
2. F for Effort, by Richard Benson
3. When Pride Still Mattered, by David Maraniss
4. Rome 1960, by David Maraniss
5. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

Can this possibly be a true answer from a high school test?
Q: Fossil fuels are usually associated with which major type of rock?
A: Classic rock
I suspect some of our customers could do their own version of F for Effort, the sequel to F in Exams.

Books for kids:
1. All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon
2. Think Big, by Liz Garton Scanlon
3. Noodle and Lou, by Liz Garton Scanlon
4. A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes, by Liz Garton Scanlon
5. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins

Guess what we did this weekend? Yes, Liz Garton Scanlon led a picture book workshop for SCBWI. It pays to join! I only came in at the tail end, but learned some interesting details on what I writer can do to have the best kids' book possible. Her new picture book, Think Big, is sort of a wish book for kids on unleashing creativity. Vanessa Brantley Newton's illustrations mesh well with Scalon's rhymes to help us travel into a world of art, music, theater, and craft. Did I mention that as a child, I was obsessed with potter's wheels? I learned in college that it's harder than it looks. We have signed copies of both Think Big and Noodle and Lou, the next best thing to their having been a public component to the program.