Sunday Bestseller Post--It Better Have Been Good, Because I've Been Too Crazy to Blog.

I'm sad to say I had my blog posts lined up for the week, but with one to two events per day (one day we had three, including two school visits), I've been simply too crazed to write.  Oh, and my hard drive crashed on Thursday. Yes, I had a little warning. But even though I can't yet access our inventory system on the new laptop, I have been able to run the lists at work and make sure our bestsellers went out as normal. Well, not quite normal for me--I feel late!

Hardcover fiction:
1. The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling
2. The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
3. Telegraph Avenue, by Michael Chabon
4. Sutton, by J.R. Moeringer, Jr.
5. This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz

It seems like we had a better sales pop on the new Louise Erdrich novel than we did for the last one. The Round House, sort of a sequel to The Plague of Doves, has had some phenomenal reviews, including Jane Ciabattari's in The Boston Globe:

"Each new Erdrich novel adds new layers of pathos and comedy, earthiness and spiritual questing, to her priceless multigenerational drama. “The Round House’’ is one of her best — concentrated, suspenseful, and morally profound."

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Film after Film, by J. Hoberman
2. America Again, by Stephen Colbert
3. Healing the Heart of Democracy, by Parker Palmer
4. Joseph Anton, by Salman Rushdie
5. Waging Heavy Peace, by Neil Young
6. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
7. Dearie, by Bob Spitz
8. I'm Your Man, by Sylvie Simmons
9. How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough
10. Building Stories, by Chris Ware (could go either way, right?)

There's a standup display of Stephen Colbert at our front door for his new book, , which reminded everyone of the last book, America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't, where someone sold our life-size Colbert out from under the booksellers' noses. Will it happen again? I hope not.

It is said that the success of Bob Dylan's Chronicles has unleashed a steady stream of confessional rock memoirs. Christopher Borrelli reviews the latest, Neil Young's Waging Heavy Peace in the Chicago Tribune. He calls it a big-hearted mess, but admits that any rock fan is going to read it, even if he or she has already plowed through the definitive bio, Shakey.

Paperback fiction:
1. Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out, by Stephan Pastis
2. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
3. Flight, by Sherman Alexie
4. The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides
5. The Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
6. The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes
7. The Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
8. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James

I went all the way to 8 because I wanted to note where Fifty Shades of Grey had fallen, and that's with no stock issues. I once again had some issues about where to put Stephan Pastis and his Pearls Freaks the #*%# Out--I'm never going to sell out and do "advice, how-to, and miscellaneous," mostly because I don't have to. So if you're going to play the fiction or nonfiction game with a comic strip, I have to vote for fiction.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Arguably, by Christopher Hitchens
2. Write a Thon, by Rochelle Melander (event is October 9)
3. Wisconsin Farm Lore, by Martin Hintz (event is October 15, at MPL rare books room)
4. The Swerve, by Stephen Greenblatt
5. Bossypants, by Tina Fey

Kind of a quiet week for this category, but most of the sales pop is from upcoming events, not current ones. We're up to four events this fall with History Press, including one with Robert Tanzilo (Historic Milwaukee Public Schoolhouses on November 12, last week's bestseller) and two with Paul Geenen (October 30 for Schuster's and Gimbels, and December 4 for Sherman Park).

Hardcover books for kids:
1. The Diviners, by Libba Bray
2. Heroes of Olympus: Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan
3. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by William Joyce
4. The Boxcar Children Beginnings: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm, by Patricia MacLachlan
5. The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie, by William Joyce

I'll be able to look at this bestseller list in the years to come and it will unlock a memory of really great events. The combination of Patricia MacLachlan, Libba Bray, and William Joyce is about as top notch as you're going to see at Boswell in one week, when it comes to kids' events. Can you imagine that I originaly said we wouldn't book anything this week, as I wanted to go to the Heartland Fall Forum? I'm sad I missed the show, but what a consolation prize!

Paperback books for kids:
1. Sarah Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
2. More Perfect than the Moon, by Patricia MacLachlan
3. Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray
4. Caleb's Story, by Patricia MacLachlan
5. Through Grandpa's Eyes, by Patricia MacLachlan

What can I say? Patricia MacLachlan has written a lot of beloved books.