Boswell's Insanely Footnoted Weekly Bestseller Lists, for the Period Ending August 30, 2014.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny
2. Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher
3. Colorles Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami
4. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
5. Written in My Own Heart's Blood, by Diana Gabaldon
6. The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd
7. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
8. The Serpent of Venice, by Christopher Moore
9. Strange Shore, by Arnaldur Indridason
10. Bark, by Lorrie Moore

1) The Long Road Home sold about much in a week as we sold life of book of 2009's release (editor's note: I clarified this), and I was very impressed then.
5) The resurgence of Written in My Own Heart's Blood is likely do to the Outlander series on Starz.
6) Just noticed that The Invention of Wings is not coming out on the winter Penguin list. This book is having a very nice, long sales track.
7) All the Light We Cannot See is a prime example of a publisher sticking by an author and an author sticking by a publisher. You just don't see that so much anymore.
10) Speaking of long sales tracks, Bark has been doing just fine. We've only had one month to date (June, oddly) where we didn't sell at least 3 copies. We're probably going to break 100 copies on this, and at least 1/4 of that will be after the event.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Way Forward, by Paul Ryan
2. David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
3. The Organized Mind, by Daniel J. Levitin
4. In the Kingdom of Ice, by Hampton Sides
5. How Not to be Wrong, by Jordan Ellenberg
6. The End of Absence, by Michael Harris
7. Milwaukee: Then and Now, by Sandra Ackerman
8. The Mockingbird Next Door, by Marja Mills
9. Another Great Day at Sea, by Geoff Dyer
10. Against Football, by Steve Almond

1) Another year, another Wisconsin politician's platform. The Way Forward has a good pop on this week's list.
3) The Organized Mind debuts at #2 on The New York Times bestseller list
6) The End of Absence written up in new and noteworthy blog post (as was Levitin).
8) Marja Mills event for The Mockingbird Next Door on Thursday, September 4, 7 pm. Hersheys Kisses will be served
9) Here's Jim Higgins' review of Another Great Day at Sea in the Journal Sentinel from earlier this summer. It's Dyer's bestselling hardcover at Boswell of his last four books.
10) Our buyer Jason's a huge fan of Against Football. His first nonfiction work since Candyfreak, I think. Hector Tobar pits Against Football against Why Football Matters in the Chicago Tribune. He says both books are excellent!

Paperback Fiction:
1. Old Filth, by Jane Gardam
2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
3. The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy
4. The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
5. Five Star Billionaire, by Tash Aw
6. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
7. Saving Kandinsky, by Mary Basson
8 The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion
9. Augustus, by John Williams
10. Tenth of December, by George Saunders

1) In-store Lit Group discussion for Old Filth on Monday, October 6, 7 pm
3) We finally got Jane to read The Illusion of Separateness. Guess what? She loved it. Our event is Tuesday, September 30, 7 pm, at Boswell.
5) In-store Lit Group discussion for Five Star Billionaire on Monday, November 3, 7 pm
6) By being nominated, let alone winning, just about every science fiction award there is, we should be telling every person who steps within ten feet of the science fiction and fantasy cases about Ancillary Justice. 
8) The sequel to The Rosie Project is officially on the Simon and Schuster schedule. The Rosie Effect goes on sales December 30, 2014.
9) Our buyer Jason says Augustus is the best John Williams--way better than Stoner. Them's fighting words.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Shakespeare with Hearing Aids, by Nick Weber
2. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
3. Strength for the Struggle, by Joseph Ellwanger
4. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
5. The Food Lover's Guide to Wisconsin, by Martin Hintz
6. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
7. Dear Mrs. Griggs, by Genevieve McBride and Stephen R. Byers
8. Studying Wisconsin, by Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes
9. 1000 Places to See Before You Die, 2nd edition, by Patricia Schultz
10. Cat Sense, by John Bradshaw

2) Movie release date for Unbroken is December 25
5) I can't figure out why The Food Lovers' Guide to Wisconsin has been popping over the past few weeks. It came out in January; here's Bobby Tanzilo's interview with Martin Hintz in OnMilwaukee.com
6) Movie release date for Wild is December 5.
7) McBride and Byers appear for Dear Mrs. Griggs for Shorewood Historical Society, Shorewood Public Library Community Room, Monday, October (corrected date), 6, 7 pm. Note: this book is now available for puchase on our website.

Books for Kids:
1. Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of Turbo Toilet 2000, by Dav Pilkey
2. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book, by Eric Carle
4. Fiona's Lace, by Patricia Polacco
5. Four: A Divergent Collection, by Veronica Roth
6. Pout Pout Fish Goes to School, by Deborah Diesen and Daniel X. Hanna
7. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
8. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger
9. Divergent, by Veronica Roth
10. Pout Pout Fish, by Deborah Diesen and Daniel X. Hanna

1) Captain Underpants and the mystery of no books between 2006 and 2012. Welcome back. We're obviously happy about your return to form and I appreciate the opportunity to practice spelling "tyrannical" and "retaliation"; I have trouble with both.
4) Fiona's Lace Event for Patricia Polacco on Thusday, September 11, 7 pm at Boswell
6) Pout Pout Fish Goes to School storytime event with Diesen and Hanna on 9/18, 4 pm, at Oak Creek Library
8) Tom Angleberger at Boswell on Sunday, September 14, 3 pm, at Boswell for Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus.
9) Not sure why we're all Veronica Rothed out. I expected to see Gayle Forman's If I Stay again. He film had an A- CinemaScore, per the Hollywood Reporter.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer reviews The Bone Clocks, which is released on September 2. I had no idea how intricately connected Mitchell's work is. Needless to say, I read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet as a stand-alone. Fischer writes: "It's a sign of his ambition and a tribute to his ability that Mitchell's own all-encompassing historical tour--spanning 10 centuries and six continents, with one character even hailing from Milwaukee--insistently prompts such questions. We may each just be bone clocks, ticking down toward death. But characters like Holly remind us that we live on through our stories--and that how we tell them as well as who they touch will inevitably shape the stories to come."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, Jon M. Gilbertson reviews The History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs, by Greil Marcus. From the review: "Creating several counternarratives and defining rock 'n' roll in myriad ways, including as "a seemingly newly discovered form of speech," Marcus springs free of linearity and chases associations across decades and from music to books, movies and other art forms that 'at once raise the question of what rock 'n' roll is and answer it.'"

And from Hillel Italie in the Associated Press, a round-up of highly waited fall books, including Neil Patrick Harris's Choose Your Own Autobiography, Lena Dunahm'sNot That Kind of Girl (her tour is set to already be sold out) and Walter Isaacson's The Innovators. It's clear from this piece that fiction seems to be a footnote to nonfiction this fall. We'll see how it shapes up.  It's not linked in the Journal Sentinel so here's the piece in the Wisconsin Gazette, along with more info about works-from-the-dead by Dick Francis and Sidney Sheldon.