The Late Post: Boswell bestsellers for the week ending May 20, 2017

Here's what last week's bestsellers were. Seems so long ago.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. There Your Heart Lies, by Mary Gordon
2. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
3. House of Names, by Colm Tóibin
4. Anything is Possible, by Elizabeth Strout
5. Men Without Women, by Haruki Murakami
6. Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins
7. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
8. Testimony, by Scott Turow (ticketed event June 25 at JCC)
9. Beartown, by Fredrik Backman
10. Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid

House of Names, the new novel from the beloved Colm Tóibin, is a retelling of Orestia. Alex Preston in The Guardian writes: "This is a novel that is a celebration of what novels can do. It gives us interiority, specificity, the in-between stuff that is the fabric of life. We see everything that happens off stage in the plays, and this is what really interests us. It’s not just the violence, which famously takes place out of sight of the audience, but the form of the novel allows Tóibín to delve deeply into the inner lives of his characters, to give shape to their everyday worlds."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Chuck Klosterman X, by Chuck Klosterman
2. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
3. Eat, Move, Sleep, by Tom Rath
4. The Physics of Everyday Things, by James Kakalios
5. Option B, by Sheryl Sandber (ticketed event June 5 at Riverside)
6. Ernest Hemingway, by Mary V. Dearborn
7. This Fight Is Our Fight, by Elizabeth Warren
8. Janesville, by Amy Goldstein
9. The Book of Joy, by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Abrams
10. Hallelujah Anyway, by Anne Lamott

Ernest Hemingway by Mary V. Dearborn has a nice pop in sales. Elaine Showalter in The New York Times Book Review said: "Her chief asset as a female biographer, she insists, is her immunity to the hairy-chested, competitive Hemingway legend. Dearborn wants to opt out of the legend business and focus instead on 'what formed this remarkably complex man and brilliant writer.'”

Paperback Fiction
1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon
2. Arrow: The Dark Archer, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
3. World Without End, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
4. Lost City Radio, by Daniel Alarcón
5. The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma (event June 2, 7 pm, at Nigerian Cultural Community Center)
6. The Alchemist, 25th anniversary edition, by Paulo Coelho
7. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
8. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
9. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
10. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah

Did you hear that Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale, has a new hardcover coming in February 2018. Here's what St. Martin's has to say about The Great Alone: "In 1974, when thirteen-year-old Leni Allbright’s volatile, unpredictable father, Ernt, a former POW, loses another job, he makes an impulsive, desperate decision: he will move the family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the land in a spectacular wilderness." I don't believe things go well. Note to my sisters--sounds familiar, right? And yes, you can place a hold to pick it up from Boswell in 9 months.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Death from the Skies, by Philip Platt
2. Microstyle, by Christopher Johnson
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be, by Frank Bruni
5. The Physics of Superheroes, by James Kakalios
6. White Trash, by Nancy Isenberg
7. Milwaukee Frozen Custard, by Kathleen McCann and Robert Tanzilo
8. Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee, by Thomas Fehring
9. Unshakeable Confidence, by Mare Chapman
10. Secondhand Time, by Svetlana ALexievich

It's graduation season, and even in it's second year in paperback, Frank Bruni's Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be is calling to gift givers, and this bears out on the metro level, as the book also had a good pop on the Bookscan Milwaukee list. I assume these books also lead to additional requests to speak at commencement. Here's Bruni at Johns Hopkins for the 2017 ceremony.

Books for Kids:
1. Hollow Earth V1, by John and Carole E. Barrowman
2. Margaret and the Moon, by Dean Robbins, with illustrations by Lucy Knisley
3. Bone Quill V2, by John and Carole E. Barrowman
4. The Conjuror, by John and Carole E. Barrowman
5. The Book of Beasts V3, by John and Carole E. Barrowman
6. Great Trouble, by Deborah Hopkinson
7. Trash, by Andy Mulligan
8. Life Like Mine, from DK
9. Miss Paul and the President, by Dean Robbins
10. Ancient Civilizations, from DK

While the Barrowman sibs' Hollow Earth Trilogy was for middle graders, their most recent book for kids, The Conjuror, is for the YA market. Here's what the publisher has to say: "There are three things in this world that 17-year-old Remy would guard with his life: his gold pendant, his blues harmonica, and his mother's journal. This is all he has left of his murdered family. And he believes these objects will lead him to their killers. Remy can't hunt them down alone. He needs Matt and Em Calder, twins who can bring art to life and travel through paintings. For, like them, Remy has supernatural powers. He is a Conjuror, descendant of an ancient bloodline that can change reality with music." On to next week's list!