Sunday, April 28, 2019

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 27, 2019

Boswell Bestsellers, week ending April 27, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Leading Men, by Christopher Castellani
2. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
3. Courting Mr Lincoln, by Louis Bayard (event Thu May 2, 7 pm, at Boswell)
4. Machines Like Me, by Ian McEwan
5. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
6. Neon Prey (Lucas Davenport V29), by John Sandford
7. Circe, by Madeline Miller
8. The Parade, by Dave Eggers
9. The Current, by Tim Johnston
10. The Parisian, by Isabella Hammad

Mary Ann Gwinn in the Seattle Times talks to Ian McEwan about Machines Like Me: "Ian McEwan’s new novel is set in an alternate version of the late 20th century, when many things we hope for and fear have already happened. Electric cars are commonplace, and so is rising unemployment, thanks to the increasing presence of artificial intelligence in the workplace."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Italian Table, by Elizabeth Minchilli
2. Nanaville, by Anna Quindlen (event Tue Apr 30 at Wilson Center - tickets here)
3. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
4. Quaint, Exquisite, by Grace Lavery
5. The Second Mountain, by David Brooks
6. Educated, by Tara Westover
7. Everything in Its Place, by Oliver Sacks
8. Lessons from Lucy, by Dave Barry
9. The End of Ice, by Dahr Jamail
10. Working, by Robert A Caro

Marc Freedman reviews The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, by David Brooks, in The Washington Post. He writes: "Brooks, one of the most influential columnists of our time, tells a compelling redemption story. He takes us on his journey up the first mountain of outward success and professional achievement, down to the valley of midlife divorce and doubt, then on to a second mountaintop, this one characterized by commitment and community, love and connection."

Paperbacks Fiction:
1. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
3. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
4. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
5. Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
6. Milwaukee Noir, by Tim Hennessy (event at Boswell Tue May 7, 7 pm)
7. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
8. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
9. A Discovery of Witches (V1), by Deborah Harkness
10. The Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles

Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan had a nice pop on the Midwest Independent bestseller list, which is based on Bookscan reports from stores from the MIBA (Midwest) and GLIBA (Great Lakes) trade regions. Edgyan's novel was named a top 10 book of the year by New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, and Slate. Renée Graham wrote in The Boston Globe: "Every story about slavery is ultimately about freedom - its absence, the hunger for it, and how we define what it means to be truly free. That elusive yearning propels Esi Edugyan’s soaring new novel, Washington Black. More than a tale of human bondage, it’s also an enthralling meditation on the weight of freedom, wrapped in a rousing adventure story stretching to the ends of the earth.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Keep Going, by Austin Kleon
2. Strong Is the New Pretty, by Kate T Parker
3. The Heart of a Boy, by Kate T Parker
4. Living and Dying on the Factory Floor, by David Ranney
5. The Milwaukee Anthology, edited by Justin Kern
6. The Mueller Report, US Department of Justice and the Washington Post (Scribner)
7. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
8. Born a Crime, by Noah Trevor
9. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
10. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann

The first of the Mueller Report editions hit our bestseller this week, the Scribner edition was commentary from The Washington Post. There are at least two more - from Melville House and Skyhorse. Here's Ben Kesling in The Wall Street Journal discussing the publication. First to market with print editions, however, were several stores with print-on-demand machines, including Harvard Bookstore.

Books for Kids:
1. Sweeping Up the Heart, by Kevin Henkes
2. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal, by Jeff Kinney
3. A Parade of Elephants, by Kevin Henkes
4. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
5. Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes, by Pamela Cameron, with illustrations by Renée Graef
6. Kitten's First Full Moon board book, by Kevin Henkes
7. Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina
8. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Fred Rogers, with illustrations by Luke Flowers
9. Darius the Great Is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram
10. Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants (exclusive bookstore edition), by Andrea Beaty

We're not doing a public event with Paula Cameron and Renée Graef for Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes, but they will be visiting several area schools for Boswell. The public event in the area is at the North Point Lighthouse on Sunday, May 12, 1 pm. More on the Wisconsin Historical Society website.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins reviews Milwaukee Noir, the new anthology edited by Tim Hennessy. He notes: "If the persistent drip-drip-drip of stories, slogans and #hashtags about how great Milwaukee is supposed to be leaves you feeling grumpy, then Milwaukee Noir is a book for you. Luxuriate in the seedy, wallow in the angry, and shiver at the horrors that surely await you around the corner."

Originally from the Arizona Republic, Barbara VandenBurgh reviews Normal People, the hot second novel from Sally Rooney: "Everything feels so important when you’re a teenager, every misstep and mistake catastrophic and world-ending. The world, of course, rarely ends in high school, even when you desperately wish it to. And two young people from different social and economic castes desperately wish it to in Normal People, after an intense sexual affair comes to an ignominious end.

Hey, this is a cool program!

The Risk of Us, by Rachel Howard, is reviewed by Kim Curtis. This, from the Associated Press (via the Worcester Telegram): "With breathtaking brevity, Rachel Howard’s debut novel, The Risk of Us, illuminates the joys, challenges, fears and frustrations of adopting a foster child. And while she delves into the minutiae of “the system” and the differences of opinion about parenting styles, her deceptively thin volume is about much more than plunging into parenthood."

And that's our week!

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