Sunday, May 30, 2021

Boswell bestsellers! Week ending May 29, 2021

Boswell Bestsellers! It's for the week ending May 29, 2021.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
2. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
3. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. While Justice Sleeps, by Stacey Abrams
5. The Blacktongue Thief, by Christopher Buehlman (Register for June 9 event here)
6. At the End of the World, Turn Left, by Zhanna Slor
7. The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz
8. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab
9. Send for Me, by Lauren Fox
10. The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah

The Plot is Jean Hanff Korelitz's eighth novel, her first moving with Jamie Raab and Deb Futter to Celadon from Grand Central, and possibly its best recommendations, from Stephen King ("One of the best novels I've ever read about writers and writing") to Meghan Abbott ("Psychologically acute and breathtakingly suspenseful, you'll find yourself rushing towards a finale both astonishing and utterly earned." It's about a teacher/writer who appropriates a killer plotline from his now-dead student, and when someone starts sending threatening messages, attempts to expose the exposer. But I might have left out fifty or so twists.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Radical Awakening, by Shefali Tsabary
2. Shape, by Jordan Ellenberg (Register for June 2 event here)
3. Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green
4. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
5. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
6. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
7. The Secret to Superhuman Strength, by Alison Bechdel
8. The Bomber Mafia, by Malcolm Gladwell
9. Punch Me Up to the Gods, by Brian Broome
10. Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe

It's the fourth week of sale for The Secret to Superhuman Strength and the second week in our top ten. Per Shelf Awareness, graphic memoirist "Alison Bechdel approaches the subject of exercise in The Secret to Superhuman Strength with the same insatiable curiosity, interdisciplinary rumination and candid humor as she did with the earlier subjects of her parents in Fun Home (editor's note: the subject of a Broad musical) and Are You My Mother?" There's also a promotional video here. I think it might be for the British edition!

Paperback Fiction:
1. Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
2. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
3. The Kindred Spirits Supper Club, by Amy E Reichert
4. The People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
5. The Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
6. One by One, by Ruth Ware
7. The Door Behind a Door, by Yelena Moskovich
8. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St John Mandel
9. The Children's Bible, by Lydia Millet
10. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune

Jenny and I hosted an event for Jamie Pacton in conversation with Elise Bryant and one book they both loved was the former #1 bestseller The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. Angela Haupt talks about enjoying the romance even though you know how it ends in The Washington Post: "People is an excellent reminder that a familiar trajectory doesn’t erase the fun of the journey. The novel — a follow-up to last year’s well-loved Beach Read - is absorbing and entertaining. Henry isn’t aiming for originality: This is an updated version of When Harry Met Sally, which all these years later still sets the standard for friends who become lovers. She freshens it up with her signature wit, epic near misses and steamy longing that threatens to seep through the page, fogging the reader’s glasses"

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Minor Feelings, by Cathy Park Hong
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. Spirit Run, by Noe Alvarez
5. Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
6. Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
7. Best Lake Hikes Wisconsin, by Steve Johnson
8. People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
9. The Birdman of Koshkong, by Martha Bergland
10. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk

The author of Biking Wisconsin, Best Hikes Madison, Wisconsin, and Hiking Waterfalls in Minnesota (I guess Wisconsin doesn't have enough for a book, plus the author is a Minnesotan) has written Best Lake Hikes Wisconsin: A Guide to the State's Best Lake and River Hikes, a guide to either 56 (according to the table of contents) or almost 100 (guide to the copy) of the most scenic hikes in the state. I have done the Devil's Lake trail several times (both many years ago) - that's #50!

Books for Kids:
1. Black Enough, edited by Ibi Zoboi
2. American Betiya, by Anuradha D Rajurkar
3. Land of Permanent Goodbyes, by Atia Abawi
4. Peace Train, by Cat Stevens, with illustrations by Peter H Reynolds
5. Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley (Register for June 29 event here)
6. We Are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstrom, with illustrations by Michael Coade
7. City Spies V1, by James Ponti
8. Pet, by Matthew Van Fleet
9. Shady Baby, by Gabrielle Union-Wade and Dwyane Wade Jr, illustrated by Tara Nicole Whitaker
10. The Ones We're Meant to Find, by Joan He

It's the 50th anniversary of Peace Train, the beloved song from Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, and that means the lyrics have been turned into a picture book, illustrated by Peter H Reynolds. His statement to People Magazine: "I wrote these lyrics more than 50 years ago, and I know the words still boom as true and loud today as they did in the 1970s...It's incredible to see how Peter Reynolds has made the words jump into life in brilliant style for a new generation with his joysome illustrations." If you like these kinds of song adaptations, Akashic has a lot of them!

Jim Higgins offers a story on Lois Ehlert's life in the Journal Sentinel.

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