Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 24, 2021 - reading for vacation about people on vacation and more

Who's selling what? Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 24, 2021

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Shoulder Season, by Christina Clancy
2. The Book of Accidents, by Chuck Wendig (Register for July 28 event here)
3. The Forest of Vanishing Stars, by Kristin Harmel (Tickets for July 26 event here)
4. The Comfort of Monsters, by Willa C Richards
5. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
6. The Sweetness of Water, by Nathan Harris
7. Razorblade Tears, by SA Cosby
8. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
9. Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
10. The Paper Palace, by Miranda Cowley Heller

It's the second week in the top 10 for Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace, a summer novel, in which you are sitting at your summer place reading a book about someone else sitting at their summer place, only they are having an affair or something, from a former series development executive at HBO. From Publishers Weekly: "In Heller’s captivating debut, a woman’s visit to her family’s summer home on Cape Cod forces her to make a momentous decision ... When the details are revealed later on, they put the somber mood of the first half in a new light."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. I Alone Can Fix It, by Carol Leoning and Philip Rucker
2. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
3. This Is Your Mind on Plants, by Michael Pollan
4. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
5. Verge, by Patrick Wyman
6. Noise, by Daniel Kahneman
7. Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green
8. Landslide, by Michael Wolff
9. How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith
10. The Sound of the Sea, by Cynthia Barnett

Washington Post reporters Carol Leoning and Philip Rucker have a good first week with I Alone Can Fix It, a sequel, of sorts, to A Very Stable Genius - it outsold by a strong margin last week's Landslide, from Michael Wolff. But wow, nothing will beat that first Michael Wolff book. Dwight Garner reviewed them both in The New York Times, but wound up liking Landslide better, noting: "Wolff is a sometimes-mocked figure in the worlds of journalism and politics. He’s been accused of being less than diligent in his fact-checking. He’s been ticketed for careless writing violations. These complaints are valid, up to a point. But Landslide is a smart, vivid and intrepid book. He has great instincts. I read it in two or three sittings."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
2. The People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
3. Tropical Lung, by Roberto Harrison
4. Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
5. Anxious People, by Fredrick Backman
6. Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
7. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
8. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
9. Adventure Zone: Crystal Kingdom, by Clint McElroy and Sons
10. What the Chickadee Knows, by Margaret Noodin

It is unusual to have two poetry books in our top ten, and even more unusual when they are both locals, and there's no event currently involved. I've already said a bit about Margaret Noodin's What the Chickadee Knows, so I'll give a shout out to Roberto Harrison's Tropical Lung which is sometimes written as Tropical Lung: Exi(s)t(s), though the book jacket doesn't have the subtitle. Gabriel Ojeda-Sague writes: "I am incredibly thankful for this new book of poetry, prose, and drawing from the great Latino surrealist and one of the most generous and generative voices in poetry today, Roberto Harrison (a former Milwaukee Poet Laureate). In Tropical Lung, Harrison redoubles his commitment to sewing together the animal, the land, the human, the climate, and the technological. With sleight-of-hand and dense runic images, this book leads its reader into ‘the anti-silence of the Amazon,’ where we may just find a better way to belong. To think clearly in unclear sound is Harrison’s persistent aspiration, and the addition of Tropical Lung to his rich body of work brings this aspiration closer to reality for all of us.”

Paperback Nonfiction
1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
3. 111 Places in Milwaukee that You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden
4. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
5. Dignity, by Donna Hicks
6. The Golden Thread, by Kassia St Clair
7. Undocumented Americans, by Karla Cornejo Villavalvicencio
8. Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee, by Jennifer Billock
9. Epic Hikes of the World, by Lonely Planet
10. Fresh From Poland, by Michal Korkosz

We had a lot of orders for schools and nonprofits this week and while I sometimes mix in these quantities with our bestsellers, in one case they crowded out all the new books, making the list sort of meaningless. But by taking the large ones out, it left some of the lists a little thin, especially paperback nonfiction, which generally has the lowest bestseller numbers of the five we track. But being that Epic Hikes of the World has now hit the lower reaches of the top 10 twice, it seems like a good time to give it a shout out. It's stories about 50 incredible hikes in 30 countries, and there's no question that it's selling because it's on Rose's recommendation shelf. I found a review of the hardcover on the Social Hiker website: "The book is beautifully illustrated and makes a perfect coffee table book for yourself or the aspiring adventurer in your life."

Books for Kids:
1. Mightier Than the Sword, by Rochelle Melander (Register for July 27 event here)
2. Attack on Pearl Harbor, by Kate Messner
3. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr
4. Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley
5. The Ones We're Meant to Find, by Joan He
6. Absolutely Emma, by Amy Webb
7. When Charley Met Emma, by Amy Webb
8. Clash, by Kayla Miller
9. The Land of Permanent Goodbyes, Atia Abawi
10. Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo

Back in May, Jenny Chou interviewed Joan He for her YA novel The Ones We're Meant to Find, which is in our top ten this week. Jenny calls it "spectacularly twisty" and compares it to We Were Liars. You can read her interview on The Boswellians. Plus Nathalie DeFelice in The Nerd Daily: "If you’re looking for a deeply atmospheric book that has serious Studio Ghibli vibes, then you’re going to want to drop everything and read The Ones We’re Meant to Find. It’s a stunning masterpiece that not only showcases Joan He’s incredible writing versatility, but this new world she’s created will be one that readers won’t soon forget."

Two book features in the Journal Sentinel this week. First up is Jim Higgins's profile of Rochelle Melander's latest. From Higgins: "Mightier Than the Sword features many writers an adult reader would expect to see in such a book, including activist Helen Keller, novelist-essayist James Baldwin and playwright William Shakespeare. But this inclusive book also introduces readers to Sequoyah, creator of the syllabary that made reading and writing in Cherokee possible; Cece Bell, who drew on her own experiences as a deaf child to create the graphic novel El Deafo; and Dave the Potter (David Drake), who inscribed verses on the ceramic pots he made as a slave."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, Victoria Magee profiles Genesee Depot native Greta Kelly, whose first book Frozen Crown series came out in January and the second, The Seventh Queen, comes out in November. Kelly talks about being influenced by classic fantasy and war movies.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending July 17, 2021

Here's what's selling at Boswell

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Comfort of Monsters, by Willa C Richards
2. Shoulder Season, by Christina Clancy
3. The Cellist, by Daniel Silva
4. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. The Final Girl Support Group, by Grady Hendrix
6. Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
7. All the Lonely People, by Mike Gayle (Register for July 22 event here)
8. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
9. Night Came with Many Stars, by Simon Van Booy (Ask for your signed bookplate - coming soon)
10. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
11. The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
12. Razorblade Tears, by SA Cosby (Register for July 20 event here)

I'm not sure how many staff recommendations we have for The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but it's enough, and duplicated at enough others stores that Hendrix jumped from Quirk to Berkley for the latest, The Final Girl Support Group, which has this clever tagline: "In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives… but what happens after?" Boswellian Madi Hill notes that "Hendrix's style is so much fun but surprisingly tense, perfect for the horror fan who doesn't take themselves too seriously." Barbara VanDenBurgh in USA Today writes: "Final Girl indulges but doesn’t coast on nostalgia, and is itself a page-turning thriller with survival on the line."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
2. This Is Your Mind on Plants, by Michael Pollan
3. Landslide, by Michael Wolff
4. How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith
5. Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner
6. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
8. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders
9. Hola Papi, by John Paul Brammer
10. Subpar Parks, by Amber Share

New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecelia Kang, part of the team that received a Pulitzer for their work, now have a book inspired by their reporting on Facebook - An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination is based on over 400 interviews. John Naughton reviewed the book for The Guardian, and after reading more about it, one begins to see Facebook as a successful version of WeWork, at least from the perspective of the founder (I just read The Wall Street Journal story where Neuman was projecting a $10 trillion valuation). Naughton notes: "The co-authors’ exhumation of these ghastly skeletons makes for gripping as well as depressing reading."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Adventure Zone V4: Crystal Kingdom, by Clint McElroy
2. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
3. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
4. Hamnet, by Maggie O"Farrell
5. The People We Meet on Vacation, by Emiliy Henry
6. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
7. Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
8. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
9. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix
10. Rachel to the Rescue, by Elinor Lipman (Register for July 19 event here)

 
I'm going to use copy again to explain Adventure Zone: "Based on the blockbuster podcast where the McElroy brothers and their dad play a tabletop RPG (role-playing game) and illustrated by cartooning powerhouse Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom takes this #1 New York Times bestselling series to haunting new heights." And to be clear, there are actually four writers and an illustrator - Clint McElroy does this with his three sons, Griffin, Justin, and Travis, plus the illustrator is Carey Pietsch. To be even clearer, this book gets shunted to graphic novels/comics for bestseller lists, but it outsold all the traditional fiction this week. More details: 1) Loosely Based on Dungeons and Dragons 2) You can listen to the podcast here 3) It's going to be a streaming series on NBC's Peacock.

 

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, by Anna Lardinois
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
4. My Grandmother's Hands, by Resmaa Menakem
5. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, by Yuval Noah Harari
6. Memorable Milwaukee, by Darlene Rzezotarski
7. Michelin North America Road Atlas 2022
8. Lonely Planet Epic Hikes of the World
9. The Vapors, by David Hill
10. Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

As I was looking for an interesting narrative nonfiction book to read for our In-Store Lit Group, I came upon The Vapors, David Hill's history of Hot Springs, Arkansas, once in contention to be the Las Vegas of the South, and we're not talking about the family-friendly magic shows. The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America's Forgotten Capital of Vice is a New York Times notable book of the year. From the starred Publishers Weekly: "Expertly interweaving family memoir, Arkansas politics, and Mafia lore, Hill packs the story full of colorful characters and hair-raising events. This novelistic history hits the jackpot."

Books for Kids:
1. Curious George First Day of School, by Margaret Rey
2. The Night Before First Grade, by Natasha Wing
3. Merriam Webster Elementary Dictionary
4. Mightier than the Sword, by Rochelle Melander (Register for July 27 event here)
5. The Assignment, by Liza Wiemer
6. Any Way the Wind Blows, by Rainbow Rowell
7. Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angeline Boulley
8. Dog Man: Mothering Heights, by Dav Pilkey
9. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom board book, by Bill Martin Jr/Lois Ehlert
10. The Bad Guys in Cut to the Chase, by Aaron Blabey

Curious George First Day of School was published (I think!) in 2005, well after both H.A. (1977) and Margaret Rey (1996) passed away. I thought maybe the writer of the book would appear on the copyright page, but no, just the illustrator of this edition, Anna Grossnickle Hines. But this led me to the question, what exactly did HarperCollins buy when they bought the trade division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They will likely sell the Curious George books. But did they buy the rights to Curious George? Did they buy The American Heritage Dictionary or just the right to sell the trade edition? I have no clue.

 
Up next, weekly event roundup

Boswell bestsellers - week ending July 10, 2021

Here's what's selling at Boswell - week ending July 10, 2021

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Shoulder Season, by Christina Clancy
2. The Forest of Vanishing Stars, by Kristin Harmel (Register for July 26 event here)
3. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
4. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. The Paper Palace, by Miranda Cowley Heller
6. The Witness for the Dead, by Katherine Addison
7. Razorblade Tears, by SA Cosby (Register for July 20 event here)
8. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
9. The Paris Library, by Janet Skeslien Charles
10. The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Libraries are the new bookstores, at least when it comes to subject matter! With three library-themed novels in our top ten, we probably should give a nod to The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I'm not sure it took me until now to realize that Marie Benedict was a pseudonym for fiction writer Heather Terrell. I can thank Karen Grisby Bates for that revelation, as well as this great review on NPR: "Benedict, who is white, and Murray, who is African American, do a good job of depicting the tightrope Belle walked, and her internal conflict from both sides — wanting to adhere to her mother's wishes and move through the world as white even as she longed to show her father she was proud of her race. Like Belle and her employer, Benedict and Murray had almost instant chemistry, and as a result, the book's narrative is seamless. And despite my aversion to the passing trope, I became hooked."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee
2. Stories to Tell, by Richard Marx
3. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
4. How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith
5. This Is Your Mind on Plants, by Michael Pollan
6. Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten House, by Nicholas D Hayes
7. Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green
8. Somebody's Daughter, by Ashley C Ford
9. The Comfort Book, by Matt Haig
10. Untamed, by Glennon Doyle

With The Midnight Library regularly in our top 5 (and that's true for the national bestseller lists too) and How to Stop Time also seeing a sales resurgence, it's a great time for Matt Haig's latest nonfiction title, The Comfort Book. Up until his latest novel, his most popular book was a similarly packaged-to-this nonfiction title, Reasons to Stay Alive. It's got a yay from Booklist ("This is a book we all need and deserve") and a nay from Kirkus (not bothering to quote). Haig was just profiled in Entertainment Weekly by Seija Rankin, where he gives a shout out to my 6-days-a-week breakfast, toast and peanut butter*.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
2. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
3. Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
4. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
5. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
6. One Last Stop, by Casey McQuiston
7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
8. The People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
9. Woman 99, by Greer Macallister
10. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune

I shouldn't call Anxious People Fredrik Backman's comeback novel, but it was by far his most successful for both us, and if you look at chart performance at least, nationally, since A Man Called Ove. Our rec from Kira (now resettled in Utah) offered this praise: "His ability to really put into writing all of the facets of human nature, and to weave together a story that's at once multifaceted, compelling, laugh-out-loud funny, and utterly relatable is a gift, and I'm thankful to experience it. Anxious People and all of the ridiculous, complex characters within hold that truly perfect blend of depth and levity that Backman has perfected in his novels..."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
2. Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, by Anna Lardinois (Register for July 13 event here)
3. Plenty Good Room, by Marilyn Thornton
4. One Person, No Vote, by Carol Anderson
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. New York Times Cooking No Recipe Recipes, by Sam Sifton
7. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
8. Holding Change, by adrienne maree brown
9. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe
10. How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation is the latest in a series of books on Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, based on the philosophical underpinnings of Octavia Butler's Earthseed books.

Books for Kids:
1. Clap When You Land, by Elizabeth Acevedo
2. Shadowshaper, by Daniel José Older
3. Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez
4. Any Way the Wind Blows, by Rainbow Rowell
5. Aru Shah and the End of Time, by Roshani Chokshi
6. Storm Runner, by JC Cervantes
7. Everything You Need to Ace World History, from Workman
8. Wave, by Suzy Lee
9. Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt
10. Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs, by America's Test Kitchen

Any Way the Wind Blows is the third (and final?) title in the Simon Snow trilogy. I've seen too many trilogies become a quartet to be confident that this series has ended. Everything says it's a finale! Rowell talked to Joanna Robinson for Vanity Fair, who noted: "All the same fun trappings of the first two Simon Snow books are also here, including the clever conceit that magic is found in repeating common phrases or lyrics — hence the familiar-sounding book titles. Simon, Baz, and the rest also have to deal with the rise of a new charismatic Chosen One who rushes in to fill the vacuum left by a magic-less Snow."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins profiles Willa C Richards, author of the Milwaukee-set debut, The Comfort of Monsters (on sale July 13). Higgins notes the novel "grew out of an excavation. Patricia Richards, the novelist's mother, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee anthropologist and experienced human burial excavator, was approached for help by people convinced their loved one was buried at the Milwaukee County institutional grounds. Willa volunteered to help her mother on that project. That experience got her pondering why so many cold cases remain 'intractably unsolved,' she said, even with advances in forensic science. She also considered how resources and attention for smaller cases can be subsumed by much larger ones." Our event is July 14. Register here.

*sans Marmite

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 3, 2021

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 3, 2021 - yes, half of 2021 has happened!

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
2. Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3. While Justice Sleeps, by Stacey Abrams
4. The Bombay Prince, by Sujata Massey
5. The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalilah Harris
6. Night Came with Many Stars, by Simon Van Booy (Register for July 15 event here)
7. The President's Daughter, by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
8. Golden Girl, by Elin Hildebrand
9. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
10. Dream Girl, by Laura Lippman

Here's the plot of the new Clinton/Patterson novel, The President's Daughter: "A madman abducts Keating’s teenage daughter, Melanie—turning every parent’s deepest fear into a matter of national security. As the world watches in real time, Keating embarks on a one-man special-ops mission that tests his strengths: as a leader, a warrior, and a father." I love that the publisher comes up Little Brown Knopf in our system. As opposed to the Big Blue Knopf. From Sarah Lyall in The New York Times: "Let us stipulate that we are not reading this book to gain valuable insights into the inner workings of United States foreign policy. No, we are reading for as many references to military hardware as possible, a formidable alphanumeric arsenal..." "Highly entertaining," Lyall noted.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Me and White Supremacy, by Layla Saad
2. Pocket Neighborhoods, by Ross Chapin
3. Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten House, by Nicholas B Hayes
4. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
5. The Heartbeat of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben
6. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
7. Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green
8. Cruelty Is the Point, by Adam Serwer
9. Hola Papi, by John Paul Brammer
10. Nice Racism, by Robin DiAngelo

Peter Wohlleben, like Suzanne Simard, has had a larger profile since Richard Powers's The Overstory, but unlike Simard, he already had a national bestseller with The Hidden Life of Trees. Now in The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature, Wohlleben returns to the forest and "draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world." From Marc Bekoff in Psychology Today: "I keep my copy of The Heartbeat of Trees in a place where I can grab it and reread different sections. For people who want to read about facts of nature that likely will be new for them, this should be a go-to book."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, by Quentin Tarantino
2. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell (Info on Boswell-Run Book Clubs here)
3. The People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry
4. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
5. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
6. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
7. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Henrdix
8. Catch the Rabbit, by Lana Bastašić

9. The Book of Lost Friends, by Lisa Wingate
10. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

Dwight Garner in The New York Times on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino's first novel, issued as a dime-store mass market (though it costs more than a dime): "Tarantino isn’t trying to play here what another novelist/screenwriter, Terry Southern, liked to call the Quality Lit Game. He’s not out to impress us with the intricacy of his sentences or the nuance of his psychological insights. He’s here to tell a story, in take-it-or-leave-it Elmore Leonard fashion, and to make room along the way to talk about some of the things he cares about  - old movies, male camaraderie, revenge and redemption, music and style. He gets it: Pop culture is what America has instead of mythology. He got bitten early by this notion, and he’s stayed bitten." 

 Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Life Is Short, by Dasha Kelly Hamilton
2. Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes, by Anna Lardinois (Register for July 13 event here)
3. Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
4. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
5. Rescuing the Light, by Martin Prechtel
6. Spirit Run, by Noe Alvarez
7. Haunted Wisconsin, by Linda S Godrey
8. Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, by Bryan Massingale
9. Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee, by Jennifer Billock
10. Epic Hikes of the World, from Lonely Planet

Out in paperback this week is Vesper Flights, which officially comes out on July 13, but it's pub date, not on-sale date, so we're selling the books now, but they won't show up on our website. So confusing! Macdonald's event for the hardcover was one of our more successful virtual ticket-with-book events. Boswellian Tim McCarthy raved: "The broad range of topics, the wit alongside intellect, and the stunning depth of wisdom all left me awed, and gratefully surprised!" Plus Michael Schaub on the NPR website wrote: "Macdonald is endlessly thoughtful, but she's also a brilliant writer."

Books for Kids:
1. Firekeeper's Daughter, by Angline Boulley
2. Class Acts, by Jerry Craft
3. Hilda and the Troll, by Luke Pearson
4. Turtle in a Tree, by Neesha Hudson
5. Color Monster, by Anna Llenas
6. Stamped, by Jason Reynolds/Ibram X Kendi
7. Q and U Call It Quits, by Stef Wade
8. Girl from the Sea, by Molly Osterag
9. Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries, by Eugenia Cheng
10. Concrete Rose, by Angie Thomas

It's so hard to know about everything before it comes out if you're not the buyer. So sometimes I get as excited as you do when I see this list. Is there really a Eugenia Cheng children's book? There is! It's called Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries: Ten Interactive Adventures in Mathematical Wonderland, and it's published by Big Picture Press, an imprint of Candlewick. Each spread is a puzzle paired with a mathematical concept, aptly illustrated by Aleksandra Artymouska. From Kirkus: "Considerably more than six 'implausible but not impossible' things to believe before breakfast... and after."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins spoke to Christina Clancy about Shoulder Season, her new novel about an East Troy woman who gets a job at the legendary Playboy Resort of Lake Geneva. From the interview: "Clancy wrote a scene in which an upset Sherri pulled her Bunny ears off, threw them in the garbage and stomped out the door. After she sent that scene to Ellis, the former Bunny called immediately. 'Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, that is all wrong,' Clancy remembers Ellis telling her. 'Never ever in a million years throw away your ears or your tail. Those don't belong to you. They belong to Playboy, and you have to give them back and they're really valuable. And you'll get charged for them.'" 

Register for our virtual joint event with Books & Company on July 8 here, with Clancy in conversation with Liam Callanan.