Boswell bestsellers for the week ending March 12, 2022

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending March 12, 2022

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Run, Rose, Run, by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
2. Booth, by Karen Joy Fowler (signed tip-in copies)
3. The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley
4. One Italian Summer, by Rebecca Serle
5. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
6. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
7. When I'm Gone Look for Me in the East, by Quan Barry (signed copies)
8. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman
9. Love and Saffron, by Kim Fay (Register for April 6 event here)
10. Moon Witch, Spider King, by Marlon James

The #1 Indie Next Book for March is One Italian Summer, by Rebecca Serle, the follow up to In Five Years, which was a national bestseller with very strong sales at Boswell. Her latest is what, not exactly time travel but that time shift concept that has become so popular of late (I just read another upcoming book in this genre yesterday). The Indie Next quote from Kaitlin Smith at California's Copperfield's Books: "One Italian Summer is pure magic. Rebecca Serle marvelously creates a literary world that feels full and alive, like I can catch a flight with Katy and experience Italy alongside her. This treasure of a book is sure to delight readers.” Plus Alice Rancilio from Associated Press: "Yes, you’ll want to keep reading to figure out what is happening and, yes, you’ll have to suspend belief to enjoy the story but in these cynical times full of snark and memes, it’s nice to surrender to magic every now and then."

More Indie Next Picks for March here.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Light of Days, by Judy Batalion (signed copies)
2. The Wok, by J Kenji Lopez-Alt
3. In Love, by Amy Bloom
4. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
5. The Nineties, by Chuck Klosterman
6. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens
7. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times
8. How to Be Perfect, by Michael Schur
9. Aftermath, by Harald Jahner
10. The Beauty of Dusk, by Frank Bruni
11. In Praise of Good Bookstores, by Jeff Deutsch (Register for April 25 event here)

The top nonfiction breakout this week is J Kenji Lopez-Alt's The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, his follow-up after seven years of the bestselling and James Beard-winning The Food Lab. From the starred Publishers Weekly review: "López-Alt's conversational prose never fails to entertain, even when detailing how the alkaline properties of baking soda are "the secret to plumper, snappier shrimp." Readers will be cooking with gas thanks to this fiery and insightful work."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishigruo
2. Admiring Silence, by Abdulrazak Gurnah
3. The Paris Library, by Janet Skeslien Charles
4. The Promise, by Damon Galgut
5. It Ends with Us, by Colleen Hoover
6. Verity, by Colleen Hoover
7. Shady Hollow, by Juneau Black
8. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
9. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
10. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett

Admiring Silence first came out in the United States from New Press in 1996, but a Nobel Prize has led to renewed interest in Abdulrazak Gurnah's work, and Bloomsbury has just published a paperback edition (March 8). Upon its original publication, Publishers Weekly wrote: "This tightly focused story of an unnamed Zanzibarian expatriate who returns home after a 20-year exile in England poignantly evokes the cultural limbo of many emigres." The New York Times reported about the prize, noting that Gurnah was the first Black winner since Nadine Gordimer and the first winner from African in "more than a decade." I think they were referring to Doris Lessing in 2007.

Paperback Nonfiction: 

1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
3. Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake
4. Better World Shopping Guide, by Ellis Jones
5. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion
6. Girls Can Kiss Now, by Jill Gutowitz
7. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
8. Maus I, by Art Spiegelman
9. Maus II, by Art Spiegelman
10. Women and Other Monsters, by Jess Zimmerman

I get a little confused by what gets tracked by BookMarks and what doesn't. Jill Gutowitz's Girls Can Kiss Now, just out this week, seems to have gotten enough reviews (Publishers Weekly, New York Journal of Books, Associated Press) but there's no link to BookMarks on iPage. Is it because it's a paperback original? Leanne Butkovic at Thrillist used Jill Gutowitz's collection to look back at Lindsay Lohan's career, noting it is time for a reappraisal.

Books for Kids:
1. The Ogress and the Orphans, by Kelly Barnhill (signed copies available)
2. Map of Flames V1, by Lisa McMann
3. The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann
5. The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera
6. Loyalty, Avi
7. The Light of Days Young Readers Edition, by Judy Batalion
8. The View from the Very Best House in Town, by Meera Trehan
9. A Comb of Wishes, by Lisa Stringfellow
10. Maizy Chen's Last Chance, by Lisa Yee

It just seems like it was a few months ago that I was championing Lisa McMann's Clarice the Brave, but now McMann has Map of Flames, the first in a new series (The Forgotten Five) that was also a hit with area schools when we hosted a day of virtual school visits. From Sabrina Carnesi in School Library Journal: "This new series blends science fiction with the animal kingdom, highlighting incredible feats of nature alongside a compelling quest to survive. Middle graders seeking a new twist on science fiction and superpower heroism will find this fast-paced first installment the answer to their search."

At the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins profiles A Creative Place: A History of Wisconsin Art, by Thomas D Lidtke and Annemarie Sawkins, published by the Cedarburg Art Museum.