1. Our Missing Hearts, by Celeste Ng
2. Lark Ascending, by Silas House (signed copies available)
3. The Winners, by Fredrik Backman
4. Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout
5. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
6. Shrines of Gaiety, by Kate Atkinson
7. Beyond Belief, by John Koethe
8. The Bullet That Missed V3, by Richard Osman
9. Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
10. Less Is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer (signed copies avaiable)
This week's top new release is Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts, which is the Reese Book Club pick as well as the #1 Indie Next pick for October. Per Book Marks, it has 15 raves, two positive, and two mixed reviews. Stephen King is a fan, per his review in The New York Times: "I won’t give away the splendid conclusion of Ng’s book; suffice it to say, the climax deals with the power of words, the power of stories and the persistence of memory."
1. Confidence Man, by Maggie Haberman
2. I'm Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy
3. Slenderman, by Kathleen Hale (Register for October 13 event here)
4. How We Live Is How We Die, by Pema Chödrön
5. Life Is Hard, by Kieran Setiya (Register for October 17 virtual event here)
6. Life on the Mississippi, by Rinker Buck
7. What If 2, by Randall Munroe
8. Gateau, by Aleksandra Crapanzano
9. Grace, by Cody Keenan
10. Dinner with Ruth, by Nina Totenberg
It is a rare thing when the same imprint has the top fiction and nonfiction hardcover, but that's the case for Penguin Press and Maggie Haberman's Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. The media has been packed with various revelations for the book. Some of the key ones are on this BBC piece from Nadine Yousef.
1. Double Exposure, by Jeannée Sacken (signed copies available)
2. The Art of the Break, by Mary Wimmer (signed copies available)
3. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
4. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
5. Once Upon a December, by Amy E Reichert (Register for November 30 event here)
6. The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
7. The Book Lovers, by Emily Henry
8. Love in the Time of Serial Killers, by Alicia Thompson
9. Big Chicas Don't Cry, by Annette Chavez Macias
10. The Court of Thorn and Roses, by Sarah J Maas
There was a time when books like The Sentence and Cloud Cuckoo Land would have hit The New York Times bestseller list in paperback, but that time is not now. In a way, the Times did this to themself by eliminating the mass market list. There was a time when at least some the trade paperback top 15 would have been published rack size. It doesn't matter to me, but I've always gotten the feeling it does matter to The New York Times - why else would you have an "advice, how-to, and miscellaneous" list separated out from nonfiction? Why would you come up with a rule about series on the kids side?
Another thing about Cloud Cuckoo Land is that it has a traditional one-year publication schedule - not eight months, to rush it for summer reading, but also not a not-until-2023 pub date, unlike so many big sellers. One of our publishers had a display promotion for fall and so many of their focus titles were for 2021 books! I have nothing more to say about Doerr's novel except that a bunch of us liked it, and it turns out "cloud cuckoo land" is a popular turn of phrase for critics writing about things that have nothing to do with this novel.
1. Life in Short, by Dasha Kelly Hamilton
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. The Icepick Surgeon, by Sam Kean (In-Store Lit Group November 7 - more here)
4. There Is No Backstage, by Linda Stephens (Register for October 10 event here)
5. Owning Grief, by Gael Garbarino Cullen (Register for November 11 event here)
6. History of Milwaukee Drag, by BJ Daniels and Michail Takach (Register for October 24 event here)
7. Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake
8. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh
9. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
10. Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L Strayer
It's a rare thing when the Nobel Prize for Literature is announced within a week of an author's new publication, but that's the case for Annie Ernaux, whose new book, Getting Lost published October 4. Dwight Garner was one of the enthusiastic critics. From his New York Times review: "The almost primitive directness of her voice is bracing. It’s as if she’s carving each sentence onto the surface of a table with a knife. She is, in her writing, definitely not the sort of girl whose bicycle has a basket."
1. A Rover's Story, by Jasmine Warga (signed copies available)
2. Stuntboy: In the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds and Raul the Third
3. Our World of Dumplings, by Francie Dekker and Sarah Jung
4. Blackout, by Dhonielle Clayton
5. The Weight of Blood, by Tiffany Jackson
5. Wildoak, by CC Harrington
6. Violet and Jobie in the Wild, by Lynne Rae Perkins
7. Tumble, by Celia C Perez
8. The Marvellers, by Dhonielle Clayton
9. Hummingbird, by Natalie Lloyd
10. A Day in the Life of a Caveman, by Mike Barfield
Wildoak is a September/October Indie Next Pick for kids and a staff rec from Jen Steeele, who writes: "Set in early 60s Cornwall, Maggie, a young girl with a stutter is sent to stay with her grandfather for a few weeks. Maggie spends most of her days in Wildoak, a beautiful forest near her grandfather’s place that’s under threat of destruction. It is in Wildoak that Maggie discovers Rumpus, a lost snow leopard who needs her help. CC Harrington delivers an engaging novel about what connects us all. I was absolutely charmed by these characters, and I know you will be too!" Like several of the books on this list - great for school libraries.
I also have to give a shout to Dhonielle Clayton who has two books in this week's top 10. Both Blackout and The Marvellers were part of school orders, but to different schools. The Marvellers was part of an educator talk that we gave earlier this fall. It's Clayton's take on the magic boarding school trope and per the publisher, it's already a #1 bestseller. Clayton has written for Hyperion/Disney but this book is from Holt. I'm sort of surprised a series called The Marvellers doesn't have some sort of Disney connection, considering how often they push the boundaries of trademark. Perhaps we'll see a streaming adaptation on Disney+ eventually, which will explain a lot.
Up tomorrow - Boswell events for the week.
Up tomorrow - Boswell events for the week.
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