Sunday, February 5, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending February 4, 2023

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending February 4, 2023

I've been told that this coming Tuesday is a bigger on-sale week for new titles. Let's hope it makes for a more exciting bestseller list next week.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
2. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
3. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
4. All This Could Be Different, by Sarah Thankam Matthews
5. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson
6. How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix
7. The World and All That It Holds, by Aleksandar Hemon
8. Foster, by Claire Keegan
9. Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
10. Age of Vice, by Deepti Kapoor

This is the best week yet for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, a cheeky Australian murder mystery that's been compared to Knives Out. No LitHub Book Marks for this one, but there are reviews, not just PW (liked it) and Kirkus (not so much) but The Guardian (eh) and Laurie Hertzel at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where honestly, it's hard to tell what the reviewer thought. 3.95 stars on Goodreads, which is pretty good. It's on display at Boswell as a February Indie Next title. So it's either that title or good word of mouth.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. 8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go, by Jay Shetty
2. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
3. The Indigenous Continent, by Pekka Hamalainen
4. Spare, by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
5. A Waiter in Paris, by Edward Chisholm (Register for Feb 16 virtual event here)
6. The Light We Carry, by Michelle Obama
7. Half-Baked Harvest Every Day, by Tieghan Gerard
8. Atomic Habits, by James Clear
9. The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow
10. Against the World, by Tara Zahra

Why is February 7 the big laydown for February instead of January 31? I feel like it used to be otherwise. One book that did come out last week is 8 Rules of Love by Jay Shetty. We had and then didn't have a virtual event for Shetty's last release. Deepak Chopra's a fan, as is the Publishers Weekly reviewer, who writes "Shetty combines spiritual wisdom and down-to-earth guidance in a surprisingly seamless way, making for lessons that have real staying power."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson
2. Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
4. Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree
5. The Maid, by Nita Prose
6. Sorry Bro, by Taleen Voskuni
7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
8. It Ends with Us, by Colleen Hoover
9. A Marvellous Light, by Freya Marske
10. Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Klune

I love that we have Sorry, Bro, a queer Armenian romance in our top ten. Great reviews from all the trades, including a starred Booklist: "In between expertly enhancing the book's slowly simmering romance between its two captivating protagonists with plenty of quippy banter, Voskuni conjures up a marvelously memorable cast of supporting characters and crafts a fascinating plot enriched with insights into Armenian culture and history. With this radiantly ravishing debut, Voskuni beautifully illustrates the courage it can take to be your own true self and risk everything for love."

Shorts!
--Rachel and Oli are crazy about Freya Marske and we're hoping to have a virtual program for A Marvellous Light and its sequels
--Jen just read the new TJ Klune, In the Lives of Puppets, and says it has top-five-of-the-year potential

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Good Country, by Jon K. Lauck
2. Brewtown Tales, by John Gurda
3. Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe
4. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
5. How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith
6. Come as You Are, by Emily Nagoski
7. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
8. Say Nothing, by Padrick Radden Keefe
9. The Good Life Method, by Meghan Sullivan and (former Boswellian) Paul Blaschko
10. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond (virtual event March 2 - registration coming soon!)

Hey, I've read five books on this list! I just went back and finished Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe's history of the Sackler family and their involvement in the opioid crisis, having bought the book when I went to see the author at Bookstall in Winnetka. I already got one other person to read the book. Our sales are good but could be better - working on it! The Netflix series Painkiller is based on The New Yorker article from the author that led to the book.

Books for Kids:
1. Every Day's a Holiday, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Husna Aghniya
2. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Melanie Demmer
3. Moving to Mars, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Erin Taylor
4. The Assignment, by Liza Wiemer
5. Wings of Fire V1: The Dragonet Prophecy, by Tui T. Sutherland
6. Magic Tree House V1: Dinosaurs Before Dark graphic novel, by Mary Pope Osborne and Jenny Laird, illustrations by Kelly and Nichole Matthews
7. Last Hours V3: Chain of Thorns, by Cassandra Clare
8. Cat Kid Comic Club V4: Collaborations, by Dav Pilkey
9. Bird and Squirrel on the Run V1, by James Burks
10. Mr. Wolf's Class, by Aron Nels Steinke

I'm not going to lie - these are mostly student and school orders. One book, however, that is a bonafide, one-sale-at-a-time besteller is Cassandra Clare's latest, Chain of Thorns, the third and concluding volume of the Last Hours cycle. Publisher note: "All copies in the first printing only will include a full-color reverse jacket, 10 black and white interior illustrations, and a short story, and will say "Collector's First Edition" on the front cover. As with previous books in this series, this special content will not be available for future printings, so readers should preorder to guarantee their copy!" You don't usually see trade reviews on subsequent volumes of series, but Kirkus called this "Fiendishly romantic from start to (eventual) finish."

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