Sunday, September 3, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 2, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 2, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
2. The English Experience, by Julie Schumacher
3. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
4. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
6. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
7. Happiness Falls, by Angie Kim
8. Canary Girls, by Jennifer Chiaverini
9. Crook Manifesto, by Colson Whitehead
10. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

The GMA book club pick for September, Happiness Falls, is the follow-up to Angie Kim's Edgar-Award-winning Miracle Creek. From the starred Booklist: "In Kim's latest, Adam Parson goes missing, leaving behind his wife and children, including 15-year-old Eugene, who has autism and a rare genetic disorder called mosaic Angelman syndrome and is nonverbal. Narrated by hyperanalytical 20-year-old Mia, Eugene's sister, Happiness Falls follows this biracial Korean American family - mother, Eugene, and Mia's twin, John - as they try to figure out what happened to Adam."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1 What an Owl Knows, by Jennifer Ackerman
(Register for September 6 virtual)
2. Path Lit by Lightning, by David Maraniss
3. A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Egan
4. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
5. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
6. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
7. France on Trial, by Julian Jackson
8. Tasting History, by Max Miller with Ann Volkwein
9. The Wager, by David Grann
10. Never Givin' Up: The Life and Music of Al Jarreau, by Kurt Dietrich (Register for September 23 East Library Event)

Jane and Rachel R. are already big fans of The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession so what's another reader (we have at least one more on staff, maybe two, so I would be either #4 or #5?) Sometimes it can make a big difference, especially when we know other stores are selling a book well (it was July's #1 Indie Next Pick) and our sales are maybe not what they could be. The key is that while we have the book officially sectioned in true crime (which is a fair designation), I think the art people are the true market for that (museum goers, docents, collectors, and just all-around fans). That this twenty-something unemployed Alsatian could have stolen $2 billion of art with just his girlfriend as his accomplice is stunning. It's all in the book!

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan (Register for December 14 event)
2. All This Could Be Different (Register for September 20 event)
3. Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher
4. The Nix, by Nathan Hill (Register for October 23 event)
5. Daisy Darker, by Alice Feeney
6. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
7. The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon
8. Tatami Galaxy, by Tomihiko Morimi, translated by Emily Balistrieri
9. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler
10. Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree

More on Tatami Galaxy, in which, per the publisher, "An unfulfilled college student hurtles through four parallel realities to explore the what-might've-been and the what-should-never-be." The novel is the basis for a popular anime series. From Publishers Weekly: "Morimi's delightful campus novel follows the quixotic adventures of an unnamed student dreaming of the perfect college experience... Objects of repetition include castella cakes, fish burgers, a luxury scrub brush, and the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In their recurrence, Morimi instills comfort in the familiarity of his hero's routine. Light and sweet in its confection, this satisfies like a spongy piece of castella." Visit the updated Boswell-run book club page here for our latest discussion books.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Path Lit by Lightning, by David Maraniss
2. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
3. The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay (Register for October 4 event here)
4. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
5. When Pride Still Mattered, by David Maraniss
6. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
8. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
9. Murdle V1, by GT Karber
10. The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants, by Neil Diboll

First week out! The blockbuster hardcover bestseller An Immense World had a paperback delay, but not the 18 month cycle that we sometimes see for fiction titles. The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer on the staff of The Atlantic also received the George Polk Award for science reporting, per the publisher. The updated bio should also note that he won the Carnegie Medal (or as I like to call it, the Newberry for adults) for this book.

Books for Kids:
1. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio, by Peg Kehret
2. The Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis
3. Peekaboo Pumpkin, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
4. The Egypt Game, by ilpha Keatley Snyder
5. The Gold Cadillac, by Mildred Taylor
6. The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Patterson
7. This Winter, by Alice Oseman
8. How to Catch a Polar Bear, by Stacy DeKeyser (Register for October 24 Wauwatosa Library event)
9. Hello Wisconsin, by Martha Day Zschock
10. Rite of Passage, by Richard Wright

So you might notice that Scholastic's This Winter had a bestselling week, even though it was originally a street-smart title for September 5. That's a little insider talk. Scholastic waived the on-sale date requirement for the pending UPS strike, which (fortunately for us and bookstores and publishing) didn't happen. With Heartstoppers now a hit show on Netflix, demand for this novella that takes place during volume four of this series is high.

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