Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 16, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 16, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
2. The Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff
3. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
4. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
6. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
7. The Fraud, by Zadie Smith
8. Holly, by Stephen King
9. The Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros
10. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

Top fiction debut goes to Lauren Groff's latest, The Vaster Wilds. It's the #1 Indie Next Pick for September and has eight raves, three positives, two mixed, and two pans. That said, I would have rated the Ron Charles review in The Washington Post more mixed than pan. One rave from Judith Shulevitz in The Atlantic: "Groff’s fiction is usually identified as ecological and feminist, which it certainly is, but it is theological too. Lately, the religion has come out into the open. Groff’s previous novel, Matrix, centered on a historical figure, the 12th-century French poet Marie de France, imagining her as a lesbian abbess and visionary, a proto-feminist of sorts. In The Vaster Wilds, Groff all but asserts fealty to God - her god, the god of nature, who dwells everywhere and in everything."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
2. England's Jews, by John Tolan
3. Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson
4. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
5. How Far to the Promised Land, by Esau McCaulley
6. The World Central Kitchen, by Jose Andrés
7. Never Givin' Up, by Kurt Dietrich (Register for September 23 East Library event)
8. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
9. The Death of Public School, by Cara Fitzpatrick (Register for October 20 Marquette Law School event)
10. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich (Register for October 3 Boswell event)

The highest profile release of the week is surely Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk, despite not making too much of a splash at Boswell. The big question when I see the BookMarks roundup is whether critics are reviewing the book or the subject. The book has three positives, three mixed, and two pans to date, and reading the reviews, I think it's hard to separate the two.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Code Name Sapphire, by Pam Jenoff
2. All This Could Be Different, by Sarah Thankam Mathews (Register for September 20 Boswell event)
3. A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan (Register for December 14 virtual event)
4. The Lost Girls of Paris, by Pam Jenoff
5. The Woman with the Blue Star, by Pam Jenoff
6. Something More Than Night, by Kim Newman (Upcoming Boswell-run book clubs here)
7. Carte Postale, by Anne Berest (Register for October 12 Boswell event here)
8. Nona the Ninth V3 Locked Tomb, by Tasmyn Muir
9. A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J Maas
10. Godkiller V1, by Hannah Kaner

Nona the Ninth, the third volume in the Locked Room series, hits the top 10 in its first week out in paperback. In hardcover, it was a Hugo and Locust Award nominee. From Oli Schmitz: "Where many dystopian and sci-fi books fail when it comes to a 'how we got here' storyline, Muir handles it as expertly as the character dynamics and truly, perfectly unhinged humor. Now is the perfect time to dive into The Locked Tomb series!"

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Invitation to Impact, by Wendy Steele
2. Murdle V1, by GT Karber
3. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
4. Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe
5. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
6. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. One Hundred Saturdays, by Michael Frank
8. The Philosophy of Walking, by Frederic Gros
9. Jews in the Garden, by Judy Rakowsky
10. The Book of Delight, by Ross Gay (Register for October 4 Boswell event here)

First week on sale for One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, which hit the equivalent list in hardcover last year. The book had four raves and two positives on BookMarks, including a rave from Helen McAlpin which helped it become one of the Wall Street Journal's top ten books of 2022. She wrote: "In relaying her life story, Mr. Frank has pulled off something special: One Hundred Saturdays is a sobering yet heartening book about how friendship, remembrance, and being heard can help assuage profound dislocation and loss. It is also a reminder that the ability to listen thoughtfully is a rare and significant gift."

Books for Kids: 

1. The Secret Letters V1 Mysteries of Trash and Treasure, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
2. The Ghostly Photos V2 Mysteries of Trash and Treasure, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3. Legendborn V1, by Tracy Deonn
4. Peekaboo Pumpkin, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
5. The Dreamatics, by Michelle Cuevas
6. Miles Morales Suspended, by Jason Reynolds
7. It's Fall, by Renée Kurilla
8. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
9. Hooky V3, by Miriam Bonastre Tur
10. See the Cat, by David LaRochelle, illustrations by Mike Wohnoutka (Register for October 19 Greenfield Library event)

While I didn't get to see Margaret Peterson Haddix on her recent visit to Milwaukee, I have escorted her to schools on previous visits, so I know what a treat it was for the kids she visited. From the starred School Library Journal for The Secret Letters: "Two sets of friends, separated by 50 years, are the heart of an engrossing -historical fiction and mystery tale [that] seamlessly integrates the history of the modern women's rights movement into the character-driven narrative. Master storyteller Haddix is in top form, weaving a complex tapestry of different genres, time lines, and generations of characters in a can't-put-it-down novel. VERDICT A winning start to a new series and a first purchase for all middle grade collections."