Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 9, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 9, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
2. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
3. The English Understand Wool, by Helen Dewitt
4. The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray
5. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
6. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
7. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
8. The Door-to-Door Bookstore, by Carsten Henn
9. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss
10. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
11. Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch
12. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
13. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
14. Absolution, by Alice McDermott
15. The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez

Who are the influencers of the holiday season?  1) The New York Times and Washington Post together are clearly driving The Bee Sting and North Woods, being in both their top tens. 2) Ann Patchett recommendations are the clear driver of The English Understand Wool (hey, it's a year old) and have influence on Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (it's also top 10 Washington Post, plus book of the year for B&N and Amazon) and Absolution and The Comfort of Crows in nonfiction. Here is the Ann Patchett recommends page. 3) The newsletter landing has given a sales pop to Jason's back-page pick of The Door-to-Door Bookstore. 

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
2. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
3. Oath and Honor, by Liz Cheney
4. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
5. The Wager by David Grann
6. Lula Cafe, by Jason Hammel
7. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
8. Why We Love Baseball, by Joe Posnanski
9. My Name Is Barbra, by Barbra Streisand
10. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
11. Wisconsin Supper Club, by Ron Faiola
12. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
13. The Globemakers, by Peter Bellerby
14. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
15. Fire Weather, by John Vaillant

Supper Club 2023 continues with Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club joining Wisconsin Supper Clubs in the top 10.  The Oath and Honor demand was not quite expected by Hachette - Ron Charles noted in his Washington Post newsletter that it was very hard to find copies in the Beltway. In terms of celebrity memoirs, My Name Is Barbra (Streisand) is doing the best for us. The Woman in Me (Spears) had the biggest first week pop but has since calmed, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (Perry) resurgence was quite, and is out of stock anyway, and Being Henry (Winkler) is the staff favorite because two of us read it. It was also on a friends top three - her reading focuses on disability narratives, and Winkler discusses his dyslexia at length. Her other two were The Country of the Blind and Leg. 

Paperback Fiction:
1. Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
2. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
3. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
4. The Death of Us, by Lori Rader-Day
5. This Is Happiness, by Niall Williams
6. The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett
7. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
8. Woman of Light, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (upcoming Boswell book club meetings here)
9. A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan (register for December 14 Boswell event)
10. The Patron Saint of Liars, by Ann Patchett

Four Patchetts, two Patchett recommendations (Our Town and This Is Happiness), two events, one former (The Death of Us - these are signed) and one upcoming, plus one book club pick (Woman of Light) and one prizewinner (Trust). 

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda (pre-order for December 16 Boswell signing)
2. Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen (Register for December 27 Boswell event)
3. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett
4. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
5. Truth and Beauty, by Ann Patchett
6. Good Arguments, by Bo Seo
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. Perseopolis, by Marjane Satrapi
9. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
10. Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke

Three Patchetts, two Milwaukee books, one movie tie-in, one past event, one high school required reading book, and two books off the new and noteworthy table, Dopamine Nation, from a big publisher, which is selling everywhere (we're #30 on Edelweiss), and A Year in the Woods, which should but is not (we're #3 on Edelweiss), perhaps because it is from the Canadian indie Greystone. If you are store that could sell a book like this, maybe you need to have 5 on display?

Books for Kids:
1. Patchwork Prince, by Baptiste Paul
2. The Field, by Baptiste Paul
3. Dogtown, by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko (January 23 virtual event registration)
4. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
5. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
6. How Does the Santa Go Down the Chimney, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
7. Cat Kid Comic Club V5: Influencers, by Dav Pilkey
8. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
9. The Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
10. Winter Tales, by Dawn Casey, illustrated by Zanna Goldhawk

Our next-to-last school visit of 2023 was with Baptiste Paul, whose new picture book, The Patchwork Prince, was a hit with students and teachers alike. It's a book inspired by his own life growing up in St. Lucia. From Publishers Weekly: "It's a loving portrait of a child embracing their innate value, taught by the queen who loves them best." 

I should also note that fully half the top ten are either holiday or winter-themed. 

Visit https://www.boswellbooks.com/ to read more about these books and perhaps purchase them from us.