Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 26, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 26, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
2. Absolution, by Jeff VanderMeer
3. Tell Me Everything, by Elizabeth Strout
4. The Mighty Red, by Louise Erdrich (UWM October 28 event)
5. Karla's Choice, by Nick Harkaway
6. James, by Percival Everett
7. We'll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida
8. Familiaris, by David Wroblewski
9. The Empusium, by Olga Tokarczyuk
10. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore

Absolution is a coda to the Southern Reach trilogy that has gotten six raves and two positive reviews on BookMarks. It's a little confusing to me, because I still associate the title with Alice McDermott's last novel, which comes out in paperback this Tuesday. Jess Keiser's review in The Washington Post puts the series in the context of Burke's Law of Horror Fiction: "Against all odds, Absolution is, in large part, just as good as the first three novels. It works for the same reason the others did. It manages, once again, to find that rare balance between revealing (the task of the novel) and revealing too much (the danger horror must avoid). Even when it threatens to settle down into the established pattern of its predecessors, it veers, in its final third, into something entirely more alien and alienating." I have no idea why this theory is so named, but it led me to read more about the old Gene Barry TV series.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. An Unfinished Love Story, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Today, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center)
2. The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
3. Band People, by Franz Nicolay
4. Frightful Folklore of North America, by Mike Bass
5. Why I Cook, by Tom Colicchio
6. Be Ready When Luck Happens, by Ina Garten
7. Well Plated Every Day, by Erin Clarke
8. One Life, by Barbara Winton
9. Patriot, by Alexei Navalny
10. Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches, by Matty Matheson

The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Patriot debuts to five raves and a positive on BookMarks. From Luke Harding in The Guardian: "This is a brave and brilliant book, a luminous account of Navalny’s life and dark times. It is a challenge from beyond the grave to Russia’s murder-addicted rulers. You can hear his voice in the deft translation by Arch Tait and Stephen Dalziel: sharp, playful and lacking in self-pity. Nothing crushes him. Up until the end – his final 'polar' entry is on 17 January 2024 – he radiates indomitable good humour."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Crescent Moon Tearoom, by Stacy Sivinski (signed copies)
2. Big Girl, by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan (also)
3. Sorcery and Small Magics, by Maiga Doocy
4. After World, by Debbie Urbanski
5. Austerlitz, by WG Sebald
6. The Future, by Naomi Alderman
7. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q Sutanto
8. The Marlow Murder Club V1, by Robert Thorogood
9. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
10. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

Four reads for Maiga Doocy's Sorcery and Small Magics, though one of our booksellers is now at an area library, where they are probably building up the customer holds. Booklist labels it "queer cozy fantasy," while Jenny Chou's rec explains the subcategorization as "not-so-dark Dark Academia." I am paraphrasing. And Publishers Weekly explains the plot set-up: "Doocy's enchanting debut brings readers into a world where magic is divided between those who can write spells and those who can cast them. The disreputable and chaos-prone Leovander Loveage falls into the former category. When he's paired with the grumpy, prim-and-proper spellcaster Sebastian Grimm in one of their classes at the Fount, a school for magic users, both men strain at the partnership. A collision on the way to class mixes Leo's spells with more advanced materials from the Fount library and results in Sebastian performing an unknown spell on Leo."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Being Henry, by Henry Winkler
2. The Flesh and the Fruit, by Vanya Leilani
3. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
4. The Dictionary People, by Sarah Ogilvie
5. How to Piss Off Men, by Kyle Prue
6. Paris Lost and Found, by Scott Dominic Carpenter (Boswell October 30 event)
7. Murdle V1, by GT Karber
8. Unruly, by David Mitchell
9. The Future Is Disabled, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
10. Malört, by Josh Noel

First week out for The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary, which had nine raves and two positives on BookMarks. From Michael Dirda's Washington Post review: "Again and again, The Dictionary People emphatically demonstrates that even seemingly dry-as-dust scholars weren’t that at all. Joseph Wright started work as a donkey-boy in a quarry at age 6 and didn’t learn to read until he was 15. Yet he ended his life as professor of comparative philology at Oxford and author of a multivolume dictionary of English dialects."

Books for Kids:
1. Big, by Vashti Harrison
2. I Want to Read All the Books, by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
3. My First Book of Fancy Letters, by Jessica Hische (signed copies)
4. Brownie the War Dog, by Kelly Nelson, illustrated by Aaron Boyd
5. Sora's Seashells, by Helena Ku Rhee, illustrated by Stella Lim
6. The Paper Kingdom, by Helena Ku Rhee, illustrated by Pascal Campion
7. Hot Mess, by Jeff Kinney (Riverside event November 3)
8. Giving Good, by Aaron Boyd
9. The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown
10. Garbage Crew to the Rescue, by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by AG Ford


Both Vashti Harrison and Debbie Ridpath Ohi were in town this week for school visits. We've already written about Big, so let's take a moment for I Want to Read All the Books. From Children's Book Watch: “A charming celebration of the delight and value of reading, I Want To Read All The Books ...is an especially and unreservedly recommended pick for family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community/public library picture book collections for children’s ages 4-8." Debbie Ridpath Ohi's illustrations have appeared in books by Judy Blume, Linda Sue Park, and Michael Ian Black (or as he is referred to on Another Period, Peepers).

Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 19, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 19, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
2. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
3. Familiaris, by David Wroblewski
4. Creation Lake, by Rachel Kushner
5. James, by Percival Everett
6. The City in Glass, by Ngi Vo
7. By Any Other Name, by Jodi Picoult
8. The Women, by Kristin Hannah
9. Playground, by Richard Powers
10. Into the Uncut Glass, by Trevor Noah, illustrations by Sabina Hahn

I get how there's an argument about whether comic strips, poetry, and myth books are fiction or nonfiction, but under the subject of why The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse is not categorized as fiction on the bestseller lists (it is in ours, when I remember), we now get to see where Into the Uncut Grass, Trevor Noah's collaboration with Sabina Hahn, lands. To make things more confusing, Noah has called it a children's book, but it's definitely been packaged and promoted as an adult (or at least all-ages) title. He talks to Zack Ruskin at The Washington Post about his inspirations, from The Wind in the Willows to Calvin and Hobbes.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Why I Cook, by Tom Colicchio
2. Well Plated Every Day, by Erin Clarke
3. The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. War, by Bob Woodward
5. Where Rivers Part, by Kao Kalia Yang
6. Moments of Happiness, by Mike Leckrone with Doug Moe (Boswell event October 29)
7. The Craft of Cooking, by Tom Colicchio
8. Be Ready When Luck Happens, by Ina Garten
9. Frightful Folklore of North America, by Mike Bass
10. Little Frog's Guide to Self Care, by Maybell Eequay

You know it's fourth quarter when the cookbooks start to hit the list in mulitples. We had two big food events this week with Why I Cook and Well Plated Every Day. There are signed copies for each. I should note that we almost had four food events this week - one had to cancel, while the other looked at our schedule and said, that's too many cooks! Chris forwarded me the famous Adult Swim short to emphasize the point. In non-food news, the top debut was Bob Woodward's War. Not the kind of opening numbers we saw with, say, Fear, the first book on Trump (multiples higher), but still respectable. Three positive reviews on LitHub.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
2. Long Time Dead, by Samara Berger
3. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
4. Black Sheep, by Rachel Harrison
5. The Booklover's Library, by Madeline Martin
6. Circe, by Madeline Miller
7. The Crescent Moon Tearoom, by Stacy Sivinski
8. Starter Villain, by John Calzi
9. The Book Eaters, by Sunyi Dean
10. North Woods, by Daniel Mason

Out since August in paperback is Black Sheep, by Rachel Harrison, a horror novel (named a New York Times best horror novel of the year) about a woman who returns to her estranged cultish family for a wedding. Is it a gesture of reconciliation or a trap? From Tegan Beese at Library Journal: "A razor-sharp voice full of wit and humor, along with some edge-of-your-seat moments, will have readers clamoring for more."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Think Like a Chef, by Tom Colicchio
2. Shape, by Jordan Ellenberg
3. How Not to Be Wrong, by Jordan Ellenberg
4. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
5. Typhoid Mary, by Anthony Bourdain
6. We Had Fun and Nobody Died, by Amy T Waldman and Peter Jest
7. The Rediscovery of America, by Ned Blackhawk
8. The Latecomer, by Kao Kalia Yang
9. The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine, by Michael Scott-Baumann
10.Struggle for the City, by Derek G Handley (Boswell November 19 event)



Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical, is an Anthony Bourdain book from 2001 that was repackaged for release this week (first time in paperback?) and sold off our front table immediately. From a 2019 essay by Tim Carman in The Washington Post: "The historical volume was an odd, unlikely follow-up to (Kitchen) Confidential, a book that knocked the fairy dust from our eyes and provided a sobering, if skewed, look at the restaurant industry. The memoir would spend weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in summer 2000. Published the following year by Bloomsbury USA as part of its Urban Historical series, Typhoid Mary is the orphan in Bourdain’s literary canon, mostly abandoned by those who argue over his best books."

Books for Kids:
1. The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (signed copies available)
2. Pizza for Birds, by Bob Shea
3. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford
4. Construction Site: Garbarage Crew to the Rescue, by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrations by Ag Ford
5. Chez Bob, by Bob Shea
6. Daphne Draws Data, by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
7. Construction Site: Taking Flight, by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrations by Ag Ford
8. I Want to Read All the Books, by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
9. I'm Worried, by Michael Ian Black, illustrations by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
10. Everything We Never Had, by Randy Ribay

Sherri Duskey Rinker's Construction Site series continues with Garbage Crew to the Rescue. She recently visited area schools to talk about her book. Did you know that every book (there are nine) in the series (in the traditional picture book format, so not board books) has hit the New York Times bestseller list? As publisher noted, kids love garbage trucks!

Boswell bestsellers, for the week ending October 12, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, for the week ending October 12, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. City in Glass, by Nghi Vo (signed copies)
2. Playground, by Richard Powers
3. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
4. Familiaris, by David Wroblewski
5. The Empusium, by Olga Tokarczuk
6. True North, by Andrew J Graff
7. All Fours, by Miranda July
8. Somewhere Beyond the Sea V2, by TJ Klune
9. James, by Percival Everett
10.The Mighty Red, by Louise Erdrich (UWM ticketed event October 28)

 
Don't be fooled! The Empusium shows up from our wholesaler as a Fitzcarralrdo edition, but it's for other territories. Our edition comes from Riverhead, annd has an actual cover image instead of being all type. The latest in English from the Nobel winner has eight raves, six positives, a mixed, and a pan. From Hari Kunzro in The New York Times Book Review: "The extreme misogyny of the guesthouse gentlemen runs like a vein of poison through...Olga Tokarczuk’s deft and disturbing new novel. In Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s crisp translation, Tokarczuk tells a folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Coming Golden Age, by David Jeremiah
2. Teaching the Invisible Race, by Tony Delarosa
3. The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. Be Ready When Luck Happens, by Ina Garten
5. The Defectors, by Paola Ramos
6. Moments of Happiness, by Mike Leckrone and Doug Moe (Boswell event October 29)
7. John Lewis, by David Greenberg
8. Where Rivers Part, by Kao Kalia Lang (Simulcast event October 17 - in person at capacity)
9. Capital, by Karl Marx
10. The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson

I guess there are other John Lewis bios, either out already or forthcoming, so the publisher made sure to differentiate John Lewis: A Life, by David Greenberg, to buyers: "David Greenberg interviewed Lewis three times, twice in his last months as he reflected on his life. He interviewed approximately 275 people who knew Lewis, and he had access to never-before-used FBI files, among many other sources." There are four raves and a positive at LitHub. Tim's a fan - he highlighted passages for several of us to read.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Close Call, by Kim Suhr (signed copies)
2. Austerlitz, by WG Sebald
3. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
4. Demon Copperfield, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The House of Doors, by Tan Twan Eng
6. Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands V2, by Heather Fawcett
7. The Lightest Object in the Universe, by Kimi Eisele
8. The Booklover's Library, by Madeline Martin
9. The Postcard, by Anne Berest
10. Goodnight Tokyo, by Atsuhiro Yoshida

The Lightest Object in the Universe came out in paperback in 2020, and that was not a good time for paperback reprint sales at Boswell as in-person browsing is really important for that category. Kay's making up for it with her staff rec - we've sold more copies this year than we did for the hardcover and the first four years of paperback sale combined. From Publishers Weekly: "A near-future apocalypse forms the backdrop for an intense, moving romance in Eisele’s smart debut." Too bad it's slightly short discount (there's a POD surcharge) at Ingram, making it too-short-for-trade at some bookstores.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. How Civil Wars Start, by Barbara F Walter
2. Assyria, by Eckart Fram
3. The Sisterhood, by Liza Mundy
4. The Book of More Delights, by Ross Gay
5. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
6. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
7. We Had Fun and Nobody Died, by Amy T Waldman and Peter Jest
8. At the Lake, by Jim Landwehr
9. The Rediscovery of America, by Ned Blackhawk
10. Grief Is a Sneaky Bitch, by Lisa Keefauver

Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire has no LitHub feature, but the book was well-reviewed, including this from Kyle Harper in The Wall Street Journal: " Though the imposing civilization of ancient Assyria has receded from the foreground of collective memory, it has never completely succumbed to time. Eckart Frahm’s Assyria is a sweeping, delightfully readable effort to remind us of Assyria’s place in history.

Books for Kids:
1. The Yellow Bus, by Loren Long
2. The Last Dragon on Mars, by Scott Reintgen
3. Big, by Vashti Harrison
4. The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown
5. Everything We Never Had, by Randy Ribay
6. We Are Big Time, by Hena Khan, illustrations by Safiya Zerrougui
7. The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (Boswell October 18 event)
8. Pizza for Birds, by Bob Shea
9. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford (Boswell October 19 event)
10. The Big Cheese, by Jory John, illustrations by Pete Oswald

The Wild Robot is a hit film! The Rotten Tomatoes score is 98%. To put that in perspective, the new Joker movie is at 33% and just had the largest drop in second-week sales of any comic book movie ever. The book got great reviews too - Kirkus called it "thought-provoking and charming." Looks like #4 in the series is scheduled for next summer.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 5, 2024

Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 5, 2024

Hardcover Fiction:
1. A Kid from Marlboro Road, by Edward Burns (signed copies)
2. The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo (Boswell October 10 event)
3. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
4. Candy and Crow V3, by Kevin Hearne (signed copies)
5. The Mighty Red, by Louise Erdrich (UWM October 28 ticketed event)
6. Tell Me Everything, by Elizabeth Strout
7. We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman
8. Playground, by Richard Powers
9. Somewhere Beyond the Sea V2, by TJ Klune
10. The Drowned V6, by John Banville

Whereas John Banville at one time wrote his crime fiction under the name Benjamin Black, the latest Detective Inspector Spofford installment, The Drowned, is under the Banville name. Depending on how you organize the series, it's either #6 or #4. From Kirkus: "As for the mystery at the heart of the book: Banville remains a master of suspense; it's not easy to stop turning the pages until the novel's genuinely surprising end. This is yet another fine thriller from an author at the top of his game. Excellent writing and a clever plot make this one stand out."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Message, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. Be Ready When the Luck Happens, by Ina Garten
3. Revenge of the Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Defectors, by Paola Ramos
5. Abortion, by Jessica Valenti
6. Does This Taste Funny, by Stephen Colbert and Evie M Colbert
7. The Barn, by Wright Thompson
8. The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson
9. Connie, by Connie Chung
10. Upworthy Good People, by Gabriel Reilich

Top debut this week is The Message, the latest from Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose Between the World and Me never went into paperback, and if it ever does, it will likely be the same price as the hardcover. The book has four raves, a positive, a mixed, and a pan on BookMarks.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Ink and Sigil V1, by Kevin Hearne
2. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
3. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
4. Cascade Failure, by LM Sagas
5. The Boyfriend, by Frieda McFadden
6. Hampton Heights, by Dan Kois
7. Paper and Blood V2, by Kevin Hearne
8. Close Call, by Kim Suhr (Boswell October 9 event)
9. Austerlitz, by WG Sebald
10. Mistborn V1, by Brandon Sanderson

What do you know? North Woods is an acclaimed literary novel that is released in paperback 12 months after the hardcover. It feels like it's so uncommon nowadays - everything seems to be either faster or much slower. Or not at all. It was on the ten-best list of both The New York Times and The Washington Post. 

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Brian Friel: Beginnings, by Kelly Matthews
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
3. How Not to Be Wrong, by Jordan Ellenberg (UWM October 16 event)
4. Random Acts of Medicine, by Anupam B Jena and Christopher Worsham
5. Unruly, by David Mitchell
6. Master Slave Husband Wife, by Ilyon Woo
7. Trail of the Lost, by Andrea Lankford
8. Time's Echo, by Jeremy Eichler
9. Solito, by Javier Zamora
10. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel

I continue to champion Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health, but sometimes my talks land better than others. Something I said this week hit the nail on the head, but will I remember whatever it was the next time I am speaking? Probably not. It's got blurbs from Steven Leavitt and Cass Sunstein.

Books for Kids:
1. The Last Dragon on Mars, by Scott Reintgen
2. Giving Good, by Aaron Boyd (signed copies)
3. The World Is Awaiting You, by Marianne Richmond, illustrations by Sally Garland
4. Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody, by Patrick Ness, illustrations by Tim Miller
5. Everything We Never Had, by Randy Ribay (signed copies)
6. A Magic Fierce and Bright, by Hemant Nayak (signed copies)
7. The Wrath of the Triple Goddess V7, by Rick Riordan
8. The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown
9. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford (Boswell October 19 event)
10. Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell

We had several authors visiting schools this week. Scott Reintgen, author of The Last Dragon on Mars, is best known for YA, but as much as we're seeing YA writers writing adult fiction, Reintgen is one of three sets of authors we worked with (the others are Patrick Ness and Ruta Sepetys) who moved to middle grade, despite a softening of book sales in that age level. The one thing you can do with the 8-12s - have a successful school visit.