Boswell bestsellers, week ending March 15, 2025
Hardcover Fiction:
1. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
2. The Trouble Up North, by Travis Mulhauser
3. Onyx Storm V3, by Rebecca Yarros
4. James, by Percival Everett
5. Dream State, by Eric Puchner
6. The Bones Beneath My Skin, by TJ Klune
7. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
8, Somewhere Beyond the Sea V2, by TJ Klune
9. Stag Dance, by Torrey Peters
10. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
Torrey Peters, the author of Detransition Baby, has a new collection of a novel and stories, Stag Dance, that hit our top 10 this week. BookMarks tabulates eight raves and a mixed. One of the raves is from Dan Kois at Slate, who praises the title piece in particular: "'Stag Dance' is a gender comedy both ribald and aching, a story of a person discovering new and wondrous uses for their own body and a backwoods gothic in which that poor Minnesota donkey puncher’s skull isn’t the last to shatter."
Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Broken Rung, by Kwellin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and Marína del Mar Martínez
2. Nature's Best Hope, by Douglas W Tallamy
3. Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams
4. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins
5. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El-Akkad
6. The Nature of Oaks, by Douglas W Tallamy
7. Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks
8. Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton
9. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
10. The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, by James Marten (Boswell April 8 event)
The publishing event this week was the release of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which announced publication very late in the process, probably to avoid Meta blocking the publication. Two raves and two positives, so far, including this widely circulated review from Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times: "Careless People is darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world. What Wynn-Williams reveals will undoubtedly trigger her former bosses’ ire. Not only does she have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods."
Paperback Fiction:
1. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
3. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
4. The Murderbot Diaries V1, by Martha Wells
5. Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
6. Starter Villain, by John Scalzi
7. I Cheerfully Refuse, by Leif Enger
8. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
9. The White Book, by Han Kang
10. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
The White Book is just out in paperback, after a 2019 hardcover publication at a very reasonable $14 price point. My guess is they could have published this at $18, despite its 160 pages and only $4 cheaper than the hardcover. But certainly other publishers are doing that. Five raves, five positives, and a mixed for the current Nobel Prize winner. From Michael Schaub on the NPR website: "The latest of Han's novels to be translated into English, The White Book, has almost nothing in common with its predecessors except for its stunningly beautiful writing and its preoccupation with mortality. It's a book that defies genre and challenges the reader to make sense of its unusual structure. The White Book isn't likely to appeal to fans of the traditional novel, but will reward readers with a taste for more unconventional narratives."
Paperback Nonfiction:
1 Better Living Through Birding, by Christian Cooper
2. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
3. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
4. The Truth About College Admission, by Brennan Barnard and Rick Clark
5. The Wager, by David Grann
6. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
7. The Truth About College Admission Workbook, by Brennan Barnard and Rick Clark
8. Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade
9. You: The Story, by Ruta Sepetys
10. Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas W Tallamy
Christian Cooper was already in the news when Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World was released in 2023, and this year the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences brought him to Wisconsin, with a stop in Milwaukee thanks to the help of Milwaukee Public Library and Urban Ecology Center. Here's a nice recommendation from Sy Montgomery: “Funny, brave, kind, and eagle-eyed, Cooper brings into focus not only the spectacular winged creatures he loves, but also the glorious messiness, prejudice, courage, and passion of our own species - and how birding can show us all how to lead better lives.”
Books for Kids:
1. Mermaids Are the Worst, by Alex Willan
2. Yetis Are the Worst, by Alex Willan
3. The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
4. Unicorns Are the Worst, by Alex Willan
5. New Kid, by Jerry Craft
6. School Trip, by Jerry Craft
7. Urban Owls, by Christian Cooper, illustrations by Kristen Adam
8. Class Acts, by Jerry Craft
9. Impossible Escape, by Steve Sheinkin
10. Fallout, by Steve Sheinkin
We had a day of schools with Alex Willan, whose new book is Mermaids Are the Worst. After confronting unicorns, dragons, yetis, and elves, Gilbert the Goblin goes on vacation where he discovers his beach is mermaid central. From Kirkus: "As with previous installments, Willan has crafted an enticing setting filled with saucer-eyed characters and rendered in a candy-colored palette; big-eared, exasperated Goblin's particularly endearing, and readers will love spotting the protagonist's slug sidekick on each page, as well as a crab who's magically been turned into a taco.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
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