Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 27, 2025

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 27, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Maggie, by Katie Yee (Boswell July 27 event - today at 4)
2. Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3. The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong
4. My Friends, by Fredrik Backman
5. Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger (Boswell July 29 event)
6. The Names, by Florence Knapp
7. These Summer Storms, by Sarah MacLean
8. The Devils, by Joe Abercrombie
9. Ashes to Ashes, by Thomas Maltman (signed copies)
10. The Compound, by Aislie Rawle

These Summer Storms pops onto our top 10 after its July 8 pub date - the book is out of stock at all Ingram warehouses and has five raves on BookMarks. From the publisher: "Sarah MacLean’s first foray into contemporary fiction (from romance), with a sharp, sexy novel about a wealthy New England family's long-overdue reckoning with hidden desires, destructive secrets…and one week that threatens to tear them apart."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Mark Twain, by Ron Chernow
2. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
3. The Place of Tides, by James Rebanks
4. Milwaukee City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
5. The Mission, by Tim Weiner
6. The Idaho Four, by James Patterson and Vicky Ward
7. They Poisoned the World, by Mariah Blake
8. A Flower Traveled in my Blood, by Haley Cohen Gilliland
9. Who Is Government, edited by Michael Lewis
10. The Anxious Generaoin, by Jonatthan Haidt

Quiet week for hardcover nonfiction bestsellers! The Place of Tides, published June 24, had six raves, three positives, and a mixed on BookMarks. The author chornicles a season with a woman off the coast of Norway who collects eiderdown. The book has received blurbs from John Banville, Rachel Kushner, and George Saunders, who wrote: "James Rebanks shows, better than anything I've read recently, the precise quality of the catastrophe befalling the natural world and also what we might begin to do about it."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Everyone Is Lying to You, by Jo Piazza (signed copies)
2. The Sicilian Inheritance, by Jo Piazza
3. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
4. The Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, by Sangu Mandanna
5. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
6. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
7. All the Colors of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker
8. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
9. Problematic Summer Romance, by Ali Hazelwood
10. The Briar Club, by Katte Quinn

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping hits our top ten in its second week of sale. It's a New York Times bestseller and an upcoming Romance Book Club pick at Boswell. From Publishers Weekly: "A witch angles to regain her power in this pleasurable cozy fantasy from Mandanna...Fans of mellow magical stories centering found family will gobble this one up."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. It's Their World, by Erin Walsh (signed copies)
2. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
3. Meet the Neighbors, by Brandon Keim
4. Building the Milwaukee Bucks, by Jordan Treske (Boswell August 5 event)
5. Didion and Babitz, by Lili Anolik
6. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
7. Healing After Loss, by Matha Hickman
8. A Beginner's Guide to Dying, by Simon Boas
9. Freedom, by Slavoj Zizek
10. Feeding Ghosts, by Tessa Hulls

First week in paperback for Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-Than-Human World. Seems like the kind of book that would be reviewed in majors (NYT, WSJ, WP) but I did locate reviews from Scientific American and The Portland Press Herald. Jacket update not needed for the paperback - it popped! From Kirkus: "Although his polemic is well supported by scientific and scholarly references, his earnest plea is firmly rooted in a layperson's language; this is a consideration of animals, wild and domestic, as our fellows, not our property."

Books for Kids:
1. The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti
2. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
3. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
4. The Day the Crayons Made Friends, by Drew Daywalt, illustrations by Oliver Jeffers
5. City Spies V6: London Calling, by James Ponti
6. Framed, by James Ponti
7. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
8. The Survivor Wants to Die at the End V3, by Adam Silvera
9. The Forgery of Fate, by Elizabeth Lim
10. They All Saw a Cat, by Brandon Wenzel

The Survivor Wants to Die at the End is the third book in the They Both Die at the End series from bestselling author Silvera, who brings together two characters who are connected by the Death Cast, and are drawn together by circumstances. From School Library Journal: "For readers, knowing Silvera lives with mental health issues, including some he explores in the book, will help them see they are not alone."

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 19, 2025

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 19, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Woman in Suite 11, by Ruth Ware
2. The Unlucky Ones by Hannah Morrissey
3. James, by Percival Everett
4. Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
5. The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong
6. Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
7. Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger (July 29 Boswell event)
8. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by VE Schwab
9. The Compound, by Aisling Rawle
10. An Inside Job, by Daniel Silva

I don't think we've had the current Oprah Book Club pick for an event since Wellness back in 2023. Culpability also has three raves and a positive from BookMarks, including this from Ron Charles in the Washington Post: "For all its eerie timeliness, Culpability should age better than yesterday’s Instagram post. Holsinger, a medievalist at the University of Virginia, has a sharp eye for the eternal values and foibles that animate human affairs."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Forgotten Sense, by Jonas Olofsson (signed copies)
2. C'Mon Get Happy, by David Fantle and Tom Johnson
3. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
4. The Fate of the Day, by Rick Atkinson
5. Mark Twain, by Ron Chernow
6. Dinner with King Tut, by Sam Kean
7. Abundance, by Eza Klein and Derek Thompson
8. The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad
9. Impasse, by Roy Scranton (Boswell August 13 event)
10. Ginseng Roots, by Craig Thompson

Tim and I are big fans of Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-Creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations, a book about experimental archeology. Besides us, there are three raves and two positives on BookMarks, including Barbara Spindel in The Wall Street Journal: "There’s something heartening about the idea that for every element of ancient life, someone out there is obsessing over it, perhaps re-creating Roman-style hairdos or painstakingly reverse-engineering ancient weapons. Mr. Kean is an appealing guide to these eccentric subcultures."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Everyone Is Lying to You, by Jo Piazza (Boswell event today at SereniTea - 4 pm)
2. The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware
3. Hello Transcriber, by Hannah Morrissey
4. In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware
5. A Turn of the Key, by Ruth Ware
6. Blue Sisters, by Coco Mellors
7. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
8. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
9. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
10. When I'm Dead, by Hannah Morrissey

I saw that Blue Sisters is out of stock at two Ingram warehouses, which indicates some solid paperback momentum for this title since its May 20 release. It was a Read with Jenna pick for the hardcover (and still has the icon on the paperback - not all do) and had mixed reviews on BookMarks, but lots of great reads, including one from McKenna at Boswell - shelf talker, but not a written rec on our website. I will try to fix that. Here's a Hollywood Reporter article on a television adaption, hitting a nerve with women in their 20s and 30s, and being sober.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
2. Your Brain on Art, by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
3. Building the Milwaukee Bucks, by Jordan Treske (Boswell August 5 event)
4. Human History on Drugs, by Sam Kelly
5. The Wager, by David Grann
6. Guilty Creatures, by Mikita Brottman
7. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
8. Murdle V1, by GT Karber
9. Every Living Thing, by Jason Roberts
10. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Selling of the new paperback table is the paperback original, Human History on Drugs: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence. From Publishers Weekly: "Kelly, who runs a TikTok account under the same name, debuts with a nonstop, eye-popping panorama of famous and influential individuals who each changed the world, or their perception of it, through their use of drugs...Brimming with enthusiasm for history's nooks and crannies, this charms.

Books for Kids:
1. Lulu and Rocky in Milwuakee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
2. The Day the Crayons Made Friends, by Drew Daywalt, illustrations by Oliver Jeffers
3. Tum Time: Park board book, by Louise Lockhart
4. Pete at the Beach, by James Dean
5. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
6. Orris and Timble: Lost and Found, by Kate DiCamillo, illustrations by Carmen Mok
7. The Grandest Game, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
8. The Summer I Turned Pretty, by Jenny Han
9. We'll Always Have Summer, by Jenny Han
10. Sea of Monsters V2, by Percy Jackson

Jennifer Lynn Barnes's The Grandest Game came out on July 1 and it's only about nine days until volume two releases in hardcover - Glorious Rivals. From Publishers Weekly: "Sequestered contestants vie for millions in this fiendishly clever thriller, the first in a spinoff series from Barnes's Inheritance Games saga... Familiarity with the previous books will lend resonance to certain plot and character developments, but baffling brainteasers, flagrant flirtation, and witty repartee earn the sustained interest of readers old and new." 1

Boswell bestsellers, week ending July 12, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending July 12, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Woman in Suite 11, by Ruth Ware (Wilson Center July 16 event)
2. Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger (Boswell July 29 event)
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by VE Schwab
4. The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong
5. The River Is Waiting, by Wally Lamb
6. Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
7. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, by Brigette Knightley
8. My Friends, by Fredrik Backman
9. Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy
10. James, by Percival Everett

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy is another breakout from the fanfic community. From the publisher: "Loyalties are tested in this slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romantasy following an assassin and a healer forced to work together to cure a fatal disease, all while resisting the urge to kill each other - or, worse, fall in love." Booklist and Library Journal reviewers loved it, while Publishers Weekly (as can increasingly be the case) had the irresistible urge to be sour.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. America, Let Me In, by Felipe Torres Medina
2. Mark Twain, by Ron Chernow
3. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
4. Ginseng Roots, by Craig Thompson
5. The Fate of the Day, by Rick Atkinson
6. Wisconsin Supper Clubs, by Ron Faiola
7. What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking, by Caroline Chambers
8. Dinner with King Tut, by Sam Kean
9. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
10. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

It's from last year and the publisher Union Square was since sold to Hachette, but in a soft hardcover nonfiction week, What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking makes its way into our top 10. It's a New York Times bestseller and hit a number of best-of-the-year lists (Bon Appetit, Food Network, Tasting Table), so it's worth a mention. Sarah Karnasiewicz in The Wall Street Journal praised not just the recipes, but the "chatty, can-do spirit" of the author's Substack newsletter.

Paperback Fiction:
1. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
2. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
3. Oleander Sword V2, by Tasha Suri
4. All Fours, by Miranda July
5. Go As a River, by Shelley Read
6. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
7. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
8. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
9. Sunburn, by Chloe Michelle Howarth
10. There Are Rivers int he Sky, by Elif Shafak

First week on the new paperback table scores a top 10 for Sunburn, by Chloe Michelle Howarth. It's a coming-of-age story set in small-town 1990s Ireland, a sapphic love story that's been nominated for the British Book Awards.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
2. The Rediscovery of America, by Ned Blackhawk
3. Hustles for Humanists, by Erica Machulak
4. Misguided, by Matthew Facciani
5. There's Always This Year, by Hanif Abdurraqib
6. The Wide, Wide Sea, by Hampton Sides
7. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
8. On Tyranny graphic edition, by Timothy Snyder
9. Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen
10. Milwaukee Scavenger, by Jenna Kashou

I thought our sales pop from There's Always This Year was from our Lit Group buying upcoming books on Monday, but no, sales were clustered towards the end of the week, when our all basketball email newsletter went out - our event with Jordan Treske on this Bucks history, a Book Stall event for a book about Caitlin Clark. Hanif Abdurrqib won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism for this book, and yes, we're discussing it on October 6 at Serenitea - we've bumped the discussion from the store so that we could host a special event on that evening.

Books for Kids:
1. Seedfolks, by Paul Fleischman
2. Crossing the Farak River, by Michelle Aung Thin
3. Good Luck Ice Cream Truck, by Sorche Fairbank, illustrations by Terry Runyan
4. The Day the Crayons Made Friends, by Drew Daywalt, illustrations by Oliver Jeffers
5. The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti (Boswell July 21 event)
6. The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown
7. Turtle in a Tree, by Neesha Hudson
8. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
9. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
10. The Grandest Game, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Mid-July tends to be a quiet time for new releases, particularly in kids. I noticed that while our sale for Seedfolks was to a school, the book, now close to thirty years old, has national sales momentum - three of the four Ingram warehouses have more on order. It's a multi-voiced story about an empty lot in Cleveland that is transformed into a community garden. Publishers Weekly gave it a star and put it on their best books of the year: "The story's quiet beauty unfurls effortlessly - and lingers after the final page has been turned." Kirkus was also positive, but complained it could have used more practical growing advice. Seems like an odd criticism for a book positioned as a novel, but oh well.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending July 5, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending July 5, 2025 - please note that our website may be down this week while we are updated. 

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, VE Schwab
3. The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong
4. My Friends, by Fredrik Backman
5. The River Is Waiting, by Wally Lamb
6. James, by Percival Everett
7. Dungeon Caller Carl V1, by Matt Dinniman
8. Compound, by Aisling Rawle
9. Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall
10. Bug Hollow, by Michelle Huneven

The current Good Morning America book club pick is Compound, by Aisling Rawle, part of the growing library of reality show fiction - two I read last year were All This and More, by Peng Shepherd and One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware. While it's not indexed on BookMarks, it's got this starred review on Booklist: "Irish author Rawle's debut is a masterful, captivating story of materialism and the search for meaning amidst climate crisis and economic instability..With nuanced characters and a sharp examination of the tearing threads of modern society, The Compound is an astounding must-read."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Mark Twain, by Ron Chernow
2. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
3. The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad
4. Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks
5. America Let Me In, by Felipe Torres Medina (Boswell June 10 event)
6. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan
8. We Can Do Hard Things, by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle
9. Super Agers, by Eric Topol
10. Lawless, by Leah Litman

Consistent sales for Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes, from Leah Litman edge the book into our top 10 on a soft week. Host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast has a Publishers Weekly review, which calls it "a clear-eyed and alarming view of a court captured by far-right conspiracy theories." And here's an article from George Thomas in Washington Monthly.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
2. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
3. Weyward, by Emilia Hart
4. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
5. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
6. The Battle of the Bookstores, by Ali Brady
7. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
8. Red Rising, by Pierce Brown
9. The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa
10. Shady Hollow, by Juneau Black (Boswell October 7 event)

Jason mentioned that he's seeing lots of reissues this year, and here is one from Yoko Ogawa (Picador is releasing four in all this year) that had a nice first week pop. The Housekeeper and the Professor, which sold high double digits in its previous edition back when Boswell first opened, is repackaged in conjunction with the paperback reprint of Mina's Matchbox. Back in 2009, I wrote "You wouldn’t expect a book with quotes from Paul Auster and Nobel-winning author Kenzaburo Oe to be quite so accessible and charming, but it truly is."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Id Just As Soon Kiss a Wookiee, by Greg Carter
2. On Tyranny (graphic edition), by Timothy Snyder
3. On Tyranny (text edition), by Timothy Snyder
4. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
5. There's Always This Year, by Hanif Abudurraqib
6. Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius (three paperback editions)
7. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
8. The Wide, Wide Sea, by Hampton Sides
9. Washington, by Ron Chernow
10. Swimming Studies, by Leanne Shapton

I don't think I can call Hanif Abdurraqib's appearance a book club pop as the Lit Group is not reading There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension until October. It could be selling out of the award case as it received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Finally a book with BookMarks annotations - six raves and three positives.

Books for Kids:
1. The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
2. This Could Be Forever, by Ebony LaDelle
3. Love Radio, by Ebony LaDelle
4. The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti (Boswell July 21 event)
5. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
6. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford (Boswell September 15 event)
7. Nimona, by ND Stevenson
8. Big Enough, by Regina Linke
9. Snoop, by Gordon Korman
10. The Village Byond the Mist, by Sachiko Kashiwaba

Goodness, another Gordon Korman! I am still thinking about how much I liked Old School from this past winter. From Kirkus, on Snoop: "A laid-up and bored seventh grader discovers that his seemingly ordinary North Carolina town is a hotbed of puzzling mysteries...Korman dishes up an expert mix of entertaining foolery, peer and family dynamics, and cautionary messages about both the ethical nuances of online snooping and the hazards of jumping to conclusions...Funny and thought-provoking, no bones about it."