Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 27, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 27, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Alchemised, by SenLinYu
2. Angel Down, by Daniel Kraus
3. Katabasis, by RF Kuang
4. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai
5. What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan
6. Kaplan's Plot, by Jason Diamond (signed copies)
7. The Phoebe Variations, by Jane Hamilton (Boswell September 30 event)
8. Will There Ever Be Another You, by Patricia Lockwood
9. This Inevitable Ruini V7, by Matt Dinniman
10. The Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown

Alchemised is a reimagining of Manacled, a very popular online fanfiction based on Harry Potter and The Handmaid's Tale. It's in the Dramione category, where Hermione and Drago are paired up. More in this Rolling Stone article. From Booklist: "SenLinYu weaves a tale of political intrigue with centuries of depth and nuance. Many readers will be fascinated by the story of a healer during a brutal war. While some readers may find the world and the many characters complicated or hard to follow, many will be drawn into the complex morality of two broken people finding love during a war."

It's a tough week to write up, when The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is already on the Booker shortlist and What We Can Know has been reviewed as McEwan's best in years.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. 107 Days, by Kamala Harris
2. The Trauma of Money, by Chantel Chapman
3. Good Things Happen, by Samin Nosrat
4. History Matters, by David McCullough
5. Strong Ground, by Brené Brown
6. Replaceable You, by Mary Roach
7. The Art of Gluten Free Bread, by Aran Goyoaga
8. All the Way to the River, by Elizabeth Gilbert
9. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
10. Arctic Passages, by Kieran Mulvaney

Kamala Harris's 107 Days did better than we expected on the first week. It's competitive week, as we also saw good first week sales for Replaceable You (which I read and enjoyed) and History Matters, and that doesn't include all the books with huge sales at places other than Boswell. From the Publishers Weekly on David McCullough's collection: "Pulitzer Prize winner McCullough, who died in 2022, extols the importance and craft of writing history in this resonant collection of 20 speeches, essays, and interviews selected by his daughter Dorie McCullough Lawson and his longtime researcher Michael Hill...The historian's admirers will find this an enjoyable and warmhearted valedictory hymn to the American spirit."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab
2. The Drifter, by Nick Petrie
3. When the Cranes Fly South, by Lisa Ridzén
4. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
5. The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali
6. Burning Bright, by Nick Petrie
7. Tear It Down, by Nick Petrie
8. The Empusium, by Olga Tokarczuk
9. Sunburn, by Chloe Howarth
10. Best Short Stories 2005: The O Henry Prize Winners, edited by Edward P Jones

The O Henry collection is not to be confused with Best American Short Stories 2025, which comes from HarperCollins. The new Best Short Stories 2025: The O Henry Prize Winners collection has entries from Wendell Berry, Gina Chung, Dave Eggers, Zak Salih, Ling Ma, and Chika Unigwe. Edward P Jones is the editor of this volume, while Jenny Minton Quigley is the series editor.I can't find any stories or reviews on the new collection, just bookstores that are selling it.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Dancing in a Disabled World, by Maureen McCue
2. Don't Say Please, by Jayasuriya Sahan
3. Seventh Generation Earth Ethics, by Patty Loew (MPL October 18 event)
4. City on Mars, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
5. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
6. Alignment, by Katie Keller Wood
7. Chainsaw Love, by James Card
8. A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
9. The Chaos Machine, by Max Fisher
10. When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, by Julie Satow

From the new paperback table comes a July release, A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? had strong hardcover sales and good reviews, with four raves and a positive on BookMarks. From Kirkus: "An entertaining illustrated assessment of space settlement...Despite the optimism of SF writers and the current crop of adventurous billionaires, the authors believe that space settlements would probably replicate the conflicts and divisions of Earth-bound societies: Humans, after all, remain human...A fun, informative read that puts the pop into popular science."

Books for Kids:
1. Kat and Mouse: I Like Cheese, by Salina Yoon
2. Penguin and Pinecone, by Salina Yoon
3. Tiny T Rex and the First Day Oopsies, by Jonathan Stutzman, illustrations by Jay Fleck
4. Spooky Lakes Coloring Book, by Geo Rutherford
5. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford
6. Tiny T Rex and the Impossible Hug, by Jonathan Stutzman, illustrations by Jay Fleck
7. How's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones
8. Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell (Boswell October 1 ticketed event)
9. Peekaboo Pumpkin, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
10. Little Bat board book, by Maggie Fischer, with illustrations by Yi-Hsuan Wu

For those who are concerned that the deluxe limited edition phenomenon has been limited to older audiences, this week's bestsellers feature a deluxe edition of Howl's Moving Castle, a 1986 novel that was adapted into 2004 Japanese animated film. From the publisher: "Luminous new jacket artwork and full-color endpapers by artist Devin Elle Kurtz.Digitally printed edges.Shimmering foil stamping on the case.Striking black-and-white interior artwork by internationally bestselling author Stefan Bachmann." Book as object!

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 20, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 20, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Apostle's Cove, by William Kent Krueger
2. Among the Burning Flowers, by Samantha Shannon
3. The Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown
4. Jams, by Percival Everett
5. Katabasis, by RF Kuang
6. The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong
7. The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans
8. How to Read a Book, by Monica Wood
9. The Phoebe Variations, by Jane Hamilton (Boswell September 30 event)
10. The Academy, by Elin Hilderbrand and Stacy Cunningham

Top debut this week is Among the Burning Flowers, coming in a regular and deluxe edition.Samantha Shannon's prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree received this review in Library Journal: "A testament to humankind's endurance and unending hope for a better future, this brief foray into Shannon's fantasy world adds a few additional layers to events mentioned in her other books."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Why Fascists Fear Teachers, by Randi Weingarten
2. Good Things, by Samin Nosrat
3. Born in Flames, by Bench Ansfield (signed copies)
4. We the People, by Jill Lepore
5. Arctic Passages, by Kieran Mulvaney 
6. Lessons from Cats for Surviving Fascism, by Stewart Reynolds
7. All the Way to the River, by Elizabeth Gilbert
8. They All Came to Barneys, by Gene Pressman
9. Baldwin: A Love Story, by Nicholas Boggs
10. Art Work, by Sally Mann.

Samin Nosrat returns with Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love, the first big cookbook of fall, at least for us. It's been eight years since Salt Fat Acid Heat. Booklist has a starred review: "Adventurous home cooks will appreciate the firm foundation of knowledge that ultimately offers the freedom and confidence to experiment and create special foods to share."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Women Who Stand Between, by Jeannée Sacken (more signed copies coming soon!)
2. The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali
3. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
4. Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar
5. When the Cranes Fly South, by Lisa Rizdén
6. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
7. All Fours, by Miranda July
8. The City and Its Uncertain Walls, by Haruki Murakami
9. The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier
10. Go As a River, by Shelley Read

Vintage went with a very different look for The City and Its Uncertain Walls. I don't usually expect a book like that to have a cover change. I would call the BookMarks review profile polarizing - 10 raves, a positive, 4 mixed, and 6 pans. Most of the raves were with the advance trades - some of which, but certainly not all of them, do not publish bad reviews, so why would you index them? That said, some consumer-facing reviewers gave raves too - Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Slate.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Going for Zero, by Carl Elefante
2. Reading for Our Lives, by Maya Payne Smart
3. Common Ground, by Eileen Flanagan (signed copies)
4. Palaces for the People, by Eric Klinenberg
5. Poverty by America, by Matthew Desmond
6. 2020, by Eric Klinenberg
7. A Sheepdog Named Oscar, by Dara Waldron (Boswell October 30 event)
8. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
9. We Had Fun and Nobody Died, by Amy Waldman and Peter Jest
10. AI Snake Oil, by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor

There was a bit of a theme to some of this week's events. After selling books for Carl Elefante at the PastForward conference for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we had two more authors who would slot in the Urban Studies category, Bench Ansfield at Boswell (see above) and Eric Klinenberg at Milwaukee Public Library, which worked hard to bring the author here to speak about 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed and Palaces for the People, which among other things, celebrates libraries. 

Books for Kids:
1. If We Were Dogs, by Sophie Blackall
2. Spooky Lakes Coloring Book, by Geo Rutherford
3. Dream, by Barbara O'Connor
4. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford
5. Leafy Landmarks, by Michelle Schaub
6. Wish, by Barbara O'Connor
7. Farmhouse, by Sophie Blackall
8. Kat and Mouse: I Like Cheese, by Salina Yoon
9. The Poisoned King V2, by Katherine Rundell (Boswell October 1 event)
10. Tiny T Rex and the First Day Oopsies, by Jonathan Stutzman, illustrations by Jay Fleck

There was no time in the schedule for a public event with Sophie Blackall, but we were grateful to have two school visits for If We Were Dogs. From Kirkus: "Cheerful, lightly hued colors fit the whimsical mood, while expressive body language allows the art to tell the story with a minimum of words. Ending on a surprising note, with a sweet compromise between the two main characters, the tale gives both kids the freedom to embrace their own preferences and styles - while still enjoying their game."

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 13, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 13, 202

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Life, and Death, and Giants, by Ron Rindo (signed copies)
2. So Far Gone, by Jess Walter (signed copies)
3. Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown
4. Katabasis, by RF Kuang
5. Buckeye, by Patrick Ryan (OFS Lunch November 5)
6. Clown Town, by Mick Herron
7. Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger
8. How to Read a Book, by Monica Wood
9. James, by Percival Everett
10. The Phoebe Variations, by Jane Hamilton (Boswell September 30 event)

Top non-event debut this week is Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown. There's high quality paper on this printing, which is unusual for a thriller. That said, the list price is higher than the deluxe editions that are sprouting everywhere. BookMarks has two postives, two mixed, and one pan from the Times of London.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. All the Way to the River, by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. What's on Her Mind, by Allison Daminger (signed copies)
3. Art Work, by Sally Mann
4. A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, by Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer
5. Listening to the Law, by Amy Coney Barrett
6. Dark Renaissance, by Stephen Greenblatt
7. Living in the Present with John Prine, by Tom Piazza
8. Baldwin: A Love Story, by Nicholas Boggs
9. Abundance, by Ezra Kleina and Derek Thompson
10. Arctic Passages, by Kieran Mulvaney (Shorewood Library September 15 event)

Have you noticed how many of the New York Times lists will be packed with new releases in the top ten? That's rare for us - only one or two generally break through onto our bestseller list, but this week, fully six of our top ten have September 9 on sale dates. Top debut is Elizabeth Gilbert's All the Way to the River, which has three raves, two positives, two mixed, and one pan on BookMarks as well as the Oprah Book Club seal. But it also shows that these BookMarks ratings are subject to interpretation - at least one of my coworkers thought that one of the mixed reviews was a pan.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Jackie, by Dawn Tripp
2. Death Stalks Door County, by Patricia Skalka (Boswell October 21 event)
3. The Women Who Stand Between, by Jeannée Sacken (Boswell September 19 event)
4. When the Cranes Fly South, by Lisa Ridzén
5. Archipelago, by Natalie Bakopoulos (signed copies)
6. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
7. The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali
8. Candide, by Voltaire
9. Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher
10. Death at Gill's Rock, by Patricia Skalka

Thanks to a professor having Boswell sell books for his class, I've read fully half the books in this top 10, which is more unusual than it used to be. Thanks, Dear Committee Members! No new releases on this list, but our recent event with Jackie pushed our ranking on paperback sales to #1 on Edelweiss. Congrats to Milwaukee Reads!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Don't Say Please, by Sahan Jayasuriya
2. When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, by Julie Satow
3. A Sheepdog Named Oscar, by Dara Waldron (Boswell October 30 event - a NYT bestseller!)
4. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
5. Common Ground, by Eileen Flanagan (Boswell September 15 event)
6. Spice, by Roger Crowley
7. On Our Best Behavior, by Elise Loehnen
8. Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green
9. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
10. Pox Romana, by Colin Elliott

Despite our prominent book club recommendation, we are only #19 on Edelweiss in sales for When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, as this book has been huge in the Northeast and it's not doing to shabby in the West either. But while it's not us, nice to see a Midwest store is #1.

Books for Kids:
1. Over in the Garden, by Janna Matthies, illustrations by Tisha Lee
2. Spooky Lakes Coloring Book, by Geo Rutherford
3. Spooky Lakes, by Geo Rutherford (Boswell September 16 event)
4. Farmhouse, by Sophie Blackall
5. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
6. Where's the Leaf Thief board book, by Alice Hemming, illustrations by Nicola Slater
7. What Feelings Do at Night, by Tina Oziewicz, illustrations by Aleksandra Zajac
8. No Bad Parts, by Richard Schwartz and Bethany Hegedus, illustrations by Kate Fedos
9. Incredibly Penelope, by Lauren Myracle (Wauwatosa Library October 2 event)
10. Dream, by Barbara O'Connor

Barbara O'Connor visited area schools for her new book Dream. Expect a higher placement next week. From Booklist: "In this stand-alone book that features several returning characters and a familiar setting (from Wish - 2016), the strongest asset is O'Connor's ability to let Idalee tell her story in her own, distinctive voice, while creating secondary characters who are interesting and equally true to life. An involving chapter book, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains."

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending September 6, 2025

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending September 6, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Katabasis, by RF Kuang
2. James, by Percival Everett
3. The Hallmarked Man, by Robert Galbraith
4. Wild Reverence, by Rebecca Ross
5. The Phoebe Variations, by Jane Hamilton (Boswell September 30 event)
6. Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
7. Apostle's Cove, by William Kent Krueger (Boswell September 17 event)
8. Buckeye, by Patrick Ryan (November 5- Ozaukee Family Services Luncheon coming)
9. The Emperor of Gladness, by Ocean Vuong
10. Rose in Chains, by Julie Soto

Wild Reverence is a stand-alone prequel to the Letters of Enchantment series. From Gina Collett in Library Journal: "This tale of thriving after abuse and finding renewed hope in love leaves readers with a brutal, yet achingly romantic story." This is one of three books in the top 10, the others being Katabasis and Rose in Chains, that sold in both the regular and deluxe editions last week.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Mission Driven, by Mike Hayes
2. Destroy This House, by Amanda Uhle (signed copies)
3. Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy
4. Baldwin: A Love Story, by Nicholas Boggs
5. Burning Down the House, by Jonathan Gould
6. What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking, by Caroline Chambers
7. It Doesn't Have to Hurt, by Sanjay Gupta
8. Coming Up Short, by Robert Reich
9. What's on Her Mind, by Allison Daminger (Boswell September 10 event)
10. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green

Arundhati Roy has mostly been writing political essays in the years since the Booker-winning The God of Small Things, but Mother Mary Comes to Me is also a memoir. She's got 7 raves, a positive, and a mixed on BookMarks. I love that they decided that the excerpt from May-Lee Chai's review in the Star Tribune should be the single word "coruscating." I had to look it up - "flashing" or "scathing." I suspect the latter. 

Paperback Fiction:
1. It Had to Be Him, by Adib Khorram (signed copies)
2. I Think They Love You, by Julian Winters (signed copies)
3. The Lion Women of Tehran, by Marjan Kamali
4. First Lie Wins, by Ashley Elston
5. When the Cranes Fly South, by Lisa Ridzén
6. Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
7. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
8. The History of Sound, by Ben Shattuck
9. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
10. 1984, by George Orwell

The national bestseller lists usually see a resurgence of The Glass Castle and Born a Crime, books used in a lot of classes, and we similarly saw some classics pop into our top 10, but they were Slaughterhouse Five and 1984. First Lie Wins, however, was a book club that bought all their books together, which used to be more common in the past.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Don't Say Please, by Sahan Jayasuriya
2. When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, by Julie Satow
3. AI Snake Oil, by Arvind Narayanan and Sayesh Kapoor
4. A Sheepdog Named Oscar, by Dara Waldron (Boswell October 30 event)
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. There's Always This Year, by Hanif Abudrraqib
7. The Year of the Tiger, by Alice Wong
8. All the Beauty of the World, by Patrick Bringley
9. A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders, by John Elledge
10. Mary Nohl Inside and Out, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith

Nice to see AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference, one of my hardcover picks from last year, have a good first week on sale. It's also selling well at Ingram - they have more on order. I am a big fan of the paperback color change, while keeping the same design - this book went from black to red.

Books for Kids:
1. Wish, by Barbara O'Connor
2. Rules for Fake Girlfriends, by Raegan Revord
3. Sisters in the Wind, by Angeline Boulley
4. A Forgery of Fate, by Elizabeth Lim
5. If We Were Dogs, by Sophie Blackall
6. Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories, by Jeff Kinney
7. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
8. Rite of Passage, by Richard Wright
9. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
10. White Lies, by Ann Bausum

Sisters in the Wind is the current GMA YA book club selection. Publishers Weekly noted: " It's a devastating yet gripping tale of finding family, recontextualizing faith, and reclaiming ancestry that serves as a searing critique of the ways that systems can fail vulnerable youth." it's also recommended by both Tim and McKenna at Boswell.