Boswell Bestsellers for Week Ending January 3, 2015.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
2. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell
3. The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters
4. Redployment, by Phil Klay
5. Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami
6. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
7. The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber
8. Fourth of July Creek, by Smith Henderson
9. Morarty, by Anthony Horowitz
10. Lydia's Party, by Margaret Hawkins (event at Lynden Sculpture Garden 1/28)

Aside from All the Light We Cannot See, hardcover fiction sales collapsed this week back down to post-seasonal levels. It will be nice to get some new blood out there. The first round of post-holiday releases come this Tuesday, January 6. But my gosh, our post-holiday numbers from Doerr are so much higher than anything we've had since we've been open, more than double our previous #1 post-holiday fiction bestseller, Death Comes to Pemberly, in 2011. I can do better than that--our sales of All the Light We Cannot See for the week after Christmas were higher than the post-holiday sales of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle in 2009 for all the Schwartz stores together (admittedly for week ending January 10, 2009, as I can't find the previous week, which was likely higher). So really the key to the moribund list is that everybody is buying the same book.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Motivation Manifesto, by Brendon Burchard
2. Pabst Farms, by John C. Eastberg
3. Deep Down Dark, by Héctor Tobar
4. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler
5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
6. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, by Roz Chast
7. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
8. Fields of Blood, by Karen Armstrong
9. Small Victories, by Anne Lamott
10. Everything I Need to Know I learned from a Little Golden Book, by Diane Muldrow.

Yes, the post-holiday numbers are spread around more in nonfiction, but it also appears that the titles in general are holding on better. Stock is in on Deep Down Dark which eased the demand spigot. And one would think that January would be a very good month for The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, in which folks often focus on organization.

Oh, and I'm on a one-person crusade to convince FSG to reprint Deep Down Dark with a more commercial jacket. Yes, in hardcover. I really think this book has a long hardcover life, but I think it needs a clearer image. Why not do a Father's Day edition?

Paperback Fiction:
1. Someone, by Alice McDermott
2. We are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler
3. The Martian, by Andy Weir
4. The Strange Library, by Haruki Murakami
5. The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
6. The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman
7. What the Lady Wants, by Renée Rosen
8. The Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline
9. This is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz
10. At Night We Walk in Circles, by Daniel Alarcon

I can't believe I was a little worried that we wouldn't have a strong paperback for Alice McDermott's Someone. and while the cover is still a little monochrome and low contrast, it's clearer than the paperback. The rule of thumb is that if you get a lot of reads on a book in hardcover, you'll have a second payoff in paperback, as long as those people are still working at the bookstore, and we all really liked the book and didn't seem pushed into it by peer (or sometimes sales rep) pressure. You do sometimes have to jump-start the re-enthusiasm, reminding everyone of how much they liked it. I can think of at least one 2013 hardcover that I thought had a lot of momentum from staff but when I read the book in 2014 for the paperback, it felt like I was hand-selling alone and as a result, the book didn't perform.


Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
2. Eat Bacon, Don't Jog, by Grant Petersen
3. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
4. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
5. The Heart of Everything that is, by Bob Drury
6. Mary Nohl: Inside and Out, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith
7. The History of the World in 12 Maps, by Jerry Brotton
8. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
9. The Milwaukee Bucket List, by Barbara Ali
10. Zealot, by Reza Aslan

We decided to skip the "new year, new you/resolution" table this year as it just seemed a little played out, plus we didn't really have a hook. That said, the impulse table is looking a lot like said display, what with Marie Kondo and Grant Petersen's Eat Bacon, Don't Jog. It's a bit Atkins redux, but the jogging thing is a new take on "everything you've been doing to stay healthy is wrong."

Books for Kids:
1. Once Upon an Alphabet, by Oliver Jeffers
2. Unbroken: The Young Adult Adaptation, by Laura Hillenbrand
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, by Jeff Kinney
4. Sisters, by Rena Telgemeier
5. Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, by Rick Riordan
6. The Book with No Pictures, by B.J. Novak
7. The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove
8. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson
9. Outside, by Deirdre Gill
10. The Fourteenth Goldfish, by Jennifer Holm

Once again, nothing here that is particularly surprising, as most of these titles were selling at Christmas. The handselling goes down a bit, so these titles are probably a bit closer to what most indies are selling. I will note that I did convince two folks to buy The Glass Sentence. Amie said I'm allowed to use the word "Pullman-esque" to describe the series.

In the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins writes about If Women Have Courage...Among Shepherds, Sheiks, and Scientists in Algeria, from Dorothy Pond. He writes that the book "chronicles the many months she spent in North Africa alongside her husband (archeologist Alonzo Pond) on fieldwork expeditions." While not self-explicitly feminist, Higgins notes that Pond often found herself the only woman, "often among men who were not used to treating women as equals." Alas, we're not able to source this one for you to quickly, and our sales price will be a bit higher than the arbitrary list price, as it is imported by Africa Manga Verlag and sold to us by one of our wholesalers at close to net price...and they are out of stock.

There's also a book preview and a profile of James Patterson in the print edition.

One More Year-end List! Our Top Young Adult and Teen Books of 2014.

Young Adult and Teen Bestsellers at Boswell 2014
1. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
2. The Scar Boys, by Len Vlahos
3. Virals, by Kathy Reichs
4. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
5. The Testing, by Joelle Charbonneau
6. Divergent, by Veronica Roth
7. Ask Again Later, by Liz Czukas
8. Afterworlds, by Scott Westerfeld
9. The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove
10. Insurgent, by Veronica Roth
11. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs
12. Legend, by Marie Lu
13. The Search for WondLa, by Toni DiTerlizzi
14. Allegiant, by Veronia Roth
15. Ashes, by Ilsa Bick
16. Independent Study, by Joelle Charbonneau
17. Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell
18 .The Fault in Our Stars (cloth), by John Green
19. Exposure, by Kathy and Brendan Reichs
20. Angel de la Luna and the Fifth Glorious Mystery, by M. Evelina Galang
21. The Maze Runner, by James Dashner
22. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqeline Woodson
23. Seizure, by Kathy and Brendan Reichs
24. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
25. Noggin', by John Corey Whaley
26. Paper Towns, by John Green
27. Code, by Kathy and Brendan Reichs
28. Dangerous, by Shannon Hale
29. Sinner, by Maggie Stiefvater
30. The Gospel of Winter, by Brendan Kiely
31. The Battle for WondLa, by Tony DiTerlizzi
32. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
33. When I Was the Greatest, by Jason Reynolds
34. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
35. Better Off Friends, by Elizabeth Eulberg

What? Only four John Green titles. We are slacking.  Yes, still event driven and I should note that two of our top 15 are joining up for an event on at the North Shore Library. Elizabeth Eulberg Liz Czukas, and yes, also Ally Carter will be there on Wednesday, January 28, 6:30 pm. No reservation necessary but feel free to call them up and gush about how excited you are.

We're also please to be welcoming back Jason Reynolds to Milwaukee. This time he'll be at East Library on Monday, April 13 (yes, that's enough time to clear your schedule), at 6:30. He's coming for his new book, The Boy in the Black Suit, out January 6.

Boswell Kids' Bestsellers of 2014 Part One: Picture Books and Middle-Grade Books.

Picture Books and Board Books
1. Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
2. Goodnight Moon board book, by Margaret Wise Brown
3. The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
4. I am a Bunny, by Ole Risom, illustrated by Richard Scarry
5. Skippyjon Jones: Snow What, by Judy Schachner
6. Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt
7. The Scraps Book, by Lois Ehlert
8. The Pout Pout Fish Goes to School, by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Dan Hanna
9. The Noisy Paintbox, by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary Grandpre
10. Fiona's Lace, by Patricia Polacco
11. President Taft is Stuck in the Bath, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
12. Before After, by Matthias Arégui and Anne-Margot Ramstein
13. It's an Orange Aardvark, by Michael Hall
14. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
15. Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
16. I Want my Hat Back, by Jon Klassen
17. This is Not my Hat, by Jon Klassen
18. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes board book, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
19. Contablock, by Christopher Franceschelli, illustrated by Peskimo
20. Once Upon an Alphabet, by Oliver Jeffers
21. The Book with No Pictures, by B.J. Novak
22. The Scrambled States of America, by Laurie Keller
23. Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
24. Little Blue Truck's Christmas, by Alice Schertle, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
25. Time For Bed board book, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Jane Dyer
26. Hush Little Polar Bear board book, by Jeff Mack
27. The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book, by Eric Carle
28. Good Night Wisconsin, by Adam Gable and Mark Jasper
29. The Pilot and the Little Prince, by Peter Sís
30. Telephone, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace
31. Arnie the Donut, by Laurie Keller
32. The Little Blue Truck, by Alice Schertle, illustrated by Jill McElmurry
33. Have You Seen my Dragon?, by Steve Light
34. Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by Tom Lichenheld
35. Journey, by Aaron Becker

If anything, our kids' bestsellers are even more event driven than our adult ones, though I should note that Sam & Dave Dig a Hole would have made this year-end list even without the event. Left off this list are bulk orders of older titles, but I'll include them if we've had several bulk orders throughout the year. The board book sales tend to build over time, hence a lot of backlist titles. So it's a big deal when new hardcover picture books really makes the list on it's on, without an' event, like Steve Light's Have You Seen my Dragon?

Alas, there did not seem to be a picture book driving folks into the store, the way The Day the Crayons Quit last year was, or Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site in 2011 and though Dragons Love Tacos has been on the national bestseller lists for close to a year, we simply haven't gotten the traction on that one.  The current #1 on the NYT is B.J. Novak's The Book with no Pictures, which is selling ok for us.

Chapter and Middle-Grade Books
1. Hollow Earth, by John and Carole E. Barrowman
2. Einstein the Class Hamster and the Very Real Game Show, by Janet Tashjian
3. Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done, by Stephan Pastis
4. The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, by Sheila Turnage
5. Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage
6. Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not so Glam TV Star, by Rachel Renée Russell
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, by Jeff Kinney
8. Timmy Failure: Mistakes were Made, by Stephan Pastis
9. Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
10. The Unwanteds, by Lisa McMann
11. Bird, by Crystal Chan
12. Better Nate than Ever, by Tim Federle
13. The Scavengers, by Michael Perry
14. Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, by Wendelin Van Draanen
15. Missing: Found, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
16. The 26-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths
17. Einstein the Class Hamster, by Janet Tashjian
18. The Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Heroes, by Rick Riordan
19. The 13-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths
20. The Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela
21. Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo
22. My Life as a Book, by Janet Tashjian
23. Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus, by Tom Angleberger
24. Animalium, by Jenny Broom and Katie Scott
25. Five, Six, Seven, Nate, by Tim Federle
26. Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, by Katherine Rundell
27. The Unwanteds: Island of Silence, by Lisa McMann
28. Adventures of Artie the Donut: Bowling Alley Bandit, by Laurie Keller
29. The Minecraft Essential Handbook, by the Scholastruic Editors
30. The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
31. The Unwanteds: Island of Legends, by Lisa McMann
32. Missing: Sent, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
33. My Life as a Cartoonist, by Janet Tashjian
34. Sisters, by Raina Telgemeier
35. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, by Jeff Kinney
36. Wildwood, by Colin Meloy
37. The Thickety: A Path Begins, by J.A. White
38. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, by Tom Angleberger
39. Squirrels on Skis, by J. Hamilton Ray
40. Spy Camp, by Stuart Gibbs

One of the tricks of kids' events is that sometimes the author only does schools and doesn't have the public event. There are twofold issues. For developing authors, a there's some concern that the author doesn't have enough of a following to get a big enough audience. There are also logistics issues. If you're planning on a different city every day and the author is doing schools in the morning and afternoon, you need the evening for travel.

If you exclude events, the bestselling titles turn out to be Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, which was the bestselling book of the year on Bookscan, for adults or kids, Wonder, and The Blood of Heroes. Wonder is the current #1 on the New York Times. Oh, to continue the confusion, I grouped 10 and up books with young adult if that's where we sectioned them, whereas the NYT calls them middle grade. You'll catch that difference on the next list, which I'll post as soon as I can, as I am bringing my laptop in yet again.

And one last note, there is probably at least one error in here. I almost lost Animalium somehow in the tabulations, and I have no idea why. I'm going to blame the laptop and the still-hyper-sensitive touchpad.

Boswell's Top Nonfiction Bestsellers of 2014!

A new hard drive for my laptop left me struggling to find time to get the blog out, and it didn't help that once it was complete, I had a number of problems getting my computer back up to snuff. It's still got some weird quirks, like I can no longer turn off my touchpad. I can't wait for the Milwaukee branch of Milwaukee PC to reopen. It's no longer as close to us as it was on Farwell, but fortunately, the new Jackson Street branch is not too far away. Paul, we miss you!

Our last few days confirm--warm, dry weather plus cheap gas led to more folks feeling they had extra money in their pocket and their was nothing stopping them from visiting stores. It will be interesting to see whether our holiday season was better for bricks-and-mortar stores than it looked like it would be going into fall, when a lot of projections were down, and the media was making speculations about the season based on a weak Black Friday.

Hardcover Nonfiction
1. David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. The Keillor Reader, by Garrison Keillor
3. You are Here, by Chris Hadfield
4. The Future of the Mind, by Michio Kaku
5. Things that Matter, by Charles Krauthammer
6. Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book, by Diane Muldrow
7. Capital in the Twenty First Century, by Thomas Piketty
8. How Not to Be Wrong, by Jordan Ellengberg
9. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
10. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, by Roz Chast
11. Baking Chez Moi, by Dorie Greenspan
12. Astoria, by Peter Stark
13. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
14. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler
15. Not that Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham
16. An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, by Steven Pinker
17. Milwaukee Then and Now, by Sandra Ackerman
18. A Sense of Style, by Steven Pinker
19. Prune, by Gabrielle Hamilton
20. The Happiness of Pursuit, by Chris Guillebeau
21. What If?, by Randall Munro
22. The Mockingbird Next Door, by Marja Mills
23. Good Stock, by Sanford D'Amato
24. Jesus, by James Martin
25. Tequila Mockingbird, by Tim Federle
26. Perimeter, by Kevin Miyazaki
27. Deep Down Dark, by Héctor Tobar
28. Zero to Breakthrough, by Vernice Armour
29. Make It Ahead, by Ina Garten
30. The Making of Milwaukee, by John Gurda
31. Small Victories, by Anne Lamott
32. The Best Cat of Book Ever, by Kate Funk
33. The Cooks Illustrated Meat Book, by America's Test Kitchen (Jack Bishop)
34. Pabst Farms, by John C. Eastberg
35. The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert
36. I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai
37. Old Man Drinks, by Robert Schankenberg
38. Fighting Chance, by Elizabeth Warren
39. Thrive, by Arianna Huffington
40. Recipes from my Home Kitchen, by Christine Ha
41. Flash Boys, by Michael Lewis
42. Great Maps, by Jerry Brotton
43. This Changes Everything, by Naomi Klein
44. Schottenfreude, by Ben Schott
45. I'll Take You There, by Greg Kot
46. The Horse Lover, by Alan Day and Lynn Wiese Sneyd
47. Everything I Need to Know About Christmas I Learned from a Little Golden Book, by Diane Muldrow
48. My Family and Other Hazards, by June Melby
49. The Invisible Bridge, by Rick Perlstein
50. Little Failure, by Gary Shteyngart

There's nothing to me that indicates more the polarization of the Milwaukee area than our nonfiction bestseller list. Despite the gush of celebrity books, there really only are a couple that made our top 50 (with Dunham and Poehler fighting it out to the end). No, its really events, awards, impulse table, a few gift picks (like Great Maps), and what were probably the biggest books on the ABA (indie) bestseller lists.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
2. The Emotional Life of Your Brain, by Richard J. Davidson
3. Healing the Soul, by Bhupendra Khatri
4. Strength for the Struggle, by Joseph Ellwanger
5. Everything that Remains, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
6. Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay
7. 101 Things to Do in Milwuakee Parks, by Barbara Ali
8. Studying Wisconsin, by Martha Bergland and Paul Hayes
9. Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
10. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
11. Shakespeare Saved my Life, by Laura Bates
12. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
13. Civil Rites Activism in Milwaukee, by Paul Geenen
14. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
15. Quiet, by Susan Cain
16. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
17. How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough
18. The Hidden History of Milwaukee, by Bobby Tanzilo
19. Assholes, by Jim Aaron
20. Christianity without God, by Daniel Maguire
21. Eat Bacon, Don't Jog, by Grant Petersen
22. A Food Lover's Guide to Wisconsin, by Martin Hintz
23. Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
24. Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh
25. Pretty Good Joke Book, by Garrison Keillor
26. Redefining Girl, by Melissa Atkins Wardy
27. Think Happy, Be Happy, by Workman Publishing
28. The Girls of Atomic City, by Denise Kiernan
29. Going Somewhere, by Brian Benson
30. How to Eat, by Thich Nhat Hanh
31. Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah (two local high schools read this)
32. Your Living Compass, by Scott Stoner
33. The Unwinding, by George Packer
34. Age is Just a Number, by Dara Torres
35. Knocking on Heaven's Door, by Katy Butler
36. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
37. How to Sit, by Thich Nhat Hanh
38. The Heart of Everything that is, by Bob Drury
39. Philosophy in Minutes, by Marcus Weeks
40. Graduates in Wonderland, by Rachel Kapelke Dale and Jessica Pan
41. One Summer, by Bill Bryson
42. Milwaukee Rock and Roll, by Larry Widen
43. The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison
44. Zealot, by Reza Aslan
45. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell
46. The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
47. After Visiting Friends, by Michael Hainey
48. Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
49. The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz
50. Dear Mrs. Griggs, by Genevieve McBride and Stephen Byers (event on 1/30, 4 pm)

A big shout out to Kira Henschel at Henschel Haus, who published two of our top five titles, from Khatri and Ellwanger. Our next event with her authors is for The Boys on the Porch, by June Nilssen Eastvold. We're celebrating the release on January 15, 7 pm. Events and regional books and authors are also important to this list, as is the impulse table. And for the category in general (for not just Boswell), boy did films make a difference.

A number of publishers put "review copy" stickers on their books they send us and we are respectful of this, but sometimes it pays to leave this off. Workman sent us a few comp copies (with letters) of Think Happy, Be Happy, a book we originally just represented. That was enough to get it on our impulse table where it now has sold well over 50 copies.

Boswell's 2014 Fiction Bestsellers!

Computer issues are slowing me down! I had a hard drive replaced and it's taken a long time to put my database back together, even though I had a full backup before bringing my laptop in. That said, our year-end bestsellers are itching to be posted, so here they are. Fiction's up first!

Hardcover Fiction
1. The Slow Regard of Silent Things, by Patrick Rothfuss
2. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
3. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
4. The Serpent of Venice, by Christopher Moore
5. The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd
6. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami
7. The Book of Life, by Deborah Harkness
8. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin (only book to make hardcover and paper top 50)
9. Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler
10. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
11. Bark, by Lorrie Moore (one of five story collections)
12. Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
13. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell
14. Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson
15. The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny
16. The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters
17. The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith
18. Redeployment, by Phil Klay
19. The Adventure of Princess and Mr. Whiffle Thing Beneath the Bed, by Patrick Rothfuss
20. The Children Act, by Ian McEwan
21. In Liberty Name, by Eva Rumpf
22. The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
23. Mrs. Lincoln's Rival, by Jennfier Chiaverini
24. The Secret Place, by Tana French
25. The Liar's Wife, by Mary Gordon
26. California, by Edan Lepucki
27. All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
28. The Magician's Land, by Lev Grossman
29. Family Furnishings, by Alice Munro
30. The Crane Wife, by Patrick Ness
31. The Vacationers, by Emma Straub
32. Gray Mountain, by John Grisham
33. Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher
34. Let Me Be Frank with You, by Richard Ford
35. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, by Joshua Ferris
36. To Dwell in Darkness, by Deborah Crombie
37. Some Luck, by Jane Smiley
38. One More Thing, by B.J. Novak
39. Midnight in Europe, by Alan Furst
40. Blue Horses, by Mary Oliver
41. Goodnight Darth Vader, by Jeffrey Brown
42. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, by Hilary Mantel
43. The Hundred Year House, by Rebecca Makkai
44. An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alameddine
45. The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton (both this and Goldfinch were on top hardcovers of 2013)
46. Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle
47. Still Life with Bread Crumbs, by Anna Quindlen
48. Nora Webster, by Colm Toíbín
49. The Martian, by Andy Weir
50. The String Diaries, Stephen Lloyd Jones

I was writing a bit about the list and realized it was all a bit mindless. In the end, it's not that striking--only a few indie publishers (you'll see more in the paperback list), generally literary, flirting with genre, not as diverse as I'd like or even as we've seen in past years. I'm not really sure what's up with that.

Oh, and we're all taking bets on when we get the news that the paperback publication of All the Light We Cannot See is postponed. It's currently scheduled for June but we see a full year and another Christmas of hardcover sales, particularly if it wins either the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. Saving Kandinsky, by Mary "Peetie" Basson
3. The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy
4. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
5. The Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline
6. The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat, by Edward Kelsey Moore
7. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
8. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
9. A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
10. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
11. Americanah, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
12. Kindred, by Octavia Butler
13. The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion
14. Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent
15. The Selector of Souls, by Shauna Singh Baldwin
16. Dear Life, by Alice Munro
17. The Circle, by Dave Eggers
18. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes
19. The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin
20. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra
21. Tenth of December, by George Saunders
22. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
23. What the Lady Wants, by Renée Rosen
24. TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann
25. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler
26. Infautations, by Javier Marias
27. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple
28. The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
29. The President's Hat, by Antoine Laurain
30. Instructions for a Heatwave, by Maggie O'Farrell
31. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
32. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
33. Torchwood: The Exodus Code, by John and Carole E. Barrowman
34. Unmentionables, by Laurie Loewenstein
35. Longbourn, by Jo Baker
36. Best American Short Stories 2014, edited by Jennifer Egan
37. An Untamed State, by Roxane Gay
38. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
39. Benediction, by Kent Haruf
40. A Dance with Dragons, by George R.R. Martin
41. The Flamethrowers, by Rachel Kushner
42. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
43. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
44. Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri
45. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce
46. Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
47. And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini
48. Someone, by Alice McDermott
49. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin
50. A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas
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The main story this year is that there was not a main story year, unlike last year when Beautiful Ruins exploded in paperback. Aside from our ticketed event with Elizabeth Gilbert, our top two books sold about half the level of Jess Walter and the two books that worked at that level nationally (Flynn and Kline) are more like 40% of our Walter sale. While I kept saying that The Illusion of Separateness is a book that, once you start hand-selling it, begins to sell itself as readers tell each other about it, there just didn't seem to be enough indie booksellers out there willing to give it the running start it needed. In that sense, it is 2014's President Hat. I did notice that Costco tried it but I think it didn't have enough momentum, which is why our last shipment of books arrived with a bunch of Costco stickers on them.

Similarly, I hoped that Burial Rites would break out in paperback, what with all the great indie reads in hardcover, but that didn't seem to happen. We're the #2 store in the country on Above the Treeline, and while that's great for us (and shows how touring an author can have lasting effects), it's not fabulous for the book in general, And notice the paperback list is a little more diverse, but still isn't that indie heavy. Here's hoping we find a few more Unmentionables in 2015.

What's Selling at Boswell for This Week Ending 12/27/14? Runaway Bestellers from Doerr, Kondo and Brown, but Lots to Talk About in All Categories.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
2. Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
3. Redeployment, by Phil Klay
4. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami
5. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
6. All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
7. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell
8. The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters
9. Family Furnishings, by Alice Munro
10. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James

If you've been under a log, it turns out that Anthony Doerr's novel All the Light We Cannot See is a hit. Alexandra Alter gets the story behind the story in The New York Times. Note: I have to find an image of the cover with all the "medals" on it. I was also thrilled to see Station Eleven get back on The New York Times printed top 15. But I should note that the real winner is Penguin Random House, who has seven of the top 10. Knopf has 3, Riverhead 2, Penguin Press and Little Random House each have one.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
2. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
3. Deep Down Dark, by Héctor Tobar
4. Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, by Roz Chast
5. David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
6. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler
7. Great Maps, by Jerry Brotton
8. What If, by Randall Munroe
9. Milwaukee Then and Now, by Sandra Ackerman
10. Make it Ahead, by Ina Garton

While PRH doesn't rule this list the way they do fiction, it is bookended by hits from the Crown division. Three hits are from Macmillan, with one title each from FSG (Tobar), Holt (Gawande) and the distributed Bloomsbury (Chast). If you thought the Amazon boycott didn't hurt Hachette, think again. I think they found it particularly hard to break out books this fall--I noticed that aside from You Are Here, which had a strong post-event sale, our biggest hardcovers were from 2013, from Malcolm Gladwell and Donna Tartt.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Best American Short Stories 2014, co-edited by Jennifer Egan
2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
3. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin
4. The Strange Library, by Haruki Murakami
5. The Circle, by Dave Eggers
6. Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill
7. Still Life with Bread Crumbs, by Anna Quindlen
8. The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
9. Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. What the Lady Wants, by Renée Rosen

The new Best American Short Stories 2014 may be at the top but unlike many of our other categories (hardcover fiction and nonfiction, paperback nonfiction), it's not a runaway bestseller. In fact, it's trailing 2013 for us. It's sometimes a function of the editor, but I think in this case, the new packaging might have a role. And once again, PRH has 7 of the top 10 bestsellers, but this time Knopf is more in the lead with four. I'm wondering if "The Interview" incident might be helping sales of The Orphan Master's Son.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
2. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
3. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
4. Eat Bacon, Don't Jog, by Grant Petersen
5. How to Eat, by Thich Nhat Hanh
6. A History of the World in 12 Maps, by Jerry Brotton
7. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
8. How to Sit, by Thich Nhat Hanh
9. Studying Wisconsin, by Martha Bergland and Paul Hayes
10. Milwaukee Rock and Roll, by Larry Widen

It wasn't too long ago that you didn't know who Jerry Brotton was, but with two books on our bestseller list (Great Maps, our bestselling DK book in a long time, and A History of the World in 12 Maps), you now can't forget this BBC host and professor at Queen Mary University of London. And now here's something unusual--our top 3 matches The New York Times top three for this category on the December 21 list, only not in the same order--Unbroken, The Boys in the Boat, Wild. You just can't top a movie tie-in in the mass market, especially one that outperforms the pundits.

Books for Kids
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid 9: The Long Haul, by Jeff Kinney
2. Once Upon an Alphabet, by Oliver Jeffers
3. Nuts to You, by Lynne Rae Perkins
4. Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, by Katherine Rundell
5. Animalium, curated by Jenny Broom and Katie Scott
6. The Book with No Pictures, by B.J. Novak
7. The Glass Sentence, by S.E. Grove
8. The Latke who Couldn't Stop Screaming, by Lemony Snicket
9. I'll Give You the Sun, by Jandy Nelson
10. The Accidental Highwayman, by Ben Tripp

Hey Amie, I was talking to a librarian yesterday who said that Nuts to You had Newbery Medal buzz. I guess that's not a stretch, since Perkins has previously won the honor. But this novel about two squirrels who try to save their friend from a hawk is certainly her bestselling hardcover since Boswell has been open and according to my very old records, has substantially outperformed her Newbery winner Criss Cross from 2005 at this store when it was a Schwartz (though probably not the Shorewood location, from which we picked up a lot of the kids' business). And speaking of beating old books, Katherine Rundell's Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms has already surpassed Rooftoppers in hardcover sales and still has some momentum.

On the older YA front (our teen section, as they called it when our section was rebranded many years ago), Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun is well outperforming her previous novel, The Sky is Everywhere, at least with us, but when I looked at Treeline, I can safely say that this is the case in many bookstores. This was one of Phoebe's picks in our holiday newsletter.

In the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins rounds up regional favorites:
a. Pabst Farms, by John Eastberg (event on December 30)
b. The Widows' Handbook, edited by Jacqueline Lapidus and Lise Menn
c. Dispatches from the Drownings, by B.J. Hollars
d. The Milwaukee Bucket List, by Barbara Ali
e. Badger Sate Buddies, by Noreen O'Brien

On the Pabst Farms book (our event is Tuesday!): "Eastberg's book also serves as a fascinating case study of a brewery that survived prohibition; among other revenue streams, Fred Pabst Jr. and brewery chemist Alfred J. Schedler created Pabst-ett, an aged processed cheese spread often described as similar to Velveeta."

Plus there's a review of the holiday hit, When Books Went to War, by Molly Guptill Manning. It's "the fascinating story of how the military teamed up with New York publishers to bring books to the troops in the field." The review was originally in Newsday and appears in today's Tap section of the print edition. You'd think that this book would resonate with our customer and in fact, we had a very good December with it. It's unusual for a book like this to release December 2; hoping momentum continues into the new year.