Sunday, May 20, 2018

Here are the Boswell bestsellers for the week ending May 19, 2018.

Here are the Boswell bestsellers for the week ending May 19, 2018.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Alberto Urrea
2. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
3. Death Rides the Ferry, by Patricia Skalka
4. Last Stories, by William Trevor
5. Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
6. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
7. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
8. You Think It I'll Say It, by Curtis Sittenfeld
9. The Female Persuasion, by Meg Wolitzer
10. Less, by Andrew Sean Greer (ticketed event 6/15. Info here)

Our good friend Dennis came back from Turkey to tell us that William Trevor is very popular there, or so the Istanbul booksellers say. His legacy is pretty strong in the United States too, where Last Stories, his posthumous collection, has a nice pop in sales this week. Maina Vaizey in The Arts Desk wrote: "This voices perhaps the underlying theme of these yearning lives, with fulfilment tantalisingly always just round the corner. Here are tales of compromise and melancholy and uncertainty, yet with moral and ethical considerations also shadowing decisions."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Beauty in the Broken Places, by Allison Pataki
2. Would You Do That to Your Mother, by Jeanne Bliss
3. Pick Three, by Randi Zuckerberg
4. A Year in the Wilderness, by Amy and Dave Freeman
5. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
6. The Sociable City, by Jamin Creed Rowan
7. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara
8. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
9. Phyllis Tickle, by Jon M. Sweeney
10. Barracoon, by Zora Neale Hurston

Out this week is Michael Pollan's latest, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. From Kevin Canfield in The San Francisco Chronicle: "In How to Change Your Mind, Pollan explores the circuitous history of these often-misunderstood substances, and reports on the clinical trials that suggest psychedelics can help with depression, addiction and the angst that accompanies terminal illnesses. He does so in the breezy prose that has turned his previous books — these include The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Cooked, the inspiration for his winning Netflix docuseries of the same name — into bestsellers."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See
2. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
3. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
4. The Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
5. Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman
6. Embers of War, by Gareth L. Powell
7. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, by Arundhati Roy
8. A Legacy of Spies, by John Le Carre
9. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, by Amy E. Reichert (event 6/13 at Boswell with Karma Brown)
10. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney (event 6/26 at Weyenberg Library 2 pm and Elm Grove Library 7 pm)

Book Club update! We've added a fourth Boswell-run book club on the third Monday of each month and it's meeting at Cafe Hollander. On Monday, May 21, Jen and attendees will be discussing The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. Two other book club picks make this week's top 10. The In-Store Lit Group will be discussing The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane on Monday, June 4 and the Science Fiction Book Club will be discussing Embers of War by Gareth Powell on Monday, June 11, 7 pm.

Paul Di Filippo talked up Powell's novel on Locus: "I knew readers were in for a great ride on the shoulders of a writer here to stay. And his new novel, the first in a trilogy, bears out all my forecast. It’s a smart, funny, tragic, galloping space opera that showcases Powell’s wit, affection for his characters, world-building skills and unpredictable narrative inventions."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Divided City, by Alan Mallach
2. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. Lost Milwaukee, by Carl Swanson
5. The Color of War, by Richard Rothstein
6. Inspiralized, by Ali Maffucci
7. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
8. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
9. Janesville, by Amy Goldstein
10. Not That Bad, by Roxane Gay

We had a table at the JFS luncheon featuring Matthew Desmond where we recommended books to read after Eviction. We actually featured 5 of the 10 books on this week's top ten: The Death and Life of the Great Lakes (signed paperbacks available), The Color of Water, Hillbilly Elegy, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Janesville, plus of course we also had Evicted on display, and we sold those books too, even though many attendees received a copy of the book as part of their ticket. Ben Austen's High Risers almost made the top 10 hardcovers, coming in at #12. We probably would have sold more, but we sold out!

Books for Kids:
1. Endling: The Last, by Katherine Applegate
2. The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
3. If You Had a Jetpack, by Lisl Detlefsen
4. The Book of Beasts V3, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
5. The Bone Quill V2, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
6. The Hollow Earth V1, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
7. The Rose Legacy, by Jessica Day George
8. Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate
9. Tuesdays at the Castle V1, by Jessica Day George
10. Wishtree, by Katherine Applegate

We had two authors last week who did school visits in the Milwaukee area. Lisl Detlefsen talked about her second book, If You Had a Jetpack, while Jessica Day George was in town for the The Rose Legacy, the first book in a new middle-grade series. Kirkus Reviews offered this nice review of The Rose Legacy: "In this middle-grade fantasy, orphan Anthea is sent from Coronam to live with her uncle beyond the Wall, where she learns that not everything she was taught to believe is the truth."

Signed copies of both are available. Here's what's happening on the Journal Sentinel TapBooks page.

Featured on the front page are books to read this summer from the Journal Sentinel from Jim Higgins: "Whether you’re on the road or staying on the porch this summer, a book can be your traveling companion." Here are the editor's picks.
--Calypso, by David Sedaris (on sale 5/29)
--The Female Persuasion, by Meg Woliltzer
--The Monk of Mokha, by Dave Eggers
--Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
--Robin, by David Itzkoff
--See What Can Be Done, by Lorrie Moore
--Sharp, by Michelle Dean

Carole E. Barrowman suggest five great mystery/thrillers for summer reading.
--Mr. Flood's Last Resort, by Jess Kidd
--Paper Ghosts, by Julia Heaberlin
--Gale Force, by Owen Laukkanen (event at Boswell Fri 5/25, 7 pm)
--A Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier (on sale 6/12)
--The Line That Held Us, by David Joy (on sale 8/14)

Here's what Barrowman had to say about Gale Force: "Call me Ishmael! This is one of the most original thrillers out this summer. Captain McKenna Rhodes has inherited a business that’s leaking money. Her marine salvage company is going under unless she can get to the seas north of Alaska in time to salvage The Pacific Lion and earn the insurance fee. The freighter is packed with SUVs on its decks and a dangerous stowaway hiding in its hull."

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