Weekly Bestsellers: September 8-September 14

Weekly Bestsellers

Second week of September and our events series is kicking into gear. Topping the hardcover list we have two events books. We hosted Joyce Carol Oates, a woman who is prolific in both book form and on Twitter, and she joined us at the Coolidge Corner Theatre to read from her new collection of short stories. And on Saturday, Chris Guillabeau visited every country in the world and shared the lessons he learned with us at his event for The Happiness of Pursuit. 

In paperbacks, once-local author Dennis Lehane's novel The Drop, is adapted from the film which was originally adapted from Lehane's short story "Animal Rescue." Got that? And for those of us who can't get enough of the brilliant Roxane Gay (and there are a lot of us, customers and staff alike) we are thrilled her essay collection, Bad Feminist, is out as a paperback original. 

Here's the rest of the list. See you next Tuesday! - Shuchi

Hardcovers

1) Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates
2) The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life by Chris Guillebeau
3) The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
4) Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A Novel by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel
5) What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
6) The Secret Place by Tana French

Paperbacks

1) The Drop by Dennis Lehane
2) Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
3) The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz
4) The Boys In the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
5) The Trauma of Everyday Life by Mark Epstein
6) Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon - A staff favorite, Yoon's slim, breathtaking novel is about a young man starting life anew after the Korean War. Our Book Club will meet to discuss Snow Hunters on Monday, October 13th at 7:30PM.
7) Acceptance: Book Three of The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer - I'm about halfway through book two, Authority, and I can't get enough of the mysterious, terrifying world VanderMeer has created in this trilogy. The final book just received a rave review in The New York Times.

Weekly Bestsellers June 30th - July 6th

Hardcover Bestsellers

1) The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith - J.K. Rowling may have just released a short story about Harry Potter and the crew at age 34, but readers are really digging her alter-ego's crime novels. Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott plunge into literary London as they try to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of novelist Owen Quine.

2) Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty - For two weeks during the spring this tome published by Harvard University Press was completely out of stock, awaiting the next printing. When we received boxes of it later we all had the same fear: was this one of those flash in the pan crazes or the real thing? We've had it in stock for months now and it's the book that just keeps on selling.

3) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - Now with brand a brand new Pulitzer Prize gold seal, The Goldfinch has an engrossing plot and crazy characters and an opening that will have you totally hooked.

4) The Keillor Reader by Garrison Keillor - A not-so-big secret: We love Garrison Keillor. No really, we do.  And apparently so do our customers. This book of poems, stories, essays and anecdotes offer a great collection of Mr. Keillor's work.

5) My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit - In hardcover since November, My Promised Land keeps popping up on our bestseller list. The only thing that keeps a book going this long after initial publication is word of mouth. And this book has received some fantastic endorsements - like this New York Time's Columnist suggesting that both President Obama and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu read it. 

6) The Arsonist by Sue Miller - A New England summer, houses ablaze, and passionate affairs. This book is hot all around, and debuts on our weekly best hot off the presses.

Paperback Bestsellers

1) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Pick your reasons for wanting to read it: a) for a deeply moving story of teenage love. b) to read the book that everyone is talking about. c) because you like to weep on the beach.

2) The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - Turns out the author of Eat, Pray, Love is a damn good fiction writer too. And if you need convincing, come hear her read from her novel at the Coolidge Corner Theatre this Sunday.

3) Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  - If you ask me for a recommendation, I will hand you this book. Smart and relevant and funny and AND a love story. I adore Americanah.

4) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - This pocket sized paperback is a memoir of the early years of one our most beloved writers. Shockingly, she is also one of the most banned authors in the USA. I think I know what I'm reading next.

5) The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith - The mystery by an author who no one had heard of turned out to be a book by an author who most people have heard of. This book will be nothing like Harry Potter but, arguably, just as engrossing.

6) My Struggle: Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard - Norwegian literary sensation writes about his life in six books. Three have been translated, and as he's recently become the talk of the literary world. The first book has been flying off our shelves. This is Jamie's beach read of choice.

7) The Circle by Dave Eggers  - Dave Eggers does have a new novel out but everyone has been into this dystopian novel set in a faux Silicon Valley.