NCIBA Bookstore Bestseller Lists

The unique character of Northern California and the independent bookstores which serve the region (the nation’s second largest book market) help shape a bestseller list different from other lists. While there is overlap with other lists, the NCIBA list reflects the special qualities which help define the West Coast—culturally independent, socially aware, high-tech, and ethnically diverse. (©NCIBA 2009)

Sales Week Ending June 28, 2009

Hardcover Fiction

  1. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
    Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s, $27.95
  2. Shanghai Girls
    Lisa See, Random House, $25
  3. The Angel’s Game
    Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Doubleday, $26.95
  4. The Scarecrow
    Michael Connelly, Little Brown, $27.99
  5. Brooklyn
    Colm Tóibín, Scribner, $25
  6. The Help
    Kathryn Stockett, Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, $24.95
  7. Gone Tomorrow
    Lee Child, Delacorte, $27
  8. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
    Alexander McCall Smith, Pantheon, $23.95
  9. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
    Katherine Howe, Hyperion, $25.99
  10. The Doomsday Key
    James Rollins, Morrow, $27.99
  11. Cutting for Stone
    Abraham Verghese, Knopf, $26.95
  12. Trouble
    Kate Christensen, Doubleday, $26
  13. Medusa
    Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos, Putnam, $27.95
  14. Road Dogs
    Elmore Leonard, Morrow, $26.99
  15. A Short History of Women
    Kate Walbert, Scribner, $24

Hardcover Nonfiction

  1. Outliers
    Malcolm Gladwell, Little Brown, $27.99
  2. Shop Class as Soulcraft
    Matthew B. Crawford, Penguin Press, $25.95
  3. Home Game
    Michael Lewis, Norton, $23.95
  4. The End of Overeating
    David Kessler, Rodale, $25.95
  5. Renegade
    Richard Wolffe, Crown, $26
  6. Farm City
    Novella Carpenter, Penguin Press, $25.95
  7. Satchel
    Larry Tye, Random House, $26
  8. Bad Mother
    Ayelet Gilbert Waldman, Doubleday, $24.95
  9. Crazy for the Storm
    Norman Ollestad, Ecco, $25.99
  10. Catastrophe
    Dick Morris, Eileen McGann, Harper, $26.99
  11. Liberty and Tyranny
    Mark R. Levin, Threshold Editions, $25
  12. Horse Soldiers
    Doug Stanton, Scribner, $28
  13. Excuses Begone!
    Wayne W. Dyer, Hay House, $24.95
  14. The Last Lecture
    Randy Pausch, Hyperion, $21.95
  15. The Art of Simple Food
    Alice Waters, Clarkson Potter, $35

Trade Paperback Fiction

  1. Olive Kitteridge
    Elizabeth Strout, Random House, $14
  2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
    Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows, Dial, $14
  3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
    Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen, Quirk, $12.95
  4. Unaccustomed Earth
    Jhumpa Lahiri, Vintage, $15
  5. The Art of Racing in the Rain
    Garth Stein, Harper, $14.99
  6. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
    Muriel Barbery, Europa Editions, $15
  7. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
    Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $14.95
  8. My Sister’s Keeper
    Jodi Picoult, Washington Square, $16
  9. Netherland
    Joseph O’Neill, Vintage, $14.95
  10. The Shack
    William P. Young, Windblown, $14.99
  11. The White Tiger
    Aravind Adiga, Free Press, $14
  12. City of Thieves
    David Benioff, Plume, $15
  13. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    Junot Diaz, Riverhead, $14
  14. The Likeness
    Tana French, Penguin, $15
  15. The 19th Wife
    David Ebershoff, Random House, $15

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

  1. In Defense of Food
    Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, $15
  2. When You Are Engulfed in Flames
    David Sedaris, Back Bay, $15.99
  3. The Omnivore’s Dilemma
    Michael Pollan, Penguin, $16
  4. Three Cups of Tea
    Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin, Penguin, $15
  5. Wesley the Owl
    Stacey O’Brien, Free Press, $15
  6. Julie and Julia
    Julie Powell, Back Bay, $14.99
  7. Glenn Beck’s Common Sense
    Glenn Beck, Threshold Editions, $11.99
  8. The Zookeeper’s Wife
    Diane Ackerman, Norton, $14.95
  9. American Lion
    Jon Meacham, Random House, $18
  10. My Stroke of Insight
    Jill Bolte Taylor, Plume, $15
  11. Dreams From My Father
    Barack Obama, Three Rivers, $14.95
  12. The Nine
    Jeffrey Toobin, Anchor, $15.95
  13. The Forever War
    Dexter Filkins, Vintage, $15
  14. The Tipping Point
    Malcolm Gladwell, Back Bay, $14.99
  15. Bonk
    Mary Roach, Norton, $14.95

Mass Market

  1. Fearless Fourteen
    Janet Evanovich, St. Martin’s, $7.99
  2. Dead Until Dark
    Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99
  3. Club Dead
    Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99
  4. Careless in Red
    Elizabeth George, Harper, $7.99
  5. Angels & Demons
    Dan Brown, Pocket, $9.99
  6. Dead to the World
    Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99
  7. The Catcher in the Rye
    J.D. Salinger, Warner, $6.99
  8. Ender’s Game
    Orson Scott Card, Tor, $6.99
  9. From Dead to Worse
    Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99
  10. Dead as a Doornail
    Charlaine Harris, Ace, $7.99

Children’s Titles

  1. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3)
    Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $19.99
  2. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2)
    Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $10.99
  3. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5)
    Rick Riordan, Hyperion, $17.99
  4. Breaking Dawn (Twilight, Book 4)
    Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $22.99
  5. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 1)
    Rick Riordan, Miramax, $7.99
  6. Twilight
    Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $10.99
  7. Along for the Ride
    Sarah Dessen, Viking, $19.99
  8. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 2)
    Rick Riordan, Miramax, $7.99
  9. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 4)
    Rick Riordan, Hyperion, $7.99
  10. The Book Thief
    Markus Zusak, Knopf, $11.99
  11. The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3)
    Rick Riordan, Hyperion Books for Children, $7.99
  12. The Mysterious Benedict Society
    Trenton Lee Stewart, Little Brown, $6.99
  13. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
    Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $12.95
  14. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time
    Greg Mortenson, et al., Puffin, $8.99
  15. Where the Wild Things Are
    Maurice Sendak, Harper, $17.95
  16. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
    Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $12.95
  17. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    J.K. Rowling, Scholastic, $9.99
  18. Beyond the Grave (The 39 Clues, #4)
    Jude Watson, Scholastic, $12.99
  19. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
    Sherman Alexie, Little Brown, $8.99
  20. Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover (Gallagher Girls #3)
    Ally Carter, Hyperion, $16.99
  21. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
    Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $12.95
  22. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
    Trenton Lee Stewart, Diana Sudyka (Illus.), Little Brown, $6.99
  23. L.A. Candy
    Lauren Conrad, Harper, $17.99
  24. Goodnight Moon
    Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $8.99
  25. Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
    Dr. Seuss, Random House, $17.99

Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association and the American Booksellers Association. For information on more titles, please visit IndieBound.org.

San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Book Review, July 5

  • When the Rivers Ran Red: An Amazing Story of Courage and Triumph in America’s Wine Country by Vivienne Sosnowski
  • From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America by Richard Mendelson
  • I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
  • The American Future: A History by Simon Schama
  • Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame by Zev Chafets
  • American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime by Teri Thompson et al
  • Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel Cusk
  • La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair With Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language by Dianne Hales

Top Shelf Picks: Pegasus Books on Solano, Berkeley

Fiction

  • Four Freedoms by John Crowley, perfectly captures an era—WWII America—when the chosen are overseas and the left-behind are granted a rare moment of possibility. Crowley’s extraordinary characters and the poignant, funny, disturbing ways they find to connect with one another make you wish this war would never end.
  • The City & the City by China Mieville, an inventive thriller set at the edge of Europe in the complex borderland between two mirror cities, entwines the real and uncanny so skillfully you’re left brimming with questions and a craving for more.
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, scores another for the Swedish Invasion (cool mysteries, not pugilistic blondes) with this compelling mix of Nordic bleakness and briskly paced intrigue that will satisfy the most dedicated Swedonoir buff. Now in paperback.
  • Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, conjures New York the way Dickens conjures London—it bristles with personality and moods. Petit’s tightrope walk between the twin towers unites the exquisitely realized characters in McCann’s searing, redemptive, masterpiece of a novel.
  • Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano, purporting to be an encyclopedia of Fascist writers, entertains even as it indicts the world of art. Bolano’s sly humor and the compassion that informs his irony makes him heir to Calvino as well as Borges. Now in paperback.

Nonfiction

  • Farm City by Novella Carpenter, aptly chronicles the trials and victories of hardcore urban farming. What began with a few plants and chickens in a vacant lot in grittiest Oakland burgeoned into a thriving farm replete with ducks, turkeys, bees, rabbits, pigs and an Eden of vegetation.
  • Our Better Nature: Environment and the Making of San Francisco by Philip J. Dreyfus, tells the engaging, never scolding, story of how its environment shaped San Francisco, how the emerging city shaped its environment, and how a viable, sustainable marriage of the two benefits us all.
  • My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor, is at once a an inspiring chronicle of her odyssey from the first symptoms of stroke to her full recovery and a fascinating peek at some the most arcane of our mental functions. Now in paperback.
  • West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State by Mark Arax, is both rigorously researched and deeply personal-like the best cultural histories.  What emerges is his vision of California which can’t help but enrich ours.
  • Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness by Alva Noë, argues that contemporary neuroscientists have built their research on an unexamined assumption: that the brain is the seat of consciousness. Noë enjoins us to view consciousness rather as a dynamic interplay between sentient beings and their environments.

More Bestseller Lists

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