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 2008)

Sales Week Ending May 4, 2008

Hardcover Fiction

  1. Unaccustomed Earth
    Jhumpa Lahiri, Knopf, $25
  2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    Junot Diaz, Riverhead, $24.95
  3. The Miracle at Speedy Motors
    Alexander McCall Smith, Pantheon, $22.95
  4. The Plague of Doves
    Louise Erdrich, Harper, $25.95
  5. The Whole Truth
    David Baldacci, Grand Central, $26.99
  6. Our Story Begins
    Tobias Wolff, Knopf, $26.95
  7. Lush Life
    Richard Price, FSG, $26
  8. The Girl of His Dreams
    Donna Leon, Atlantic Monthly, $24
  9. Sundays at Tiffany’s
    James Patterson, Gabrielle Charbonnet, Little Brown, $24.99
  10. The Story of a Marriage
    Andrew Sean Greer, FSG, $22
  11. Red Bird
    Mary Oliver, Beacon, $23
  12. A Thousand Splendid Suns
    Khaled Hosseini, Riverhead, $25.95
  13. The Hakawati
    Rabih Alameddine, Knopf, $25.95
  14. The Appeal
    John Grisham, Doubleday, $27.95
  15. People of the Book
    Geraldine Brooks, Viking, $25.95

Hardcover Nonfiction

  1. The Last Lecture
    Randy Pausch, Hyperion, $21.95
  2. Just Who Will You Be?
    Maria Shriver, Hyperion, $14.95
  3. In Defense of Food
    Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, $21.95
  4. Bonk
    Mary Roach, Norton, $24.95
  5. A Wolf at the Table
    Augusten Burroughs, St. Martin’s, $24.95
  6. Home
    Julie Andrews, Hyperion, $26.95
  7. A Remarkable Mother
    Jimmy Carter, S&S, $22.95
  8. The Wise Heart
    Jack Kornfield, Bantam, $28
  9. Ladies of Liberty
    Cokie Roberts, Morrow, $26.95
  10. What Now?
    Ann Patchett, Harper, $14.95
  11. The Post-American World
    Fareed Zakaria, Norton, $25.95
  12. Beautiful Boy
    David Sheff, Houghton Mifflin, $24
  13. The Open Road
    Pico Iyer, Knopf, $24
  14. The Art of Simple Food
    Alice Waters, Patricia Curtan (Illus.), Clarkson Potter, $35
  15. Girls Like Us
    Sheila Weller, Atria, $27.95

Trade Paperback Fiction

  1. Divisadero
    Michael Ondaatje, Vintage, $13.95
  2. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
    Michael Chabon, Harper Perennial, $15.95
  3. Water for Elephants
    Sara Gruen, Algonquin, $13.95
  4. Out Stealing Horses
    Per Petterson, Picador, $14
  5. Ten Days in the Hills
    Jane Smiley, Anchor, $14.95
  6. The Gathering
    Anne Enright, Black Cat, $14
  7. Loving Frank
    Nancy Horan, Ballantine, $14
  8. The Friday Night Knitting Club
    Kate Jacobs, Berkley, $14
  9. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
    Alexander McCall Smith, Anchor, $12.95
  10. Suite Francaise
    Irene Nemirovsky, Vintage, $14.95
  11. After Dark
    Haruki Murakami, Vintage, $13.95
  12. Christine Falls
    Benjamin Black, Picador, $14
  13. What Is the What
    Dave Eggers, Vintage, $15.95
  14. Peony in Love
    Lisa See, Random House, $14
  15. Free Food for Millionaires
    Min Jin Lee, Grand Central, $13.99

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

  1. A New Earth
    Eckhart Tolle, Plume, $14
  2. Three Cups of Tea
    Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin, Penguin, $15
  3. Eat, Pray, Love
    Elizabeth Gilbert, Penguin, $15
  4. The Power of Now
    Eckhart Tolle, New World, $14
  5. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
    Barbara and Camille Kingsolver, Steven Hopp, Harper Perennial, $14.95
  6. The Omnivore’s Dilemma
    Michael Pollan, Penguin, $16
  7. Infidel
    Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Free Press, $15
  8. Dreams From My Father
    Barack Obama, Three Rivers, $14.95
  9. Little Heathens
    Mildred Armstrong Kalish, Bantam, $12
  10. The Audacity of Hope
    Barack Obama, Three Rivers, $14.95
  11. I Was Told There’d Be Cake
    Sloane Crosley, Riverhead, $14
  12. Marley & Me
    John Grogan, Harper, $13.95
  13. The God Delusion
    Richard Dawkins, Mariner, $15.95
  14. Porn for New Moms
    Cambridge Women’s Pornography Co-op (Eds.), Chronicle, $12.95
  15. The Assault on Reason
    Al Gore, Penguin, $16

Mass Market

  1. Suffer the Little Children
    Donna Leon, Penguin, $7.99
  2. Bad Luck and Trouble
    Lee Child, Dell, $7.99
  3. The Woods
    Harlan Coben, Signet, $9.99
  4. Invisible Prey
    John Sandford, Berkley, $9.99
  5. Up in Honey’s Room
    Elmore Leonard, Harper, $9.99
  6. Simple Genius
    David Baldacci, Grand Central, $9.99
  7. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Betrayal
    Eric Van Lustbader, Vision, $9.99
  8. High Profile
    Robert B. Parker, Berkley, $9.99
  9. The Innocent Man
    John Grisham, Dell, $7.99
  10. The Catcher in the Rye
    J.D. Salinger, Warner, $6.99

Children’s Titles

  1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
    Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $12.95
  2. Twilight
    Stephenie Meyer, Megan Tingley, $9.99
  3. The Mysterious Benedict Society
    Trenton Lee Stewart, Little Brown, $6.99
  4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
    Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $12.95
  5. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
    Jeanne Birdsall, Knopf, $15.99
  6. Outcast (Warriors: Power of Three, Book 3)
    Erin Hunter, Harper, $16.99
  7. The Book Thief
    Markus Zusak, Knopf, $11.99
  8. Gallop!
    Rufus Butler Seder, Workman, $12.95
  9. The Penderwicks
    Jeanne Birdsall, Yearling, $6.50
  10. New Moon
    Stephenie Meyer, Megan Tingley, $19.99
  11. Tweak
    Nic Sheff, Ginee Seo, $16.99
  12. Goodnight Moon
    Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $8.99
  13. Alphabet
    Matthew Van Fleet, S&S, $19.99
  14. Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words
    Jane O’Connor, Robin Preiss Glasser (Illus.), Harper, $12.99
  15. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3)
    Stephenie Meyer, Little Brown, $19.99

The NCIBA bestseller list is compiled and distributed by Book Sense and the NCIBA from sales figures provided by over 50 member stores across the region. The NCIBA bestseller list is posted in 70 independent bookstores throughout the region.

More Bestseller Lists