NCIBA/IndieBound/San Francisco Chronicle
Bestseller List

The Northern California Indie Bestseller List, as brought to you by IndieBound and the NCIBA. Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the NCIBA and IndieBound. For an independent bookstore near you, visit IndieBound.org. (©NCIBA 2012)

Sales Week Ending January 29, 2012

Hardcover Fiction

  1. Death Comes to Pemberley
    P.D. James, Knopf, $25.95
  2. Taken
    Robert Crais, Putnam, $26.95
  3. The Sense of an Ending
    Julian Barnes, Knopf, $23.95
  4. Believing the Lie
    Elizabeth George, Dutton, $28.95
  5. The Orphan Master’s Son
    Adam Johnson, Random House, $26
  6. The Art of Fielding
    Chad Harbach, Little Brown, $25.99
  7. Raylan
    Elmore Leonard, Morrow, $26.99
  8. 1Q84
    Haruki Murakami, Knopf, $30.50
  9. The Paris Wife
    Paula McLain, Ballantine, $25
  10. The Marriage Plot
    Jeffrey Eugenides, FSG, $28
  11. The Night Circus
    Erin Morgenstern, Doubleday, $26.95
  12. State of Wonder
    Ann Patchett, Harper, $26.99
  13. Jack Holmes and His Friend
    Edmund White, Bloomsbury, $26
  14. A Dance With Dragons
    George R.R. Martin, Bantam, $35
  15. 11/22/63
    Stephen King, Scribner, $35

Hardcover Nonfiction

  1. Steve Jobs
    Walter Isaacson, S&S, $35
  2. Unbroken
    Laura Hillenbrand, Random House, $27
  3. Thinking, Fast and Slow
    Daniel Kahneman, FSG, $30
  4. Quiet
    Susan Cain, Crown, $26
  5. Ameritopia
    Mark R. Levin, Threshold Editions, $26.99
  6. Goodnight iPad
    Ann Droyd, Blue Rider, $14.95
  7. In the Garden of Beasts
    Erik Larson, Crown, $26
  8. Boomerang
    Michael Lewis, Norton, $25.95
  9. Then Again
    Diane Keaton, Random House, $26
  10. American Sniper
    Chris Kyle, et al., Morrow, $26.99
  11. Fairy Tale Interrupted
    Rosemarie Terenzio, Gallery, $25
  12. Catherine the Great
    Robert K. Massie, Random House, $35
  13. Go the F**k to Sleep
    Adam Mansbach, Ricardo Cortes (Illus.), Akashic, $14.95
  14. The Obamas
    Jodi Kantor, Little Brown, $29.99
  15. Rin Tin Tin
    Susan Orlean, S&S, $26.99

Trade Paperback Fiction

  1. The Tiger’s Wife
    Téa Obreht, Random House, $15
  2. Swamplandia!
    Karen Russell, Vintage, $14.95
  3. A Discovery of Witches
    Deborah Harkness, Penguin, $16
  4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
    John Le Carré, Penguin, $16
  5. The Help
    Kathryn Stockett, Berkley, $16
  6. A Visit From the Goon Squad
    Jennifer Egan, Anchor, $14.95
  7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
    Jonathan Safran Foer, Mariner, $14.95
  8. Cutting for Stone
    Abraham Verghese, Vintage, $15.95
  9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
    Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $15.95
  10. The House at Tyneford
    Natasha Solomons, Plume, $15
  11. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
    Helen Simonson, Random House, $15
  12. The Girl Who Played With Fire
    Stieg Larsson, Harper, $15.95
  13. The Art of Racing in the Rain
    Garth Stein, Harper, $14.99
  14. The Descendants
    Kaui Hart Hemmings, Random House, $15
  15. The Great Gatsby
    F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scribner, $15

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

  1. Bossypants
    Tina Fey, Reagan Arthur Books, $15.99
  2. Unlikely Friendships
    Jennifer Holland, Workman, $13.95
  3. The Happiness Project
    Gretchen Rubin, Harper, $14.99
  4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
    Rebecca Skloot, Broadway Books, $16
  5. The Hare with Amber Eyes
    Edmund de Waal, Picador USA, $16
  6. Zagat San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants 2012
    Zagat Survey, $15.95
  7. Just Kids
    Patti Smith, Ecco, $16
  8. Blood, Bones & Butter
    Gabrielle Hamilton, Random House, $16
  9. The Social Animal
    David Brooks, Random House Trade, $16
  10. F in Exams
    Richard Benson, Chronicle, $9.95
  11. At Home
    Bill Bryson, Anchor, $15.95
  12. Empire of the Summer Moon
    S.C. Gwynne, Scribner, $16
  13. Eat to Live
    Joel Fuhrman, Little Brown, $15.99
  14. Cleopatra
    Stacy Schiff, Back Bay, $16.99
  15. Lucky Peach, Issue 2
    David Chang (Ed.), McSweeney’s Insatiables, $12

Mass Market

  1. A Game of Thrones
    George R.R. Martin, Bantam, $8.99
  2. A Feast for Crows
    George R.R. Martin, Bantam, $8.99
  3. A Storm of Swords
    George R.R. Martin, Bantam, $8.99
  4. Damage
    John Lescroart, Signet, $9.99
  5. The Girl Who Played With Fire
    Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $9.99
  6. The Sentry
    Robert Crais, Berkley, $9.99
  7. Carte Blanche
    Jeffery Deaver, Pocket Star, $9.99
  8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
    Stieg Larsson, Vintage, $9.99
  9. Minding Frankie
    Maeve Binchy, Anchor Books, $7.99
  10. A Clash of Kings
    George R.R. Martin, Bantam, $8.99

Children’s Titles

  1. The Hunger Games
    Suzanne Collins, Scholastic, $8.99
  2. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
    Suzanne Collins, Scholastic, $17.99
  3. Mockingjay (The Final Book of the Hunger Games)
    Suzanne Collins, Scholastic, $17.99
  4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
    Jeff Kinney, Amulet, $13.95
  5. The Fault in Our Stars
    John Green, Dutton, $17.99
  6. Goodnight Moon
    Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $8.99
  7. Hug Time
    Patrick McDonnell, LB Kids, $6.99
  8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
    Brian Selznick, Scholastic, $24.99
  9. Why We Broke Up
    Daniel Handler, Maira Kalman (Illus.), Little Brown, $19.99
  10. War Horse
    Michael Morpurgo, Scholastic, $8.99
  11. San Francisco ABCs
    Gus D’Angelo, $9.95
  12. Llama Llama Nighty-Night
    Anna Dewdney, Viking, $5.99
  13. Inheritance (Inheritance Cycle, Book 4)
    Christopher Paolini, Knopf Books for Young Readers, $27.99
  14. The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, Book Two)
    Rick Riordan, Hyperion, $19.99
  15. Lucky New Year!
    Mary Man-Kong, Chi Chung (Illus.), Golden, $9.99

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 Reviews

Sunday, January 29, 2012

  • The End of War by John Horgan
  • The Fear Index by Robert Harris
  • Heft by Liz Moore
  • The Lives of Margaret Fuller: A Biography by John Matteson
  • The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
  • The Odditorium by Melissa Pritchard

Top Shelf Picks

From Orinda Books, Orinda

Fiction

  • Defending Jacob by William Landay. A superb legal thriller also takes the reader into the heart of a family facing a nightmare most parents will never confront—a beloved son accused of murdering a middle school classmate.
  • Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner. The paperback edition due next week will find new fans for this engaging novel about two Russian émigré youngsters in contemporary Brooklyn.
  • The Face Thief by Eli Gottlieb. Gottlieb is a thriller writer who also gives us fascinating characters with some depth. His protagonist, Margo Lassiter rivals Lisbeth Salander as she punishes the men she encounters.
  • The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis. Family tragedy and redemption are movingly drawn—using the voices of a mother and her son over forty years—in a novel about a working class Southern family.
  • The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar. Through the lives of four young women, college friends in Bombay in the 1970s, Umrigar paints a picture of India over the past thirty tumultuous years.

Nonfiction

  • The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund. The lives of individuals—English, German, American—rather than the actions of generals create a unique and anecdotal history.
  • Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir that Inspired “Upstairs Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey” by Margaret Powell. Margaret Powell entered service as a kitchen maid in the 1920s. Her memoir (first published in 1968) gives dimension to our new favorite PBS series.
  • Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. An acclaimed chef (Prune in New York City) dazzles as a memoirist as she chronicles her early charmed childhood, a troubled adolescence, and a difficult marriage. Now in paperback.
  • My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. When rainy skies turn our landscapes gray, what better remedy than Durrell’s charming memoir of his own family’s escape from London to Corfu in 1935. We recommend this for teens as well as adults.
  • Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi. This beautifully designed book flew off the shelves during the holiday season and beyond. Mediterranean flavors and new food combinations are superbly presented.

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